Zurich, Copenhagen, Amsterdam and London for Uni Visits

3 weeks to visit 4 places isn't a problem. But without knowing where you will meet up with your son, it's hard to recommend an itinerary. I will say that with places so distant from each other, flights are likely to be more efficient than trains in most cases. Except for London -Amsterdam which are easy by Eurostar.

I can meet my son anywhere. London is least expensive for me to fly into and out of from the US. My son could fly to meet me in London, or wherever I started my trip. I had considered a car or train between zurich and Amsterdam, in order to see more sights outside of the cities, but I didn't know if that would be a good idea. Seems like so far people feel like just getting from city to city as quickly as possible (mostly flying) is the way to go, which is helpful to know.

I guess i'm a bit confused if this is a college search trip or a sightseeing trip.

I remember well traipsing around with my father when I was in your son's position. In my case it was 5 colleges in Canada and various places in the US, Boston, Baltimore, Cleveland, New Orleans (cancelled that one) and Montreal. And I had been pre-accepted by all of them so the pressure was off a bit. I was exhausted and I was a teenager.

Especially as he appears to be choosing a full 4 year (or 3 in the UK) complete change of life I am sure he will need to investigate a lot about each of the places he's considering. I wonder if there will be a lot of time for intermediate sightseeing.

If he were considering a semester abroad I'd feel the opposite way.

No advice for the travel part, but I have a senior in HS and I’ve long been on a Paying for College group on social media. One thing people talk about in there a lot is how admissions requirements for European universities are quite different than US institutions (e.g. you have to have at least 4 AP courses with a certain score). So just a heads up to make sure you’ve investigated their admissions requirements and that your son is on track to meet them.

Maybe cost is not a factor but I believe German universities are still free tuition for Americans while a London university with room and board likely $75,000/year or more. The Danish university is likely also free tuition.

There are many American universities operating in Europe in English with the US grading system (not final exam 100% of grade which is the European norm). SUNY has a school in Prague for example. To an American, European universities seem to be “independent study” format so is that the style of education your son wants?

A final note (and warning): US universities have a customer-based focus since the students are paying for the class. Since continental European students usually aren’t paying tuition, teachers there act more like government employees/bureaucrats.

It appears that you will be mixing the business of visiting the Universities for 1-2 days as well as some touring.

I have visited all the cities that you listed and all are great places to live and visit.

Switzerland is probably the most expensive country in Europe, so living costs and touring costs would likely be the highest.
Unfortunately all the other cities are also expensive.
We have a visit to England and Ireland planned for this Summer and our London lodgings will be at the Premier Inn near Victoria Station. A double room is between $280 and $300 per night. Premier Inns are comparable to Holiday Inns in the USA.

In three weeks you can do four cities with about 5 days each, minus travel time between them.
I like to use TripAdvisor.com under things to do to find out the most likely tour sites to see.
Amsterdam may be more expensive than London, but we stayed there a couple of years ago for a week at the Nadia Hotel, near the Anne Frank House for a total of $1000. The room was very small but adequate. Still, I don't think you and your son would like sleeping in the same bed, perhaps the hotel has rooms with two beds.
If you want to see the Anne Frank House, book as soon as reservations are open early in the month before you visit.
The Van Gogh and Rikjsmuseums are close together and great museum.

Copenhagen is a large city, but easy to walk around on your own and very safe.

Renting a car for use in big cities is not a good choice, since parking is hard to find and expensive.

Flying within Europe looks inexpensive, but there are severe luggage limitations that might be an issue for you.

Three and a half weeks for 4 cities leave you with plenty of time to explore, so no, that's not crazy at all. Of course you won't become a local in all 4 cities in that amount of time, but it doesn't sound rushed to me.

Going from one big city to the next, I wouldn't recommend a car. Trains, planes and buses will have you covered. If you want to take detours and stop at various small towns and villages though, it might be a good idea.

You say you want to tour the university campuses. While you can (probably?) walk around a lot of campuses, you're probably also aware there won't be a lot of activity on the campuses during July and August. That's typically the months students have vacation from their studies (at least that's the case in Denmark). I'm not saying you shouldn't investigate and do proper research, but the timing just makes me a little confused about the purpose of this part of the trip.

