Record Number of U.S. Students Apply for U.K. Undergraduate Degrees For 2025-26

[Anonymous]

Glasgow has some issues for sure. This drives US kids to focus applications on Edinburgh and St Andrews when looking at Scotland

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Glasgow has some issues for sure. This drives US kids to focus applications on Edinburgh and St Andrews when looking at Scotland

Glasgow has always had issues, it is the ghetto of Scotland.
What drives kids in the US to apply to St. Andrews & Edinburgh is largely down to the associated prestige and rankings.

[Anonymous]

The college admission process in this country is broken. The definition of merit has been hijacked by wealthy elitists who will do and say anything to get ahead. If an overseas education can offer a similar or better education I am all for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The college admission process in this country is broken. The definition of merit has been hijacked by wealthy elitists who will do and say anything to get ahead. If an overseas education can offer a similar or better education I am all for it.

In the US, college admissions has never had a close correlation with any definition of merit.

The admissions game definitely has changed over the past 100 years or so, but in any given year it always has been a game.

My spouse has trouble grasping this, because in his part of Europe there is a national academic test for college admissions. One's college options there are primarily driven by the results from that one test.

[Anonymous]

I dont think the grades/tests only requirements of English universities is the best way, or the rest of the world single admissions testing or the US more holistic scheme is the best way.

But there should be some acknowledgment of qualitative variables. Clearly some universities do a better job than others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Also it looks like the other PP was referring to this list of the unis with most Americans attending that another poster shared:

1. University of St Andrews – ≈ 1,810
2. University of Edinburgh – ≈ 960
3. University of Oxford – ≈ 720

This is a blip in terms of the number of US college students which I believe is around 16MM.

Now, maybe a million are applying and this is all that gets in…but I doubt it.

What does this have to do with the thread?

That the record number applying is only like maybe 10,000 kids total out of 4MM kids applying to college from the US

Considering that for most Americans, their universe extends only 100 miles from their home, it is actually pretty impressive that there are 10,000+ kids applying to UK schools from America. I’m willing to bet 99.99% of all kids applying through the Common App could not name more than one UK university.

I guess...but it's still much closer to 0% (0.25% exactly) than it is closer to a material number.

I was also being quite generous based on the overall acceptance rates of these various UK schools...but my guess is that US kids aren't applying unless they are likely to be much stronger than average applicants with a higher acceptance rate, so it could easily be 25%+ fewer kids applying.

Not only that, comparing UK admissions rates to US rates is ludicrous and makes no sense. Unlike the US where you can apply to 498 unis, in the UK you can only apply to 5. And you cannot apply to Oxford and Cambridge. It is either or. There is a self selection bias already that doesnt exist in the US.

+1. If this was the case in the US, admission rates to Ivies would increase by 500 to 1000 bps….it is that simple.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The college admission process in this country is broken. The definition of merit has been hijacked by wealthy elitists who will do and say anything to get ahead. If an overseas education can offer a similar or better education I am all for it.

In the US, college admissions has never had a close correlation with any definition of merit.

The admissions game definitely has changed over the past 100 years or so, but in any given year it always has been a game.

My spouse has trouble grasping this, because in his part of Europe there is a national academic test for college admissions. One's college options there are primarily driven by the results from that one test.

Is he German?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I dont think the grades/tests only requirements of English universities is the best way, or the rest of the world single admissions testing or the US more holistic scheme is the best way.

But there should be some acknowledgment of qualitative variables. Clearly some universities do a better job than others.

Its not grades / tests only for UK universities. There are detailed letters of recommendation required and for now, a personal statement.

In highly competitive STEM courses at somewhere like Bath University, they say they only read the PS when they need to use it as a tie breaker between applicants.

Other universities lean heavily into it and will discuss the content in interview, or the admissions officer may well be a member of the teaching dept, say for History at York. Their academic interests aligning with those in the PS, or the analysis shown in the PS resonating will more likely end in an offer.

And a Personal Statement is not a list of activities or boasting about achievements, it is meant to be a place where the appliant talks about the insights they gained from a specific experience, specific books read, etc etc

My kids variously played musical instruments to a high level, gaining distinction from awarding music bodies (in the UK), they learned a host of languages (Arabic, Chinese, Italian, French) and none of these things made it into their PS because they were not subject relevant.

And they still got offers from everywhere they applied to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Not surprising, more transparent process, greater focus on academic achievement over ECs, greater value for the money and a host of outstanding institutions to apply to, expect the numbers to continue to grow. "

Yes but none of those are really the main reason American students are now considering universities abroad. I’m going to go with the assault of freedom of speech and vast cuts to research as main reasons.

