Excellent! congrats to you both, @CuriousInCincy
Great choice @CuriousInCincy!
Just closing the loop here, S18 is not going to take up his PPE offer at KCL, though it was a great safety to have in the bag in early November.
In the end he had far more success in the US than in the UK, despite being an unhooked middle class white kid. He went 9/10 with acceptances at Berkeley, UCLA, UVA (Eccles scholar), W&M (Monroe scholar), GWU (Presidential scholarship at Elliott), American (PPL Scholar), Macalester (DeWitt Wallace scholarship), Case Western (Dean’s scholarship), Gettysburg (Lincoln scholarship). The only no was at Princeton (where he was deferred SCEA).
He is currently undecided between Berkeley, UCLA, UVA and GWU, but in-state UC tuition is definitely a significant consideration (cost was a major reason why he didn’t apply to some schools he was interested in like Chicago and Georgetown).
what did she not like about Durham? Just curious…was it the college she was allocated or did she just prefer Edinburgh more? My daughter firmed Durham in the end!
My son preferred the city atmosphere in Edi and the extra flexibility of the Scottish system.
^ For my daughter’s high school, Edinburgh is definitely the hot school. Whereas the kids that did not get into Oxbridge always headed to Durham and Bristol (usually in that order) her year sent 7 to Edinburgh, 5 to Bristol and one to Durham.
^ @londondad is St. Andrews falling off the list or not as appealing to UK students? They seem to be highly ranked in the league tables in most subjects. We just booked our trip to Dublin (TCD), Edinburgh (EDI and St Andrews) and then down to London (LCE and maybe UCL).
@dadinga St. Andrews is definitely respected in the UK, but it seems to have a bigger cachet amongst Americans. Similar deal with the LSE.
In this rural/semi rural area St Andrews tends to be regarded as the preserve of the wealthy, though well respected. The 4 year courses for all subjects make Scottish unis in general less attractive from a financial point of view with most students needing hefty loans for higher education. Decades of hard work by the secondary schools encouraging students to apply to Oxbridge has resulted in a steady trickle going there from most schools. Sixth formers are very aware of the living costs and educational qualities of most UK unis and tend to apply to the English and Welsh unis which best fit their circumstances.
@dadinga, I think that St Andrews was never really on the ‘list’ for the students that @londondad is referring to (correct me, @londondad if I have read it wrong). There are fashions in schools that reflect both academic rankings- but also what kids and parents think are desirable.
For English students, the only Scottish uni that was ever seriously on the radar was Edinburgh. As @4mummy pointed out, in the UK only the Scottish unis are always 4 year courses, so an extra year of fess (parents)- and being at school (students). Note also that Scottish residents pay less (under £2K/year) for Scottish unis than students from the other parts of the UK (England, Wales, NI, Channel Islands pay £9k/year). So, there is a strong financial incentives for Scottish students to stay in Scotland, but not for rest of UK students to go to Scotland. When you add any regional biases (which are real), the wealth of options available at the same cost, and that there isn’t much novelty in English village life for English students(!), it is not really surprising that it’s not where most English students look first. Edinburgh is a cool city (students) and has historically been ‘the’ Scottish uni (students & parents).
It is not just in rural/semi-rural areas that it is seen as the preserve of the wealthy- and not without some justification, as it is the 2nd least economically diverse university in the UK (Cambridge is the least).
Also, I suspect that St As does not get the same respect at home as it does in the league tables is at least in part because both league tables, and StAs high rankings are relatively recent (by British standards) factors,There is a segment of the independent school population who attribute StA’s rise in fame as being down to wanna-bes who go b/c of William and Kate (and who will remind you that the head of Kate’s secondary school was surprised when Kate gave up her place at higher ranked Edi in favor of lower-ranked StA after William announced his choice). That narrative is partly true- applications to StAs went up 20% after William announced his choice- but ignores StA’s steady push for the US market since the mid 1980’s.