I’m glad that Broccolihaar brought this up, because I was thinking the exact same thing; if your son wants to have a feel of the university and the atmosphere in the city it doesn’t make much sense to go during the summer holidays when all the students are back home and university buildings are empty.
If you do decide to go, make sure to enquire about student housing. I can only speak for Amsterdam/The Netherlands of course, but things aren’t the same as in the USA. Housing isn’t provided by the university, you need to find and pay for housing yourself. In Amsterdam and other university cities in the Netherlands there is a huge shortage of student housing. It’s very difficult to find something here from abroad. Every September at the start of the new university year, stories of foreign students who have to live in expensive hotels or in a tent on a campsite make headlines.

Thank you to everyone for the advice and input. It's very helpful.

Regarding admissions, cost of tuition and living expenses, we've been getting those figures from the university websites. We have an extensive spreadsheet and have been narrowing our search to schools where my son is likely to be accepted and where his father and I combined would be able to afford to send him.

FWIW, although tuition is much higher in London, his father is a university professor and gets 1/2 off of tuition as part of his benefits package at any schools that accept the FAFSA (the US college financial aid organization) and FAFSA acceptance is on our spreadsheet. So the schools we are looking at in London are 1/2 price for us, which his father and I would then split 50/50, and all that combined helps tremendously with the cost.

Cost of living and student housing availability in these cities is actually the bigger factor for us. I have been looking into student housing options guided by the university websites, but this information regarding housing shortages for foreign students is very helpful to have. I'll definitely want to dig into that further.

Regarding our visit being during the time schools are out of session, the time for our visit is based on the fact that my son will be out of school during the summer and thus able to travel without missing a bunch of school. I think summer is the only time we could visit. In the US, campuses to summer school, so there are fewer students but things are still very much open and functioning. Is that not the case there? If not, would it be better if we visited in June? That could be possible.

I think his preferences will be based at least as much on the culture and feel of each city as on the culture and feel of the university itself, so we want to at least be able to visit the cities, but obviously, getting the most out of the campus visits would also be ideal.

Thanks so much, and if there's anything else you think I should know, please pass it along.

To add to earlier comments recommending trains, it would likely be very costly to rent a car in Country X and drop it off in Country Y. International drop charges are very high in Europe, because the car cannot be rented again until it is returned to the original country.

Depending on how long you are in Switzerland and how much traveling around you do there, you might benefit from some sort of Swiss rail pass or the Half Fare Card. Once you have your general itinerary set for Switzerland, ask for input on the Swiss forum here.

“ In the US, campuses to summer school, so there are fewer students but things are still very much open and functioning. Is that not the case there? If not, would it be better if we visited in June? ”

I can only speak for the Netherlands, but it seems the situation in Denmark is the same. Summer school really isn’t a thing here, so the university buildings will be pretty much deserted during the summer. Also the University of Amsterdam doesn’t have a US-style university campus where everything is concentrated. The university is housed in more than 60 buildings spread throughout the entire city center of Amsterdam.

I could give a bit more local colour on London Universities if I knew which are in the running. I will say that student digs are as hard or harder in some parts of London as in Amsterdam.

A son of my good friend was at UCL (University College London) in Bloomsbury and had to find a flat in Walthamstow. That's 8 or 9 stops away in Zone 3 from either Warren Street or Euston to the end of the Victoria Line. Many are not able to live in walking distance.

there are sometimes summer schools at both universities and public (fee-paying) schools in summer in England, but these are often language classes for foreign students put on by specialist companies who hire the facilities as a venue. Often not the facility itself.

a quick word about the British schooling ladder. School leavers normally leave school at age 16. Those continuing to higher education then attend 2 years of "Sixth Form", also known as Year 12 and Year 13. Then many take a "gap year" and then only 3 years at University.

If after leaving school, a pupil does not go to 6th Form they usually pursue some sort of technical training at what is generally known as a tech college or college. So the word "college" means something completely different than in the US.

Like others, I am not sure if this is a leisure trip or college admission tour. Anyway, my gut feel and advice is that he should stick to the UK. They really have the best of the best universities there. I graduated from a highschool in Europe with most of my classmates from continental Europe. All (100%) of the smart kids went to UK universities rather than those in their home countries.

For IR, econ and business, LSE, York, and Warwick are very good. Of course, there's Oxbridge too obviously. Good luck.

The Netherlands is severely cutting back on international (meaning non-EU) students. There are less courses in English, obligationary Dutch language courses, no free public transport like Dutch students have, numerus fixus for the most popular courses, no more deduction of study costs from taxes and there is less housing available for international students.

