Help with UCAS app/Chances at UK unis?

Applying to College
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<p>Hi everyone-</p>

<p>I'm from California and I'll be a senior this fall. I'm seriously considering applying to a couple UK unis, especially Edinburgh. I was on the UCAS website and the "When to apply" section was sort of confusing...can anyone tell me when exactly the deadline is for international students? I'm planning on studying IR or Linguistics/Languages.</p>

<p>Any other info about the UCAS application would be helpful...advice on the personal statement, when the decisions are made, etc.</p>

<p>I'd also love it if anyone could chance me for Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and St. Andrews. (And if anyone happens to know about Trinity College Dublin/University College Dublin, although I know Dublin isn't the UK. :P)</p>

<p>HS GPA: 3.8 unweighted, 4.1 weighted</p>

<p>SATs:
CR - 720
M - 630
W - 800</p>

<p>SAT IIs:
Spanish (reading only) - 720
Literature - 720</p>

<p>APs:
European History - 3
Psychology - 4
English Language & Comp - 5</p>

<p>I'll also be taking APs for Government, Literature, and Spanish next year.</p>

<p>And I've got a decent amount of ECs, but I've heard UK schools don't care about ECs at all.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

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<p>Hello and welcome to cc</p>

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<p>Except for Oxbridge the applications are usually considered on a rolling basis so it is always my advice to apply as early as possible. I think in theory the application deadline is sometime in June, but since UCAS applications open in September, places on many courses will be long gone by June.</p>

<p>

In the UK you may be aware that you apply to study a single subject and have to stick to it. Usually to change “majors” you have to drop out and re-apply. It is slightly different in Scotland but it is NOT the same as the US. You are allowed to take several subjects in your first year in Scotland, and then choose one to specialise in. However, this doesn’t mean you could suddenly switch to something totally unrelated without re-applying eg you could not study English, French and History in year 1 then switch to astrophysics in year 2. In that case you would have to reapply for year 1 science courses. So you need to be quite certain of the subject you wish to study in the UK, even in Scotland.</p>

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</p>

<p>The personal statement should be factual an along the lines of</p>

<p>"I would like to study subject X because</p>

<p>I excel at X (or subjects related to X) at school
I am a dedicated stuent and have dones these related activities to subject X (relevant EC eg in your case something arts related as there are few ECs directly relevant to ligistics i think!)"</p>

<p>No personal journeys! No laundry list of ECs. Do NOT under any circumstances try to make yourself sound well-rounded. That just sounds like a lack of focus, which won’t help you.</p>

<p>

There are specific threads somewhere about at least Edinburgh and St Andrews if you search for them. You can also try a UK board similar to this
<a href=“http://www”>www</a>. the student room .co uk</p>

<p>remove the spaces for it to work.</p>

<p><a href=“And%20if%20anyone%20happens%20to%20know%20about%20Trinity%20College%20Dublin/University%20College%20Dublin,%20although%20I%20know%20Dublin%20isn’t%20the%20UK.%20:P”>QUOTE</a>

[/QUOTE]

This shows you are clearly more world-aware than 99% of Americans so just for that I think your application has a better chance!</p>

<p>I always advise students in your case to have a look at the college websites and see which subjects and grades they require from UK students (ie A-levels, or Higher grades in Scotland). You need to try and match those in APs if possible.</p>

<p>

They don’t unless they are academic and related to the courses you are applying for.</p>

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<p>First off thank you SO much for all the information! </p>

<p>“Except for Oxbridge the applications are usually considered on a rolling basis so it is always my advice to apply as early as possible. I think in theory the application deadline is sometime in June, but since UCAS applications open in September, places on many courses will be long gone by June.”</p>

<p>Okay, that makes a lot of sense. I sort of suspected they might have rolling admissions, but I couldn’t find anything that said for sure. Thanks for cleaaring that up.</p>

<p>“In the UK you may be aware that you apply to study a single subject and have to stick to it. Usually to change “majors” you have to drop out and re-apply. It is slightly different in Scotland but it is NOT the same as the US. You are allowed to take several subjects in your first year in Scotland, and then choose one to specialise in. However, this doesn’t mean you could suddenly switch to something totally unrelated without re-applying eg you could not study English, French and History in year 1 then switch to astrophysics in year 2. In that case you would have to reapply for year 1 science courses. So you need to be quite certain of the subject you wish to study in the UK, even in Scotland.”</p>

