Chances of getting into a UK university

<p>What are the acceptance rates for a history student at:
- university of edinburgh
- university of manchester
- university of oxford
- university of st. andrews
- durham university</p>

<p>I was just checking out Oxford and Cambridge today, both are around 20% average (which seems ridiculous considering their prestige). But unless you have already applied, it sounds like Oct. 15 was the deadline.</p>

<p>The Oxford / Cambridge acceptance numbers are very misleading. You can only apply to one of them, and UK students can only apply to 5 university programs <em>total</em>. Most of them apply based on their predicted exam grades from the end of their final year- so if they get an offer, they still have to get the specific exam results required, and there is a lot of ‘guidance’ as to who should/should not apply to Oxbridge. So, the vast majority of applicants are pretty sure that they can make the required marks- and they know that only about 5% of students who take those exams get the required marks. So, the pool of applicants is much more self-selecting.</p>

<p>On the other hand, outside of Oxbridge and LSE, ‘chancing’ is really not a problem- you can do it for yourself. If you have the marks required, decent recs and a decent essay (note that you write one essay that all your colleges see), you are very very likely to get an offer. For US students it really is that straightforward. Every college posts their “typical offer” and the equivalencies for international students, for each course. </p>

<p>So, here is the page for Edinburgh:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/undergraduate/entry-requirements/academic/accepted”>http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/undergraduate/entry-requirements/academic/accepted&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>and here are the specifics for international students:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/international/country/north-america/usa/hs-qualifications”>http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/international/country/north-america/usa/hs-qualifications&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>So an 1800 SAT, plus 2 (relevant) APs with scores of 4 or better or 2 SATIIs (again, relevant) with scores of 650 or better. </p>

<p>You can look up the rest for yourself, but you get the idea. History is not an especially competitive course- if you were asking about IR at Edinburgh I would suggest that you need to do better than the minimum. </p>

<p>Final note: St Andrews is very US-centric- you can apply via the Common App, and they are (somewhat) interested in GPA and ECs- which most UK unis are not. At all. They are interested in you showing some maturity of thought about why you want to study your subject and that you have some idea what it is about.</p>

<p>And yes, October 15 was the deadline for Oxbridge- plus, you have to taken the History Aptitude Test.</p>

<p>Correction- 12.8% of students who take A levels get the minimum required for Oxford (I didn’t account for the ones who get better than the minimum, or for the subjects that require A*, not just A). The point doesn’t really change though. If your school does not “predict” that you will achieve the marks you will automatically not go through to the next round; students know this, so if their “predictions” are less than the required they won’t use up one of their 5 choices on a no-hoper. </p>

<p>At the risk of beating the subject to death, note that the marks are necessary but not sufficient for admissions. Many subjects have required admissions tests and/or written work submissions. From that pool about 3x as many applicants as there are places are invited for subject interviews (which are a combination of oral exam and tutorial class in the subject that you are applying to study) to get through. So, once you get called for an interview your odds are around 1 in 3- against a very highly qualified pool. </p>