Their son did well in high school and on his SATs, but got rejected from 30 US colleges. So they set their sights on Europe. [Video]

When it was time for his children to apply to college, Lou Zeidberg faced a conundrum.

Part of him wanted them to experience the traditional American college life he had as a student at the University of California, Berkeley.

“When I was in college, I was really into that stuff,” Lou, a marine science lecturer at California State University, told Business Insider about collegiate life. “So when they were little, I thought, oh, you’ll be a football player, and you’ll want to go to a college with a big football team, which is a very American thing.”

However, the university application process was lengthy and stressful for his son, Jacob. Jacob applied to almost 30 schools in 2019, only to be waitlisted or rejected from all of them. Eventually, he pivoted and chose to attend a junior college in San Diego.

“It was demoralizing on a level of extreme,” said Lou’s wife, Jennifer, a physician. “Our son did …