[Miryo]

I'm currently in year 12 and I'm thinking of going to study in the US.

Partly because I intend to go live there one day but also I can't help but notice how much Uni life there looks amazing. My main impression has come from films but is the uni experience really that much better there?

Also, how much would it cost me, say if I wanted to do Maths at a top 10 Uni in America.

[Jackso]

They're much bigger and better funded yes, but there is a price to pay. Specifically, about $40-50,000 over four years compared to our £9,000/$15,000 over three.

[Miryo]

(Original post by Jackso)
They're much bigger and better funded yes, but there is a price to pay. Specifically, about $40-50,000 over four years compared to our £9,000/$15,000 over three.

How do I pay the debt though? Is it like here where you get a loan and don't pay back till your earning? Plus is that the figure for home students?

[NYU2012]

(Original post by Miryo)
How do I pay the debt though? Is it like here where you get a loan and don't pay back till your earning? Plus is that the figure for home students?

As an international student, you don't qualify for loans from the US government.

However, loans over here do not work the same ways yours do. US undergraduates have to start paying back their loans as soon as they graduate (minus the grace period), regardless of employment.

And that figure isn't entirely accurate. The total cost of attendance (tuition, room and board, fees, books and expenses) can be somewhere from $40,000 for state school for out-of-state students on average to around $60,000 for schools like New York University, Columbia, etc.

Since almost all top colleges in the US are private, US residents and international students all pay the same price (usually somewhere between $50,000 and $60,000). These prices are per year! Which means after four years, that's $200,000-$240,000.

There is financial aid/scholarship available to students. However, there isn't much for international students. You would have to do your own research to find out which schools offer good financial aid to international students. This could bring the cost down to around $30,000/yr.

I'm not sure what type of math you're looking to do, but the top 10 (many departments are tied) math departments in the US are:

(1) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
(2) Harvard
(2) Stanford
(2) Princeton
(2) University of California, Berkeley (UCB)
(6) University of Chicago
(7) California Institute of Technology (CalTech)
(8) University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
(8) University of Michigan (UM)
(10) Columbia
(10) New York University (NYU)
(10) Yale

[Miryo]

(Original post by NYU2012)
As an international student, you don't qualify for loans from the US government.

However, loans over here do not work the same ways yours do. US undergraduates have to start paying back their loans as soon as they graduate (minus the grace period), regardless of employment.

And that figure isn't entirely accurate. The total cost of attendance (tuition, room and board, fees, books and expenses) can be somewhere from $40,000 for state school for out-of-state students on average to around $60,000 for schools like New York University, Columbia, etc.

Since almost all top colleges in the US are private, US residents and international students all pay the same price (usually somewhere between $50,000 and $60,000). These prices are per year! Which means after four years, that's $200,000-$240,000.

There is financial aid/scholarship available to students. However, there isn't much for international students. You would have to do your own research to find out which schools offer good financial aid to international students. This could bring the cost down to around $30,000/yr.

I'm not sure what type of math you're looking to do, but the top 10 (many departments are tied) math departments in the US are:

(1) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
(2) Harvard
(2) Stanford
(2) Princeton
(2) University of California, Berkeley (UCB)
(6) University of Chicago
(7) California Institute of Technology (CalTech)
(8) University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
(8) University of Michigan (UM)
(10) Columbia
(10) New York University (NYU)
(10) Yale

How do people afford it then? $200,000 is insane, how can it possibly be worth it?

[crustz]

(Original post by Miryo)
How do people afford it then? $200,000 is insane, how can it possibly be worth it?

Walking into pretty much any job you want, if you get a degree from the above 10.

[zxh800]

(Original post by Miryo)
I'm currently in year 12 and I'm thinking of going to study in the US.

Partly because I intend to go live there one day but also I can't help but notice how much Uni life there looks amazing. My main impression has come from films but is the uni experience really that much better there?

Also, how much would it cost me, say if I wanted to do Maths at a top 10 Uni in America.

If you get into Oxbridge or Imperial for Maths, I don't think the US fees would be worth it.

[NYU2012]

(Original post by Miryo)
How do people afford it then? $200,000 is insane, how can it possibly be worth it?

Top schools give combinations of need based/merit based aid. The super givers, HYPS only expect you to pay about $5,500-$20,000/yr if your income is below $160,000/yr.

Most top schools, unless your family income is above $120,000/yr don't expect you to pay full price. They give merit scholarship/need based aid to cover some (or most, depending) of the cost.

As an international student though, very little funding is available to you. You would have to research which schools give generously to international students.

[Jackso]

(Original post by NYU2012)
Top schools give combinations of need based/merit based aid. The super givers, HYPS only expect you to pay about $5,500-$20,000/yr if your income is below $160,000/yr.

Most top schools, unless your family income is above $120,000/yr don't expect you to pay full price. They give merit scholarship/need based aid to cover some (or most, depending) of the cost.

As an international student though, very little funding is available to you. You would have to research which schools give generously to international students.

Just out of curiousity, how do you personally see William and Mary College?

[endedwiggin]

As an American, I can say that it is a really nasty system. The universities fully understand that few families can afford the insane prices. If they have applicants who are good enough, they will give them just enough financial aid so that they can afford to go. That way, they get the most money of of the poor and the rich students, while still recruiting from all classes.

I'm not sure how this would effect you as a British student. They would have large, non-government financial aid systems, but you would have to do research to see which ones would give the most to you. The better schools would be definitely your best bet, but within that top ten it would be very hard to judge.

I can only say that uni life here is awesome, but I don't know if it is much better.

[NYU2012]

(Original post by Jackso)
Just out of curiousity, how do you personally see William and Mary College?

William and Mary is an excellent place. It's more like a liberal arts college than a world-class research university though. I personally put it on the same level as Boston College, Lehigh, etc.

[Jackso]

(Original post by NYU2012)
William and Mary is an excellent place. It's more like a liberal arts college than a world-class research university though. I personally put it on the same level as Boston College, Lehigh, etc.

Ah, alright. Thanks. You just generally seem to know your **** about US universities.

[NYU2012]

(Original post by Jackso)
Ah, alright. Thanks. You just generally seem to know your **** about US universities.

Well, I am a student at New York University and have gone through the application process to US colleges myself and am now in the process of grad school/law school applications. So, I try to keep myself familiar with US university rankings =)

[BigBadSaint]

(Original post by crustz)
Walking into pretty much any job you want, if you get a degree from the above 10.

It will likely be a little harder to find work in the US as a British national ... :/

OP overall I don't really think US unis are worth it unless you apply to those which offer good financial aid for internationals - so basically if you aren't going to apply to super rich ones like Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Brown, it is hard to make it viable.

You are going to graduate with more debt at age 22 than perhaps your parents will have ever had. StudentFinance UK won't give you anything (though you should still check with your LEA), and the US government has enough problems with its own students' debt to be giving foreigners loans at low interest ( student debt is c. $1 trillion - almost equivalent to the Uk's GDP.... its a massive ticking time bomb brought about by their own greed and lack of govt. regulation)

In any case, at undergrad level the UK unis will be as good and often better than their US counterparts. I believe doing a postgrad there is much more favourable, with more scholarships and less competition.