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Good enough for MIT/Georgia Tech as an international from the UK?

I understand it’s ridiculously competitive, but I want to do electrical/software engineering at one of these unis, they are paid horribly in the UK
GCSEs:99999999988
A Level Predicted: 4 A*(Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Computer Science)
Academic extracurricular : Gold in SMC x2, Merit in Kangaroo, qualified for Olympiad this time. Have done multiple maths challenges, individual and team. Done multiple courses on computer science and maths, and doing an advanced maths and physics course that lasts the entirety of my year. Written articles published by my school on maths and physics. Plan to sit the TMUA and get an 8+
Non- academic:grade 8 piano, rugby team, basketball team, chess competition winner, and 3rd place. Built a trading algorithm that has had major profits in tests
Again, I understand it’s very competitive. I would also appreciate any improvements on gaps I have.
Georgia tech I would expect so. It's not as competitive as MIT. MIT maybe, it's going to be a bit of a gamble no matter what.

That said, regarding your motivation: you don't need to study in the US to work in those fields in the US, and the barrier to working in the US for you as a UK citizen would not be having a UK degree, it would not being a US citizen. That is not solved by doing a degree there. Also, salaries for software devs and EEs are not as astronomically high in the US as you think relative to the UK.

Firstly, just because a handful of people get paid 6+ figure salaries on graduating in silicon valley, doesn't mean you will get one of those jobs. Generally software dev salaries in the US are depreciating as they are in the UK, due to a saturated labour market. For years the silicon valley types have been saying everyone needs to learn to code and how all these other degrees are useless, everyone bought into it, and lo and behold: there's lots of people with CS and related degrees out there now and the number of actual positions has not increased that much in line with the number of graduates, and so as a result, wages go down.

Secondly, even accounting for that or even other less lucrative but well paid roles in the US - cost of living in the US is higher, and you have a lot more outgoing expenses. Even if your health insurance is provided by your employer (which if not, that's a lot) you are going to have deductibles and co-pays you will be paying out of pocket. Major cities in the US are horribly expensive (London levels expensive) with much worse public transport and infrastructure - so it's expensive to live in those areas. The US is very much a vehicle oriented country so most have cars and commute, often for over an hour to two hours each way to work, every day. You then need to add the cost of buying and maintaining a vehicle, insurance and gas, etc, onto your living costs - plus the opportunity cost of all that lost time every day you go into the office you could've been spent having a life.

Thirdly, the work-life balance is much poorer. US labour laws heavily favour the employer, rather than the employee (in many states you can be fired without any reason given, at any time), and particularly in software dev/"tech" areas there's an increasing expectation for very long hours (e.g. 10+ hour days) and working on weekends. Some have event adopted a 12 hours a day, 6 day a week mentality. Also US companies far more than UK ones are forcing very strict return to office mandates with limited or no homeworking. Note those longer hours you are not going to be getting paid "overtime" or anything for - but you will realistically be expected to do that if that's the company's "culture" (which is the case at virtually any place paying you the amounts you seem to be expecting). There's also overall in US corporate workplaces a strong pervasive anxiety among employees due to having to constantly do better and prove they deserve to keep their job (rather than simply doing it and the employer having to prove they deserve to be fired if they want to get rid of them as in the UK), leading to a lot of one-up-manship and toxic corporate cultures around that.

Which brings us to the fourth point: quality of life is also generally lower in the US. There are fewer public services, infrastructure is poorer (if you think UK potholes are bad wait until you live in a regional town/city), you spend longer getting to and from work, pay more for groceries with less choice, and as above you work longer hours, for nominally better money but actually once you account for all the extra costs and the amount of additional hours you're putting in, not that much higher an hourly rate. You will spend more money to try and make your life feel better than you might working a "lower" paying job here potentially where you have a better work life balance, spend less on housing and living costs and have easier commutes to work etc, and are generally more satisfied with your life. Money can't buy happiness, it can only provide the basic foundation of financial stability needed for you to develop your own happiness. And the level of income needed to achieve that is a lot less than what silicon valley pays and certainly achievable in the UK.

Finally: if you're a minority of any kind (note: this also includes being a woman in spite of demographic breakdowns) you will have a bad time, and even if you're a cis heterosexual white guy, there's always a chance someone having a bad day is going to bring an assault rifle to the office, or a cop is going to pull you over and decide they don't like your tone, switch off their bodycam, and claim you were resisting arrest. So you know, there's that too.

So honestly I think you maybe need to examine the reasons you want to go to those universities and assess a) if they actually get you closer to your goal and b) whether your goal is actually realistic or even representative of the objective reality of life in the US.
(edited 4 months ago)

Reply 2

Getting a H1B sponsorship now requires the employer to pay $100,000.

