Applying to top US universities from UK: SATs, essays and financial aid?

[phyllidafosset]

DD is in Y12, and so we have been discussing universities. The long and short is she doesn’t know what she wants to study, but she knows she wants to go to university (she is sure she doesn’t want to do a year out). After a lot of discussion we have started to wonder if a degree in the US would suit her because she can do a broad curriculum for a year or two and hopefully settle on what she loves. Career-wise she is focused on investment banking (!).

We have had a look, and some of the very top universities have good financial aid (and some do needs-blind admissions). She is doing 4 A-levels (maths/fm/econ/history), with a mix which I believe will be good for a liberal arts degree (or could lead to sciences/tech).

I know she would need stellar grades and stellar SAT results. I wondered how hard it is for UK applicants to achieve great SAT scores.

I am more worried about her ‘essay’ and her extra curriculars because they are going to be limited. She does do bits in school but she hasn’t done any of the stand out things I feel she might need. Has anyone got any experience of ‘normal’ UK students (with some supracurriculars) getting a place at a top US Uni?? Or any experience of applying? I am also unsure how far the financial aid goes (if you do get it) and what additional expenses (other than flights and visa) a UK student would have.

Realistically, is it too late to be considered this? Any thoughts/experiences would be appreciated!!!

The universities generally have very good health plans you can opt into. The health care is actually generally really excellent at universities.

I don’t think the democrats are in great shape to win the next election and I don’t think whoever succeeds Trump will change direction much in the “war on woke”

That doesn't alter the endowment picture.

Sure - but the administration is so capricious, they stated that Harvard couldn’t issue international visas for 6 months or something (even if a judge later overruled it).

Plus, as with Anthropic, trump not only wanted to freeze 2.2bn of Harvard/federal contracts, he wanted other federal contractors to cease working with Harvard. No matter how good your endowments, that’s going to sting. Especially when the orange one is suing you

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/03/trump-harvard-dispute-seeking-1bn-damages-settlement

Also, other great institutions (eg Columbia) may not be quite as rich to take a chance in court.

Plus I wouldn’t want any teenager of mine in a country where abortion rights are so shaky, if I could avoid it.

Given how much work an application is and all of the above negatives, I don’t think it is worth the DD’s time. Happy to agree to differ.

It's not true for MIT's case. Most of offers from MIT are for athletes. Only 2 or 3 IMOers in the last 10 years.

Unfortunately that's not an IB feeder.

Which sport(s)? Rowing?

I’m not sure what you mean? That they don’t take IB students?

I would really not recommend the idea of a US university.
They are far different than UK universities, and considering she is uncertain, what happens if she goes all the way there and hates it? That would be a huge setback and waste of money.

I know you said she really doesn’t want to take a year out, but considering she doesn’t know what she wants to do I would really push her towards taking that year and finding some sort of work to find what she would like to do.

In regard to the Liberal Arts degree, unfortunately for employment it is often seen as a ‘joke degree’ no matter where it’s studied.

I think they're using IB to mean investment banking, not the international baccalaureate. The recruiters tend to swarm the ivies.

Warwick uni do a liberal arts / liberal arts & science degrees, and they're well linked to IB - I presume you'd have to choose economic some modules to be seen as a potential candidate.

At least 3 of rowing in the last two years.

You're mistaken about dorms. They're not one bit like boarding school.

Students get the opportunity to opt for random roommate assignment or to try to get matched with someone who has similar requirements for a roommate - night owl vs early bird, neat freak vs mess tolerant, can't stand snoring, doesn't like loud music, etc.

Dorms have a Resident Advisor (an older student) on every floor to help solve issues that arise between roommates. You can ask for a transfer if your roommate is insufferable.

Some dorms have a bathroom in every room, and some have a communal shower room and bathroom. (The showers are in cubicles).

The rules are basically 'be considerate' and 'don't be a dick'. All of my DCs made lifelong (so far anyway) friends of college roommates. I've seen your horror of shared rooms here on MN before - I can assure you it's not the nightmare many British people seem to believe it is.

Abortion has been derogated to individual states to regulate (that was the effect of the SC ruling a few years ago). Blue states and a couple of red ones iirc have taken steps to guarantee abortion rights and/or other rights related to pregnancy care. States have their own constitutions and legislatures.

I find it very hard to believe that graduates of the top tier of American universities who are legally allowed to work in the UK would have a hard time getting an excellent job there, especially in investment banking or finance. Firms in this industry tend to operate on a global scale and attract and hire applicants from leading universities all over the world. They are not at all parochial.

There is a difference between scholarships and financial aid.

Financial aid is essentially a waiver of some or all of the cost of attendance. A scholarship is funding from either the university or some specially earmarked fund and is dependent on whatever factors the benefactor has set for the award (academic merit, ethnic origin, girl from a large family, student from a certain county, etc). Students can sometimes be surprised to receive a letter informing them they've won a scholarship, but in the main they have to apply for them. Financial aid is determined by crunching numbers from the CSS Profile and any supplemental family financial information individual universities may require.

The universities the OP's DD is considering are those offering need blind admission and to meet the full demonstrated need of all admitted students (financial aid, not scholarships).

Iirc, Fordham is not among those universities.

I disagree with the poster who said Liberal Arts degree is a joke degree. From my DD and DS research and our conversations with the consultant where she showed us actual statistical data from US Dept of Education, some top liberal arts colleges actually offer a huge return on investment even above or on par Ivy league. Obviously it depends what you do afterwards but still. And anyway, nowadays everyone has a graduate degree anyway so it's not just about undergrad anymore.

