<p>Let me help you out by posting most of what was already discussed on admissions to Cambridge and Oxford (Oxbridge)here on CC last year (written to someone named Corsair who wanted to apply to the British schools--specifically the London School of Economics (LSE). Another top English school is Imperial college--equivalent to our MIT):</p>
<p>British schools care solely about your SAT and APs . (and SAT IIs, fair enough)</p>
<p>For LSE, OxBridge, you need 2200+ (preferably 2300+) and 4 5's. and 1 4.+
For ICL and other classy British schools (University College London, St. Andrews, York) you need 2000+ and 5 aps at 4 or 5.</p>
<p>If you don't have 5 APs or 5 good APs, you can list your senior year APs and say you're taking them in may. They'll give you what is called a conditional acceptance, which basically says, you're in, but you need to get a 4 or 5 in these courses.</p>
<p>Also mind that LSE is going to be very difficult numbers wise to get in, more than Oxbridge, but Oxbridge requires very difficult interviews and tests with the interview. At least for Oxford the interview is offered in NY and across the pond (meaning in Europe only) with very little flexibility. </p>
<p>Also, for British schools, you apply to 6 "courses." A course is a major at a university. Mind that you can only apply to one course at OxBridge every year. Your UCAS app might look like this.</p>
<p>190 Oxford Politics, Philosophy and Economics
123 LSE Economics
134 LSE Economic History
152 LSE Mathematics and Economics
290 UYork Economics
1083 St. Andrews Economics</p>
<p>For every school besides OxBridge you can apply to as many courses as you want at that school that fit under your 6 allotted courses. There is no other way to apply to British schools that is not UCAS.</p>
<p>UCAS stands for Universities and Colleges Admission Service. There is a 15L fee for all 6 applications. All 6 applications are identical: They have your test scores, a "personal statement," a open reference, and that is all they go off. You only have to put it in once. </p>
<p>They used to have a "Tarriff" for American and Worldwide students where there was a point system for all accomplishments and you added up your points and saw where you should get in. However, the American section seems to be gone now. It's like 120 points for a Hard AP 5 (Eng, Calc, Language, History) and 50 for a soft AP 5 (Envi Sci, Stat, etc) and something like 50 points for a 750+ on an SAT section. Most courses at Oxford needed 600+ points. See if you can find the tarriff. </p>
<p>Also mind that British schools might be cheaper, but the level of instruction is far less. There is far more reading and far less teaching than at an American institution. They call it "reading" for a degree. Also British degrees are 3 years courses with little room for electives.</p>
<p>My mates who were accepted to British schools:</p>
<p>2280, six 5s including AB calc, BC calc, Chem was accepted to Oxford unconditionally for a course in Mathematics and is enrolled..</p>
<p>2400, five 5s was accepted unconditionally to Oxford, but not at the residential college he wanted to go to and was given three conditional offers from LSE, (most of them were one 5 in BC Calc but one was like he had to get three 5s his senior year) and he is currently enrolled in Econ and Management at LSE. He had to get a 5 his senior year BC to attend though. </p>
<p>I had a 2300+ and two 5's when I applied, and both LSE and Oxford gave me strict conditionals. I had to get four 5's my senior year to go to Oxford (Eng Lang, BC and Statistics and a choice) and I had to get a 5 in BC and a 5 in Lang to go to LSE. The tough numbers were in part because I screwed up my reference. I didn't have a open reference so I ended sending mine under separate cover. I ended up not getting the 5 in BC and only getting a 4, so Oxford was out. It ended up after a phone calls to LSE and Oxford that they didn't care (since all my other APs were 5s) and would let me enroll anyway, but for Oxford they ended up deferring me for a year (i..e I would start studies a year after my HS class but end at the same time), so the conditionals are not super strict but they still are there. However, based on the quality of teaching, I ended up opting for less prestige (than Oxfaahrd) at an American college. I'll probably go across the pond for graduate studies.</p>
<p>Soooo, sorry about the long reply. I've always though that going across the pond is an excellent offer for students who are brilliant and test scores reinforce that but maybe the grades are the weak part of the profile. The lack of information available about American apps to British schools has always ****ed me off. My brother's attending LSE right now, and wouldn't have gotten in unless I had already gone through the process and made the mistakes.</p>
<p>There are 3 caveats:</p>
<ol>
<li>You must be self-driven enough for the lack of teaching</li>
<li>You must know what your major is out of high school</li>
<li>You must have drop-dead excellent test scores</li>
</ol>
<p>That's not your case though. British schools don't take ACTs very seriously, you should take the SAT. But from a 35 and your other scores, I predict a conditional from Oxford, if you send 3 apps to LSE you'll get a rejection in the toughest course, a conditional in the large courses and an unconditional in something like Econ with Econ History, and you'll get into anything less selective.</p>
<p>What's your major anyway? I'm assuming it's Econ. Keep in mind that ICL doesn't offer econ. Imperial College London is mainly for the hard sciences. It looks like you got your colleges from a ranking, or a "table." LSE only offers courses in history (polisci), law and ECON. OxBridge offers most everything, but Cambridge is about the sciences and Oxford's about the social sciences. The 5th uni on most tables is University College London, and that's a great all around school (think a less artsy NYU.)</p>
<p>ALSO: (man I keep thinking of other things) The deadline for Oxford/Cambridge is really really early. Like September. The drop dead deadline was October 15th my year. I squeaked in on Oct 15 but it hurt me in the process. They prefer certain forms back in September. LSE and most other schools take them on Jan 15. It's very much sort of a rolling system for everyone except LSE. You'll learn of most schools 3 weeks after you apply, except for Oxford which lets you know right before Christmas (HAPPY CHRISTMAS :) and LSE which lets you know in February. It is pretty sweet to be done and into Oxford in December, esp if you're unconditional. </p>
<p>So my last points: </p>
<p>Go here: UCAS</a> Homepage
Open an application and fill out what you can.
Look online for Tables (ranking according to course and points needed to enroll in the course) and the UCAS Tariff.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Corsair: What about the interview? I heard they usually have professors interview you.</p>
<p>Laylah: ^^^ Yes they do. It's an academic interview, not a general chat. They usually start off by asking you why you want to do a certain course, etc. Then they'll ask you specific questions about it, e.g. for my interview (for Chinese) I was given an article about members of the Chinese Communist Party and asked to analyse the economic and politics effects of having Party leaders who were engineers. </p>
<p>There's someone on another board who was applying for Maths (I think) who got asked "How much helium would a balloon have to contain to lift you off the ground?" By the way, you don't have to get the questions absolutely right, you just have to show that you know how to go about the process of answering them.</p>
<p>Btw - thecorsair, what course will you be applying for? Some are more competitive than others which will affect your chances. But whatever you do DON'T apply for a course that isn't competitive then hope to change when you get to Oxford. Chances are you will either a) get rejected at interview because they will pick up on your lack of enthusiasm for the course, or b) accept you then not let you change course.</p>
<p>Corsair: Well I plan to major in economics or finance.</p>