Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am British, now living in the U.SA but graduated from University of London(Queen Mary College)

Can someone who has studied at both USA high school and UK university, please speak on their experience going from multchoice type questions (my USA kids mainly have multiple choice style questions for schoolwork at US public school) -vs- the essay style questions UK uni's use at end of year course exams (no multiple choice allowed).

Was it easy to make the transition in the two assessment styles?

I went to HS in the US and ended up at LSE to study Econ. It all depends on what kind of high school your kids go to. I was blessed to have been able to go to an elite private school in the Dallas area. I did not have ONE multiple choice test while I was there. It was very rigorous and it prepared me very well for LSE. My English and Asian friends in my first year similar stereotypical view of Americans, thinking I was going to crash and burn…as most Brits assume the typical HS education in the US is below par….maybe it is. But I graduated with a first from LSE and have been in the PE industry now for 2 decades back in the US. My son is now at Oxford studying Economics. He went to the same high school….no issues at all with rigor at Oxford.

I went to a top private US school (never had a multiple choice test except SAT and part of the AP exams - what are you talking about??), a top ten US college, and then did a master's at LSE.

LSE was the easiest school I went to. I had a few 3 to 5 page essays throughout the year, but most of them did not count towards my grades (one class did).

Then at the end of the year I had three exams for three classes and had to write a 10,000 word dissertation.

I had the entire summer to write the dissertation, which was the length of a paper I would write undergrad all the time, like in a seminar class.

The exams were cake. I say this as someone who is not particularly great at exams.

We had, I think, something like 15 weeks of classes. Each week covered one topic. On the exam, you had to answer three essay questions. But there were a dozen questions, one for 12 weeks/topics (3 topics/weeks would not make it onto the exam). And you only had to answer three! So the strategy was to learn four topics/weeks really really well. Hope that three of those show up on the exam, but in case they don't, learn two other topics/weeks somewhat well. Then learn one or two other topics a little bit, enough not to fail. The exams were three hours and you were expected to fill maybe one exam book per question, if that.

It was SOO much easier and less work than my US high school and my private liberal arts college.

You have to be pretty independent and learn most of the stuff on your own.

If your kid is going to an American high school where they are primarily tested in multiple choice, you need to get them the heck out of that school or into harder classes or dual enrollment or something. That's pathetic. Even AP exams have essays. I had zero multiple choice exams in high school other than SAT and parts of the APs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For US parents whose kids applied to both US and UK/EU universities.

If you kid planning on going abroad? If so, which US schools are you giving up offers to go abroad?

DS is going to Oxford. Was accepted at Stanford.

Oh, my. This is a big mistake. Like picking Cornell over Stanford…

I dont have a dog in the fight….but since the OP never mentioned the program, one can only assume you are comparing universities. Show me one World Ranking where Stanford is ranked higher than Oxford….

+1

Chances of a top, genius unhooked American kid getting into Stanford: 2% (give or take 1 percentage point).
Chances of a top, genius UK kid getting into Oxford: 60% (give or take 10 percentage points).
Chances that UK apologists will protest this because they are nostalgic for Old Europe: 100%.

Sure, Stanford rejects a much higher percentage of applicants. But keep in mind that Oxford applications are limited, bc 1) students must choose to apply to Oxford OR Cambridge, and apply to both (whereas, Stanford students can and do apply to MIT and Harvard as well), and 2) UK students are only allowed to apply to five universities in total, which discourages applications to Oxbridge from many students who rationally assess their admissions chances as low. The denominator for Oxford is much lower.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For US parents whose kids applied to both US and UK/EU universities.

If you kid planning on going abroad? If so, which US schools are you giving up offers to go abroad?

DS is going to Oxford. Was accepted at Stanford.

Oh, my. This is a big mistake. Like picking Cornell over Stanford…

I dont have a dog in the fight….but since the OP never mentioned the program, one can only assume you are comparing universities. Show me one World Ranking where Stanford is ranked higher than Oxford….

