I think the confidential part comes in whereby nobody knows the poster IRL. In this case, I think having specifics to go on does help frame the question and possible answers.
I’m going to assume the “example” the OP gave of SMU vs. McGill is real. 
Hey OP…I think you are gone, but if you come back…
no one can really answer your original question, if parents know better. Sure, we parents have more life experience and perspective. But you are you. You are different than your parents. Then the entire college choice is complicated by the fact the parents pay, so, for many/most parents, that means they want a say in the choice, so that they feel good about what they are paying for. It’s complex. Communication between students and parents is key. Hopefully rather than each of you saying “I know better”, you can talk to each other and communicate your needs and desires, and they can communicate theirs.
It kind of sounds like the plan has been made to go abroad the first year and then reconsider, which sounds good. You can experience all of those benefits your family is talking about, but aren’t locked in. It sounds from your original message as if some of your doubts are coming from that you know no one else doing this. That’s totally understandable. Or maybe you’re even getting negative opinions from your peers, because this option isn’t open to them, or never even crossed their mind. or maybe they are even jealous! What you are doing is different. It can be hard to do something different. That’s OK. It can also be incredibly rewarding. It sounds like you will have support from your parents for that part of it (the new experience of being abroad); I hope that you in time get support from your friends too.
Does the National Education Clearinghouse capture students’ enrollments in schools abroad?
From what I understand, US colleges are the ones reporting to NEC. I’ve never heard that int’l universities do as well. Do they?
Frankly, I don’t even know where this idea comes from, that colleges routinely use the clearinghouse in reviewing UG applicants. It’s a data bureau that holds info for many purposes, including verifying the college degree for post degree jobs, when an offer is being set. (That final verification many of us have been put through.) I know it’s said, all the time, on CC. But I can’t imagine the time being availble, not to mention getting past privacy laws. You think they blanket send app details to a 3rd party? It was part of the job app for us to authroize that, iirc. Not on the Common App.
But that’s not my point. OP did have an original idea (other thread now partly merged) to do a gap “abroad,” then either attend X with no notice of what he did during the gap (hide the other college experience,)or can his enrollment at X to go find a better Z school. Sheesh. On that other thread, I believe he later agreed with posters who said to be above board, make a clean decision, whatever that is. Now, back to this fog?
Imo, kids do not always have a better idea of “fit.” Most of us have been on CC long enough to know they come up with odd reasons and prestige lists. The smarter ones have been rationally exploring, rationally culling/deciding, for a couple of years, at least. Before applying. But that’s far from universal. They make all sorts of odd claims.
It’s fine for parents to let the kid make the ultimate decision, when the parents can afford the various choices and have no overarching concerns. “All things being equal.” But we also know how many times the kids are emotional or talking of “dream schools.” Or flat out applying to a big list of surprisingly different colleges. I guess the kids think they’ll do the harder thinking later. Then you get what OP’s dealing with.
Like many parents, we did the culling before the final target list. Then had to state the final costs needed to be affordable. When the choices rolled in, we weren’t questioning the colleges that they’d applied to.
Most important bit of advice - go to a school where you have as little debt as possible. Don’t choose a particular school because you like their facilities but are burdened with 100K in debt upon graduation. You don’t know what the economy will be like in four years. It will be psychologically crushing for you if you end up going into that kind of debt and the only job you can find upon graduation pays $12/hour.
I’ll be honest, I am putting pressure on my son to commit to a state school. He has a large chunk of money saved so what ever we don’t cover he can pay most of and if he chose a prestigious private school, he’d be in some debt but not in the six figures. However, starting his young adult life out with his savings account intact, would make a far bigger difference in life options than getting a degree from a ‘prestige’ school. Look at the generation right before you who have crushing student debt. Many of them will never be able to own a home or start a business because their credit is shot. Many of them have to live at home with their parents well into their late 20s because they cannot make ends meet.
And if your parents are paying, they do get to decide. But it’s not too late to apply to some other schools and have other options. I know it’s a pain to do other applications but the the short term pain will be worth the long term benefits.
@Vanilla008 - You have several months between now and when you will have all of your admissions and aid offers on the table. Your ideas, and your parents’ ideas can change umpteen times between now and then. Continue to collect the information, and wait until you have all of your admissions offers and all of your aid packages and all of your well researched estimates for true costs of attendance.
@Vanilla008 - I think it is helpful to get talking points from all of us, so you can think about and weigh different factors as you and your parents discuss this further.
I had given a lot of thought to sending my D to a non-US school for the cost savings and to expand her world view. We all decided against it, though for a couple of reasons. 1- we felt she could get some of the positives associated with going to school abroad by either taking a gap year abroad or participating in a good study abroad program. 2- she might want to go to med school and there are issues with applying to US med schools from non-US colleges. 3- my D is a US national only, and we would want her to return to the US to work. We thought it would be more difficult for her to get US internships and apply for US jobs from a from abroad. I think this issue can be mitigated in a number of ways, including getting a 1 year masters from a US school afterwards. 4- we saw value in US colleges alumni and other networks. 5- we thought the US colleges offered more advising and that was very important to us. 6- we did not like how the foreign schools we were looking at made you start off in a particular major and focused you on that major. We wanted our D to have an opportunity to explore academically and find out what she would like. 7- we also highly valued all the extra-curricular activities available at the US colleges. We felt that was an additional way to explore potential career and life-long interests.
I saw mixed-messages about how you would feel about being so far away from your friends and family and whether you were emotionally ready to be far outside of your comfort zone. I think moving to a foreign country far away from home is a big deal. And I think it’s legitimate to say you aren’t ready for it yet, and would be better prepared for that exciting opportunity in a couple of years, after you’ve already experienced a lesser move and learned how to acclimate to change from that smaller move.
As a parent, Melvin’s concerns about college abroad speak to me more than the original poster’s arguments for attending the US school. It is also true that there may be more college options on the table once the RD decisions come out in the spring. So, OP, Melvin has given you some well thought out talking points.
In terms of my influence on my children’s college choice, I see it as my job to set them up for success. This might mean keeping a student closer to home who may need more support or encouraging a student to stretch by moving to a different part of the country or head abroad. It sounds like your parents want to nudge you out of your comfort zone. And, you want to stay in your comfort zone. Honestly, I’m pleased that my older is in college in a different part of the country because I think he’ll benefit from living outside Texas. I was not ready for him to live abroad partly because I like the support we can still more easily provide in the states. We can afford to fly him home for a long weekend if he needs that. And, he’s not learning how to live on his own while also learning how to function in a different country.