I was wondering whether it is possible, whether it has been done, to get into a University like say Stanford or Princeton for graduate school from a good UK uni e.g. Exeter, Surrey, Sussex etc… (although not Oxbridge, Imperial, UCL). If so what would be some advice and in general does undergrad university matter greatly in the US?
I know 2 St. Andrews grads, one got a PhD and is now a prof at an elite LAC the other is a student at Columbia Law. GRE or other test scores and grades must be excellent.
Of course it is possible. Same as for any applicant, you have to know what you are looking for, know what the university is looking for, add in what you bring to the table and find the best fit.
What will matter most varies by type of grad school- Masters or Phd? STEM or humanities? There is also the question of what are the top grad schools. Going by your other post you are a CS student, so Stanford is a big name- but you will also find CMU, GaTech, UWa, etc on most top-10 lists.
Do some research as to what the schools are looking for- GREs / grades will be just the beginning. The more you know about what you want from a program- more than the name!- the more likely you are to find the right program for you.
Not exactly what you want, but I know someone who went from Leeds undergrad to Liverpool John Moores PhD to Harvard postdoc.
You need strong recommendations from profs on your undergrad degree as well. From your other thread you’re on course for a first in CS from Surrey, so that’s a good basis.
PhD applications need to be tailored with a supervisor and approximate thesis topic idea in mind, although the US PhD course in effect incorporates a masters so you don’t have to be as definite about the topic as you would for a UK application. But you should have some idea about the sub-field in CS you’re interested in pursuing, and that will dictate which US universities have suitable faculty.
Knowing what you want to do and who you want to work for is not as big a deal in larger departments. My PhD program had 60 to 70 new students every year and no one chose an advisor until end of first year.