You do you. My children and their friends applied UCAS for the reasons in the earlier post. Frankly, most American students abroad are not making protests about free speech and due process. The transparency and aligned focus of the application process seems genuinely invested in scholarship and not some vague social engineering experiment. If one wants to apply as an underprivileged class, one has a route for that too. It is all very clear and it's refreshing.

Curious how you left out the research cuts, which do affect most Americans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUMers only focus on Oxbridge and maybe Imperial/LSE. Anything else and you will hear all kinds of excuses…

But yes, there are another 5 o 7 unis in the UK that make a lot of sense for american kids that dont get admissions to t25 schools.

I would say St Andrews gets more attention than any other UK school on here. Not justified, in my opinion, but I also don’t understand the Tulane or Northeastern fixations on here either.

It is very easy to understand why.
1) Scottish unis are more aligned with US schools in that it has more flexibility than English universities. It is 4 years so you are allowed to explore 2 or 3 other subjects in your first two years and change majors before your Honours years.
2) Edinburgh, St Andrews and Glasgow get all the attention because they are the top unis in Scotland. So naturally, Americans looking in Scotland would veer towards these schools.
3) These schools understand the US HS system better and are more flexible with AP requirements.
4) No every kid gets in Ivy League schools or Oxbridge. So when compared to the cost of a Private or OOS tuition at a t25 to t60 US school, there is a lot of value here.
5) Add to the above the fact that St Andrews over the last 10 years have ranked in the top 3-4 in their own UK rankings (3 separate ranking publications) make it an easy choice for Americans. Edinburgh and Glasgow are amazing research universities that produce a ton of reasearch and are highly ranked and respected worldwide.

Not very complicated.

Yeah, thanks, I didn’t say I didn’t understand why St Andrews gets so much attention. I just said I didn’t think it was justified. And if anything Edinburgh and Glasgow should get more but St Andrews seems to get more than both of those combined.

DP. I agree with you on the St. A's front. But Glasgow? Are you serious? Total dump. Even after it was chosen as the Europen City of Culture back in the way back whens...

Sorry, just meant “Edinburgh and Glasgow” if you buy all of the Scotland university arguments in the PP’s post, not that I think anything particular about Glasgow.

PP was simply stating what happened….I’m Scottish and there is ‘nothing to buy” here. PP is. Correct. I went to Edinburgh 20 years ago. Edinburgh still remains the top research university in Scotland, which is why it is highly ranked in international rankings. I lived in Hong Kong, Sydney and for the last 5 years in the Bay Area. Edinburgh’s uni reputation is great everywhere.

I cant speak for Glasgow other that it is one of the top Scottish unis. But the truth is that in Scotland, St Andrews attracts the best students. If you are a top Scottish student and wants to study something other than engineering and some STEM fields (StA doesnt offer these programmes) then you will have St Andrews on the top of your list. So they do attract the better students. The quality of the rest RUK students applying have also improved above and beyond the other ancient univeristies in Scotland, specially after the Royals attended.

For which STEM fields is Edinburgh better? What about physics?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Not surprising, more transparent process, greater focus on academic achievement over ECs, greater value for the money and a host of outstanding institutions to apply to, expect the numbers to continue to grow. "

Yes but none of those are really the main reason American students are now considering universities abroad. I’m going to go with the assault of freedom of speech and vast cuts to research as main reasons.

You do you. My children and their friends applied UCAS for the reasons in the earlier post. Frankly, most American students abroad are not making protests about free speech and due process. The transparency and aligned focus of the application process seems genuinely invested in scholarship and not some vague social engineering experiment. If one wants to apply as an underprivileged class, one has a route for that too. It is all very clear and it's refreshing.

Curious how you left out the research cuts, which do affect most Americans.

DP. The reaearch funding cuts have not had much impact on typical undergraduate students. They will impact graduate students more than undergraduates.

Other countries, such as the UK, have had lower governmental research funding levels (e.g., from EPSRC) for many years, but still do good work and still produce good grad students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUMers only focus on Oxbridge and maybe Imperial/LSE. Anything else and you will hear all kinds of excuses…

But yes, there are another 5 o 7 unis in the UK that make a lot of sense for american kids that dont get admissions to t25 schools.

I would say St Andrews gets more attention than any other UK school on here. Not justified, in my opinion, but I also don’t understand the Tulane or Northeastern fixations on here either.

It is very easy to understand why.
1) Scottish unis are more aligned with US schools in that it has more flexibility than English universities. It is 4 years so you are allowed to explore 2 or 3 other subjects in your first two years and change majors before your Honours years.
2) Edinburgh, St Andrews and Glasgow get all the attention because they are the top unis in Scotland. So naturally, Americans looking in Scotland would veer towards these schools.
3) These schools understand the US HS system better and are more flexible with AP requirements.
4) No every kid gets in Ivy League schools or Oxbridge. So when compared to the cost of a Private or OOS tuition at a t25 to t60 US school, there is a lot of value here.
5) Add to the above the fact that St Andrews over the last 10 years have ranked in the top 3-4 in their own UK rankings (3 separate ranking publications) make it an easy choice for Americans. Edinburgh and Glasgow are amazing research universities that produce a ton of reasearch and are highly ranked and respected worldwide.

