How do Americans view universities abroad such as McGill, St Andrews, or similar?

[Anonymous]

Interesting! Can you please share some of their thoughts and reasoning? Mine really wants to choose McGill over a T30 and is so enthused I dont want to show that i am alittle nervous about it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting! Can you please share some of their thoughts and reasoning? Mine really wants to choose McGill over a T30 and is so enthused I dont want to show that i am alittle nervous about it

Aren't most people chosing McGill over a T30?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting! Can you please share some of their thoughts and reasoning? Mine really wants to choose McGill over a T30 and is so enthused I dont want to show that i am alittle nervous about it

Aren't most people chosing McGill over a T30?

sorry, aren't most kids chosing McGill over a US school likely to have those US schools be T30 schools?

[Anonymous]

I dont know --- but wondering.

[Anonymous]

OP, had two kids in the W&M St Andrews Joint Degree Program. So a little different situation. They essentially have degrees from both universities.

St Andrews attendance always raised in job interviews and having experience studying and living outside US always viewed as an advantage. One child graduated a couple of years ago and works in finance. One graduating this year and deciding on work vs grad school. Only applied to UK grad schools and accepted everywhere to date and awaiting one decision. UK grad programs only 1 year, with built in internships so that is why no US grad school applications.

US firms are well aware of St Andrews and hire graduates that attend St Andrews for all 4 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McGill has a great reputation and would be a plus in my workplace. McGill is a serious place.

Saint Andrew's grads likely wouldn't get interviewed. Rick kids going on an extended field trip. Doesn't seem serious at all.

+1

I really like McGill. I lived in Montreal and have friends who went there. Really good place. Toronto, Queens, and UBC are solid, too. St. Andrews seems like a finishing school for kids who want to make study abroad their entire personality; I haven't been very impressed with the people I know who went there. That's doubly true for grad programs in the UK, even LSE; it seems like they'll take anyone who can pay in full. Now, if you're an American who was admitted to Oxbridge directly as an undergrad, that's really impressive!

For some americans it's a finishing school, but you're utterly mistaken if that's your view of St Andrews. The UK and EU kids, and many (but not all) of the Americans there are all top notch, from the top of their graduating school classes. DC has St Andrews peers who turned down Ivies and MIT in favor of St A.

You're wrong to denigrate the academics, it's rigorous courses where students are forced to really independently learn the canon of their academic disciplines, as opposed to liberal arts curricula , which can be great, but sometimes are fluffy/devoid of focus. Most all St Andrews departments are ranked top 5 in the Uk, IR for example is ranked first, among some others.

For graduate outcomes, obviously it's who you know that holds substantial sway, and many St Andrews students, american or not, are well connected and thus enabled here. But students graduate from St A with great options, most of the major consulting firms and banks recruit at St Andrews, so they see the potential there. And great grad school acceptances too, probably a way larger than average proportion go on to PhDs.

McGill is great too. Visited both McG and StA with my DC. Both, even with international tuition, are cheaper than American schools of the same caliber-- I think St Andrews more so: if St Andrews were located somewhere in New England it would so easily be 75k as the ivies are, but even international tuition is in the 20k range, with living expenses, flights etc amounts to around 40k range. It's a steal if you're a family that would be full pay at top tier schools.

Ha ha! No one turns down the Ivys or MIT for St. Andrews. It is fine as a school but maybe would be ranked in the forties if it was a US university

Ha ha. This. Your son’s friend was probably lying- claiming to have turned down MIT and Ivy schools for St. Andrews. Some people like to lie and make things up

[Anonymous]

Maybe I missed this, but who turned down MIT for St Andrews? If anything it sounds like a lie….STa doesnt even have Engineering degrees.

Ludicrous…but in my opinion Sta would be slotted in between t20-t30. Specially with their Humanities programs that are pretty strong in the UK.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, had two kids in the W&M St Andrews Joint Degree Program. So a little different situation. They essentially have degrees from both universities.

St Andrews attendance always raised in job interviews and having experience studying and living outside US always viewed as an advantage. One child graduated a couple of years ago and works in finance. One graduating this year and deciding on work vs grad school. Only applied to UK grad schools and accepted everywhere to date and awaiting one decision. UK grad programs only 1 year, with built in internships so that is why no US grad school applications.

US firms are well aware of St Andrews and hire graduates that attend St Andrews for all 4 years.

Thank you for this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting! Can you please share some of their thoughts and reasoning? Mine really wants to choose McGill over a T30 and is so enthused I dont want to show that i am alittle nervous about it

Aren't most people chosing McGill over a T30?

sorry, aren't most kids chosing McGill over a US school likely to have those US schools be T30 schools?

Isnt mcgill 40% acceptance rate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting! Can you please share some of their thoughts and reasoning? Mine really wants to choose McGill over a T30 and is so enthused I dont want to show that i am alittle nervous about it

Aren't most people chosing McGill over a T30?

sorry, aren't most kids chosing McGill over a US school likely to have those US schools be T30 schools?

Isnt mcgill 40% acceptance rate?

I don't know the % but I think it's less but dpends on department. That said, it's 10000% apples and oranges: see https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/105/1265272.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting! Can you please share some of their thoughts and reasoning? Mine really wants to choose McGill over a T30 and is so enthused I dont want to show that i am alittle nervous about it

Aren't most people chosing McGill over a T30?

sorry, aren't most kids chosing McGill over a US school likely to have those US schools be T30 schools?

Isnt mcgill 40% acceptance rate?

