<p>dude Imperial is really good by the way. Especially for engineering and the sciences</p>
<p>BTW too many smart people getting dscouraged by the US admission process is good because they are already too many smart people here in the US ( if you dont believe me, come here and see)</p>
<p>A conditional offer at Dept. EEE (Electronic and Electrical Engineering :D) at Imp.</p>
<p>I'm still waiting to hear from Imperial for math-management</p>
<p>"Truth is - the hassle of applying to US universities actually turn away many truly exceptional international students from applying in the first place."</p>
<p>Doesn't make them so exceptional then, does it? You can't be serious. What type of exceptional student finds writing a few extra essays to be too difficult an application process (disregarding the certification of finances, which the student really has little to do with)....</p>
<p>USbound, I don't think he particularly meant the applications themselves. There are a lot of other bothersome things you have to do when you begin the application process.</p>
<p>fats
"even for oxbridge, sure you have a big scary interview and a bunch of extra tests concerning the subject of your choice but it seems to me that it's still nothing compared to the rat race involved in getting into ivies. "</p>
<p>Students are only allowed to apply to one of Oxford or Cambridge. If we were allowed to apply to both simultaneously, then application numbers to both universities would practically double.</p>
<p>The competition at oxbridge is ridiculous...for computer science at Oxford, at the colllege I applied to, there were 30 interviewees for 4 places. Not to mention the applicants that got rejected without interview.</p>
<p>hash: yeah, i know, except if you're on an organ scholarship or something.</p>
<p>but then, 30 interviewees for 4 places still means more than 10% of em get in. and if your GCSE's or O'levels were good (5 or 6 A's, which most people get), then you're definitely in for the interview.</p>
<p>well, i don't mean to argue just for the sake of arguing, the other post i did was just me whining and complaining cos i was so sick and tired of the whole college application thing, now i'm more or less over it, i don't really care whether i get in, just satisfied with whatever i have now.</p>
<p>wait i dont get the whole process for applying to the uk.. what are conditional offers and offers and all tht stuff? also does any one know what are the best law programs in the uk, and also how to go about applying, when to do it, and what kind of fin. aid is avaible for intels.</p>
<p>Tlqkf 2002, I did both APs and A Level tests and I found the AP to be a significantly easier than the A Level. I took 8 APs (Macro and Micro Econ, US and European History, Cal AB and BC, Physics AB and English) and 4 A Level (Economics, History Math and English). I got 8 5s in my APs and 3 As and 1 B (damned English!) in my A Level. That is not to say the AP is easy, but the A Level is bloody difficult.</p>
<p>
I'll tell you about one thing (out of many) - taking the SAT.</p>
<p>If you're not in a major metropolitan city, you'll have to travel.</p>
<p>For me, personally, it included planning a 3 day journey (often 4), and an expense of ~5-7 thousand rupees (relatively, $500-$700) for each test. Add to that the difficulty of registering by post through the CB regional representative (which hardly ever works - I ordered the forms twice, in June and then in August, and called em up only to find that they didn't have any forms). So, registering online was the only option, and hardly anyone I knew had a credit card. I called up a friend in NYC just to register for the test.</p>
<p>That's just one "hassle"! :p</p>
<p>And then to take the test you need to have a passport (for ID). Getting one alone is a process that takes months, if not years! I had to pull some major strings (bribes included) to get it done in time.</p>
<p>elodie:</p>
<p>well, when UK students apply to universities, it is often when they are halfway through the second year of their A levels (12th grade would be the US equivalent), applications start around October and last untill about Febuary the next year.</p>
<p>UK universities accept students primarily on the basis of their A level grades (or IB's or AP's or whatever else) so when the students are applying, they do not have their final A level grades yet, so the universities they apply to will judge them on their past achievements (i.e. GCSE grades, roughly equivalent to US 10th grade, well, not academically equivalent, it's just students have to answer GCSE's after 10 years of schooling, so it's chronologically sorta equivalent).</p>
<p>And judging by their GCSE grades and a short essay and a short teacher's recommendation, the university will decide whether they chose to accept the student or not. If they do, they'll give the student a "conditional offer", which is basically says something like:</p>
<p>"You will be accepted to this course at our university if you obtain an AAB at your final A level examinations"</p>
