<aside> 💡 2/3rds of the world’s top 50 universities are located in the U.S. The country attracts the cream of the cream of the crop.
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<aside> ❗ There is no difference in academic quality within the top **14** institutions. There is no academic difference between the University of Chicago and Harvard - one has simply has more social popularity, both are tboth have the same level of professional and academic quality & prowess. The same goes for the next set of 20, then for the next set of 30 (#31-#60). Like, Vanderbilt has the same academic prowess as Dartmouth. You might not have even known those two existed.. but their students & alums also do similarly exceptional things to each other, and achieve very similar to the top 10.
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College football
Columbia’s main campus in the Spring
Yum. American Unis' philosophy is to make you a ‘well-rounded’ student. The US college path exposes you to a broad range of subjects, whatever you choose to study. As an Engineer, I took a Nigerian Film class and Football. Other classes I’ve taken at CU include: Fashion, African American Studies, and Business School classes (as an undergrad).
More Majors: US unis offer a winder range of academic courses, on average, compared to a UK uni. 'Financial Engineering', my degree, exist in only one uni in the UK.
Harvard Computer Science class
Much more flexibility with classes, too.
Uni is America is modular - you can take classes for your course generally whenever you want and in whatever combination. Take that Spanish class now or next year. People I know underloaded semesters to do useful part-time internships or to have more free time to explore opportunities in the new country.
SpaceX, the first privately-owned business to achieve spaceflight
Of all English-speaking countries the US pays the most
The United States is most important innovation hubs in the world. The overwhelming majority of the most impactful global finance and technology companies were founded in the US - this makes for a richer job market. Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Blackstone, Google, OpenAI. The US is always doing things 4-5 years before the UK, it’s kind of crazy. 1 million international students flock to the US every year to take advantage of the opportunities and add to the culture and innovation; the cycle perpetuates..
If you work in Finance, Tech or Consulting you could earn anywhere from $120-200K (£90-£150K) after gradaution. This is not an inflated figure, this is the reality of the worldI experience.
The US pays up to 2-3 times more for the same role in the UK across STEM & business jobs, like finance, technology, and consulting. If you study in the US, you’re granted work permission in the States. I took advantage of this - it helped my career and I enjoyed a lot.
Or at a seriously reduced cost. American unis are very wealthy so can afford to sponsor many people’s education. I’m going to university for free. AND getting spending money on top. Of all Columbia undegrad students, for the $90,000 Cost of Attendance, 50% of people are recieving financial aid! The unis are blessed!
You can study Data Science and Human Rights at the same time. You can study Physics and African-American studies at the same time. You can major in Sustainable Development and minor in Data Science.
This also means you can generally study any subject you can think of. And if you can't, the college can organize for you to take the course at another local college - they're called consortiums, here's the coolest one in California.
US unis operate on the philosphy that there are other major facets to human beings that make them brillant, and worthy of admission to uni.
This means you don’t need straight As in A level to get into Columbia (but it does help). You can get AAA and still get in! You just need to be exceptional in other areas, like facets of your personality, or attaining really prestigious awards. The US admissions process is holistic. This means more parts of the application decide whether you get in, as opposed to just grades, like in the UK. Things like the under-funded school you go to or growing up in a single parent immigrant household are used as context - these factors may meant your attainment is more impressive. **It's not like the UK where getting AAA instead of AAA will mean you lose your place at Oxford.**
They’ve got money to spend, and boy do they use it. Aesthetics is more important to American colleges - this makes for a nicer experience. Columbia is so beautiful, it’s a joy to bring friends around for many reasons, and it also makes for very Instagrammable moments.
Rice U's campus at sunset
Univ of Notre Dame
Middlebury College campus
Univ of Washington campus
Duke’s Chapel
Berry College
Columbia
Columbia in the summer term.
More time to experience things at the university & the location. 4 years in New York City for free is awesome. More time to take classes, meet people, go places, do things - experience. I changed my course twice, traveled to different cities, relaxed some semesters (terms), met people from all around the world and different Ivy League unis, got on my modeling and acting stuff.
Your network is your net worth. The more people you have good connections with, the generally better your life will be. This extends to job opportunities and social events of any kind.