Anonymous
Post 01/20/2025 17:14     Subject: UK applications are still open thru UCAS until Jan. 29th
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The OPs question and premise of …. I didn’t get into ED1 so I’ll just go to UK….. does that actually happen? Like, I didn’t get into BC, none of the other schools are interesting or prestigious enough in the US so I’ll just go to St Andrews.


I personally think it is a mistake to make such a quick decision without realty thinking about the consequences. This decision is better done by Juniors today and not Seniors who missed ED1.

We took a month in the UK visiting schools between Jr and Sr year and visited 8 different universities and met with admissions people and occasionally with a program director. DS had an opportunity to not only walk around and visit campus, but also spent a few days around campus to see what it could be like. I do not recommend to your Sr who never thought about it to all of a sudden on Jan 15 to put together a UCAS application for the fall. It is a recipe for disaster to make a quick life changing decision this fast.


Huh? Just because they apply doesn't mean they have to go.

And news flash - not everyone can afford to college trip overseas without even knowing you whether they got in!

I'm guessing you don't want more applications coming in to compete with your son's


No, PP’s point is reasonable. It’s weird to shotgun an application in 10 days to schools that operate on a very different system that you’ve never given serious thought to previously.


Maybe there are people who HAVE given it thought, but didn't follow through and now that circumstances have changed, they are reconsidering it.

The world is not just black and white, it exists in shades of grey.


Is it? Wow, I never realized that. Thank you for explaining it to me! That must be why I said PP’s point was applicable to every single person rather than just being a reasonable point compared to the other poster who claimed PP was trying to gatekeep applications. Oh, wait.


Calm the F down. This is not that important a thread. None of them are.
Anonymous
Post 01/20/2025 17:05     Subject: UK applications are still open thru UCAS until Jan. 29th
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The OPs question and premise of …. I didn’t get into ED1 so I’ll just go to UK….. does that actually happen? Like, I didn’t get into BC, none of the other schools are interesting or prestigious enough in the US so I’ll just go to St Andrews.


I personally think it is a mistake to make such a quick decision without realty thinking about the consequences. This decision is better done by Juniors today and not Seniors who missed ED1.

We took a month in the UK visiting schools between Jr and Sr year and visited 8 different universities and met with admissions people and occasionally with a program director. DS had an opportunity to not only walk around and visit campus, but also spent a few days around campus to see what it could be like. I do not recommend to your Sr who never thought about it to all of a sudden on Jan 15 to put together a UCAS application for the fall. It is a recipe for disaster to make a quick life changing decision this fast.


Huh? Just because they apply doesn't mean they have to go.

And news flash - not everyone can afford to college trip overseas without even knowing you whether they got in!

I'm guessing you don't want more applications coming in to compete with your son's


No, PP’s point is reasonable. It’s weird to shotgun an application in 10 days to schools that operate on a very different system that you’ve never given serious thought to previously.


Weird, perhaps, but VERY low cost and low time commitment, so if there's any interest . . . why not? If kid gets admitted, won't need to commit until August, I think so they'll have lots of time to consider.
Anonymous
Post 01/20/2025 16:55     Subject: UK applications are still open thru UCAS until Jan. 29th
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The OPs question and premise of …. I didn’t get into ED1 so I’ll just go to UK….. does that actually happen? Like, I didn’t get into BC, none of the other schools are interesting or prestigious enough in the US so I’ll just go to St Andrews.


I personally think it is a mistake to make such a quick decision without realty thinking about the consequences. This decision is better done by Juniors today and not Seniors who missed ED1.

We took a month in the UK visiting schools between Jr and Sr year and visited 8 different universities and met with admissions people and occasionally with a program director. DS had an opportunity to not only walk around and visit campus, but also spent a few days around campus to see what it could be like. I do not recommend to your Sr who never thought about it to all of a sudden on Jan 15 to put together a UCAS application for the fall. It is a recipe for disaster to make a quick life changing decision this fast.


Huh? Just because they apply doesn't mean they have to go.

