Advice for overseas UK applicants to UK universities

[JesusWeptLady]

So my kids have had all their schooling in the USA and want to apply to UK universities for 2025 entry. Both DH and I went to UK universities in the 90s and we can see a lot has changed. There's still UCAS but there's also now the Russell Group.

We have a sense of the AP exams they need to take as A level equivalents and the range of expectations among different universities including Bath, York, Nottingham, Bristol, etc

What I don't know and I'm hoping some people can chip in here, is this - are some universities more inclined towards the international applications than others? I did see in this year's clearing that many spots were for "international applicants only" but I don't know if that's a greater reflection on those academic depts. or just something to do with clearing.

Sorry this is sounding a bit vague as a question. I don't know if anyone has experience of a similar situation or knows people who have done this. I suspect any info would be great. Thanks.

The Russell Group is a rather successful lobbying group of some research intensive UK universities that first met at the Russell Hotel. Whether it is any indication of the quality of undergraduate education at the institutions is debatable, the member universities frequently disproportionately occupy the bottom 1/3 of the annual Student Satisfaction Survey.
Clearing for international students opens before that for UK students as their results days are often earlier. Some universities will put courses into clearing at that point, and in an effort to avoid confusion (I don't think it works) they put for international students only.

Visas for undergraduate study are very rarely refused by the Home Office. For foundation and post graduate (particularly taught post grad) courses the rules and those numbers are different and it is particularly the latter that recent changes have been aimed at. In essence they are changes that reverse changes that the current government introduced, but a few years ago.

@JessS1990 Thanks so much for your insights. The foreign office refused 33% of ALL student visas this year, across the board, undergrad and post grad included. It was in the press, regardless of what they have done in previous years or usually do, this is happening now. Apparently the universities are very upset about it because it obviously undermines anticipated funding. Either way, it only works in our favor, so I'm not complaining.

That 33% isn't very relevant to someone applying to undergrad though if the vast majority of those visa refusals are for postgrad (and foundation) courses.

@JessS1990 Actually it means a lot. If the admissions offices have to make up the international fees they are missing from these sources, they will look to undergrad, English speaking, non-visa requiring students to fill the gap and top up the coffers.

If that there were the case I doubt there would have been a decrease in the number of overseas undergraduates last year.

@JesusWeptLady just a tip from me. I work in Admissions and we often have to completely disregard US applications (competitive Uni for competitive course) due to the Personal Statement being absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the course applied for. Please emphasise to your dc to write about why they want to study the course. Not some random statement about mental health, a sibling, being from a single parent family etc. we often get these sort of Personal Statement from US applicants 😕

@JessS1990 The 33% fewer visas granted happened this year, so will affect ALL international applicants, regardless or your assertion that it is only the foundation and post grads. You cannot possibly know whose visas were not granted unless you work for the FO and are leaking confidential information. Actually I am a bit bored of this now. Thanks for your input anyway.

@Ihavethis2 Thanks. Yes, I was guessing that happens, because it is very much the slant of the application essay questions for a lot of US colleges. They are actively looking for students who have "overcome adversity" or are first generation college attendees etc. Thank you, because while we are trying to avoid that take, it's good to have the confirmation that it should be avoided.

Definitely 100% avoid anything like this in a Personal Statement @JesusWeptLady UCAS has some guidance on what should be in a personal statement. Here the focus is definitely on what you want to study/why you want to study it/experience relating to the course/books read about the subject etc.

I have admit that it was one of the reasons I way preferred the UK UCAS application to the one DD had to do for the US. I felt that at least for the UK it was clear what she needed to have achieved academically, the personal statement was relevant to the courses she was applying to so she actually had to think about why she wanted to study and was she suited. I felt that we had a good idea of where she could apply & get a place. For the US now that all the colleges are SAT optional there’s no easy way for you to show your academic worth (A grades are awarded to a large % of students for class work) and as a middle class, suburban kid who has not had a traumatic childhood and whose parents had been both been to University she was at a huge disadvantage when applying. It annoyed my American husband so much he totally came round to her going to the UK.

BTW totally unconnected but it made me laugh. I was having lunch with a friend yesterday whose daughter is at one of the US colleges DD has been accepted to. She said “just be prepared that if she goes there she will have to take one woo woo class a term”. I said yes I know they have to do things like Art history and stuff too. She said “No. This term all my daughter’s friends are doing puppetry but the course was full by the time she signed up so she is having to do Storytelling. First year they all had to take a class on How to make babies.” Personally I’d have thought a class on how not to make babies would have been more helpful.🥹 My friends daughter is Premed at a well respected Uni. For this she is paying tens of thousands of $ a year.
There is a very good reason us British Mums living in the US are looking to send our DC back across the pond for University.

@Itsbetterbythebeach totally agree, the UCAS personal statement makes much more sense to me as an admissions tool than some of the essays top US colleges ask for.
DS applied to Oxbridge and Ivy League schools simultaneously last year.
On the one hand he was writing a personal statement describing his love for his chosen subject and demonstrating the depth of his study, on the other hand he was writing an essay about which animal he most identified with or which song described his current state of mind.
With regards to the soft classes, MIT offers a pirate qualification which, if I remember correctly, consists of various courses such as sword fighting and swimming. All great fun but not what I'd want to see DS doing at the cost of $80,000 per year!

@Itsbetterbythebeach that kind of thing really makes me regret living here. But I think it's mostly the liberal arts, private colleges, not the large State colleges that have those classes. I know that most colleges will expect in the first 2 years for maths & sciences, foreign languages (unless you pass the placement test or have an AP in the language already) etc. Its sort of like an extension of school and you don't fix on your major til the 3rd yr. I also don't like the sharing rooms ethos. Very boarding school. But to each their own.

@JesusWeptLady Update for you. Finally heard back from last UK Uni - Edinburgh. It was a yes but is conditional on getting 2 more 5s at AP this summer (she is predicted 3 more 5s so is probably doable if DD decides it is her no 1 pick).
It gives me the satisfaction of telling my mother that DD got the offer. She paid for all her other grandchildren who live in the UK to go to expensive private school but I was told that the money had run out by the time that mine was school age (I’ve never quite been forgiven for moving abroad). Favorite UK granddaughter got rejected by Edinburgh. I think I might throw in that if she had helped my DD with private fees maybe she might have been able to try for Oxbridge 😆

@Itsbetterbythebeach Good for your DD getting another offer - what a star. We are still seeing how the Junior year AP's go, how it plays out with applications has a lot to do with this upcoming set of tests.