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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DC scraped into a highly ranked course at a British university with scores that would not gain admission for a British student. I’ve celebrated their success but tried to subtly point out that they probably need to up their game.

This is a very generic response. When? Which UK University and what subject?

There's plenty of crappy UK places to attend, just like in the US of A

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC scraped into a highly ranked course at a British university with scores that would not gain admission for a British student. I’ve celebrated their success but tried to subtly point out that they probably need to up their game.

This is a very generic response. When? Which UK University and what subject?

There's plenty of crappy UK places to attend, just like in the US of A

DP. The combination of university and course and American student likely would be enough give away PP's identity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC scraped into a highly ranked course at a British university with scores that would not gain admission for a British student. I’ve celebrated their success but tried to subtly point out that they probably need to up their game.

This is a very generic response. When? Which UK University and what subject?

There's plenty of crappy UK places to attend, just like in the US of A

What’s with the interrogation? Take my statement at face value.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oxbridge interviews.are very different than US college interviews. If you're a smart cookie and practice, you should do fine.

Being in the top 5% of the subject test does NOT assure a student an offer of admission (as my DC, who won regional awards for debate, learned the hard way). All the cookies who are invited to interviews at Oxford are smart, and most interview relatively well. Yet only 1/3 of interviewees get offers of admission.

I have a good friend who still has nightmares about her Oxford rejection twenty years ago. Today, she is a tenured faculty member at an Ivy. She is definitely a smart cookie.

Yes, Oxford is much more objective than the US system. However, they still take only 10% of applicants (fewer in the most competitive courses) and there is a fair amount of randomness in who gets accepted. Colleges look to balance gender, geography, etc.

All this is to say -- go for it! But be realistic about any one student's chances. There are no 'likely' candidates, I'd say, though there may be some who can reasonably think of Oxbridge as a target.

Im the PP. It is simple. Just go look at the UK freedom of info site and you can find data from recent yrs on percentage offered based on TSA or MAT scores. I can tell you that with a 95 percentile score, you are pretty much a shoe in if you made it that far….

And I tell you, my DC was in the top 5% of the subject test, had great stats from US high school, and did not get an offer.

Got accepted to multiple US T20s. I heard part of the Oxford zoom interview -- might not have been outstanding, but wasn't a train wreck.

DC is headed to a T10 in the US, so all is well. I only continue to respond to you bc I think that managing expectations is really important, as the admissions process is really hard on a lot of kids.

Thanks for sharing and I agree with you. DCUM keeps saying how Oxbridge admission is easier or more straightforward than US T10 admission for high stats kids like mine, but the admissions statistics are all available online and I've checked them out for Oxford. The acceptance rate is pretty darn low for US students. Not quite as low as Harvard or MIT, but the academic and logistical barriers required to just apply to Oxford are higher, so naturally the pool will be more qualified than for US schools because there will be fewer unserious applicants.

[Anonymous]

There are no academic and logistical barriers.

If you dont 5 x APs at 5 you shouldn’t be applying anyway. Then an Interview and then an admissions test depending on course. There is no barriers here. Once your grades made the required min, they look at your personal stmt. if it intriguing and articulate, you get a shot at an interview. If you course requires a test, you just sign up and take it. If you do extremely well and interview well then you have a good shot. Is it easy? no. But it is a much more clear process than the typical IVY BS process.

[Anonymous]

Our son-in-law from South America was awarded a government sponsored full scholarship (including room and board) to get a master's degree at Edinburgh several years ago. Our daughter (they weren't married yet) went along for the ride for a master's of her own. Her degree cost less than half what it would have at a good school in the USA.

My son-in-law learned on the eve of classes that his scholarship money hadn't come in and he was crestfallen thinking the school wouldn't let him enroll. But when he went to the registrar's office they asked what country he was from and when he told them they shrugged and said "yea, they're always late but they'll pay eventually" and off he went. That would NOT happen at any uni in the USA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are no academic and logistical barriers.

If you dont 5 x APs at 5 you shouldn’t be applying anyway. Then an Interview and then an admissions test depending on course. There is no barriers here. Once your grades made the required min, they look at your personal stmt. if it intriguing and articulate, you get a shot at an interview. If you course requires a test, you just sign up and take it. If you do extremely well and interview well then you have a good shot. Is it easy? no. But it is a much more clear process than the typical IVY BS process.

You must mentioned barriers that don't exist for US applications. Tell me any US school that requires 5xAPs at 5. The SAT is an easier test than Oxford department specific test, and some Ivy League schools don't even require any test. Therefore, more non-serious applicants are going to try for US Ivy admissions than Oxford admissions. My point was simply that if you see an 8% acceptance rate for US students to Oxford, but only 4% to some Ivy League school in the US, it doesn't mean that the US school was more selective.

Oxford is just as selective as the US top schools for US students. The only thing that might make it easier for my particular kid is that the Oxford method of selecting students requires a kid to really know their stuff in their intended major, rather than other factors like leadership. I still think the other PP is right that students need to manage expectations for admission realistically, because even qualified students do get turned away.

