Employment Opportunities after University in UK (Oxford to Queens College Belfast) vs. US (Bowdoin, etc.)

Applying to College
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In my opinion, it’s not whether the schools are known – they are. Rather the difficulty comes from having little to no US job-search infrastructure. No US contacts, a very small alumni base in the US, no career office guidance targeted to the US. You are much more on your own.

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If she’s interested in International relations, she’s going to need grad school anyway (Tufts, G’Town, etc.) She’ll build her US network there.
Employment in the UK can be parlayed into a job in the US but would probably be required before she jumps right into the US job market.
I second the recommendation of adding a “critical language” - can make or break an application for foreign service.
She can apply to 1 of Oxbridge, St Andrews, 2 more (pick from King’s, Edinburgh, LSE, SOAS, Manchester) and a great “safety”, Queen’s Belfast with the “conflict” concentration (it requires 2 or 3 AP5s and 1350 SAT.)
Queen’s “Liberal Arts” with an International Studies concentration should also be a good option.
https://www.qub.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/international-relations-conflict-studies-ba-l253/

https://www.qub.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/liberal-arts-mlibarts-y300/

If she likes Bowdoin, look into Franklin&Marshall, which is relatively similar but easier to get into. Denison and, especially, Dickinson, offer good language &politics programs

Does one of your in-state options offer a “critical language flagship”?
(some examples
https://sllc.umd.edu/special-programs/arabic-persian/persian-flagship
https://www.brynmawr.edu/inside/academic-information/departments-programs/russian/russian-language-flagship
https://chinese.olemiss.edu/ )

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US Internships can be a challenge for UK based students.

Between 2nd & 3rd year, my son got an internship in the UK so schedule was OK. At that time, Tier 4 student visa allowed him to work in UK outside of term time.

Between 3rd & 4th year, he got a NY based internship. That was the start of COVID so exams were delayed and he was already home. Had exams in 9th & 10th week (on UK time) after internship had started. That was not a lot of fun, but at least made it feasible.

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