Hi everyone, I’m a student from the UK looking to study Philosophy. There are various reasons why I’m looking at the us and I’m in the lucky position to be able to afford college fees. I have 2 main questions: 1) what kind of college should I be aiming for (in terms of rankings/quality) and the SAT/ACT tests.
Currently, I’m not sure where I compare in the US education system and what colleges I should be aiming for. At the moment my GCSE grades are:
english lit-A*
english lang- A*
History-A*
Geography-A*
Theolgy-A*
Drama-A*
Chemistry-A
Physics-A
Maths-B
French-B
Biology- B
I haven’t done AS’s yet so I realise this may be premature but from grades so far I’m hoping to achieve all A’s in Geography, History, Theology and english literature with a hopeful 90% (A* equivalent) in Theology and Geography (fingers crossed). Hopefully this will give you some basis
In terms of SAT/ACT is there anywhere that takes A-levels/GCSE’s ,if not, is there another more humanities focused exam I can take? Also, which exam, the ACT or Sat is more focused on humanities?
Thank you for taking your time to read this and I’m awaiting any replies
Unfortunately I’m not able to offer you any information about British grading.
But - as far as which test to take, either the ACT or SAT, I might be able to help. The SAT used to be more humanities-based, with one section each of reading, writing, and math, although some universities don’t consider the writing score. However, it was redesigned this year, and I’m pretty unfamiliar with the redesign, but here’s some info: https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/inside-the-test
The ACT in my mind is more humanities-based. It has one math, one reading, one English, and one science portion. In my mind, even though it’s evenly balanced, you can get through the science section 90% on reading alone.
Most Americans have no idea how the A levels work, so few people will be able to give u an informed answer. BUT…it sound like you are an excellent candidate, and could get into almost any college. That’s “could” not “will.” What u need to understand is that there are so many excellent colleges and universities in the U.S. that you can find several colleges no matter what you want. The variables are things like size (colleges of 1000 to universities with 50000 students); weather (tropical to semi-polar); urban to rural; radical to military; easy to brutally difficult; expensive to cheap, etc. So tell us what your ideal institution would be, and people will give you a dozen that are exactly what you are looking for.
I like the idea of quite a rigorous education system but not extremely competitive. In terms of setting i’m rather polarised, so either somewhere in a massive city or somewhere in the middle of nowhere. In terms of size, I don’t really mind, all that matters is that it has a close knit community feel to it. I don’t know why but i think I prefer colder places - reminds me of the UK :), in terms of price, I’m lucky enough to not have to consider it too much.Probably somewhere in the middle of both radical to military. Prestige is quite important but doesn’t make a huge difference to me.
Don’t forget that in the US you will only major in philosophy - you’ll be required to take courses in other subjects, including some mathematics almost everywhere.
Brown is the obvious place for skipping math requirements, but I’m not sure if you’d be a strong candidate based on your grades. The top US universities will be familiar with UK qualifications, but also tend to want you to have done extensive extra-curricular activities - what do you do out of class?
Scale:
British A*, A = US 4
British B= US 3.5
British C= US 3
British D = US 2.5
British E = US 2
British F = US 1
British G = US 0
British U = US 0
The new SAT will be 50% Math so the ACT sounds like it’d be better for you.
You would need to focus on universities with few distribution requirements (Amherst, Brown, Hamilton) or where distribution requirements include math&science for general culture (ie., Geometry in Islamic Art, Math&Money, Chemistry&Cooking…) Avoid colleges with heavy core requirements (Columbia, UChicago).
For philosophy, in addition to the usual (HYPS), Brown, NYU, Tufts, UMichigan (with LSA) and Georgetown would be excellent, plus any LAC with strong writing (beside Hamilton and Amherst, Pomona, Reed, and Kenyon come to mind). Fordham and Pitt could be safeties if you can afford the fees without financial aid.
You would need serious extracurricular involvement too. What do you do when you’re not studying?
