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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I used to date someone who went to Cambridge, and first of all, it is very restrictive.  Not only should your daughter be pretty confident about sticking out her chosen course of study, she needs to pretty confident about sticking it out at Cambridge, because if she does decide to leave after a year, not all of her credit will transfer easily to a program here.

I had another friend who went to a 3-year well regarded, highly respected program at another university, dropped out after a year and found that none of his credits would transfer as anything other than electives.
[b]
The other thing is that Cambridge is pretty upper class society in England.  And in England, there is stronger sense of class than there is here.  Your daughter might be romanticizing studying in England, but when she gets there, she might find that socially it is difficult.  I find that upper class British will be very polite to Americans, but they do tend (and this is a generalization) to look down on Americans.  It's something that I'm sure is not on your daughter's radar. [/b]

If she chooses not to go to Cambridge or if she doesn't get in, another option might be to go to a college here that has a really good study abroad program where she can spend a semester or a year in England.  That might be a nice and practical compromise. [/quote]

Haha, I agree with this. My British relatives are very upper class (my grandparents actually met at Cambridge in the 1920s), but they look down on us Americans cousins in subtle but unmistakeable ways. From the little potshots ("in Britain we recycle, unlike in your country" to "you Americans just don't understand about the Middle East"), there's an element of ignorance and an element of truth. The best you can do is try to fend off the stereotyping and help them see that not all Americans belong to the tea party. A.A. Gill has a funny chapter in his book about America (To America With Love or something like that) about how Britain's elite is reflexively anti-American, and why he disagrees with it.

This doesn't mean it can't be a great learning experience - for the right kind of kid. You might be interested in the experience of Chelsea Clinton, who found she ran up against anti-Americanism often. http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=126376.  Of course, Chelsea was there in the middle of the Iraq war, which made things even worse. But when I studied in Europe in the 1980s I ran against a similar anti-Americanism. It doesn't help to say that you agree with them, which I did (re our involvement in Iran in the 1950s, or the possibility that we assassinated a Chilean president, or whatever). They still want to be angry at you, the American student in front of them. It is what it is. For the wrong type of kid it may seem an unfriendly environment. For a kid who has a firm sense of self, you can ignore it and still make friends, and you will definitely learn a lot about the USA and also about them. [/quote]

Well, my experience with the British in particular is that it isn't just about politics.  There is also a strong sense among the British upper class that most Americans are low class, low born, no matter how liberal they are.  Even upper class Americans are considered sort of imposters and wannabes; not *true* upper class.  It could be a rude awakening if OP's kid is from Bethesda or Chevy Chase and isn't used to being seen as low class.  I actually think it would be easier if OP's kid is working class, because then it isn't such a shock facing stereotypes or being looked down on and having to prove yourself.  But for upper class Americans (especially the ones who romanticize British high bred culture), I don't think they realize that the British are not going to consider them "one of them."  Of course, working class Brits are very different (and actually much more accepting and friendly and actually curious about Americans).  But at Cambridge, it's going to be the upper class mostly.

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