And news flash - not everyone can afford to college trip overseas without even knowing you whether they got in!

I'm guessing you don't want more applications coming in to compete with your son's


No, PP’s point is reasonable. It’s weird to shotgun an application in 10 days to schools that operate on a very different system that you’ve never given serious thought to previously.


Maybe there are people who HAVE given it thought, but didn't follow through and now that circumstances have changed, they are reconsidering it.

The world is not just black and white, it exists in shades of grey.


Is it? Wow, I never realized that. Thank you for explaining it to me! That must be why I said PP’s point was applicable to every single person rather than just being a reasonable point compared to the other poster who claimed PP was trying to gatekeep applications. Oh, wait.
Anonymous
Post 01/20/2025 16:37     Subject: UK applications are still open thru UCAS until Jan. 29th
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The OPs question and premise of …. I didn’t get into ED1 so I’ll just go to UK….. does that actually happen? Like, I didn’t get into BC, none of the other schools are interesting or prestigious enough in the US so I’ll just go to St Andrews.


I personally think it is a mistake to make such a quick decision without realty thinking about the consequences. This decision is better done by Juniors today and not Seniors who missed ED1.

We took a month in the UK visiting schools between Jr and Sr year and visited 8 different universities and met with admissions people and occasionally with a program director. DS had an opportunity to not only walk around and visit campus, but also spent a few days around campus to see what it could be like. I do not recommend to your Sr who never thought about it to all of a sudden on Jan 15 to put together a UCAS application for the fall. It is a recipe for disaster to make a quick life changing decision this fast.


Weird, but low cost/ low commitment, so what's the problem?

Huh? Just because they apply doesn't mean they have to go.

And news flash - not everyone can afford to college trip overseas without even knowing you whether they got in!

I'm guessing you don't want more applications coming in to compete with your son's


No, PP’s point is reasonable. It’s weird to shotgun an application in 10 days to schools that operate on a very different system that you’ve never given serious thought to previously.
Anonymous
Post 01/20/2025 16:02     Subject: UK applications are still open thru UCAS until Jan. 29th
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The OPs question and premise of …. I didn’t get into ED1 so I’ll just go to UK….. does that actually happen? Like, I didn’t get into BC, none of the other schools are interesting or prestigious enough in the US so I’ll just go to St Andrews.


I personally think it is a mistake to make such a quick decision without realty thinking about the consequences. This decision is better done by Juniors today and not Seniors who missed ED1.

We took a month in the UK visiting schools between Jr and Sr year and visited 8 different universities and met with admissions people and occasionally with a program director. DS had an opportunity to not only walk around and visit campus, but also spent a few days around campus to see what it could be like. I do not recommend to your Sr who never thought about it to all of a sudden on Jan 15 to put together a UCAS application for the fall. It is a recipe for disaster to make a quick life changing decision this fast.


Huh? Just because they apply doesn't mean they have to go.

And news flash - not everyone can afford to college trip overseas without even knowing you whether they got in!

I'm guessing you don't want more applications coming in to compete with your son's


No, PP’s point is reasonable. It’s weird to shotgun an application in 10 days to schools that operate on a very different system that you’ve never given serious thought to previously.


Maybe there are people who HAVE given it thought, but didn't follow through and now that circumstances have changed, they are reconsidering it.

The world is not just black and white, it exists in shades of grey.
Anonymous
Post 01/20/2025 15:49     Subject: UK applications are still open thru UCAS until Jan. 29th
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The OPs question and premise of …. I didn’t get into ED1 so I’ll just go to UK….. does that actually happen? Like, I didn’t get into BC, none of the other schools are interesting or prestigious enough in the US so I’ll just go to St Andrews.


I personally think it is a mistake to make such a quick decision without realty thinking about the consequences. This decision is better done by Juniors today and not Seniors who missed ED1.