What Americans call “cold” isn’t “British” cold. It’s more like the weather you see in Iceland. “British cold” is called “mild” and can be found in Northern California, Oregon, and Washington State.
so my GPA is 3.96 if one includes my hopefully as level results, atm it’s 3.86- what tier of university is that?
In terms of extracurricular, I’m in my schools first team rowing boat and have won races.
I’m head of debating society and inter-house debating (I’m at a boarding school).
I’m currently learning Swedish and do regular volunteering.
I’m in my schools history society and book club.
I’m not yet, but am planning to apply to become head of my boarding house.
I’ve also done various work experience placements in local newspaper firms, law firms ext and attend a series of lectures at the university in my city (Cambridge), I’ve also attended taster courses in Philosophy at KCL and will be doing one at Cambridge soon
Also, it’s notable that some people have mentioned Brown. I understand that HYP may be a tad unrealistic but should I bother applying to an Ivy League, e.g. Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell, Penn? (of course in the hope that the ACT/SAT goes well) - I realise that these are all very different institutions ext but I’m just using them as examples
oh, and adding to extra curricular, I’ve had parts (some main parts) in various school productions.
I’ve published articles in my local newspaper. I’ve achieved grade 6 LAMDA and I’m doing an independent research project.
Remember that the Ivy League is an athletic conference, not an academic designation. There are several “non-Ivy” universities that are as difficult or more difficult to gain admission than half of the schools that are in the Ivy League. Schools like Stanford, UChicago, MIT, Cal Tech, Duke, Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, Pomona and Johns Hopkins.
You’re competitive for all Top 25 universities and LACs. However, because in the US you’re not limited to 5 (like with UCAS) and the process is holistic (ie., whatever admission officers need that year + what they see in you) you can’t limit yourself to these.
Research the universities already cited via the Princeton review’s best colleges. These are probably all within the top 10% of colleges in the US. See which ones you like best. Try finding a few safeties - as an international you should have a handful. Then, look for matches. (Everyone has their dream schools and can easily find them).
Should you want to continue with rowing, these colleges have programs of varying competitiveness and may generally suit some of your other requirements (review for accuracy and completeness):
NESCAC
Amherst
Bates
Bowdoin
Colby
Connecticut
Hamilton
Middlebury
Trinity
Tufts
Wesleyan
Williams
IVY
Brown
Columbia
Cornell
Dartmouth
Harvard
Princeton
Penn
Yale
PATRIOT
Bucknell
Colgate
Holy Cross
Lafayette
OTHER
Franklin & Marshall
Georgetown
Haverford
MIT
Union
Vassar
WUStL
A few of the listed colleges are entirely test optional. A few others are “test flexible,” allowing you to choose your standardized exams from a range of options. Amherst, Hamilton and Brown are notable for their open curricula should that be of interest to you. St. Lawrence would provide an interesting choice of lower selectivity than the schools above.
The SAT does not require a lot of knowlege. Your GCSE classes are more than enough to prepare for it. Buy a SAT practice book (preferably the official practice book written by the College Board) to prepare and see what kind of score you are going to get. Don’t worry about the B grade in your GCSE math classes. You could get 750+ on SAT math (95+ percentile). Some of your A level classes are equivalent to US high school AP (advanced placement, college introductory level) classes.
Again take the SAT first. Although your think you can pay for US colleges, you should consider the actual cost at each school and financial aid. Some US colleges (especially very selective colleges) give needed-base financial aid to international students. Some give merit scholarhips. Most don’t.
@Studento1547 Note that New York University will take your GCE Advanced Level Examinations or equivalent combination of AS-Level and A-Level examinations instead of the SAT or ACT.
Definitely don’t come to the Northeast if you’re looking for “British cold”. Our wind chills are often single digit, if not below zero.
These schools aren’t in cold areas, if you find one you like, you can look into the local weather, and test requirements.
-American University
-Catholic University of America
-Lewis & Clark College
-Reed College
-Rhodes College
-Rice University
-Seattle University
-Sewanee - The University of the South
-Trinity University - TX
-University of San Francisco
-University of Washington
-Vanderbilt University