+1

Chances of a top, genius unhooked American kid getting into Stanford: 2% (give or take 1 percentage point).
Chances of a top, genius UK kid getting into Oxford: 60% (give or take 10 percentage points).
Chances that UK apologists will protest this because they are nostalgic for Old Europe: 100%.

I’m British and definitely not a UK apologist and you’re right - that’s kind of the whole point. The admissions process at UK universities is not holistic, it is designed to find and admit top genius kids. Oxford doesn’t care about your sports and theater and nonprofit or whatever.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For US parents whose kids applied to both US and UK/EU universities.

If you kid planning on going abroad? If so, which US schools are you giving up offers to go abroad?

DS is going to Oxford. Was accepted at Stanford.

Oh, my. This is a big mistake. Like picking Cornell over Stanford…

I dont have a dog in the fight….but since the OP never mentioned the program, one can only assume you are comparing universities. Show me one World Ranking where Stanford is ranked higher than Oxford….

+1

Chances of a top, genius unhooked American kid getting into Stanford: 2% (give or take 1 percentage point).
Chances of a top, genius UK kid getting into Oxford: 60% (give or take 10 percentage points).
Chances that UK apologists will protest this because they are nostalgic for Old Europe: 100%.

This has to be one of the most pointless posts I’ve ever read on here.

I'm older now, so my experience may be dated. But my New York public high school used very few multiple choice questions on exams. I had no problems with UK undergrad and grad school. My son's (high poverty) high school also uses few multiple choice questions.

The fact that the SAT is multiple choice doesn't really matter, since that's just one exam kids take.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am British, now living in the U.SA but graduated from University of London(Queen Mary College)

Can someone who has studied at both USA high school and UK university, please speak on their experience going from multchoice type questions (my USA kids mainly have multiple choice style questions for schoolwork at US public school) -vs- the essay style questions UK uni's use at end of year course exams (no multiple choice allowed).

Was it easy to make the transition in the two assessment styles?

I went to HS in the US and ended up at LSE to study Econ. It all depends on what kind of high school your kids go to. I was blessed to have been able to go to an elite private school in the Dallas area. I did not have ONE multiple choice test while I was there. It was very rigorous and it prepared me very well for LSE. My English and Asian friends in my first year similar stereotypical view of Americans, thinking I was going to crash and burn…as most Brits assume the typical HS education in the US is below par….maybe it is. But I graduated with a first from LSE and have been in the PE industry now for 2 decades back in the US. My son is now at Oxford studying Economics. He went to the same high school….no issues at all with rigor at Oxford.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For US parents whose kids applied to both US and UK/EU universities.

If you kid planning on going abroad? If so, which US schools are you giving up offers to go abroad?

DS is going to Oxford. Was accepted at Stanford.

Oh, my. This is a big mistake. Like picking Cornell over Stanford…

I dont have a dog in the fight….but since the OP never mentioned the program, one can only assume you are comparing universities. Show me one World Ranking where Stanford is ranked higher than Oxford….

+1

Chances of a top, genius unhooked American kid getting into Stanford: 2% (give or take 1 percentage point).
Chances of a top, genius UK kid getting into Oxford: 60% (give or take 10 percentage points).
Chances that UK apologists will protest this because they are nostalgic for Old Europe: 100%.

DP: "Unhooked" is the key word here. Holistic admission makes things more difficult for unhooked geniuses in the US than in the UK. Are you saying that's a good think? Different systems have different priorities. Oxford gives zero preference to athletes, children of donors, chess champions, etc. Some will argue that is a bug, others think that is a feature.

But I take your point that Stanford rejects a much higher percentage of applicants than Oxford does

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For US parents whose kids applied to both US and UK/EU universities.

If you kid planning on going abroad? If so, which US schools are you giving up offers to go abroad?

DS is going to Oxford. Was accepted at Stanford.

Oh, my. This is a big mistake. Like picking Cornell over Stanford…

I dont have a dog in the fight….but since the OP never mentioned the program, one can only assume you are comparing universities. Show me one World Ranking where Stanford is ranked higher than Oxford….

