Do you have a firm idea on how much you can pay?
3 years at an English/Irish uni (other than Oxbridge) will probably come in at roughly half the total cost of full-pay at an elite American private for 4 years even with no scholarships or fin aid (if the exchange rate holds).
Continental European programs are even cheaper. German unis are tuition-free. That’s why American schools like Bard College Berlin can only charge 26K Euros/year for everything (over 4 years).
BTW, good English unis like UCL/KCL/Durham/Warwick now offer Liberal Arts/Arts&Science degrees where a student can study multiple subjects.
Something to keep in mind as well.
TCD in Ireland also offers something like that. @collegemom3717 probably can tell you more about it.
I’m hoping that we’ll get some FAFSA aid – and while it’s hard to say what we could afford…probably no more than $5K to $6K per year. I didn’t know about Bard College Berlin…interesting…Thanks Purple Titan on the info on other English unis.
I have another question I’m hoping that one of you might know about. Are you aware of available scholarships for American students interested in studying (all four years) abroad, at an undergrad level?
If you can only pay 6K a year you need to put UK schools out of the picture or at the very least just as an exercise. Focus on the SAT, and make sure you do have a backup instate (so work out those details, it sounds nuanced). Have you actually run numbers for US unis? NPCs, do you know your FAFSA EFC? You should probably start looking at how your stint overseas is affecting your taxes WRT fafsa numbers.
Getting costs in the US down to that amount would be tough unless you get full-tuition scholarships or are very poor even with the (piddly) Federal loans if you don’t have an in-state option (which you may not if she doesn’t go to HS in the US).
You may want to explore English-language programs in (tuition-free) Germany at unis with FAFSA codes: http://www.registrar.iastate.edu/sites/default/files/uploads/codebook/forcoll.pdf
Wait, are you paying for her schooling now?
Wait, are you paying for her schooling now?<<<
Right, the reality is most actually poor kids don't get to go to the UK on a whim and land in a really good IB school. Is your DH working? In the UK?
If just maintaining a house in OR isn’t enough to get you in-state rates, returning to the US may be the safest option as, worse come to worst, she’ll likely have an affordable in-state option to commute to.
And if she is good enough to be competitive for Oxbridge, she probably can get enough merit scholarships from in-state schools to make living-away an option.
UA-Huntsville offers a full-tuition scholarship for a 30 ACT and decently good GPA.
Even with Federal loans, living costs would be more than $6K/year, though.
Just because UK schools have a FAFSA code does not mean they actually award any Aid after you file it. Generally it’s just used to determine whether your qualifying for subsidized or unsubsidized loans back here in the US. My daughter is at a UK school and we filed the FAFSA and basically just got back a statement saying that she could borrow up to 5000 or whatever the limit is, her first year.
Yep. But for someone who can only pay $6K a year, $5K in loans may be enough to cover living expenses in Germany while attending a tuition-free German program taught in English.
Oh, and the University of London External/International degrees are really cheap. About $10K total for the whole degree, but that’s because they only mail you reading material, suggest textbooks, and administer tests. It’s pretty much completely self-study, but not a bad option for someone who may travel around the world.
No, our daughter is going to a state/public sixth form. I’m a retired civil servant, but retired at the end of August 2017 and my pension is about 1/3 of my regular salary. As FAFSA uses the federal tax form from the prior year, I’m not sure how much FAFSA aid we get when I do the FAFSA form next year. My husband works (he needs to, in order to be a QP, but it is at national minimum wage. It isn’t sufficient to cover all of our living expenses whilst here but we have some other limited sources of income – while we are here friends are living/renting our home).
@PurpleTitan Unless this young woman is interested in politics, international relations, hospitality or business, which it sounds very much like she isn’t, she is going to have a heckuva time finding an English-taught bachelor in Germany – exception being, as far as I know, Freiburg’s liberal arts degree (only 20% of places for non-EU and 1500 euros/semester + 750, more or less, living expenses).
Then moving back to the States is probably the safest path.
Hmm, yes, if she’s eligible only for international fees then it’s going to be quite difficult to find something, English-taught, in UK/EU. The university colleges in NL are expensive. I wish she had an EU passport! 
I too wish she had an EU passport…the other scheme we had discussed is that if she stayed on here and finished the IB diploma program, then did a gap year, then applied, she would fulfill the 3-year requirement for home student at the university level. But, I’m not so sure that’s where we’re heading…
Does the home student require that 3 yrs to be in high school though? Does the gap yr qualify?
The other issue is that your now rented out home will be considered income and asset in your FAFSA. Your primary residence is where you live in the UK. Again, you need to run some numbers. As you did say earlier you embarked on this well before Brexit become a thing, I am unsure of your timeline, because Brexit has been a thing for years now. Even Before the referendum it was a thing.
I think that if you moved to the UK in August 2017 before she started sixth form, she probably could qualify for home fees in the UK if you stayed there and she took a year off before starting her course in Sept/Oct 2020 (which is quite common in the UK). The rules are set out here: https://www.ukcisa.org.uk/Information–Advice/Fees-and-Money/England-fee-status#layer-6082 (I think the applicable section for you is 6. EEA/Swiss workers, and family). She could travel or work during the year off (perhaps even in the US) so long as you remained resident in the UK and as a family you all demonstrate sufficient ties to be “ordinarily resident” (a technical term with lots of case law available on the site https://www.ukcisa.org.uk/Information–Advice/Fees-and-Money/England-fee-status#layer-6085), because “If you can demonstrate that you have not been ordinarily resident in the relevant residence area only because you, or a family member, were temporarily working outside the relevant residence area, you will be treated as though you have been ordinarily resident there.”
That would probably be the cheapest option, especially as a home student would presumably qualify for UK loans to cover the fees and if you have low income (not sure about how assets are handled, but potentially more generously than in the US system) then there are partial grants for living expenses.
The UK system is also much more predictable in terms of admissions than the US (she can then get a conditional offer based on IB results) and a year off would simplify things because if desired she could apply to US schools during the year off with a UK offer in hand and see what the US schools come back with in terms of admissions and financial aid (or even reapply in the UK if her IB results are much better than predicted and she therefore becomes a more attractive candidate for e.g. Cambridge).
I think going back to Oregon for senior year would make it harder to apply to US schools (and would mean giving up the UK option, probably from a fees perspective but also because giving up the IB halfway through might be frowned upon), not least because demonstrating the requisite level of extra-curricular activities for US admissions to top schools when just attending a US high school for senior year could be very difficult (e.g. she probably won’t be president of any school clubs). That doesn’t even consider the question of whether she would be in-state for U of Oregon etc.
“I think going back to Oregon for senior year would make it harder to apply to US schools.”
I’m of the mind that establishing any affordable option for her first is paramount. Colleges do take circumstances in to account.
“That doesn’t even consider the question of whether she would be in-state for U of Oregon etc.”
Is there any state school in the US who doesn’t consider an American citizen in the US who spent a full year in the state before college and graduated from an in-state public HS to not be in-state?
I would be shocked if that was the case. People move all the time. In fact, is there any state school that doesn’t consider an American citizen grad of an in-state public HS to not be in-state?
Also, is the UK loan scheme available to non-citizens?
I would be shocked if it was.
OK, I would still be shocked if the UK opened up their government loan scheme to foreigners but to be in-state at an American public, the parents just have to be legal residents in a state. So she could finish up IB in the UK, then, if worse comes to worst, everybody moves back to the US and she can get in-state tuition somewhere there.