You can’t compare Canadian acceptance rates with the American style of acceptance rates

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
American colleges, with their strange insistence on "holistic" admissions, are not very appealing to my teen, who wants to focus on academics and go somewhere that admits based on that.
Universities abroad place much greater importance on grades and test scores than those in the US.

However, if my teen looks for a job or applies to grad school in the US (it would likely be grad school for him), how will hiring managers or admissions officers view those universities?

personally I view UTornonto and UWaterloo and Warwick, ICL, UCL, other Russel group unis more than those two. St. Andrews in particular seems to market itself to mediocre full pay Americans.

BS to lump “other Russell group unis more than St Andrews”. You clearly doesnt know much about Russell group unis.
St Andrews is a fine school. As you can see from all of current threads here, there are plenty of Americans giving up spots at t30 schools for St Andrews.

I have two kids that studied in the UK. My son went to Warwick and my daughter to St Andrews.
My son graduate with a first in their Econ & Management program.
My daughter graduated from St Andrews with a Mgmt and International Relations degree.

She is now at an MBB consulting back in the US straight from St Andrews. My son is in NYC working for a boutique investment firm where one of the partners has a Warwick degree. But he couldn’t get through the recruiting process for US top firms straight from undergrad. While she had doors opened. So there you go….

"there are plenty of Americans giving up spots at t30 schools for St Andrews." - a testament to their marketing, to be sure. Nothing to do with their academic quality.

As for your children, perhaps your daughter is a better interviewer, or they wanted her for some other reason besides her degree. Purely in terms of academics, your son certainly had the more academic qualification.

Go see what each of your children covered in their core econ courses first, second, years.

[Anonymous]

What about McGiil vs St Andrews vs Barnard? Kid Trying to decide.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
American colleges, with their strange insistence on "holistic" admissions, are not very appealing to my teen, who wants to focus on academics and go somewhere that admits based on that.
Universities abroad place much greater importance on grades and test scores than those in the US.

However, if my teen looks for a job or applies to grad school in the US (it would likely be grad school for him), how will hiring managers or admissions officers view those universities?

personally I view UTornonto and UWaterloo and Warwick, ICL, UCL, other Russel group unis more than those two. St. Andrews in particular seems to market itself to mediocre full pay Americans.

BS to lump “other Russell group unis more than St Andrews”. You clearly doesnt know much about Russell group unis.
St Andrews is a fine school. As you can see from all of current threads here, there are plenty of Americans giving up spots at t30 schools for St Andrews.

I have two kids that studied in the UK. My son went to Warwick and my daughter to St Andrews.
My son graduate with a first in their Econ & Management program.
My daughter graduated from St Andrews with a Mgmt and International Relations degree.

She is now at an MBB consulting back in the US straight from St Andrews. My son is in NYC working for a boutique investment firm where one of the partners has a Warwick degree. But he couldn’t get through the recruiting process for US top firms straight from undergrad. While she had doors opened. So there you go….

"there are plenty of Americans giving up spots at t30 schools for St Andrews." - a testament to their marketing, to be sure. Nothing to do with their academic quality.

As for your children, perhaps your daughter is a better interviewer, or they wanted her for some other reason besides her degree. Purely in terms of academics, your son certainly had the more academic qualification.

Go see what each of your children covered in their core econ courses first, second, years.

What are you talking about? What are you trying to prove here? I know reading comprehension is a tough concept….But she DID NOT study Econ….what is wrong with you? DO you understand what IR and Mgmt is?
So in your opinion, the fact she was able to navigate a MUCH better job means that they “wanted her for some other reason besides her degree”?
You are clearly an AS*H*LE. GO away

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
American colleges, with their strange insistence on "holistic" admissions, are not very appealing to my teen, who wants to focus on academics and go somewhere that admits based on that.
Universities abroad place much greater importance on grades and test scores than those in the US.

However, if my teen looks for a job or applies to grad school in the US (it would likely be grad school for him), how will hiring managers or admissions officers view those universities?

personally I view UTornonto and UWaterloo and Warwick, ICL, UCL, other Russel group unis more than those two. St. Andrews in particular seems to market itself to mediocre full pay Americans.

BS to lump “other Russell group unis more than St Andrews”. You clearly doesnt know much about Russell group unis.
St Andrews is a fine school. As you can see from all of current threads here, there are plenty of Americans giving up spots at t30 schools for St Andrews.

I have two kids that studied in the UK. My son went to Warwick and my daughter to St Andrews.
My son graduate with a first in their Econ & Management program.
My daughter graduated from St Andrews with a Mgmt and International Relations degree.

She is now at an MBB consulting back in the US straight from St Andrews. My son is in NYC working for a boutique investment firm where one of the partners has a Warwick degree. But he couldn’t get through the recruiting process for US top firms straight from undergrad. While she had doors opened. So there you go….

"there are plenty of Americans giving up spots at t30 schools for St Andrews." - a testament to their marketing, to be sure. Nothing to do with their academic quality.

As for your children, perhaps your daughter is a better interviewer, or they wanted her for some other reason besides her degree. Purely in terms of academics, your son certainly had the more academic qualification.

Go see what each of your children covered in their core econ courses first, second, years.

What are you talking about? What are you trying to prove here? I know reading comprehension is a tough concept….But she DID NOT study Econ….what is wrong with you? DO you understand what IR and Mgmt is?
So in your opinion, the fact she was able to navigate a MUCH better job means that they “wanted her for some other reason besides her degree”?
You are clearly an AS*H*LE. GO away

Are you saying management at StA has no econ courses? That's genuinely shocking, even as someone who already did not have the best impression of StA outside the humanities.
I'm not sure what you find so offensive about that quote, by the way.