Navigating a Very Different Admission System in the UK...Help Provided

UK_Helpers
Tue, 15 Mar 2016 18:57:44 +0000

After a two year journey our oldest daughter will start St Andrews in the Fall. She nor we entered into this decision lightly. In the end, we felt the UK was best suited for her to study English Literature over the US options. She is thrilled with her choice and beyond excited to be attending such a wonderful university. That being said, we started the process of investigating UK universities and programs of study two years ago. What struck us was the dearth of information available to US parents and students about the admissions process, standards, academic programs, etc. We managed to dig out quite a bit in that time - some through helpful posts on this site. The rest was filled in through visits, consultations with friends and academics in the UK, email inquiries, and other web based research. Given that our daughter applied to four institutions through the UCAS and received unconditional offers from all four we think we have a pretty good idea of the process and options for students applying there.

We are wanting to give back some of what we have learned to our fellow Americans, so for parents or students feel free to post your questions. We don’t know everything but I can promise we are far more informed than 99.99 percent of college counselors in the US.