Reply 3

We don't want you here. Stay on your side of the pond.

Reply 4

Original post
by Anonymous
We don't want you here. Stay on your side of the pond.

Bro is trying to eliminate the competition 😂

Reply 5

Original post
by Anonymous
We don't want you here. Stay on your side of the pond.


Keep crying monkey

Reply 6

Original post
by artful_lounger
Georgia tech I would expect so. It's not as competitive as MIT. MIT maybe, it's going to be a bit of a gamble no matter what.
That said, regarding your motivation: you don't need to study in the US to work in those fields in the US, and the barrier to working in the US for you as a UK citizen would not be having a UK degree, it would not being a US citizen. That is not solved by doing a degree there. Also, salaries for software devs and EEs are not as astronomically high in the US as you think relative to the UK.
Firstly, just because a handful of people get paid 6+ figure salaries on graduating in silicon valley, doesn't mean you will get one of those jobs. Generally software dev salaries in the US are depreciating as they are in the UK, due to a saturated labour market. For years the silicon valley types have been saying everyone needs to learn to code and how all these other degrees are useless, everyone bought into it, and lo and behold: there's lots of people with CS and related degrees out there now and the number of actual positions has not increased that much in line with the number of graduates, and so as a result, wages go down.
Secondly, even accounting for that or even other less lucrative but well paid roles in the US - cost of living in the US is higher, and you have a lot more outgoing expenses. Even if your health insurance is provided by your employer (which if not, that's a lot) you are going to have deductibles and co-pays you will be paying out of pocket. Major cities in the US are horribly expensive (London levels expensive) with much worse public transport and infrastructure - so it's expensive to live in those areas. The US is very much a vehicle oriented country so most have cars and commute, often for over an hour to two hours each way to work, every day. You then need to add the cost of buying and maintaining a vehicle, insurance and gas, etc, onto your living costs - plus the opportunity cost of all that lost time every day you go into the office you could've been spent having a life.
Thirdly, the work-life balance is much poorer. US labour laws heavily favour the employer, rather than the employee (in many states you can be fired without any reason given, at any time), and particularly in software dev/"tech" areas there's an increasing expectation for very long hours (e.g. 10+ hour days) and working on weekends. Some have event adopted a 12 hours a day, 6 day a week mentality. Also US companies far more than UK ones are forcing very strict return to office mandates with limited or no homeworking. Note those longer hours you are not going to be getting paid "overtime" or anything for - but you will realistically be expected to do that if that's the company's "culture" (which is the case at virtually any place paying you the amounts you seem to be expecting). There's also overall in US corporate workplaces a strong pervasive anxiety among employees due to having to constantly do better and prove they deserve to keep their job (rather than simply doing it and the employer having to prove they deserve to be fired if they want to get rid of them as in the UK), leading to a lot of one-up-manship and toxic corporate cultures around that.
Which brings us to the fourth point: quality of life is also generally lower in the US. There are fewer public services, infrastructure is poorer (if you think UK potholes are bad wait until you live in a regional town/city), you spend longer getting to and from work, pay more for groceries with less choice, and as above you work longer hours, for nominally better money but actually once you account for all the extra costs and the amount of additional hours you're putting in, not that much higher an hourly rate. You will spend more money to try and make your life feel better than you might working a "lower" paying job here potentially where you have a better work life balance, spend less on housing and living costs and have easier commutes to work etc, and are generally more satisfied with your life. Money can't buy happiness, it can only provide the basic foundation of financial stability needed for you to develop your own happiness. And the level of income needed to achieve that is a lot less than what silicon valley pays and certainly achievable in the UK.
Finally: if you're a minority of any kind (note: this also includes being a woman in spite of demographic breakdowns) you will have a bad time, and even if you're a cis heterosexual white guy, there's always a chance someone having a bad day is going to bring an assault rifle to the office, or a cop is going to pull you over and decide they don't like your tone, switch off their bodycam, and claim you were resisting arrest. So you know, there's that too.
So honestly I think you maybe need to examine the reasons you want to go to those universities and assess a) if they actually get you closer to your goal and b) whether your goal is actually realistic or even representative of the objective reality of life in the US.


Thank you for this detailed reply, and sorry for my late response. I don’t know how, but you managed to get every single reason why I wanted to go to the US right, and you explained everything perfectly. The last part about minorities definitely impacted my decision the most. I’m now not even gonna apply to US universities, you really opened my eyes, the sole reason was increased pay and I thought they had a better work life balance. Genuinely, thank you

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