I’m a high school student entering my senior year and the two criteria that I’ve decided matter most to me in deciding my college is academic strength in the humanities (especially english and history) and an exciting, cosmopolitan location. Hence, I’ve been extremely interested in certain UK and Irish schools located in major cities.
I realize that British schools care most about your academics, so I’ll post mine here, keeping in mind they’re respectable if not necessarily Ivy League material:
Unweighted GPA: 3.71
Weighted GPA: 4.69
*not that I’m sure this carries any weight with the brits but I go to a notoriously rigorous and competitive high school that is nationally ranked among the top 25 public schools
SAT CR: 780
SAT Math: 690
SAT II American history: 800
Will find out my AP scores and SAT II Literature scores soon. Hopefully will have kicked butt on those…
So with all of that, what would y’all think my chances are at:
King’s College London
Queen Mary University of London
University of Edinburgh
Trinity College Dublin (with the possibility I might apply early decision!)
Thanks a bunch (and tell me if you think I’d have a good shot/enjoy any other UK schools such as St.Andrew’s, Aberdeen, etc.)!
Come back with your AP scores, as they will be the most important part of your application. I would also consider UCL based on your interests. You do realize that St.Andrews and Aberdeen are not in cosmopolitan cities, right?
My understanding is that KCL and QMUL require 3 SAT or AP’s with no particular preference for either. I got a 5 in AP American History my second year, but I feel like the 800 on the SAT II looks better on paper if both are of equal standing. Trinity doesn’t require either, and Edinburgh will take two APs or SAT IIs.
UCL really appealed to me, but they had a restrictive requirement of 5 APs taken in the last two years of high school. As my schedule currently stands, I would have 4 APs in my junior and senior years, and I didn’t feel like going through the hassle of altering my schedule for a sole school.
Informally, APs are rated more highly than SATIIs, especially in the humanities, where there are more essays.
Most of the unis you have mentioned won’t really care about your GPA, and the ones who do care have a pretty low cut-off- you are safely past that hurdle.
St Andrews is the antithesis of an “exciting, cosmopolitan location”, and Aberdeen isn’t much closer to being one.
There is no such thing as ‘early decision’ in the UK or Ireland, but lucky for you most (but not all!) unis review international applications on a rolling admissions basis.
Note that you can’t double count APs and SAT IIs in the same subject.
Your odds are better for English than History, unless you have taken another history AP (or two).
Also got a 5 on AP US history. If collegemom3717 thinks that would be better than an 800 SATII I’ll use that instead. So, as of now, I do have 2 AP 5’s.
They will see both your 800 & your 5, so no worries there.
Also, good news: applying through UCAS is much easier than US applications, b/c you only write one essay (which is ‘why this course is a good fit for my skills and interests’), you only need one LoR, and you only pay 1 fee for up to 5 courses.
…and much as I love some of those US colleges you have listed- a number of them are not exactly “exciting, cosmopolitan locations”!
Exciting and cosmopolitan may have been a little hyperbolic lol. What I really meant by that was it needs to either be in or in close proximity to a city I really like and that preferably has a lot going on in terms of culture and arts. Portland, OR is definitely an exciting, culturally rich town if not ‘cosmopolitan.’ I feel like Reed is probably the best “fit” for me out of any school I’ve seen in that it’s intellectually serious and laidback in every other way (my two defining traits), as well as being in Portland. Brown appeals to me in that Providence is a nice town and its by far the most liberal and relaxed of the Ivies. I’ve wanted to live in NYC since I was a kid so my four schools in the NYC area is a no-brainer. For U of M, I love Ann Arbor, and I would be legacy so I have a bit of a bond there. It’s also nice to have a great option relatively close to home (I live in Chicago). Vassar, Haverford, Swarthmore, and Madison all have good locations in their way but they aren’t exactly destinations and thus will probably not be among my top choices, if I apply at all.
Assuming I don’t get accepted to Columbia/Brown (a relatively safe one considering my extracurriculars are nearly nil ), the toughest choice would be between Reed, NYU, and a school in Britain (with the hope I get into KCL, U of E, or TCD).
Also, do you think its safe to just apply to my 7 U.S. choices, TCD, and 5 UKs?
Also, Fiske’s says Trinity has “rollling admissions with an early-decision deadline of November 1”. I’m not sure what they mean by early decision in this instance?
Depends on how many options you want in the spring. Being shut out of all 5 of your American reaches and matches is a real possibility (not real likelihood, but you should prepare for that) and I don’t know enough about the New School to say whether they are a safety or not. Because of that, personally, I would apply to Vassar and Madison as well.
You should get conditional offers with no problem. You are one AP or one SAT2 short for unconditional from Edinburgh.
Maybe you can take SAT2 in September and apply when results are out.
I don’t know much about entry to prestigious UK schools. It looks as though you have the scores to get into a lot of schools. I just wanted to make you aware of the college openings list. Here’s a list of UK schools that still have room for fall 2016. It stands to reason that any one of these schools could be a safety for you if your focus is to be in the UK. It wouldn’t let me directly link but there’s a drop down menu. If you choose UK there’s a ton of schools!
British universities are mostly interested in AP exam scores and maybe SAT IIs. If you do well on the ones you just took, you could consider applying to Oxford/Cambridge and Durham, LSE, or Warwick as reaches. It is hard to meet Oxbridge admissions criteria from the US, but no UK school is as competitive as HYP. Your SAT and SAT II scores so far are good.
Whatever, I just mean that if OP has good scores on the AP exams and SAT IIs she just took, she could consider applying to some more difficult UK schools for 2 or so of the 5 she can apply to.
Well, for US students, the 5 most difficult UK universities based on AP or SAT II requirements are Cambridge, Oxford, LSE, Imperial and UCL.
Admittedly Imperial does not offer courses in the English/History space, so Durham as the next hardest can take its place. Warwick is far further down the difficult list.
Queen Mary London is almost entirely commuter and in a 'bad’area of London. Queen Mary 's Belfast however would meet your need for a vibrant, cosmpolitan city.
Durham would be another good choice. Brighton for a safety, Bristol or Bath for matches.
What what AP classes are you taking in the Spring?
), the toughest choice would be between Reed, NYU, and a school in Britain (with the hope I get into KCL, U of E, or TCD).