Parents of US student looking for general UK uni advice

[Valleysaurus]

Hello

Our eldest daughter is a junior in high school in the States and is seriously considering pursuing her bachelors course at a UK university. Her high school marks and test scores will not be high enough for her to be competitive at the more selective universities. If we understand the UK entry requirements, we suspect our daughter would qualify for courses with entry requirements at the ABB or BBB level. We don't think she is particularly concerned about institutional pedigree, just fit. Likewise, international fees are not a primary consideration in our choice because, believe it or not, even at the international rate, many UK universities are more affordable than their US counterparts.

Like many high school students in the United States, she does not have a clear idea of what course she would like to study in university, but we suspect she will settle on a course focused on environmental studies, sustainability, conservation or tourism and hospitality. Which leads to the questions:

Given her applicant profile, which UK universities (if any) have a closer-knit campus community? Think a lot of students living in university accommodations and/or located in a city that is what we might call a "college town" in the States.

Are sandwich programs at all useful for international students in helping to find work post graduation?

Is it weird that admissions representatives are not returning our emails? We've contacted a few universities with questions about entry for 26/27 school year and it's been crickets...

Thanks!

As an American in the UK, out of curiosity, can I ask why she'd rather come here than stay there? Two of my three went back to the US - it's quite a different experience here.

Adding: The admissions offices operate quite differently here, as all UK applicants apply on a standard UCAS form, so there's no real contact until an admission decision is reached, and even then, it's fairly minimal.

Dd has several US friends studying at Edinburgh for similar reasons. There is quite an international community there and probably more flexibility to select modules from other subjects than many UK unis. Lancaster is campus uni with similar ethos, if possibly fewer international students. York might be another worth considering , as it has a college system. London unis while popular can be very isolating in terms of accommodation and expensive so best avoided.

Admissions offices are frantically working on getting offers out for 25 at the moment , I'd give it a couple of months amd try again. Are you emailing specific departments? That might be more helpful than generic emails. So a geography department at Manchester, for example. If you could search and pick a few courses at specific universities and contact them, that would be a start.

She could start by checking out the UCAS course guide online. You've given a very wide range of courses, so firstly she needs to whittle down her options and decide what course she'd like to do.
Next look at which universities she'd get into with her grades. Then from there see if she wants campus or city. If the city is small then it can also feel very campus like, especially if she's in halls of residence for her 1st year. I'd avoid London if she wants a campus feel though.

Lastly, it would definitely be worth a trip over to visit some open days of a few universities.

I only made my final decision after having visited all 6 of my applied universities.

Try Birmingham University
Lots of student accomodation, it's UK's second city, rental prices reasonable,lots of markets and shops, good nightlife, lots of courses available, other universities in easy reach.

Lancaster is a really good option. Top ten ranked, collegiate system, major/minor system with up to three subjects studied in year 1 before specialising in years 2 and 3, small historic city with large student population. Near both the sea and the Lake District.

You are hitting admissions at one of the busiest times of their year when they are considering applicstions for offers for this year. You may be better off asking between June and July before results day in August.

I’d look at Scottish universities. The four year course with the first year being broad is nearer the American experience.
As pp have said it’s a bad time of year to be contacting universities. See if they list an International admissions or support department and contact them.

Another vote for Lancaster. Lots of societies to join. Our daughter was very happy there and got an excellent degree.

Many universities in the UK are campus universities. Quite a few are essentially a little town all on their own a bit out of the town they are named after (eg Lancaster).

The ones that are not campus universities (eg Newcastle) in practice have sections of the town that are largely student accommodation - eg the Jesmond area in Newcastle is mostly student flats.

Geography and environmental studies will be offered by a lot of universities. Tourism and hospitality probably fewer.

I would recommend you look at York and Nottingham, both have agreed to lower entry requirements for overseas students on all courses. Both are campus universities near to the cities.

Also if you can find the international admissions contacts on the university websites, try contacting them directly about any questions you might have, they are more likely to be primed to answer you.

Try Exeter uni .

Some of the unis mentioned here surely don’t take ABB or BBB level students? Edinburgh? Surly not unless they desperately need students. Some unis mentioned won’t have some of the courses either. I know hospitality is best studied in Switzerland for example. It’s where well off South Africans go. Travel and tourism is rarely found at somewhere like Lancaster or Exeter. I could be wrong though. I think DD needs to understand the differences between the universities (research led) and the more vocational ones. Then look at city and size. Not many are university towns. Many universities have their buildings in an area of a city though and others are remote and buses are needed to get into town.

Oxford Brooks is a decent shout if they do the courses. I haven’t looked. Oxford is a great place to be a student and one of the best university cities. Great links with London and Heathrow.

Swansea University a good option. I think Hilary Clinton has some link to it as recently visited it. Their BSc Business & Management has several modules including Marketing, Tourism, Corporate Social Governance so students get to cover several topics , which is great if not sure what to do. The Bay campus has lots of accommodation though students tend to go into Swansea for nightlife. Lots of O/S students and good rail/ coach links

I would second the Scottish universities vote if she is unsure of exact subject as for most subjects you are admitted to a faculty (sciences, arts, social sciences etc) and then do a broad first year with option to move around a bit within thr faculty. In terms of entry requirements it really depends on the course. Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee, Strathclyde etc occupy a main area of the city each so a sort of campus feel. St Andrews is a much smaller town/city and the students make up a big chunk of the population so feels quite Campus like. Stirling is the only one I am aware of that is fully on a campus. Living costs generally lower in Scotland (not Edinburgh) than south of England.

Think the grades expected might be pushing it.

Agree re the expected grades, many suggested here won’t accept those grades.