For the UK, if cost of living and availability of accommodation are a factor for you, as they are for most parents, I would definitely look at universities outside of London.
Though even in York some 1st year students at the beginning of last acedemic year were being housed in Hull, about 40 miles away, due to lack of university accommodation. They have and still are building lots of accommodation in the city but it’s pricey. Private rented accommodation still exists, which is a bit cheaper, but is being squeezed out by changes to rental laws.
Having recently put both my children through uni fairly recently it’s not an inexpensive venture, even outside of the US, and costs of living have increased since then.

From what I read I recommend to add days in Berlin which has three universities and several university-like colleges. in total 200,000 studnts live in Berlin.

The Technical University Berlin is one of the best places to study. They offer studying "Wirtschaftsingenieurwesen", a mix of economics, management and engineering - this is ranked #2 in Germany.

TU Berlin's classic Business Administration degree program is ranked 10th in the business magazine Wirtschaftswoche ranking. However, the Business Administration course is a diploma course that is being phased out and will therefore soon no longer be available. The new Economics course, however, is more focused on economics, but also includes business administration content. It is a consecutive degree course in conjunction with the Master's degree course in Industrial and Network Economics (MINE).

I studied there decades ago and still think that this was a brilliant education which is useful for the present challenges. Open for more exchange on living and studying in Berlin if your son wants to (send pm).

Our son did a study abroad at DTU in Denmark (right by Copenhagen). He was the only American student that year. We did have to prove that he had enough money to cover his time there. Finding health insurance was tricky for us as ours does not cover us overseas. So another aspect to look at. The university did not provide housing for most students, but did have a small area for international students. There was more demand than supply. Our son lucked out and got it but other students were still scrambling to find places to live even after the term began. DTU and his home university had something worked out where we paid the home university tuition and they dealt with DTU so that was one less thing we had to worry about.

I know a study a read is different, but thought I would share a few things we had to navigate.

I am not sure if this is a leisure trip or college admission tour

Whereas to me it seems very clearly to be both. Not sure what the problem is with that.

Visa: Germany at least 10 years ago had an easy, almost effortless, and free student visa process. Basically the student enters Germany as a visitor and changes status to a temporary resident at a police station after arrival.

The UK uses a MANDATORY vendor to accept student visa applications called VFS Global which used to be incompetent but maybe they have improved. Repeating there is no alternative to using the vendor, direct application to government not allowed.

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/visa.vfsglobal.com

Denmark uses VFS Global for all visas except student. I wonder if the reason for that is that they had so many bad experiences they pulled the student visa processing back in house?

Personally having to use VFS Global on an ongoing basis would eliminate the UK from my short list.

In the US, campuses to summer school, so there are fewer students but things are still very much open and functioning. Is that not the case there? If not, would it be better if we visited in June? That could be possible.

I have never taken a summer school course, but my understanding is that it is not really a thing here. The summer course offers seem to be very limited. Though I am no expert on uni summer school in Denmark. Not all unis have the same semester structure, but for many Danish uni students June is an exam month with no classes. The universities have "open house" events for students looking to apply, but these typically take place around February in Denmark. (Which might be near to/after the application deadline for non-EU/non-EEA students anyway?)

Cost of living and student housing availability in these cities is actually the bigger factor for us.

Many Danish universities do not have student housing/only very little student housing. Student housing exists, but most often it is a separate system independent from the universities.

There is also a lack of housing in Copenhagen. Not just for students, but also for students. If you want cheap-ish student housing in or around Copenhagen, you might have to be on the wait lists for years (and you can only get on the waiting lists from 3 months before study start). So either you will have to compromise on location or accept a high rent (or both). I am not saying it will be worst case for you, as some people get lucky - but (unfortunately) there is not enough luck for everyone. Some student housing (but not all) qualifies for housing benefits, which can lessen the burden of rent a little. I think foreigners can also receive this, but I suggest you look into it to make sure, if it becomes relevant.

It is not uncommon to see students/young people sharing an apartment in Copenhagen at a monthly rent of 6000 DKK or more for each tenant. Regardless, the housing situation may be a bit chaotic in the beginning. But I imagine this would be the case in any of the cities you mention, as they are all large and popular study cities?

Wow, so much amazing information here. Thank you all so very much.