We took a month in the UK visiting schools between Jr and Sr year and visited 8 different universities and met with admissions people and occasionally with a program director. DS had an opportunity to not only walk around and visit campus, but also spent a few days around campus to see what it could be like. I do not recommend to your Sr who never thought about it to all of a sudden on Jan 15 to put together a UCAS application for the fall. It is a recipe for disaster to make a quick life changing decision this fast.


Huh? Just because they apply doesn't mean they have to go.

And news flash - not everyone can afford to college trip overseas without even knowing you whether they got in!

I'm guessing you don't want more applications coming in to compete with your son's


No, PP’s point is reasonable. It’s weird to shotgun an application in 10 days to schools that operate on a very different system that you’ve never given serious thought to previously.
Anonymous
Post 01/20/2025 15:31     Subject: UK applications are still open thru UCAS until Jan. 29th
Anonymous wrote:Also, in the UK medicine and law are undergraduate degrees, unlike the US.

Caution that Scots law is quite different from US law (example: Scots law has 3 possible verdicts). Except for Louisiana, US law derives from English law, but is not identical.

I am not sure, but I think someone studying medicine has to serve in the NHS for a few years after graduation. Double check about that.


No medical students are required to work in the NHS so that is not right.
However, if you go on to specialize, in say psychiatry you can be sponsored by the NHS and then of course you'll owe them in hours.
Anonymous
Post 01/20/2025 15:28     Subject: UK applications are still open thru UCAS until Jan. 29th
Also, in the UK medicine and law are undergraduate degrees, unlike the US.

Caution that Scots law is quite different from US law (example: Scots law has 3 possible verdicts). Except for Louisiana, US law derives from English law, but is not identical.

I am not sure, but I think someone studying medicine has to serve in the NHS for a few years after graduation. Double check about that.
Anonymous
Post 01/20/2025 15:19     Subject: UK applications are still open thru UCAS until Jan. 29th
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The OPs question and premise of …. I didn’t get into ED1 so I’ll just go to UK….. does that actually happen? Like, I didn’t get into BC, none of the other schools are interesting or prestigious enough in the US so I’ll just go to St Andrews.


I personally think it is a mistake to make such a quick decision without realty thinking about the consequences. This decision is better done by Juniors today and not Seniors who missed ED1.

We took a month in the UK visiting schools between Jr and Sr year and visited 8 different universities and met with admissions people and occasionally with a program director. DS had an opportunity to not only walk around and visit campus, but also spent a few days around campus to see what it could be like. I do not recommend to your Sr who never thought about it to all of a sudden on Jan 15 to put together a UCAS application for the fall. It is a recipe for disaster to make a quick life changing decision this fast.


Huh? Just because they apply doesn't mean they have to go.

And news flash - not everyone can afford to college trip overseas without even knowing you whether they got in!

I'm guessing you don't want more applications coming in to compete with your son's
Anonymous
Post 01/20/2025 15:11     Subject: UK applications are still open thru UCAS until Jan. 29th
Anonymous wrote:The OPs question and premise of …. I didn’t get into ED1 so I’ll just go to UK….. does that actually happen? Like, I didn’t get into BC, none of the other schools are interesting or prestigious enough in the US so I’ll just go to St Andrews.


I personally think it is a mistake to make such a quick decision without realty thinking about the consequences. This decision is better done by Juniors today and not Seniors who missed ED1.

We took a month in the UK visiting schools between Jr and Sr year and visited 8 different universities and met with admissions people and occasionally with a program director. DS had an opportunity to not only walk around and visit campus, but also spent a few days around campus to see what it could be like. I do not recommend to your Sr who never thought about it to all of a sudden on Jan 15 to put together a UCAS application for the fall. It is a recipe for disaster to make a quick life changing decision this fast.
Anonymous
Post 01/20/2025 15:07     Subject: UK applications are still open thru UCAS until Jan. 29th
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Note that university in the UK is 3 years not 4 and there are no real electives--you study just what's in your major, and you can't easily switch majors. So it's definitely not for everyone.


No….England….In Scotland it is 4 years and there are plenty of electives. And you do have a LITTLE bit of flexibility to potentially change majors in end of year 1 or 2.


