UK Target Admissions?
Hello, fellow monkeys. I'll be applying to colleges in the near future and I wish to be in the UK. I'm planning on applying to the following schools: Oxford or Cambridge, LSE, Imperial, UCL, Warwick, Durham, Bristol, Nottingham, KCL, Edinburgh, and Bath.
I go to high school in the US and I was curious about the admissions processes for these schools. I know this isn't collegeconfidential lmao but I wanted to get a perspective from people in finance since that's what I intend on doing and the types of subtle differences in answers I'll get from that crowd and this crowd will be helpful to me. As a student from the US, what is different about admissions? It seems like SAT Subject Tests and APs tests are more important, while extracurriculars are less important. **Since I still have some time, what would you guys suggest I do to optimize my chances of getting into some of these schools. **Any and all advice is appreciated!
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Sounds like you should narrow down the amount of schools you’re applying to and research them more to craft more personalized (better) applications. For instance, LBS does not offer undergraduate programs.
I copy pasted those schools from a list I had made. I have since removed LBS and some other schools that I'm not that interested in going to in a new list but I still would appreciate advice from a more general perspective.
I will remove LBS from the list though, thanks for catching that.
My understanding is that you can only apply to 5 programs in the UK through the UCAS platform, though I could be wrong. You might want to narrow down a bit more.
I was not aware of this, thank you for sharing with me. I'll narrow it down to 5.
You should probably actually research university in the UK because you can only apply to 5 in a year, and you can’t apply to both Oxford and Cambridge.
Yeah, I've definitely got to learn more about this whole process. I just recently found out I can only apply to 5 so I'll definitely keep that in mind. I did know that you can't apply to both which is why I wrote Oxford or Cambridge.
Thanks for your response, I appreciate it!
pm me
Go to thestudentroom, it's the equivalent of college confidential.
Not OP but fuck college confidential lol. It's like this but with 17 year olds instead of 19 year olds.
Just looked it up, looks like a treasure trove of useful information. Thank you so much!
Depends what you want- Want a IBD job but no social life (@ me if you want but everyone knows it)- go to LSE
Want more academics- go to Oxbridge
The others are more balanced (Or I don't know much about student life there) and would group like this (all my opinion/based off Spring weeks, SA class and Grad class-semi-targets are where you can argue/re-arrange):
Target: Imperial, UCL, Warwick Strong Semi-Target: Bristol, Edinburgh, Nottingham Semi-target: Durham, KCL, Bath (less so than others from what I've seen)
Also think about whether you want to be in London- has its advantages for recruiting but also you're in London as a student- not as fun.
Optimise- get the grades but actually personal statement matters a lot too- why you want to study the subject you apply for.
I can't even begin to articulate how useful this is. Thank you so much!
Couple questions though. Wouldn't it be more fun to be in London as a student? If you had to pick 5 schools from all the ones mentioned to apply to, which ones would you choose?
London isn't great as a student - very expensive in terms of going out and rent. 'Second tier' UK cities (Manchester, Nottingham etc) are better imo as you get a lot of the benefits for a fraction of the price.
You also need to consider what you value - if IB is your main goal then sure LSE is great. But if you care more about the uni experience then somewhere like Bristol is better in my opinion.
lol fuck Imperial, there are about as many girls as there are unicorns on earth. In most cases I'd rather fuck an trans than them and the decently looking (by Imperial standards - the top 1%) think they are hot as they are just hanging out with 95% nerds that are yet to lose their virginity and have wet dreams on them when in reality they are just 5/10.
Also you'll be studying harder than anywhere else (Oxbridge included)
Thanks for the info. What's the culture like at some of the other schools? I'd be interested in being somewhere in or near at least a big-ish city, somewhere from which I can recruit well, but also somewhere at which I can party and have fun for three years.
Thoughts on the culture at the LSE?
Pretty shit if you ask me, but it's a self selecting thing, most individuals at LSE are not there for the culture. But you can always make some friends that are not just at LSE and have a good time, yet an expensive one.
Undiagnosed autistics
International students
Virgins
This is why English ppl do not go to LSE/Imperial
Fucking true mate. I guess that's because Imperial is actually a STEM uni
I don't think the distinction between strong vs regular semi-target makes sense here. All of those universities do well amongst the semi-target group of schools. The "weaker" ones would maybe be like Exeter, Cass or St Andrews. Bristol / Notts / Ed / Durham / KCL / Bath are all more or less as strong as each other (maybe Durham being a tad better than the rest).
Personally also consider Manchester and Leeds to be semi-targets too (Leeds has a strong pipeline with GS, Citi and Roths + a few more), Manchester does very will with e.g. Barclays and a couple others moreso at the SW level vs SA level) but other people disagree
Placement does not equate to targeting. I would not really make the distinction between any of the semi-targets in your list except Durham and City Business School.
If Warwick is counted as a target then I am not sure why Durham is not.
No comment on Manchester and Leeds as I do not want to be banned from WSO. Maybe they are the same level as City Business School
Edinburgh has the largest student run investment fund. It is chalk full of politics- similar to an IB. The difference though is it is run by morons. That, however, is a great in to IBs if you gain a seat on the board.
This could not be more true- Edinburgh student here- highly recommend against the investment fund club. If you want IB, there's a good IB club aligned with the econ soc- has less morons, less politics/who you know, and prepare you well for interviews as people have done them/internships.
