Chances for Cambridge, Durham, Manchester, Warwick,

Student Lounge International Students
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<p>Please just give me chances to these schools as an American student. I have done some research, so no need to tell me about the process. </p>

<p>In particular, a rep from Durham said that they admit any US student who is 'good' enough. Based on each unis' minimum requirements I would be able to get in but please chance me, but obviously that's not how it works.</p>

<p>SAT: 2300 (800M, 760R, 740W, 10 Essay)
UW GPA: 3.8</p>

<p>Sat 2:
Math 2: 800
Physics: 750</p>

<p>APs: AP Macroeconomics, AP Microeconomics, AP Statistics, AP Calculus BC, AP Physics C Mechanics, AP Art History, AP Literature, AP Chinese, AP Computer Science, APES, AP Psychology</p>

<p>I have only received scores of 5 for both Economics, because I am still a Junior. For this chance please assume I will apply with 5s in Physics, Calc BC, Stat, Computer Science, APES, and Chinese. And then I will be taking the rest during my Senior year.</p>

<p>I will be applying for Computer Science or CS with Management where possible.</p>

<p>Please mention whether I am likely to get a conditional or unconditional offer.</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

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<p>Actually, it is how it works- that is one of the great things about the UK unis (bar Oxbridge, LSE and one or two others). If you apply with 5s in Physics, BC and CompSci (along with your existing scores), and you don’t make a hames of the PS then you can reasonably expect unconditional offers from Durham, Manchester and Warwick, and (assuming a good PS and a strong mark on the TSA if you apply to a college that requires it) an offer of an interview at Cambridge. Absolutely no way for anybody to chance you once you reach interview stage at Cambridge, and anybody who says otherwise is selling you something. As far as I can tell your final year APs are Psych, Art History, and Lit, so I would imagine that if you get an offer from Cambridge it would be unconditional, as none of those are interesting to them (I assume you know that none of the unis will be at all interested in your Chinese, APES, Lit, Psych or Art History APs, and that Stats, Micro and Macro only carry 1/2 weight, so they add up to 1 1/2 APs, not 3). But- those dons can be a puckish lot and they don’t seem to like giving out unconditional offers, so no telling what they might do.</p>

<p>I am assuming you that you chose Cambridge for particular reasons, not for that old shibboleth ‘Cambridge = science / Oxford = arts’, but if you haven’t already done so, I strongly urge you to review the CS courses at Oxford and Cambridge carefully. Detailed info on the focus, the classes that you take each year, etc is available on their websites. They are rather more different than you might imagine. </p>

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<p>@collegemom3717‌ I chose Cambridge mainly because I love the environment and their possible combination of CS and Management at Judge. </p>

<p>By the end of Junior year, if I get 5s on all the relevant, will u be able to consider everything but Cambridge safeties? If not all, which ones?</p>

<p>Edit: please also chance me for KCL, I forgot that on my OP.</p>

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<p>:-) The word “safety” makes me twitchy- you still have to write a strong PS that makes the case for why you are a good candidate for CS (remembering that all of them will see the same essay, not just Cambridge), but if you get the scores I would be surprised if you didn’t get unconditionals (except for Cambridge, of course) </p>

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<p>@collegemom3717 I want to confirm one more thing. The Durham rep said that we could send two PSs; one through UCAS, the other directly to the school. The only reason for sending two is if there is an additional subject (such as management in this case). According to the rep, I could write about CS in the UCAS PS, then send an additional one about the combination of CS and Management directly to Durham. Is this true?</p>

<p>I’m checking because I’ve never seen this anywhere online before.</p>

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<p>If you are really interested in CS, look at the University of Edinburgh. Has the strongest CS program in the UK. My DIL was CS./maths there and had no problem getting job offers in the US after graduation.</p>

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<p>Durham is one of the more flexible UK universities and tries hard to work with students. The alternate PS is an example of this. They will only consider one PS, but give you the option of submitting one for a specific course. You upload your generic PS with the rest of your UCAS app, and within 3 days of getting your confirmation email from Durham you have the option to send in a second PS that they will use <em>instead</em> of your UCAS one. More details here: </p>

<p><a href=“Writing a Personal Statement - Durham University”>Writing a Personal Statement - Durham University;

<p>It is indeed passing rare- more often extra submissions are examples of written work requested by Oxbridge.</p>

<p>Seconding CountingDowns suggestion of Edinburgh as a university to include- strong program and a great college experience… and you still have a space open on UCAS! </p>

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<p>@collegemom3717‌ </p>

<p>So, that means I cannot send in the second PS to any of my other universities? Other than Cambridge, I will be applying for CS with Management, so I was planning to send in the extra PS to all of them other than Cambridge.</p>

