cardboardcat

I'm an American attempting to apply to a variety of UK unis- my dream schools are LEC and UCL.

With a pretty bad GPA sophomore year- (3.8, 3.5, 3.9 for three years), I do have either 4s or 5s in all of my AP courses- Psych, Government, Comp Gov, English Comp, Macro, World, US, French, Art History. (Predicted 5s for Euro, English Lit, Micro.)

I also have a variety of extracurriculars- volleyball, some leadership positions, service projects, but I've heard that they're also not a huge help. Chance me please?

Also, it'd be great if anyone knows of a good resource where information on this could be found- there's nothing on the internet I've seen about Americans qualifying for UK schools.

vienneselights

1) it's LSE. You should probs learn that.

2) the schools' websites will have the relevant info regarding your qualifications

UK degrees are subject-specific, so your chances will depend on what course you're applying to. So if you're applying for Econ, Micro-Macro and Math will matter, and everything else will not (also, if you intend to study econ in the uk, you will need AP math for any econ course). Check the relevant course pages. Your GPA seems fine. London uni apps are a crapshoot, and apparently US kids get a hand up. Your ECs don't matter unless relevant to the course of study.

bruno123

If you are applying to an LSE major whose normal UK entry requirements are AAA or A*AA at A-level, you will need at least five two-semester AP courses with grades 5 in the respective College Board exams. In particular, if you are applying to be an economics major, AP Calculus BC is mandatory. Please read the country-specific information for US applicants at the LSE website.

magicjane

does gpa even matter for UK schools??

cardboardcat

I've heard it doesn't, but I'm still not really sure.

ChocolateOrange

GPA doesn't ususally matter at all. What unis care about are results of standardised exams/tests. AP's or the IB being most important, ACT and/or SAT might be looked at as well. I don't think most people even put their GPA on their application. You can double check with each individual university you are interested in to be sure.

cardboardcat

Does that also apply to super selective universities like UCL/LSE/Oxbridge?

UKgirl23

As we don't have anything like GPA here, everything is based on exam results, interviews and personal statement, I would guess GPA doesn't matter. I'm not certain though

TheRealKEVP

I think that what Chocolate Orange said applies generally to all UK colleges & unis, even the selective ones.

As UKgirl says, students in UK schools the same age as US high school students don't have GPAs, people in Britain wouldn't really know what a GPA is. (And even in the US, GPA's are not standardized, you can go to a school that tends to give higher or lower grades) But they can look at these US standardized exams and know how they compare to the UK's own exams (such as "Okay a grade of X on an American AP exam is about the same as a grade of Y on a UK A-level"). So that's why they use those to determine admissions for US students.

Also remember that in the US, if you pass AP exams it will allow you to skip some first year classes, but in the UK your AP exam scores will just let you start right as a first year student with all the other first years. Because the standards of British education are so much higher, and what US students do in their first year of college British students do before they went to college (and needed to do to get into college!)

Karl Paananen