+1

Chances of a top, genius unhooked American kid getting into Stanford: 2% (give or take 1 percentage point).
Chances of a top, genius UK kid getting into Oxford: 60% (give or take 10 percentage points).
Chances that UK apologists will protest this because they are nostalgic for Old Europe: 100%.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless your child will study mathematics/physics or humanities, Oxford (or any college in UK) is not comparable to Stanford in any other STEM fields. The world ranking done by the UK companies is a joke.

Imperial absolutely is globally competitive in STEM. It competes at the level of MIT and Caltech among the top-5 STEM universities.

Let’s put this last comment in a frame. Brits are a funny folk, even when nobody is listening — except to laugh at them. Well, at least your kid has a decent chance of getting into Imperial…

Anonymous wrote:Unless your child will study mathematics/physics or humanities, Oxford (or any college in UK) is not comparable to Stanford in any other STEM fields. The world ranking done by the UK companies is a joke.

Imperial absolutely is globally competitive in STEM. It competes at the level of MIT and Caltech among the top-5 STEM universities.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For US parents whose kids applied to both US and UK/EU universities.

If you kid planning on going abroad? If so, which US schools are you giving up offers to go abroad?

DS is going to Oxford. Was accepted at Stanford.

Oh, my. This is a big mistake. Like picking Cornell over Stanford…

I dont have a dog in the fight….but since the OP never mentioned the program, one can only assume you are comparing universities. Show me one World Ranking where Stanford is ranked higher than Oxford….

+1

+2

Anonymous wrote:I am British, now living in the U.SA but graduated from University of London(Queen Mary College)

Can someone who has studied at both USA high school and UK university, please speak on their experience going from multchoice type questions (my USA kids mainly have multiple choice style questions for schoolwork at US public school) -vs- the essay style questions UK uni's use at end of year course exams (no multiple choice allowed).

Was it easy to make the transition in the two assessment styles?

I went to HS in the US and ended up at LSE to study Econ. It all depends on what kind of high school your kids go to. I was blessed to have been able to go to an elite private school in the Dallas area. I did not have ONE multiple choice test while I was there. It was very rigorous and it prepared me very well for LSE. My English and Asian friends in my first year similar stereotypical view of Americans, thinking I was going to crash and burn…as most Brits assume the typical HS education in the US is below par….maybe it is. But I graduated with a first from LSE and have been in the PE industry now for 2 decades back in the US. My son is now at Oxford studying Economics. He went to the same high school….no issues at all with rigor at Oxford.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless your child will study mathematics/physics or humanities, Oxford (or any college in UK) is not comparable to Stanford in any other STEM fields. The world ranking done by the UK companies is a joke.

Assuming you include social sciences in humanities, this would cover the majority of possible fields of study.

Maybe. My child never considered social sciences, so I never really looked into them. Stanford is known to have great social sciences too though. STEM is a no brainer to pick Stanford over any UK colleges, with the exception of Math or Physics that doesn't require too much funding or expensive labs or equipment. The colleges in UK are very behind in every perspective. Oxford and Cambridge still have name recognition, of course.

Except for a majority of subjects. There is more to life than non-math/non-physics STEM.

If you say so. Your child, your decision.

Why do most posters on DCUM and A2C only value STEM? Is this an Asian immigrant thing or is it other folks too?

I don’t know, but their inability to see anything else is not much of an endorsement of their preferred subjects.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In at Durham and St. Andrew’s, waiting on King’s. Staying in America…

Are the admission decisions rolling?

Yes both in early December

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For US parents whose kids applied to both US and UK/EU universities.

If you kid planning on going abroad? If so, which US schools are you giving up offers to go abroad?

DS is going to Oxford. Was accepted at Stanford.

Oh, my. This is a big mistake. Like picking Cornell over Stanford…

I dont have a dog in the fight….but since the OP never mentioned the program, one can only assume you are comparing universities. Show me one World Ranking where Stanford is ranked higher than Oxford….

+1

Anonymous wrote:In at Durham and St. Andrew’s, waiting on King’s. Staying in America…

Are the admission decisions rolling?