[Anonymous]

I would Argue Oxford is MORE selective. There is a self selection bias in the UK when it comes to Oxbridge and the fact you only apply to 5 schools.

While in the US, 70% of the kids applying to Ivies are just wasting their time since their stats are just not good enough.

Level the playing field and put a 5 university constraint in the US and you will see admissions % plummet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC scraped into a highly ranked course at a British university with scores that would not gain admission for a British student. I’ve celebrated their success but tried to subtly point out that they probably need to up their game.

This is a very generic response. When? Which UK University and what subject?

There's plenty of crappy UK places to attend, just like in the US of A

What’s with the interrogation? Take my statement at face value.

I don't take it at face value. There are posters who come on DCUM and make blanket statements like yours, which ring as completely fabricated. It's like you want to contribute to a thread about colleges, but don't have a kid, so make something up that sounds half believable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our son-in-law from South America was awarded a government sponsored full scholarship (including room and board) to get a master's degree at Edinburgh several years ago. Our daughter (they weren't married yet) went along for the ride for a master's of her own. Her degree cost less than half what it would have at a good school in the USA.

My son-in-law learned on the eve of classes that his scholarship money hadn't come in and he was crestfallen thinking the school wouldn't let him enroll. But when he went to the registrar's office they asked what country he was from and when he told them they shrugged and said "yea, they're always late but they'll pay eventually" and off he went. That would NOT happen at any uni in the USA.

My son is going to university in the UK this Sept. His tuition fees are not due until October.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are no academic and logistical barriers.

If you dont 5 x APs at 5 you shouldn’t be applying anyway. Then an Interview and then an admissions test depending on course. There is no barriers here. Once your grades made the required min, they look at your personal stmt. if it intriguing and articulate, you get a shot at an interview. If you course requires a test, you just sign up and take it. If you do extremely well and interview well then you have a good shot. Is it easy? no. But it is a much more clear process than the typical IVY BS process.

Yes, the process is much more clear. The barriers are clear but they do exist.

The SAT minimum and demand for 5 APs ARE the barriers. Lots of kids without those stats throw a hail mary at Harvard or MIT. Also, lots of kids apply to all T10 schools, whereas you are only allowed to apply to Oxford OR Cambridge, but not both. These realities reduces the acceptance rates at Oxbridge, making them appear much higher than Ivies.

And many private schools in the US do not follow the AP curriculum, which means that students interested in UK universities have to self-study for those tests. That is a BIG logistical barrier for many students.

(The exception to the last is St Andrews, which will give offers to US students from private high schools without demanding AP scores.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are no academic and logistical barriers.

If you dont 5 x APs at 5 you shouldn’t be applying anyway. Then an Interview and then an admissions test depending on course. There is no barriers here. Once your grades made the required min, they look at your personal stmt. if it intriguing and articulate, you get a shot at an interview. If you course requires a test, you just sign up and take it. If you do extremely well and interview well then you have a good shot. Is it easy? no. But it is a much more clear process than the typical IVY BS process.

No barriers? Even getting a spot to take the subject tests can be a big barrier. One of the kids who sat the TSA with my child had flown in from 1500 miles away to get seat for the exam.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are no academic and logistical barriers.

If you dont 5 x APs at 5 you shouldn’t be applying anyway. Then an Interview and then an admissions test depending on course. There is no barriers here. Once your grades made the required min, they look at your personal stmt. if it intriguing and articulate, you get a shot at an interview. If you course requires a test, you just sign up and take it. If you do extremely well and interview well then you have a good shot. Is it easy? no. But it is a much more clear process than the typical IVY BS process.

No barriers? Even getting a spot to take the subject tests can be a big barrier. One of the kids who sat the TSA with my child had flown in from 1500 miles away to get seat for the exam.

My DD flew from Burbank to San Francisco and then had to get to Oakland for the nearest TSA seat.
And this last year the HAT exam (History for Oxford) crashed and so next year they aren't requiring it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would Argue Oxford is MORE selective. There is a self selection bias in the UK when it comes to Oxbridge and the fact you only apply to 5 schools.

While in the US, 70% of the kids applying to Ivies are just wasting their time since their stats are just not good enough.

Level the playing field and put a 5 university constraint in the US and you will see admissions % plummet.

Exactly. And add to this the required subject specific entrance exams as well as a firm academic baseline for applying and you already have a far more self-selective group of applicants.

[Anonymous]

And according to one tutor who made admissions decisions and did an AMA on reddit, there is a disincentive to accept American students:

"The final issue for internationals is that we know that if you’re applying to Oxford you’re also likely applying to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc and we might be less likely to make an offer bc there’s a higher chance you’ll decline it (compared to a U.K. applicant who is almost guaranteed to accept). If a student is offered a place and doesn’t take it, that often means the place ends up unfilled which tutors want to avoid. So by consequence sometimes this puts internationals at a disadvantage, especially Americans."