Now that UK students are being asked to pay large sums for a university education whose quality has been compromised by decades of underfunding, more and more of them are looking to the USA. Enquiries to the US Educational Advisory Service are up seven-fold over the last two years, to over one million per annum. If you are having to pay, students reason, why not buy the best? In November 2004 the Top 200 World University Rankings in The Times Higher Educational Supplement listed seven American universities amongst the top ten. (Oxford and Cambridge being two of the other three). If you look down the rankings as far as Newcastle - well regarded in the UK - you have passed another 47 American universities on the way. of teaching and facilities is there to match it. Many US universities are willing to offer substantial financial support to British students. A first rate education abroad is becoming an ever more achievable option, whatever your background and the state of your finances. respected Good Schools Guide, and employs their familiar, highly readable style. It combines the personal experience and eloquence of Alice Fishburn, a British student in her final year at Harvard, with Anthony Nemecek's many years of experience as Director of the US Educational Advisory Service in the UK. Stephen Baldock, who until a few months ago was High Master of St Paul's School London, adds his views, and cartoonist Tim Sanders illustrates the book.