US HS students looking at possibly applying to UK schools

[Twoin18]

@blossom

But the kids I know who have gone off to the UK all excited that they “overmatched” ( i.e. gotten into a college which they believe is more prestigious than their US options) have ended up either coming home after a year to take time off, transferring, etc.

The situation where a kid properly overmatches in the UK and should go there is when they are obsessed with an academic subject (to the level of self-studying just for “fun”) and don’t care about box checking in other subjects or ECs. For example, UK universities highly rate competition math (so an IMO participant is effectively guaranteed entry at Oxbridge).

In that case they should be interested enough to seek out and take APs regardless if their school doesn’t offer them. This thread is a classic example:

Help find math heavy colleges for math head (jr)?

Demographics Dual citizen, Germany & USA, male State/Location of residency: (state is important if you apply to any state universities) CA Type of high school (current college for transfers): Tiny, tiny college prep, currently a junior Gender/Race/Ethnicity (optional): caucasian Other special factors (first generation to college, legacy, athlete, etc.): see above - dual citizen, grew up in Europe, fluent in German & English (in case that matters to anybody) Intended Major(s) Pure math GPA, Rank, and Test Scores Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0 Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.7 out of 4.7 College GPA (for transfers): Class Rank: hs doesn’t rank, guess would be either 1 or 2 ACT/SAT Scores: SAT 1540, 1 attempt might make NSMF, but seeing as its CA probably not Coursework (AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores for high school; also include level of math and foreign language reached and any unusual academic electives; for transfers, describe your college courses …