Not very complicated.

Yeah, thanks, I didn’t say I didn’t understand why St Andrews gets so much attention. I just said I didn’t think it was justified. And if anything Edinburgh and Glasgow should get more but St Andrews seems to get more than both of those combined.

DP. I agree with you on the St. A's front. But Glasgow? Are you serious? Total dump. Even after it was chosen as the Europen City of Culture back in the way back whens...

Sorry, just meant “Edinburgh and Glasgow” if you buy all of the Scotland university arguments in the PP’s post, not that I think anything particular about Glasgow.

PP was simply stating what happened….I’m Scottish and there is ‘nothing to buy” here. PP is. Correct. I went to Edinburgh 20 years ago. Edinburgh still remains the top research university in Scotland, which is why it is highly ranked in international rankings. I lived in Hong Kong, Sydney and for the last 5 years in the Bay Area. Edinburgh’s uni reputation is great everywhere.

I cant speak for Glasgow other that it is one of the top Scottish unis. But the truth is that in Scotland, St Andrews attracts the best students. If you are a top Scottish student and wants to study something other than engineering and some STEM fields (StA doesnt offer these programmes) then you will have St Andrews on the top of your list. So they do attract the better students. The quality of the rest RUK students applying have also improved above and beyond the other ancient univeristies in Scotland, specially after the Royals attended.

For which STEM fields is Edinburgh better? What about physics?

DP. For the STEM subjects that each has on offer, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and StA all are solid. The main difference in STEM is that StA does not offer Engineering degrees.

If one wants to chase down rankings for specific programmes of study, then look at the details for that in the several UK university guides.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Not surprising, more transparent process, greater focus on academic achievement over ECs, greater value for the money and a host of outstanding institutions to apply to, expect the numbers to continue to grow. "

Yes but none of those are really the main reason American students are now considering universities abroad. I’m going to go with the assault of freedom of speech and vast cuts to research as main reasons.

You do you. My children and their friends applied UCAS for the reasons in the earlier post. Frankly, most American students abroad are not making protests about free speech and due process. The transparency and aligned focus of the application process seems genuinely invested in scholarship and not some vague social engineering experiment. If one wants to apply as an underprivileged class, one has a route for that too. It is all very clear and it's refreshing.

Curious how you left out the research cuts, which do affect most Americans.

DP. The reaearch funding cuts have not had much impact on typical undergraduate students. They will impact graduate students more than undergraduates.

Other countries, such as the UK, have had lower governmental research funding levels (e.g., from EPSRC) for many years, but still do good work and still produce good grad students.

I agree that in the near term there is zero impact to quality of undergraduate education. Look at a school like Notre Dame. Pretty Meh in the research output dept and a phenomenal undergraduate education. I guess the equivalent of that in the UK would be St Andrews. Meh research output, but great undergraduate education.

But in the long term, we do have a problem in the US. Research funding cuts when mixed with the disdain for international students will eventually impact the quality of teachers you will have and it will be detrimental to the quality of the undergraduate education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUMers only focus on Oxbridge and maybe Imperial/LSE. Anything else and you will hear all kinds of excuses…

But yes, there are another 5 o 7 unis in the UK that make a lot of sense for american kids that dont get admissions to t25 schools.

I would say St Andrews gets more attention than any other UK school on here. Not justified, in my opinion, but I also don’t understand the Tulane or Northeastern fixations on here either.

It is very easy to understand why.
1) Scottish unis are more aligned with US schools in that it has more flexibility than English universities. It is 4 years so you are allowed to explore 2 or 3 other subjects in your first two years and change majors before your Honours years.
2) Edinburgh, St Andrews and Glasgow get all the attention because they are the top unis in Scotland. So naturally, Americans looking in Scotland would veer towards these schools.
3) These schools understand the US HS system better and are more flexible with AP requirements.
4) No every kid gets in Ivy League schools or Oxbridge. So when compared to the cost of a Private or OOS tuition at a t25 to t60 US school, there is a lot of value here.
5) Add to the above the fact that St Andrews over the last 10 years have ranked in the top 3-4 in their own UK rankings (3 separate ranking publications) make it an easy choice for Americans. Edinburgh and Glasgow are amazing research universities that produce a ton of reasearch and are highly ranked and respected worldwide.

Not very complicated.