<p>If I can’t send the extra PS anywhere else, I will have to write about CS and Management in my UCAS PS, so there’s no point submitting an extra to Durham either.</p>

<p>@CountingDown‌ </p>

<p>I actually considered Edinburgh, but I didn’t want to be stuck in Edinburgh for 4 years. I visited, and while I really like the environment, it’s the type of place I would like to visit for a month or two, but never stay for a few years. </p>

<p>Also, @collegemom3717‌ I added KCL in one of my comments. I just forgot to put that up in the title. Speaking of, will KCL be significantly harder than any of my other unis, other than Cambridge? Basically, will the ‘meet requirement (with good PS) and you will get in’ rule still apply?</p>

<p>^^I ask this all the time simply because these are all really good schools, and I’m just sort of in disbelief that it’s so easy to get in for Americans. 3 or 4 APs with scores of 5 isn’t really that hard, is it?</p>

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<p>In the UK it is mostly a numbers game: your scores and your dollars, and if you have those, you are in. You can think of most of the universities as being like state universities if it helps. </p>

<p>There are, of course, exceptions. </p>

<p>St Andrews courts Americans: looks at GPAs, acknowledges ECs, is on the Common App. Durham is an anomaly even within the UK- it flies under the radar. Kind of like William & Mary in the US- people who know it know how good it is, but a lot of people don’t know about it.</p>

<p>Oxbridge and LSE expect that you will exceed the minimums and usually have some other threshhold (there is a view that LSE sniffs out likely Oxbridge applicants and makes any offers extra-high). I deliberately avoided naming London universities as there as some strong views amongst fellow posters as to how competitive they are for Americans, but it is safe to say that Imperial is tougher than KCL. My experience with KCL is limited, but I wouldn’t imagine that you would have trouble. </p>

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<p>Most American students complain here that UK admission are so hard and so unfair on them, so it is refreshing to find someone who considers otherwise.</p>

<p>Frankly most UK Unis (apart from Oxbridge) want the money from a full fee paying foreign student, and are therefore very likely to admit you if you meet the minimum requirements. You must understand you will get no substantial financial aid from a UK source (a few £100s in book grants if you are lucky) and have to demonstrate you have enough finds to cover the entire length of your course in order to obtain a student visa. Your only problem may be if they commonly get many US applicants with more APs than you, or if in their experience few US students actually take up places offered.</p>

<p>UK unis are MUCH more predictable in admissions because ECs don’t count. They only care that you are clever and academically focussed. US college value the “well-rounded” student. Being well-rounded it utterly worthless, and likely detrimental to your UK application. Do not write about any “journeys” or the like in your personal statement. The statement needs to say essentially “I want to study computer science because” and “I am a focussed student because”. This is extremely difficult for most students who have come through the US high school system because it is very rare for them to have any kind of subject-specific focus before college. So if you were going to write about your ECs on UCAS- don’t!</p>

<p>You cannot send your extra Durham statement to any unis apart from Durham. You cannot add to your application unless specifically asked. It is totally fine to write something about you would be interested in a future career in management on your UCAS statement. Cambridge are used to accepting people who intend to go on to such fields. You can say you are interested in the Judge Management programme at your interview. That;s fine. I told them I was interested in their PhDs, and then deserted them for Oxford!</p>

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<p>@collegemom3717 Thanks! </p>

<p>@cupcake Haha, love that last part. One of my worries right now is that if I say I’m interested in Management at Judge for Part II, they might think I’m not very dedicated to Computer Science. While I’d prefer not to outright lie, I could easily play it down if not for having to include management on the PS for other unis that I apply to. What do you think about this?</p>

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<p>Do NOT mention the Judge institute in your PS (not sure if you mean to or not). Other unis might reject you if they think you will turn them down for Cambridge. Just saying something along the lines of for your future career you are interested in management and therefore you are interested in studying this along side computer science. Or don’t mention it. If you go to the-student-room (links to this site are banned. remove hyphens and google it) there are people there who can give you better PS help than me.</p>

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<p>@cupcake Definitely not mentioning Judge in my PS.</p>

<p>I was just worried because I definitely need to mention Management in my PS for the CS with Management courses at other universities, and Cambridge might see this as a lack of dedication to CS. Is this a legitimate worry?</p>

<p>I’m still trying to navigate the student room, but yeah I’ll definitely use it more for UK stuff.</p>

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<p>If this is any help the minimum gpa for LSE is 3.2 and I would recommend taking more Aps or ones specifically in the A group ( they are listed on their website )</p>

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<p>A million years ago when I was in the CS dept at Manc they gave far lower offers to those who had applied to Oxbridge than the rest of us, although the with management course may have been different. But that plus the overseas fees makes you desirable.</p>