<p>For those who are familiar, can you compare and contrast</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The admissions for british schools vs. US</p></li>
<li><p>The schooling for british schools vs. US</p></li>
<li><p>Opportunities of british schools vs. US</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Also a few questions (mostly based on oxford, since there's the most info on oxford here, but I'm more interested in Cambridge and british schools in general)</p>
<p>-Does GPA really not matter for Oxford (from the other thread, but extends to other british schools too)?</p>
<p>-How likely is it to get an interview? What are the chances of getting in IF you get an interview?</p>
<p>-Is it easier to get in British schools from Canada than the US?</p>
<p>-Can you not submit predicted IB scores and just wait for the real one?</p>
<p>Sorry for so many lengthy questions, feel free to answer any amount of questions, or ask some of your own.</p>
<p>I have a lot of these questions as well. I’m looking into Oxford; I would love to study in the UK…I was born there and am a British citizen.</p>
<p>From what I understand, have read on the web, and heard from family that still lives across the pond UK schools, especially Oxford, put very little emphasis on GPA (practically none) They don’t consider EC’s, but look deeply into AP tests/SAT Subject Tests along with the SAT.</p>
<p>Schooling in Britain is based on A-Levels, but there are requirements and other entrance criteria for international students on most university websites. Oxford has an expansive section on their website extended to international students.</p>
<p>Don’t know how much help that was, maybe someone can give us some better answers! haha</p>
<p>UK uni admissions are much more academic and less “holistic” than US admissions. Generally they don’t care about ECs unless directly relevant to your course (e.g. NIH internship for a biosciences applicant) or to show you have something of a life (some unis like to hear you aren’t killing yourself over just your grades since theoretically university is harder than HS).</p>
<p>British schools tend to specialise more in the last two years of HS with A Levels; with the advent of AS levels more people do contrasting subjects but there the A Levels picked are more focused; e.g. one may do English Lit, History, French and Maths which shows a clear humanities slant, rather than take classes in everything which is a more US thing.</p>
<p>I believe Cambridge and likely Oxford have applicant-offer ratios on their websites. Most people who aren’t blatantly unqualified (e.g. has a downright horrible reference, predicted 21 points in the IB Diploma, nonexistent personal statement) get interviews AFAIK; chances of getting an offer depends on the popularity of the courses; for example Law should be much more competitive numerically than Classics and Modern Languages. After that it will be up to the applicant to make the offer (if it is conditional).</p>
<p>At the time of application in October you must submit either predicted IB scores or actual IB scores. Thus if you want to apply with your real IB scores, you will need to take a gap year between finishing HS and (hopefully) starting Oxbridge as they give out all their offers in late December/January for a fall start.</p>
<p>-Does GPA really not matter for Oxford (from the other thread, but extends to other british schools too)?</p>
<p>Yes, GPA matters but not as much as your test scores (AP, SAT, blah blah). A few schools may choose to not even ask for your transcript, so focus more on your testing and personal statement. I didn’t apply to Oxford, but only one school that I applied to asked me to send my transcript. </p>
<p>-How likely is it to get an interview? What are the chances of getting in IF you get an interview?</p>
<p>If you wrote a good PS and if your predicted grades are within the conditional scores, you’ll most likely get an interview. </p>
<p>-Is it easier to get in British schools from Canada than the US?</p>
<p>Don’t know for sure but I imagine no. </p>
<p>-Can you not submit predicted IB scores and just wait for the real one?</p>
<p>Nope, you have to submit your predicted scores. Unless you’re applying the year after you graduate and take the IB tests. Then you would get an unconditional offer instead of a conditional.</p>
<p>In some subjects at Oxford at least, whether you get an interview will also depend on how well you do in one of the additional tests the university sets. For example the History Aptitude Test is used to weed out 20-25% of the applicants before interview.</p>
<p>Predicted scores are ‘predicted’ by your teachers whenever they want. The IBO demands one set of predictions for themselves in March, but before that your teachers are free to predict what they think you will get on the real exams for uni applications. They’ll more than likely predict you stuff in October if you explain why you need them.</p>