Imo, StA’s is a bit like (say) Vanderbilt: a school that flew under the radar for a long time, in part b/c of it’s regional geography, but has made a concerted push to get itself on the radar by actively recruiting high stats students from outside the region. In StAs case, the US students that it has been recruiting (for nearly 30 years now) have yielded the budgets to recruit better profs and provide the resources for them to do better research, leading to better results/publications/reputation and better league table rankings. Over time, that attracts more & better qualified applicants, making it a virtuous circle. But: it takes a time for peoples perceptions to catch up (cf, Vandy).
@dadinga I was starting to answer your questions and realized that @collegemom3717 did a great job and I agree with her responses. I think that traditionally (or at least during the 7 years that DD was at her secondary school) the kids who were competitive for Oxbridge (who did not get in or decided not to apply there) would usually end up first at Durham, next at Bristol and then a group consisting mostly of Nottingham, the London Unis (which are less popular due entirely to the kids wanting to go away for college) St. Andrews and certain top individual programmes such as Warwick Econ or Engineering. It seemed that the 4 year structure of the Scottish programmes was an issue but seems to be less so as many Oxbridge programmes are 4 years plus programmes at many other top Unis include a fourth year for study abroad or work experience.
I asked DD who so few kids from her class avoided St A’s and Durham and she thinks that it is two issues. 1) as with the USA, urban schools are hot at the expense of more remote ones and 2) her year did better than usual with Oxbridge and medicine offer so the kids who liked Durham as a second choice made their Oxbridge offers. I do think that the increasing popularity of Edinburgh will continue. DD’s friends who are there love the city and the Uni.
Percentage wise St Andrews and Edinburgh have around the same percent of their student body from the UK. So to say one is more or less popular with UK students is difficult. About 4 times as many UK students attend Edinburgh as do St. Andrews but it is about four times as big.
Last stats I could find for St. Andrews had 14.7 percent US students. They seem to be concentrated in relatively few majors. The biggest other group is EU students then other commonwealth countries that may have cultural or family connections.
True, @VickiSoCal - but that is a (relatively) recent trend, which started circa 2001 
@VickiSoCal Thanks for your post. Just to clarify, when I mention that Edinburgh is now more popular, I am specifically referring to mu kids’ cohort which is the London private school day (non-boarding) students. The other aspect of Edinburgh that my kids’ friends report back is because Edinburgh gets the best and brightest of the Scottish students they feel that the intellectual rigour there is at a really high level.
I’m curious how that is determined. When I look at the league table for chemistry for example, I see St. A with entry standards of 208 and Edinburgh at 180.
My daughter is going to Durham this fall, she got St Cuthberts, her 1st choice. She is going for history
Congrats, @cloudysmom! I know it was a long & winding road. I hope she loves Durham!
@collegemom3717 Thank you! It sure was as you remember (which is very nice of you, by the way) but I don’t see how she can not love Durham! It seems just perfect for her. I think she was trying to make UR work after her denial at W&M. Richmond was too small and isolated after all, she could not walk anywhere and the school was the size of her HS. gorgeous campus and great education. I was hoping she would stick with it but I told her if the $ worked and she got good grades at UR then I would consider it and all that happened so here we are, trying to figure out VISA and dates to fly and all that! Guess I better change my avatar, lol!
@cloudysmom Congrats to Claudia on her acceptance to Durham. It is really brave of her to recognise that UR was not the right place for her and transfer to Durham! Also, Durham has a great English programme which will be better than URs. (It is ranked #1 by the Complete University Guide). I have also heard that St. Cuthberts is one of the better colleges as it is near the Cathedral and Castle. Good luck!
@londondad Thank you! She is very excited and yes - St Cuths is near the historic buildings which means a lot to her. Glad you think its one of the better colleges, we are clueless! We kept reading Durham has an amazing History program so we are wading through the VISA requirements - all ready to go we just need the school to hurry up with the CAS!! We need to be there 9/27ish. Very excited!