For sure. They cycle through friend groups who end up running the thing. I was curious and messaged the fund manager how they hedge investments- they don’t. The most optimal thing to do at Edinburgh is to keep a rapport with professors, and like you said join the Economics Society or affiliates. EUTIC is terrible, unless you do a hostile takeover with a majority of your friends.
If you’ve already done the AP’s and SAT II’s and met the requirements for GPA, you should be good for most schools if you do an ok personal statement. I applied to the UK but didn’t go in the end
Agreed. GPA doesn’t even matter for anywhere besides Oxbridge. The LSE requires 5 5s though, and micro and macro count as one. Plan accordingly
I'm the OP, thanks for your response! I have an objectively subpar GPA for US admissions (somewhere between a 3.65 and a 3.7). Will this hurt my chances at Oxbridge? How about at the other schools? I do have about 10 APs though with at least a 5 on more than 5 of them.
It pretty much entirely boils down to a) grades (really test scores) and b) your personal statement (application essay). And realistically the latter only really matters for super selective programs or schools - e.g. Oxbridge, UCL Econ / Law / PPE, LSE, Warwick Econ / WBS, KCL Law, Durham History / English etc. For Oxbridge, you typically have to do an admissions test and an academic interview as part of the admissions process. For top tier Math programs you have to either do an admissions test or an additional exam around / after when you sit your finals which is a more involved / significantly harder version of A-level Maths and Further Maths / AP Calc BC / IB HL.
ECs are not as reverred a they are in the states. They could help in cases where there's a lot of competition for offers but generally the process focuses on academic ability and intellectual curiosity within your chosen area of study. Apart from that, You generally apply straight to a degree program (as opposed to applying to the university) and have only 5 choices of programs to apply to. Since you only have one personal statement it would be in your best interest to choose similar degree programs otherwise you'll struggle to show your interest in all of th esubject areas.
I'm pretty much fine with test scores, but does GPA matter a lot? As for my personal statement, I'm going to spend a lot of time working on figuring out how to make it good. It seems that it's not the same as a traditional essay for the US, so it'll be a different process for me to figure out the structure and both the blatant and subtle differences between them. I'm somewhat wary of programs that'll require me to do an extra test because of the educational system differences between the US and the UK. I'd be good with an interview though (I do a lot of public speaking so that's something I think I can prepare well for and do well on).
Is that so? That's very interesting to me. I actually dedicated a lot of time to my ECs so that's sort of bittersweet for me. I've placed at nationals for Future Business Leaders of America, gone to national conferences for Model United Nations, I'm the editor in chief of two publications (the high school newspaper and one I started myself), I founded two nonprofits, got a patent for a security system, racked up about 50 volunteer hours, got a novel published, and did financial/economic research for professors. This stuff won't hurt me, but how much will it help me at the top unis? Just curious to know because I've put in a lot of effort for some of this stuff, and I'd kind of like to have it paid back by helping me in admissions you know?
Yeah, I'll definitely be picking only finance/business/econ programs so that my personal statement can be fine-tuned to that general field.
In your cover letter, show that 1) you know what you want to do and where you want to go 2) you are ambitious 3) you are community-minded
That is, don't say that your plan is to do 2y GS TMT ---> KKR/Apollo ---> CEO. You can bullshit, but you have to explain that you would like to contribute positively to the world at some point in your career. Be original.
Easiest way to find out is to just look at the "entry requirements" section of the programs you're interested in. Everything regarding what academic standard the instution is looking for will be laid out there. Also worth reaching out to admissions teams for your subject to flesh out any questions about qualifications not listed on those pages - I'm aware that not every school will have listed requierments for AP / SAT scores (some might have them in an "equivalent qualifications" document or page that'll try to map the scores to typical A-level / IB grades). At least for common admissions tests there are sample tests online for you to take a look at - they'll give you an idea of what type of rigour you'll be dealing with; for E&M / PPE at Oxford you have to take the TSA (Thinking Skills Assessment) and for Econ at Cambridge you have to take the Econ Admissions Assessment.
Worth bearing in mind that an Oxbridge interview is not about your desire to study at Oxbridge or your achievements or anything. It is almost entirely an academic discussion with a professor in your area of study, It could involve solving an academic problem aloud with said professor or it could be a more general discussion or debate about a random topic of choice. It's essentially the university's way of checking if you would "fit" well into the supervision / tutorial model of teaching.
Yes. The admissions philosophy in the US and UK are completely different. Top schools in the US look for future leaders or movers and shakers of the world, Top schools in the UK look for the brightest academic minds with a passion and intellectual curiosity for their subject. ECs can , especially academic ones like your finance / econ research, help don't get me wrong but they aren't the main focus of your candidacy. It should only take up a couple lines, max, of your personal statement. The rest should be about your desire to study the subject and why you would make a good student for that subject.
I'd even go further than that and just aim for either econ or finance / business. There isn't a ton of overlap between the two areas academically so you're better off picking one of the two. FWIW Econ is the more "respected" degree subject in the UK - business is seen as being "soft".
Thank you so much to everyone who responded. You’ve all been so helpful and I truly appreciate your information, advice, and honest feedback! The helpful and kind-natured spirit of this forum is why it’s so powerful. Thank you and have a wonderful Thursday!
Studied In The Us And Uk (Targets) And The Uk Was Much Harder Academically (Engineering). Work In The Uk Now And 70%+ From Uk Targets. Warwick, Ucl And Surrey Are Definitely Targets, Bath Is Amongst Elite Boutiques.
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