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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, here's where I'm coming from: Undergrad in the US, master's degree from the LSE. Spouse is English, many relatives and friends in England including a nephew looking at colleges there right now.

Has your DD researched the difference between how undergrad is structured in the US and the UK? This is THE key question here and if she has not looked very carefully into how her three years in UK undergrad will be different from four years in the US, she needs to get that information and take time to think about it.

If you and she know this already, apologies, and skip this, but here's the short version: In the English and Welsh system (Scotland and Ireland are a bit different), she would go to school for three years in ONE subject. There is no "general college" and no arrangement to take various courses and then "declare a major" after a while; you go in knowing (or thinking you know) exactly what you want to study. Undergrad is not a time to try out new subjects as it can be here in the U.S. If she enters to study, for example, econ, then all she will do for three years will be courses related to econ. In the U.S., even if she's not in a liberal arts college, she still likely would have to do at least some distribution requirements to take some classes outside her major, so she'd be both exposed to something besides her major subject and she'd also have a bit of an academic break from her major subject. That is not the case in undergrad in UK schools.

If she absolutely knows what topic she wants to do, and is ready to commit at that level at age 18, and wouldn't care about not doing other topics or electives, she might like the system there very well. And she'd be done in three years and not four, and could go ahead to grad school all the sooner, if that's on the cards for her.

"Changing majors" seems to be mostly not done, or if a student realizes a course of undergrad study is just the wrong one, he or she then has to reboot largely from scratch and probably at another school--at least that's what our relatives there have said. Of course, if she started in (for instance) econ and realized she really preferred political science, she could probably make that happen as the LSE teaches both, but very likely it couldn't happen in just the three year time frame.

If she wants a four-year experience somewhat more like a US college, she could look at schools in Scotland and Ireland. The Fiske Guide to colleges lists some Scottish and Irish universities and notes how they differ from the US but also from English and Welsh universities.

I hope this doesn't come off as negative about the system over there (and I am not familiar with the Scottish and Irish systems, I only know my friends there say "it's more like the U.S.").  It would have had all cons for my own DC who is looking at colleges and likes to taste a lot of different subjects and take things for fun as well as for requirements. But it would fit for other kids who are focused, I'm sure. It's just important that she fully understand the differences.

The PP who says that there is "less oversight and nurturing" is right, by the way.[/quote]
I would agree with this post and actually think a good liberal arts education in the US followed by a graduate degree at the LSE might be better unless your child is a highly independent, self starter who is sure about what she wants to study [/quote]

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