<p>And then, you answer your A levels in June or July of that year and if you make the grades that the universities asked of you, you get a "confirmed offer", and you get in.</p>
<p>Well, if you apply with your final A levels or APs or IB results already in hand, of course they skip the whole "conditional offer" thing and give you a "confirmed offer" straight away.</p>
<p>for best law programmes, check the times and guardian rankings:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,6734,00.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,6734,00.html</a>
<a href="http://education.guardian.co.uk/universityguide/0,10085,488282,00.html%5B/url%5D">http://education.guardian.co.uk/universityguide/0,10085,488282,00.html</a></p>
<p>If you want to apply for Law, I think the application is most complex than the one I jsut mentioned, you probably need interviews and stuff, I don't know. If you want to apply to Oxford or Cambridge, it's even more complex than that.</p>
<p>But all normal applications are made through UCAS, it's like the central organisation for university applications in the UK:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ucas.ac.uk/%5B/url%5D">http://www.ucas.ac.uk/</a></p>
<p>for tuition fees, it depends on which country you come from, EU students pay really cheap fees but for people from outside Europe, it's like 6000 pounds for an arts/humanities course and 10000 pounds for a science based course, but the courses in the UK last only 3 years (not in Scotland though, it's four years but you can get straight into second year if you have good grades for most courses).</p>
<p>for financial aid, it also depends on which country you're from, most universities have scholarships which are country specific, and also on which subject you want to do. you can check here:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.educationuk.org/scholarships/%5B/url%5D">http://www.educationuk.org/scholarships/</a></p>
<p>hope i've answered some of your questions.</p>
<p>alexandre, which exam board was your A' levels? Some are way more difficult than others. I did Edexcel and they were really quite easy (I did Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Econs, got AAAA). I didn't do APs so I don't know, but I looked at the AP world history syllabus once and I thought it was really quite hard, no?</p>
<p>I did GCEs. I don;t think there were other formats back in the day (1991).</p>
<p>oh.</p>
<p>yeah, they've gotten alot easier since then. back in those days, they really were tough.</p>
<p>
It will save you the trouble of gettin a passport when you're accepted to MIT :p</p>
<p>I just got an offer from imperial!!! Woot Woot</p>
<p>Course: Math-Management
Offer: 36 pts in IB, with a 6 in math, 6 in physics and 5 in english</p>
<p>I don't understand how English papers are marked. Of all the Literature exams I've done at school, I've gotten A's on all of them, with my papers being marked by three different teachers (former examiners, too). Then when I did the IGCSE English Lit and the Cambridge AS Level exams, I ended up with B's on both. Maybe my luck was down and my papers were marked by haggard men who hadn't had their morning coffee.</p>
<p>Alexandre, which texts did you do when you did the A Level Lit. exam?</p>
<p>I agree with fats in that Edexcel's exams are easy, but the board can sometimes be very idiotic in its marking papers. A couple of students from my school (one of whom got a Distinction in the AEA English paper) ended up with an N and an E on their respective Literature papers because of arithmetic problems.</p>
<p>And I'm still waiting for UCL's decision...but I was offered an interview, which is a bit odd considering that I'm an overseas student and am not planning to study Medicine.</p>
<p>Nkay, I am not sure of the details. I sat for my A Level exams 14 years ago! LOL I remember they were simply called the GCEs. At the time, the GCSE version was just emerging but our school insisted we keep to the old test...so we did.</p>
<p>And I agree, UCL usually does not request interviews for internationals. I had a CCC conditional offer from them, which was an unconditional offer really since I already had an A and they asked for just two more A level tests for a combined 12 points. UCL is a great school...top 5 in the UK if you ask me. Good luck.</p>
<p>Thanks! I hope they don't reject me after I lug myself (and my dad) all the way to London. A friend of mine (wants to study Engineering) got a conditional offer without an interview, so I have no idea why they want to interview me. Maybe I'm one of those borderline candidates, hehe. I'll have to be interviewed in French! (prospective Linguistics + Italian major) How awesome/terrifying is that?</p>
<p>Are you a citizen of the UK? Maybe they are under the impression you reside in England. It is strange that they should ask a student interested in studying Italian to travel all the way from Kuwait for an interview.</p>