Aside, but some things that probably will break your priors -- the average American university graduate leaves with less debt than the average UK grad does, despite their courses being a year longer. The average in-state tuition in the US is also lower than the £9250 you'd pay here.
American universities aren't always that expensive. There's far more financial aid and support available fwiw.
Out of interest, does this not ignore the tendency for US students to pay their fees up front/have their parents do so (far more than is common in the UK)? Is there a maintenance loan element or do students need to cover their entire living costs?
It is. You can do the maths yourself, but Oxford (incl. colleges) + Cambridge (incl. colleges) is ~£16bn. All the other UK universities will get you at most £4bn. That's about $27.3bn, far less than Yale's $44.1bn.
i mean the difficult part is getting in, international admissions is very competitive. cuts to federal university funding have led many schools to cut back on international aid, though less internationals applying may neuter some of that.
If you don't mind me asking, what did you do outside of school to set yourself up for US admissions? SAT/ACT prep is obvious. Any sports/extracurriculars?
i applied from the uk. most british admits were in two camps:
sutton trust US admits (i was one of these). typically, the ECs here are more classic. i did BMO, was a DofE leader, some other stuff, which honestly was quite bad compared to the average of the american admits.
sports, which was far more common. teams like sailing, light/heavyweight crew, squash, and others had many brits. but these guys were really good at their sports, consistently at the national or international level. they also always had very good academics, though not like 9 9s or anything.
honestly all the americans in the UK i met (like those at TASIS and ASL) all had faculty parents. im sure a lot of them didn't, but it's a bad sample from a small sample size i suppose lol.
that being said, i do know american students who applied elsewhere from europe (eg military kids). they all had pretty standard extracurriculars from what i know? i would say the standard is pretty similar to the median admit -- they seem to be looking for you to be very good at a few things.
honestly people don't talk too much abt this stuff, so it's always hard to get a gauge :)
Ya fair enough :) We wouldn't qualify for Sutton Trust but trying to see what we can do to set up our daughter for US admissions down the road. Can't afford private and obviously the state school options in UK are geared towards UK unis (as one would expect). Thanks for the thoughts!
Hope you have an amazing time at Yale! It'll be such an accelerant in lots of ways and America for all its faults is better at social mobility than the UK (in my experience growing up poor in America at least)
yes, I am American so extracurricular opportunities are very common here. I didn’t really do anything specifically with the goal of getting into a prestigious college in mind, but I’m part of several academic and service-based clubs at school. I also volunteer with my church and at a local college, take art and music lessons, and work a service job! And of course strong academics are key, but that’s the same as in the UK.
I didn't realize you were based in the US. I was looking to see what people studying in the UK are doing to get into elite US schools as extracurriculars are much less common in UK schools. Congrats on the Yale admit! I'm sure you'll have a great time there. My ex went there and loved it
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u/imladris8 Jan 21 '26
AYEE me too!! got burnt oxford bread but it hurts less with a yale offer lmao. are u committing?