I wanted to add my thoughts, because I had both kids explore the US, and one is currently there.
It is a family decision, it is a big commitment. The only thing I will recommend is for the US process, please hire an expert who could guide you in this process. I went through it with both my kids, after I tried to find information online. There is a lot out there, and there is a lot of misinformation, and "well-wishers" who actually offer harmful advice pretending they are experts. You need to speak to somebody who actually knows what they're talking about, but please don't hire those big firms - they are terrible!!

I worked with a consultant for both my kids, and it is not cheap, but I don't know what we'd do without her especially for the US process. All your concerns about testing, essays, extracurriculars and recommendation letters are legitimate, and we had no idea how everything needs to work even after researching loads, you still have some assumptions that things will operate the same way they do back home. Feel free to message me if you have questions...

After also not knowing exactly what degree she wanted, DD went to St Andrew’s. As pp have mentioned, Scottish unis offer a much broader curriculum base and a modular approach.

DD changed her degree after year 1 but in reality you don’t actually confirm it until year 3. From our experience, it works very well for students who aren’t exactly certain of their academic interest when they enter.

@mathanxiety "I find it very hard to believe that graduates of the top tier of American universities who are legally allowed to work in the UK would have a hard time getting an excellent job there, especially in investment banking or finance. Firms in this industry tend to operate on a global scale and attract and hire applicants from leading universities all over the world. They are not at all parochial."

Students at Oxbridge, LSE and Imperial find it hard to get an excellent job in IB in the UK and they are on the ground and have a clear recruitment calendar in which undergraduates from other countries may not participate. Students at US universities have their own recruitment calendar.

Thank you - that makes sense now.

@cinnamontreat767

I disagree with the poster who said Liberal Arts degree is a joke degree. From my DD and DS research and our conversations with the consultant where she showed us actual statistical data from US Dept of Education, some top liberal arts colleges actually offer a huge return on investment even above or on par Ivy league. Obviously it depends what you do afterwards but still. And anyway, nowadays everyone has a graduate degree anyway so it's not just about undergrad anymore.

I agree with @cinnamontreat767. Both of mine who did liberal arts degrees have done really well with employment out of university. I think people underestimate the vast alumni networks and really good placement services these universities have. Both have gone on to graduate degrees (or what would be called post-grad in the UK), but that was after landing jobs straight out of uni and working for a few years.

Also agree with @mathanxiety that dorms are nothing like boarding school. They're actually amazing, supportive environments that serve as an excellent transition between home and the outside world.

Ivy League universities don't offer merit based or athletic scholarships in a financial sense. Their awards are all needs based. The total package of an applicant that makes them a candidate for acceptance might be based on a skill or combination of skills, but the money awarded won't be. One of my DC's was given something called the President's Scholarship on acceptance which was basically a grant to fund a project of their choosing during their time there. It wasn't something that was applied for and didn't impact the fees in any way.

They don't feed into Investment Banking

@phyllidafosset i’d also suggest looking at TCD - they offer joint studies with Columbia for some degrees as an example but also high performing students have the ability to participate in Erasmus both in Europe and internationally (including US universities) but at no additional cost beyond their existing tuition fees. There is also a very wide selection of international firms including banking who are headquartered in Dublin who offer attractive internships/vacation placements etc.

What you might want to consider is that some students are not taking up the opportunity to go to the US because of the risk of their student visas being revoked with little or no notice.

With respect to US applications, does your DD have any form of volunteering/community service? When DD was at her 6th form school (one very experienced in US applications) it was definitely expected that applicants had this for their reference.

Finally, I’d add - is she sure she wants to be so far away from you? I think it sounds great in principle for some kids, but even with FaceTime etc the reality often hits after an 8 hr+ plane ride that your mum can’t just pop round if you feel unwell.

This is a good point- my DD applied to a Canadian University, the application process was easy and she has been offered a generous scholarship. There is also a full International scholarship you can apply for at the University too, although she didn’t do this. Could be worth looking in to because I think the degree structure is similar to USA.

In the current graduate job market, its naive to think that students applying for "any degree" roles can choose their career. In practice, they will need to apply for many dozens of opportunities before they get their first job offer. Their first employer will choose them, and they will need to build a career from there.

Many naive students start (often too late) by applying for investment banking, don't get anywhere, then widen their net, by which time they have missed out on other potential opportunities.

The massive increase in the student population, and the broader range of vocational degrees, has meant there are far more graduates chasing far fewer "any degree" roles.

Many school ucas/careers advisors are giving their students out of date advice on what to study at uni.

She thinks it doesn’t matter what degree you do as long as it is from a target university."

I would advise any Y12 (or their parents) to research current recruitment criteria of possible careers. It's no good looking at the LinkedIn profiles of people in their 30s and assuming that the recruitment criteria have remained the same.

We have been thinking about this over the weekend. For various reasons (London house prices/self-employed/taxes in UK compared to the US) we have realised that we will struggle with the financial aid calculations (at least that is what the internet is suggesting without us having actually talked to them directly yet). I know this is going to sound ridiculous, but I'm a little anxious about contacting the admissions/finaid offices. But there is zero point in applying to any US college if we would have to pay full fees (or even most of the cost), because irrespective of the calculations, we couldn't afford not to have some financial aid. So, this is my next step! I have my fingers crossed for some miracles (in addition to the ones DD would need to get accepted).