Changing majors after matriculation is uncommon in Scotland, and is done by a request, which the University is free to deny. So do not count on this.

It might happen in adjacent degrees. Contrived example might be a Physics student changing to Maths, because Physics already will require a lot of Maths and student likely also met admissions requirements for Maths.

By contrast, a History student changing to CS is fairly unlikely to be approved. They are not adjacent fields and likely have different admissions requirements.


My son was a Management major at Edinburgh and changed to International relations in semester 4. It is very easy to do so IF and only IF you take your electives in the other course. At Edinburgh you typically have 3 compulsory classes in year 1 and 3 electives. The 3 electives can typically be at any college that open classes for the whole university. My son took 3 Compulsory business classes and 3 electives in the Political Science school. Same for the 1st semester of year 2 and then he made the official request to change and was granted.

He had a buddy that went the other way. From IR to Management. The difficulty is finding the appropriate class times to make it work. But if you do have the compulsory classes, 9 out of 10 times, the different schools at Edinburgh will accept your transfer request. This is something that just doesnt exist in English unis due to the 3 year nature of their program vs SCotland’s 4 years.
Anonymous
Post 01/20/2025 12:25     Subject: UK applications are still open thru UCAS until Jan. 29th
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The OPs question and premise of …. I didn’t get into ED1 so I’ll just go to UK….. does that actually happen? Like, I didn’t get into BC, none of the other schools are interesting or prestigious enough in the US so I’ll just go to St Andrews.


Maybe not at the very top schools if DC's academics are not high, but there also are a range of other UK universities (e.g., former polytechnics) where admission would be easier for an overseas student (partly because overseas students are full pay).


Overseas students pay overseas rates, UK students pay UK rates. They are now, very recently vastly different. The advantage of the ex-polys is that their fees for overseas are not that high. So a UK student at any college is paying approximately 9500 per year tuition, regardless of course and college. If you're an overseas student wanting to study art at an ex poly, you'll pay around 15000 pounds per year, if you want to do it at Oxford it will be around 30k. If you want too study medicine at Oxford it will be around 73k/ yr tuition. There's a lot of variation now.
Anonymous
Post 01/20/2025 12:21     Subject: UK applications are still open thru UCAS until Jan. 29th
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This was really helpful, OP. I have a junior. My kid keeps saying she wants to apply in the UK. I know the process is different, but I have no idea how it's different?

I heard that they had to take a completely separate admissions test that isn't offered frequently-- is that only for Oxford and Cambridge?


Oops. Sorry. I meant I have a sophomore. So there's time!


OP here. To answer your question, if you apply to study Math you have an entry test, similar for some other STEM courses at places like Imperial / UCL etc. The websites for those colleges will explain the admissions process in some detail of you look them up. Each course is handled differently.

It is actually very hard to switch majors. Often this involves starting again at year 1. I had a friend at Cambridge who started Russian and Persian, switched to Persian and Arabic and then one more time (I can't remember the variation)). that was not so difficult a change but it took him 5 yrs to finish a 3 yr degree in the end, because of the changes he made.
Anonymous
Post 01/20/2025 11:29     Subject: UK applications are still open thru UCAS until Jan. 29th
Anonymous wrote:The OPs question and premise of …. I didn’t get into ED1 so I’ll just go to UK….. does that actually happen? Like, I didn’t get into BC, none of the other schools are interesting or prestigious enough in the US so I’ll just go to St Andrews.


Maybe not at the very top schools if DC's academics are not high, but there also are a range of other UK universities (e.g., former polytechnics) where admission would be easier for an overseas student (partly because overseas students are full pay).
Anonymous
Post 01/20/2025 09:06     Subject: UK applications are still open thru UCAS until Jan. 29th
The OPs question and premise of …. I didn’t get into ED1 so I’ll just go to UK….. does that actually happen? Like, I didn’t get into BC, none of the other schools are interesting or prestigious enough in the US so I’ll just go to St Andrews.