<p>Yeah, I know…that’s also why I’m a lot more interested in the Scottish unis than ones like UCL and others in England…they seem much more flexible (although I know they’re not nearly as flexible as the ones here in the US). I’m about 90% sure about IR and either Linguistics or a Modern Languages program. And possibly Film Studies. But I figure since you can study three things your first year, by year two I’ll have figured out which one (or two) I’m most interested in pursuing. Also, the Edinburgh website says they don’t even have a program specifically for Film, but there’s some sort of course that you can take in year two that’s film-related. I don’t know the specifics about it, but I’m going to look into it. Also, should I have a sudden change of heart about what I want to study, I’m 100% positive it would be to something in the Humanities/Arts. Definitely not anything science- or math-related. In that case would I still have to re-apply and everything?</p>

<p>“No personal journeys! No laundry list of ECs. Do NOT under any circumstances try to make yourself sound well-rounded. That just sounds like a lack of focus, which won’t help you.”</p>

<p>Oh, gosh, I’m glad you told me that! US schools are all about being well-rounded; I probably would have gone that route.</p>

<p>“There are specific threads somewhere about at least Edinburgh and St Andrews if you search for them. You can also try a UK board similar to this
<a href=“http://www”>www</a>. the student room .co uk”</p>

<p>Thank you! I’ve been looking for something like that. I’ll definitely check it out.</p>

<p>"This shows you are clearly more world-aware than 99% of Americans so just for that I think your application has a better chance!</p>

<p>I always advise students in your case to have a look at the college websites and see which subjects and grades they require from UK students (ie A-levels, or Higher grades in Scotland). You need to try and match those in APs if possible."</p>

<p>Haha, thank you.</p>

<p>And I hadn’t thought of comparing APs to A-levels, etc. I’ll do that as well.</p>

<p>“They don’t unless they are academic and related to the courses you are applying for.”</p>

<p>Hmm. Mine are all sort of academic and sort of related…things like Foreign Language Honor Society, International Club, Shakespeare Club, and Mock Trial. (I also play soccer, but it’s not really a big part of my life anymore, and based on what you said about well-roundedness, I think it’s probably best I don’t include it.)</p>

<p>Thanks again! And, sorry, I don’t know how to do that quote thing with the boxes so I just put everything you said in quotation marks.</p>

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<p>I have a few friends who went to Scottish universities on the assumption that if you apply for X you can take classes in Y only to find that Y was full up. This is especially true for things like IR and languages, so be careful.</p>

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<p>“This shows you are clearly more world-aware than 99% of Americans so just for that I think your application has a better chance!”</p>

<p>Not only is this incredibly inconsiderate and rude, the fact that it’s not even remotely true just shows how bygone your perception of Americans is. Statements like these are not appreciated, and serve only to show how simple minded you are.</p>

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<p>Dionysus58: I hadn’t considered that. Thanks for the tip.</p>

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<p>You are just reminding how extremely agressive Americans tend to be compared to nearly all other nationalities. Fulfilling the stereotype to a t. I advise you never to travel abroad.</p>

<p>Search this board for Trinity College Dublin and see all the posts about it being in the UK. These are people who are seriously thining of applying there! People picked off the street would be ever worse.</p>

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<p>You are both right – Americans are stunningly ignorant. But so are Brits: what proportion of UK people plucked off the street could explain the status of Ireland? I have also had British people confidently tell me that they speak Chinese in Japan.</p>

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<p>All I know is that 99% of people I know could tell me that Dublin is in Ireland. If you find that 99% of Americans are unaware of Dublin’s location, perhaps that says more about the people you like to be around rather than Americans in general. Unlike you, I am not a fan of making brash, ignorant overarching comments about whole countries of people. In fact, most people on these forums are intelligent enough to realize how innacurate such statements are.</p>

<p>“You are just reminding how extremely agressive Americans tend to be compared to nearly all other nationalities.”</p>

<p>Such a baseless and general statement serves not to enlighten anyone about the conduct of Americans, but to embarras you (also please note that my aggression is obviously misinterpreted on your part by your sensitivity to strong words). Not only do I not represent the other 300,000,000 americans in the states, but claiming “nearly all other nationalities” is so ignorant it makes my skin crawl. I would adivse you against making any more “all americans are…” statements. All they do is make you appear more and more unintelligent.</p>

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<p>Britain certainly has its fair share of ignorant and stupid people, no doubt about that. But there is a reason Americans have a reputation for being insular, ignorant and dumb; because so many are, or at least appear to be. I don’t mean to imply that Americans are inherently stupider than anybody else, they’re not, but their culture does tend to suppress many of the attributes I would associate with a smart and worldly person.</p>

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<p>It’s not EXACTLY rolling admissions: the application deadline is usually around the start/middle of January, but you can of course apply at any time before then, and the university will get back to you as soon as they have made a decision - none of this waiting till April 1st nonsense :)</p>

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<p>“Reputations” are innately inaccurate when they concern entire nationalities. Taking them with more than a grain of salt is just stupidity.</p>