Actually you may be surprised at what grade levels even some very prestigious ones will accept international students at (eg Edinburgh).

If she is unsure of what she wants or study I would second the recommendation to look at the Scottish Universities which allow more flexibility on the subjects being studied/changes. Also for a student coming from the US the 4 year degree might allow a slightly easier transition. I believe that Stirling might be be a good one to look at. Nice small town, lovely campus & easy to get the train to Edinburgh & Glasgow. Also the 3 year English degrees can require a student to be ready to focus,analyze,write and study independently at a level some US students are not used to (no disrespect the the US system it is just more generalized at high school). My daughter (US educated) started her degree in England last September. She is loving it & enjoying the challenge but she admitted that she would probably be struggling to study at that level if she had not done APs. Also the UK Universities tend to have a lot less contact/directed study that their US counterparts & students are expected to be a lot more independent and self motivated with their studying so you should definitely bear this in mind when deciding where would be a good fit.

This may be true (although the offer my International DD got from Edinburgh last year was not at reduced grades - but I’m sure she she had better odds of getting that offer than a local student) but I would be very wary of going down this route. You could potentially be setting them up for a great deal of stress if they are not the right academic level for the course/student cohort.

I agree that the Scottish universities are very much worth investigating. My son was accepted this year (from the US) to Edinburgh, Bristol, York, Warwick and Kings London.

He has AP's in US History (5), European History (5), English language (5) and Psychology (5). And an SAT at 1390. He gets straight A grades. You can get in with less, if your school doesn't teach AP level classes, Honors classes are accepted.

Let me know if you want to speak privately about it.

Some unis do a Liberal Arts course which us most akin to the US system - Birmingham being one

OP - you need to employ a professional admissions consultant or you could go very wrong indeed. You mention "fit" and you are absolutely right to do so. A professional admissions consultant will suss out your family and your DC and give you a nice shortlist of appropriate universities and courses.

Another vote for Scottish universities. I think Stirling could be a great fit potentially.

I did geography in Aberdeen. The geography programme there is quite interdisciplinary but with a fairly strong focus on sustainability. It's not really a small campus town, but the campus is a bit more on the edge of town and very much feels like its own world.

St Andrews would be another obvious choice, for example their programme in Sustainable Development, but she might struggle to get the grades for that one.

Interesting question, we are in England and my daughter was looking at US unis for a while, We seriously looked at 3 Scottish Unis (St Andrews, Glasgow and Stirling) and also considered 2 (Edinburgh, Aberdeen) - so sort of understand from the other way round, if that makes sense. I have been an academic for about 15 years, if that's relevant. FWIW BBB should give you a wide variety of choices in UK, many top 10 UK Unis want more, especially for the popular courses like Economics, but with a more niche subject like yours there should be some real quality unis to chose from

Lots of good stuff already said. English schools and Unis are different to Scottish schools and Unis, the latter is closer to US experience IMO because Scottish Highers (the exams there) are closer to US equivalent. Where as English A levels are slightly "higher" level and Uni year 1 can be tough to catch up / keep up in English Uni from US

UK also has regional unis that tend to have lower entry requirements and take more of their students from the local area (eg Sheffield Hallam. Oxford Brookes, Stirling and the post 92 Unis) while others have global reach and higher entry requirements (eg Uni of Sheffield, Uni of Oxford, Edinburgh)

The key with regional Unis is knowing the subjects they are really good at, and which of the "Top 10"s have more modest entry - a professional adviser should be able to help

Logistically, getting to some UK Unis is easier than others, not sure where you are in the US but international flights to UK can be a long way from major Uni towns. London has two main airports, Heathrow and Gatwick. And then you have Manchester, Newcastle, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh - have a look on Google Maps and you will see. And dont assume the roads / trains are great, for such a small country our transport infrastructure is rubbish. Something like Trainline would give you a sense of possible journeys / journey times

Stirling was a lovely campused Uni near a small town, grades were very modest (more a regional uni) but my daughter was concerned about studying with students who had got in with much lower grades than her (she was at AAB A*EPQ) they offered BCC for Economics / Politics (I think)

Uni of Edinburgh and Uni of Glasgow were both amazing city campus Unis, pretty high grades for most subjects, high cost of living. Both cities also have 2 (maybe more) regional unis with more modest entry requirements for many courses - again its important to know which subjects the regional unis are good at

Aberdeen was nice, but remote (both in getting there from US and going anywhere else nearby - its a bit of a bubble). Uni of Aberdeen has a sort of regional uni vibe in a good way, but great reputation in some subjects. There is also a regional Uni there I think (Robert Gordon?) dont know much about that one

St Andrews is unique, the uni is possibly bigger than the town (which is also Golf mad by the way) Reputation from some subjects is excellent, entry grades can be brutal. A lot of US folks go there, lots of money there, its not like any other uni town IMO

Dont know much about Dundee though I know someone who did medicine there and loved it. Again I think there is a regional uni in Dundee (Abertay)

A key question is why UK? And where does she want uni to take her? If this is more of a life experience than a career path then that would indicate different choices - eg I can imagine York being a great place to be, lots of history, mid sized campused uni. A little hard to get to (probably fly into Manchester, train to York). Likewise Glasgow / Edinburgh regional unis would be great for entry and "experience" but are not campused. All are expensive to live but you said that's ok.

BTW, not sure about Lancaster, my eldest has been having a very poor experience with 1 department there (she is doing a joint degree). Her sister is applying to Uni this year and was initially looking at the Lancaster for Biomed but decided on York and Warwick instead. It is also a bit remote from anything particularly interesting, except the Lake District 1 hour north and Manchester 1 hour south.