Yeah, thanks, I didn’t say I didn’t understand why St Andrews gets so much attention. I just said I didn’t think it was justified. And if anything Edinburgh and Glasgow should get more but St Andrews seems to get more than both of those combined.

DP. I agree with you on the St. A's front. But Glasgow? Are you serious? Total dump. Even after it was chosen as the Europen City of Culture back in the way back whens...

Sorry, just meant “Edinburgh and Glasgow” if you buy all of the Scotland university arguments in the PP’s post, not that I think anything particular about Glasgow.

PP was simply stating what happened….I’m Scottish and there is ‘nothing to buy” here. PP is. Correct. I went to Edinburgh 20 years ago. Edinburgh still remains the top research university in Scotland, which is why it is highly ranked in international rankings. I lived in Hong Kong, Sydney and for the last 5 years in the Bay Area. Edinburgh’s uni reputation is great everywhere.

I cant speak for Glasgow other that it is one of the top Scottish unis. But the truth is that in Scotland, St Andrews attracts the best students. If you are a top Scottish student and wants to study something other than engineering and some STEM fields (StA doesnt offer these programmes) then you will have St Andrews on the top of your list. So they do attract the better students. The quality of the rest RUK students applying have also improved above and beyond the other ancient univeristies in Scotland, specially after the Royals attended.

For which STEM fields is Edinburgh better? What about physics?

DP. For the STEM subjects that each has on offer, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and StA all are solid. The main difference in STEM is that StA does not offer Engineering degrees.

If one wants to chase down rankings for specific programmes of study, then look at the details for that in the several UK university guides.

For STEM these are not really the universities that excel in the UK. Rather in this order are the top contenders

Cambridge
Imperial / LSE
Bath

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUMers only focus on Oxbridge and maybe Imperial/LSE. Anything else and you will hear all kinds of excuses…

But yes, there are another 5 o 7 unis in the UK that make a lot of sense for american kids that dont get admissions to t25 schools.

I would say St Andrews gets more attention than any other UK school on here. Not justified, in my opinion, but I also don’t understand the Tulane or Northeastern fixations on here either.

It is very easy to understand why.
1) Scottish unis are more aligned with US schools in that it has more flexibility than English universities. It is 4 years so you are allowed to explore 2 or 3 other subjects in your first two years and change majors before your Honours years.
2) Edinburgh, St Andrews and Glasgow get all the attention because they are the top unis in Scotland. So naturally, Americans looking in Scotland would veer towards these schools.
3) These schools understand the US HS system better and are more flexible with AP requirements.
4) No every kid gets in Ivy League schools or Oxbridge. So when compared to the cost of a Private or OOS tuition at a t25 to t60 US school, there is a lot of value here.
5) Add to the above the fact that St Andrews over the last 10 years have ranked in the top 3-4 in their own UK rankings (3 separate ranking publications) make it an easy choice for Americans. Edinburgh and Glasgow are amazing research universities that produce a ton of reasearch and are highly ranked and respected worldwide.

Not very complicated.

Yeah, thanks, I didn’t say I didn’t understand why St Andrews gets so much attention. I just said I didn’t think it was justified. And if anything Edinburgh and Glasgow should get more but St Andrews seems to get more than both of those combined.

DP. I agree with you on the St. A's front. But Glasgow? Are you serious? Total dump. Even after it was chosen as the Europen City of Culture back in the way back whens...

Sorry, just meant “Edinburgh and Glasgow” if you buy all of the Scotland university arguments in the PP’s post, not that I think anything particular about Glasgow.

PP was simply stating what happened….I’m Scottish and there is ‘nothing to buy” here. PP is. Correct. I went to Edinburgh 20 years ago. Edinburgh still remains the top research university in Scotland, which is why it is highly ranked in international rankings. I lived in Hong Kong, Sydney and for the last 5 years in the Bay Area. Edinburgh’s uni reputation is great everywhere.

I cant speak for Glasgow other that it is one of the top Scottish unis. But the truth is that in Scotland, St Andrews attracts the best students. If you are a top Scottish student and wants to study something other than engineering and some STEM fields (StA doesnt offer these programmes) then you will have St Andrews on the top of your list. So they do attract the better students. The quality of the rest RUK students applying have also improved above and beyond the other ancient univeristies in Scotland, specially after the Royals attended.

For which STEM fields is Edinburgh better? What about physics?

DP. For the STEM subjects that each has on offer, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and StA all are solid. The main difference in STEM is that StA does not offer Engineering degrees.

If one wants to chase down rankings for specific programmes of study, then look at the details for that in the several UK university guides.

For STEM these are not really the universities that excel in the UK. Rather in this order are the top contenders

Cambridge
Imperial / LSE
Bath

This was not the topic they were discussing. But thank you for butting in.