Similar to the shiny appeal of Oxbridge, America’s Ivy League has the power to eclipse institutions that sit outside its hallowed collegiate. But the further education landscape in the US is far richer, of course, than just eight private research universities, and an interesting trend is seeing the so-called hidden Ivies coming increasingly into the sight line of UK students. It’s not difficult to see why. Year on year, the Ivy League seems to report ever-lower acceptance rates, so that being an A-grade student with a star-studded CV is no guarantee of anything. And, yes, these big hitters bestow priceless kudos, but that doesn’t mean the less well-known US universities and colleges don’t offer prestige and equally impressive opportunities for students to thrive personally and intellectually.
But why leave the UK for an American university education at all? As more and more British students are discovering, there are manifold reasons. Perhaps one of the most compelling is that in the US there’s no ‘set menu’ of three or four years where you generally do most of the work yourself, with little contact time with tutors and lecturers, and out you emerge the other side feeling largely unsupported when it comes to finding a job. At an American university, students have a far more immersive experience, with campuses that feel like boarding school, an expectation that you get involved in clubs so you really feel you belong to a community, amazing work experience and intern opportunities (we’ve even heard of students doing stints at the Vatican through Villanova University’s incredible
Vatican and Rome Internship Program), as well as experiential learning while you study, incredible career services and massive alumni networks that stay with you your whole working life. Also, because many institutions, including all the liberal arts colleges, are dedicated to undergraduates, there’s a lot more contact time with professors and more research opportunities, which in the UK usually get dished out to post-grads. Interesting and enriching in itself, this also means you’re ‘known’ as an individual not an amorphous face in a lecture hall. So those all-important letters of recommendation when you’re a job-hunting graduate are bespoke to you.
Where do you start? The Association for American Universities, the closest US equivalent to the Russell Group (the Association also includes Canadian universities), embraces 69 universities and colleges (compared to just 24 in the Russell Group). And with a total of around 2,000 4-year universities compared to the UK’s 200, the playing field in the US is massive – even if you’re just setting your sights on the top 10 per cent, that’s 200 to choose from, rather than the UK’s 20. Add in another layer of complexity in that there are private liberal arts colleges like Amherst and Boston College (don’t be fooled by the name, they’re not just for the arts), private universities such as Johns Hopkins and Duke, and public universities that were founded to serve their local populations (UCLA and Berkeley, for example, are two University of California schools) and things can start to feel bewildering. It’s understandable that many Brits find it hard to see beyond the big-name Ivies and feel, perhaps, that if you’re not gunning for the absolute top, what’s the point?
UES Education’s Martine Gagnon, who has been helping UK students apply to universities overseas for over a decade, says that families often tell her they’re ready to pay for the elite US institutions but not the lesser-known ones. After all, the application process is, as Martine puts it, ‘a huge, byzantine endeavour’ (read more about that in our feature
here), so is it worth it if the prize isn’t a Harvard, Yale, Princeton or (insert your most aspirational Ivy here) education? Yes, says Martine: ‘What students don’t realise is there’s an incredible wealth of exceptional opportunities in the US. In-between aspirational choices and their back-up on UCAS, there are lots of US choices that are better than the UK back-up.’ And whether you’re an A* or B, C or D student, the opportunities on offer are far wider. As Martine says, ‘If you have three Bs at A-level predicted, you know you can’t apply to Oxbridge, but in the US - while these grades wouldn’t make a student eligible for an Ivy school - because the system is so abstruse, all of a sudden it seems like you might have a chance, the American dream. It would definitely open up better US options than UK ones.’
But surely you need deep pockets? Not necessarily. Yes, the sticker prices at US universities look eye-watering, but just as not everyone on a Ryanair flight pays the same money for their seat, so university fees are a moveable feast, and getting merit aid or a scholarship can mean you end up paying equal or only slightly more than you would if you attended a UK university. Anecdotally, Martine tells us of one student she advised who got a scholarship to a flagship college in Colorado that was the equivalent of £25k a year, and, as a talented skier, was well placed to take advantage of the slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Indeed, sports-related scholarships are another pathway open to UK students, particularly in rugby, with strong teams at Notre Dame and Penn State, among others, talent-scouting for players.
Meanwhile, for academic high-flyers, taking a more democratic look at university options can give you a strong bargaining chip, as universities that are looking to improve their standing will be vying for you with offers of merit aid. And as Martine quotes the legendary Malcolm Gladwell: ‘Sometimes it’s better to be top of the class at a lesser institution than bottom of the most elite.’ Even if you’re not slated for three A*s, the fact that the lesser-known US universities receive fewer UK applicants means you’ll stand out. ‘One UK student who was predicted two Cs and a D got around a third of funding,’ Martine tells us. But the UK system often disregards these students, she adds.
Whatever institution you attend, a US university education will also enhance your prospects in the UK job market, where employers might receive hundreds of CVs from UK graduates but only one from someone who attended an American college. It will also broaden your career pathways, potentially allowing you to stay on in the US to work. Interestingly, it’s not an Ivy League college that has graduated the most CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, it’s the public University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Want to know more? We recommend the brilliant site
Colleges That Change Lives, which has handy profiles of a number of liberal arts colleges, Rick Clark’s fascinating
Georgia Tech Admission Blog, which unpicks the intricacies around college admission, and the excellent
Jeffrey Selingo’s Dream School: Finding the College That’s Right for You.