robtuck

We moved to Georgia with a 16 year old daughter who had just completed her GCSE's. The start of the school year here is early August, and as we didn't move until September, that created an early issue. She basically did Health Studies for the first couple of months while they worked (were a pain) with us to try and translate her GSCE results into Credits. I had to do a lot of the legwork myself, including obtaining the full syllabus of each exam she had taken. As an example, while she received an A in Maths, that needed to be translated Algebra, Calculus etc. Civics & US History were obvious missing subjects. The trickiest bit for her was having to take some lessons with students younger than her as they were the ones she was missing, and then also being well ahead in some subjects where they had refused to translate her studies into a Credit for that course.

I can only imagine that is a much tougher ask with a student mid way through A Levels.

USA Colleges readily accept A Levels, so I'd back the consensus of waiting until they are complete if at all possible.

Pulaski

Austin is also one of the US's leading tech hubs, (I can't think off-hand of anywhere else in the US that would be ahead of it, other than SF/ Silicon Valley, obviously), so Austin has some of the smartest, academically speaking, parents in the US, including "the brightest and best" not only from across the US, but around the world. .... I am going to guess that therefore it isn't a coincidence that Austin has some of the brightest high school students in the US.

christmasoompa

That actually surprises me that it's not a higher amount. My daughter's sixth form college of 2000 students has a similar list each year of kids going to Ivy League colleges in the US, and that's with a fairly low percentage of them applying outside of the UK.

petitefrancaise

They only feature the top 10 kids.

kimilseung

2,300 according to Harvard, or 5,200 according to elsewhere, new enrollment at Harvard per year.
24,000 public high schools in USA, plus none public, plus foreign.
An average of one student going to Harvard per five high schools, assuming the higher number, , as a rough and ready bit of math.

Angel12

I would like thank everyone for productive discussion. Information has helped to make the decision. Most likely planning to complete A levels here in U.K.

We need to look into maintaining green card and applying for University in USA. He is hoping to do Bsc in cellular and molecular biology.

Thank you for the suggestions

PetrifiedExPat

Skip the BSc, start straight in with a 4 year Masters program in the UK, followed by a 3 year PhD. 7 years total, vs 5-7 years on average for a PhD (alone) here (high quality US standards), if he wants to pursue Science as a career. That way, will be miles ahead of the field.

tht

That used to be the “trick” in 1997 when you paid no tuition for your first degree in the UK… not sure it makes a big difference now, 3 year Bsc (Homs) and 1 year masters gets you 2 degrees in the same 4 years…

morpeth

I guess we all go by our own experiences, I have had children in school in three American states, supposedly 'top' schools, I wasn't impressed at all. One child who also went to school in Colombia and in UK in both schools hearing she had been in school in America stated "don't worry within a year she should catch up with local students'. In one state university, touted as one of best state universities in the USA, over 25% of incoming students needed remedial Math or English classes. Sure there are some better schools especially with IB programs, and some good students, but on average for secondary schools the USA ranks fairly low internationally. There certainly are reasons why home schoolers consistently on average do better than public school students in America. The school one child of ours attended in the UK wasn't in the best area at all yet the curriculum and teachers far better than at a top school in Northern California.The US does have some top universities to be sure especially at the Master's level.

petitefrancaise

Definitely the easiest/less stressful route for your family.

In terms of maintaining the green card..... you could ask in the immigration forum here but here is a quick bit of info.
1. You could get a re-entry permit. Not that you really need it but if your son loses the green card, he can use the re-entry permit instead of the GC to get back into the USA to apply for the replacement GC. Been there.
2. Your son is a student and will have full access to his home with you at any time in the USA. Try to get him back before 6 months passes as that definitely reduces questions. For his citizenship, be prepared to provide proof that he is a student in the UK. Get him a USA bank account, a driver's license or ID from your State, put him on the health insurance. All this goes to prove that he lives in the USA and is temporarily abroad. If he goes over 6 months' absence all that proof should prevent his citizenship being pushed back. I've had to do this with 2 of my kids who were studying outside the USA.

PetrifiedExPat

Sorry for late reply, I was referring to a pilot program that was lead by Oxbridge and a few others (I was in one of the few others), whereby the first three years is identical to the BSc (but it is not awarded), then an extra year in Industry to achieve the MSc. The advantage was it was pretty quick, and in research no one cares about the Bachelors anyway (unless you are going for the technicial/RA route).

As for PhD, since in the US the 'broad' undergrad courses are so underserving for scientists, a few years are spent in rotation and classes to bring people up to speed. Hence UK route if a choice (to me) is a no brainer. This all started for me in 2001.

EDIT: Quick add here, its not actually a MSc that is awarded, it is another type of Masters (accelerated). I dont want to name it for privacy reasons, but it is different on paper.

tht

4 years sounds the same as 3 year BSc and 1 year Msc. I guess if the 4th year is in a paid role in industry rather than in class paying tuition it could be a 25% saving. Your right if you are deciding to stay in research for the rest of your life aged 18 probably no difference, but in general I would want options and would preferred to have both degrees conferred for options.

I assume the Cambridge part was different, unless something changed I thought they only conferred BA’s at undergrad and then you get the MA a few years later if you eat enough dinners / don’t go to jail and don’t get divorced…

PetrifiedExPat

The paid 4th year was indeed great! Took a pay cut going onto PhD!

Your point about keeping options open is well taken.

ss120396

Like most things it depends on the specific school, area, course selections, etc. People can go back and forth all day with anecdotes about how their kids' school in the US compared to their kids' school in the UK, but really the only thing to do is look at the international education metrics. And sure enough, the US does do worse than the UK and most of Europe on the PISA exam as a whole, with the caveat that performance can be affected by factors other than school quality. Some states, for example, are hurt in education rankings by the large number of English learners in their schools, or unusually high rates of poverty.

But other states, when they took the PISA on their own, compared quite favorably, blowing other countries out of the water in some areas. For example, in 2015 the only countries that did better than Massachusetts and Connecticut on the science section of the exam were the famously high performing Finland along with a few Asian countries.

Granted, those are known for being some of the top states in the US for education - but just I don't think the data supports education in the US being as uniformly bad as you suggest, or that moving to the US will for certain condemn your kids to worse education than at home. And it certainly doesn't support calling someone's stance "laughable" for simply claiming their kids got a good education in a US school.

retzie

This varies A LOT by field. In mathematics, (good) US PhDs are generally considered to be superior to PhDs awarded elsewhere. In Europe/the UK/Australia, you are definitely exposed to more advanced topics early, but the treatment is invariably brief and superficial. In the US, yes, you have to wait until grad school to cover a lot of things, but you are going to see them done in far more depth. This sets you up for more options when it comes to research.

When I go back to Australia, it's tale of woe after tale of woe about how faculty can barely scrape together PhD projects because the students know so little. The tradition is very much to ship the best students off to the US for grad school to give them a "better start in life".