I have said this before but the English Unis have very little wriggle room to change subject. Scottish unis are more flexible but only within the broad subject umbrella: science, humanities etc. And even my Scottish godson struggled to move from Maths and Physics to Computer Science. Glasgow and Scotland are large cities. St Andrews is a small town and only because the students add number to the local population.
British unis test differently. The first year is just a pass or fail. Then you are tested half way through the year and at the end of the year. There are papers to handed in but your grade is very much on the final year-end exam. The earlier tests and papers are to make sure you are heading in the correct direction with no bearing on the end result. This does not suit everyone. This might be why some US students struggle.
Thanks for your help! I really appreciate all the information we can get about the education system in the UK.
Now that my son has visited, he is only considering the unis located in large cities (London, Edinburgh, Glasgow); we have already ruled out St Andrews.
For each course of study that my son is considering, we have been looking for detailed information about the list of modules, topics studied in each module, and the way in which students are evaluated. I expected that the grading schemes would heavily emphasize final year-end exams (as you state), but I was surprised to see that when we looked closely at the details, we are seeing a lot of variety in the grading schemes listed for each module. Some are listed as being graded on primarily “coursework” or “group project” without any exam listed at all, while other modules are listed as having most of the grade based on the final exam. Am I misreading the information posted… is it actually all based on year-end exams, even when the modules specifically list grading based on “coursework” or “group project”?
Hi @tamagotchi. We’re in the UK and my D22 has conditional offers from ICL and Oxford for a STEM-related subject. Feel free to ask if you need more information about the UK (I am also familiar with LSE, although not undergraduate admission).
Thank you! We are still exploring the different courses available. The biggest question that I have right now is about deadlines. Most courses on UCAS have a January 25 application deadline, so it would be helpful if he could wait to submit applications until December or January, when we should have some results already from his EA applications. Is it important to apply earlier than that? Do universities start filling their courses right away when UCAS starts accepting applications?
According to my D22, submitting early can matter for some schools, such as ICL (some departments make offers in batches and consider applicants for merit scholarships if they submit by 15 October). LSE is known to take its time with applications, sometimes not notifying applicants until May (even for those who submitted early).
At my D22’s school, a large proportion of students apply to Oxbridge, so most submit all of their UK applications by the 15 October deadline. You can also submit a few early and add more later on.
It has been a while since I have updated this post. S23 is really enjoying physics and the engineering intro classes he is taking. He has dramatically changed his focus from the original post, and ended up applying to engineering programs.
Accepted:
UBC (still waiting on merit), U of Toronto (+merit), McGill, Northeastern, Drexel (+merit), CWRU (+merit), U Conn (+merit), UMN-TC (+merit), Ohio State (+merit), U Pitt (+merit & Honors), Oregon State (+merit & Honors)
For most schools we were pleasantly surprised by the merit offers. He already has a lot of affordable good options. Visits are planned to some of these that he hasn’t yet visited.
Deferred from EA:
USC (chose not to pursue in RD, since he would have needed merit)
Still waiting:
UW Seattle, the UCs, Cal Poly, Queen’s (Canada)
In the end, S23 chose not to apply to any UK schools. After he changed his focus to engineering, it turned out that there weren’t any UK programs he really wanted.
I am very appreciative for all the discussion and suggestions that were offered in this thread! Thanks in particular for all the discussion about U of T. We would not have considered it originally because of the cost, but as it turned out, S23 received a good enough merit scholarship to make it affordable, and he is seriously considering it.
Pitt is rolling admission and I believe you need to apply by a certain date to be considered for merit. I’d suggest the earlier the better if he is interested - also, nice to have an early acceptance to take some of the pressure off.
Thanks! S23 applied to Pitt in October. He is already accepted to Pitt with merit and Honors. I was just updating this thread with how the admissions season is going. Post #107 shows results so far.
Would suggest staying domestic for engineering, as in not be tempted by Canadian schools. Unless it is CS. I think the hiring habits of companies in Engg is somewhat regional. I am looking at where kids from friends and family are placing, and a lot of them are in the local region of the school.
It’s a good point, thanks. We have been looking at outcomes for each school and where the graduates end up. One reason he is interested in Canadian schools is that he is interested in living and working in Canada.
Also, last fall, Canada lifted the 20-hour limit on off-campus work for international students. Congrats on U of T with merit, especially. It’s tough to get!
His acceptance letter for each Canadian university states that he’s in the co-op program, so he will be applying for a co-op work permit along with the study permit. My understanding is that he should apply for the study permit now, and then just change his information later if needed, when he figures out which school he will attend?
No, he didn’t apply to Waterloo. For the Canadian schools, he thought about applying more widely, but in the end he just applied to McGill, U of T, UBC, and Queen’s.
I think he crossed Waterloo off the list because he didn’t want to go to a school with so much of a STEM focus (I think that is also why he crossed off Purdue, another great school). He was looking for schools with more balance between strength in STEM and other areas. Even if most of his own curriculum is devoted to his engineering major, he is still a relatively “artsy” person and wants to be at a school with lots of humanities and arts students
