@LutherVan, what part of “wife” and “daughter” do you not understand?
Look, keep going if you want to, but folks who have lived in or have family/close friends live in both the UK and US will find your shallow understanding and prattling quite painful to bear with.
@moooop, I’d say that St. A’s is comparable to W&M, but Dartmouth is still apt. Both W&M and Dartmouth are liberal arts universities that aren’t big and with a preponderance of undergrads. Student body at St. A’s may be closer to Dartmouth’s, granted.
@elguapo1, that’s fair. It is more meritocratic if merit is judged purely by academic ability in a subject or subjects. BTW, there are income-based federal student loan programs in the US now.
@Conformist1688, yes, it’s holistic in a fashion, though since there’s really only one target to shoot for (being terrific academically in the subject(s) of the course you are applying for), it’s not what Americans may consider holistic.
I’ve described undergraduate study in England as grad-school-lite, and their selection procedures are a lot like those of PhD programs.
In contrast, the selection process of the American elites for undergraduate admissions (with very little exception* but slight variations here and there**) is more like b-school MBA admissions. MBA programs, while they do want to feature an average GMAT of the student body that is close to a perfect score (as an aside, the GMAT, just like the SAT and ACT, just isn’t that difficult a test) are more interested in crafting a synergistic diverse class of people who will go on to do great things (mostly in the business world), help further the brand of the school, and contribute back to it in the future than they are in finding the best academics in anything.
- Back in the '90's and before, UChicago prided itself on being focused on the pure pursuit of knowledge. These days, it's just like the other elites. Probably only Caltech--which explicitly does not discriminate by race, legacy, or athletic ability (though they reserve the right to do so by gender) and sends an insane number of their undergrads on to PhD programs--is "British-like" in caring mostly about academic ability and potential (though they also care about yield like everyone else).
** For instance, Northwestern wants to fill it’s Integrated Science Program with kids who will go on to win awards in and get PhDs in the sciences. But the NU adcom also needs to satisfy the coach of the football team, fill it’s acclaimed journalism school with kids with the potential to become world-famous journalists, fill it’s top theatre program with kids who have the potential to be successful on Broadway and in Hollywood, meet the demands of other stakeholders (the music school wants accomplished musicians, for instance), and form a student body that not only has top test scores (in the top 1% of unis by average test score) and GPAs (at least top 10% and very preferably top 5%; actually, without a hook, you probably have to be top 1%) but also will contribute to the school spirit and richness of NU both as students and alums and also looks somewhat like America.