<p>In the UK, it is not a citizenship issue but a residency issue that determines a Home/EU student (pays ~3200 pounds tuition a year, eligible for subsidised student loans/bursaries if Home) from an International (pays a LOT more tuition, no loans/grants). So an American who has lived and worked in the UK for three years would be considered a Home student whereas a Briton who permanently lives in Australia is an International. I don’t think there’s a formal cap on the # of Home/Int’l students, except that Home people from terrible schools may get the slide for say less pretty GCSE grades whereas internationals may not get that leeway.</p>
<p>Right, the only way being a British citizen would help me is I guess I wouldn’t have to worry about any sort of immigration thing over there, but application-wise i’m still international.</p>
<p>^ You might be able to be considered for home status, even if you haven’t lived in the UK for the 3 years before uni.</p>
<p>I go to a British international school and I’d say the majority of my graduating class still got home status. You need to show evidence that you go back to the UK often, and that your parents are only temporarily living abroad (they’ll send you a form to fill out). Owning property in the UK helps, too.</p>
<p>I mean we have lots of family over there, but we have our green cards here. Although we are planning a trip back soon, it’s been years, so I don’t think I’d be eligible for home status haha</p>
<p>^ Haha. Oh well. I’d still try (you need to put down your home address on UCAS as a UK address, and then your mailing address as where you live now). My sister got home status even though we barely go back to the UK (it’s been yearsss, too). She didn’t apply to a top uni, however.</p>
<p>Well the above mentioned details regarding Oxford are almost correct. But i would like to give you a little info. I too applied their, and got in to Oxford so you may consult me anytime you want.(I was an international applicant). It is not necessary that they will interview you. In most cases they do, but i was one of those few lucky guys who were not interviewed. So its like they might accept you without interview, or may interview you and then accept you, or may interview you and then reject you, or may reject you before interview. These things depend on your luck and how much your applicaiton is able to impress and captivate the admission committees. They are much more interested in your academics, unlike US.</p>
<p>I just got into Oxford to read PPE (politics philosophy and economics.) As a home student, I can’t answer all your questions but might be able to help a little.</p>
<p>Cambridge interviews most of its applicants (about 90%) so long as they are predicted top grades and fulfill basic criteria (like being able to speak english.) For Oxford the percentage varies between colleges and courses, but is generally much lower. For PPE at Magdalen, there were 220 applications, out of which 34 got interviews and ten got places. Percentages can usually be found on the website, but don’t pay much attention to the numbers - for example, Christ Church is generally considered the hardest college to get into, meaning this year it got a really low number of applicants. The process is designed to give everyone a the same chance of getting in to the university whichever college they apply for.</p>
<p>A key thing to remember when making your application is that (unlike at many US colleges) you are applying for a specific course, not to the general university. Your personal statement should focus on why you want to do the course and why you would be suited to it, with no more than a third about you generally, your ECs or why you picked that university (remember the same statement will go to five choices.)</p>
<p>Teaching at Oxbridge is generally excellent, and makes use of the tutorial system where a pair of students each write an essay every week and spend an hour or so discussing it with an expert in their field. I think Williams college is the only big name that does this in the US. Terms are short (8 weeks) but very intense and a lot of independent study is required. Teaching varies at other UK universities but you can look up the annual national student survey (NSS) which has info on student satisfaction. Non-Oxbridge Unis don’t have tutorials but may make use of classes and other formats that will be in the prospectus.</p>
<p>Sorry for the length, but if you want more answers search for ************** on google. Pretty much every student in the UK is on there and you will get answers within a couple of minutes if you are lucky.</p>
UK schools, especially Oxford, put very little emphasis on GPA (practically none) They don’t consider EC’s, but look deeply into AP tests/SAT Subject Tests along with the SAT.</p>