It says their offer rate for 2017 was 38.4%. No shade at all but that seems a bit higher than i would’ve expected… just genuinely curious as to how representative this number re: how selective they are and how hard it is to get an offer, conditional or unconditional. ik they’re a top school and you obviously need to be a top candidate to get in but i was just thrown a bit by the stat. (also looking at other offer rates for comparable & less competitive uk unis the offer rates all seem pretty high, like 30-60%). Im from the US so i guess I’m not too familiar with the admissions stats and what’s up across the pond.
(also yes i know their acceptance rate is like 8% and its different from the offer rate i just wanna know what it takes to get my foot in the door.)
It’s a different system so you can’t really compare with acceptance rates at American colleges.
The pertinent information that you’d need to know as an American:
For any UK uni besides Oxbridge, LSE (and Imperial and UCL sometimes): You’re very likely in if you meet their stated academic requirements.
Oxbridge and LSE are tougher. Arguably as tough to get in to as Ivies/equivalents (say in the early round) but the criteria are different. They are looking for kids who show the potential to become top scholars/experts in the field you are applying to. Applications will be evaluated by faculty, not adcoms. I often say undergrad in the UK is kind of like grad-school-lite (at the top UK unis like Oxbridge and LSE, 3 years studying a subject would be akin to covering the courses in a major and then a Master’s here) and undergrad admissions is more like grad school admissions.
Note that offer rates are high because you may only send 5 applications through UCAS, and people will also apply to safeties so you don’t see a single person send apps to 20 schools like you sometimes do in the US. Also you need to know what you want to study and no uni offers all subjects. And the UK unis state their required academic minimums so pretty much everyone applying is academically qualified. No-hopers are not encouraged to apply like they are in the US.
That really cleared things up, thanks so much for the thorough response.
Not really related but do you know how common/uncommon it is to receive a conditional offer compared to an unconditional offer? I only have 2 5s on AP exams so far (the rest are 4s and a 3 ) so I haven’t already met the entry requirements but I’ll be taking 7 AP exams this spring and I’m expecting (hoping) to get at least a couple 5s in relevant subject areas. Would LSE be the type of school willing to offer a conditional offer (that is, assuming my personal statement and other criteria are already strong enough)?
Building on @PurpleTitan’s post, secondary schools in the UK are very directive about where students apply- if they don’t think that a student will get in they will actively discourage the student from applying (remembering that they have to write the LoR & make the predictions). As @PurpleTitan pointed out, everybody who applies has (or is predicted to meet) the entry requirements, so they are qualified.
From your other posts, guessing that you would be looking at IR. Random sample of 1, one of my collegekids got an offer for IR from LSE- and the conditions were actually tougher than her conditions from Oxford.
Conditional offers are the norm in the UK, and I’d bet dollars to doughnuts that if you get an offer it will be conditional on your Govs, Econs & Lit scores from Grade 12, because they are the most relevant to the course. But: “a couple of 5s” won’t do it- LSE wants 5 5’s taken in Grades 10-12. Your GC will have to “predict” your AP scores, and any offer would be based on those predictions.
Be sure that you read the course description really, really, carefully: they are very structured (you can see what you study each year online). A lot of your classes will be assessed solely by final exam or essay (ie, not on homework, quizzes, tests- you can have them, but they won’t always count towards your grades).
And to add to what @collegemom3717 said, a mix of 5s, 4s and 3s on APs is a big red flag. Better to have fewer APs which are all 5s than more APs with the same number of 5s plus a bunch of 3s/4s.
FWIW my S18 didn’t get an offer with five 5s and one 3, and four more predicted 5s senior year (plus 4.0UW/1540 SAT and a bunch of decent ECs including senior class president).
Hi! Need answers, please help! My son has unweighted GPA 3.3, lot’s of APs, 3 5’s, 1 4 for now…taking 4 more…anticipate more 5s. I read that they look at the last two yrs only- do you think they recalc 11th and 12 th grades? Do you think they will wait for AP scores in May?
@soontobeprepmom, I think that you have slightly misunderstood the application guidelines.
APs have to be taken in Grades 10, 11 and 12 only, with a minimum of 5 scores of 5 (or 3 5s and 2 4s for a few courses).
They expect a cumulative GPA of 3.7+. Afaik, they don’t recalculate, and they don’t limit it to the last 2 years.
The norm is for applicants to apply with ‘predictions’ of the marks they will get on exams taken in May (US students) and June (UK students). Offers are then ‘conditional’ on achieving those marks (so you don’t know for certain if you have yoru place until you get your scores in July). The university get to pick from both achieved and predicted tests which ones are part of the offer (it can be a mix), and it is never for more than three total.
As an example, one of my collegekids applied to LSE with 4 APs with scores of 5 achieved and 5 more scheduled to take in May of senior year. Her offer specified scores of 5 on 3 specific APs scheduled for May. By way of comparison, her offer from Oxford was easier to make than her offer from LSE.
UK unis tend to take whatever GPA they are sent by the school.
Make sure he reads the LSE website about the program thoroughly - and that he understands it is a reach.
Also (not your question, again!) Glasgow, Edinburgh and Durham all have good Econ History courses, and imo/e are much better undergrad options than LSE. St Andrews does as well, but they pay more attention to GPAs than most UK unis.
Son #1 got offer based on APs (he attended an international school). From other parents we met when visiting, they are pretty inflexible and specify the AP exams they wished to see. They told us when we visited that ECs etc., were not factors and that the ‘personal statement’ had to be academic. Happily LSE considered my son to be a “home” student for fee purposes which made a major difference when it came to cost.
