Do international students compete against other international students?

So do int compete against eachother, and not domestic.

If so doesn't that make it even harder to get in, since anyone who bothers to apply internationally will have high academic credentials.

Except where there are binding quotas (just medicine, I believe), it's a level playing field for all applicants.



So no. And it also isn't true that all international applicants have high academic credentials, or that they are on average better than domestic applicants.

You might see that the stats are lower for international applicants; this tends to be people applying with unrealistic grades taking a punt. Also, international applicants are more likely to not take their offer, because of funding or because they've applied somewhere else (e.g. Ivies).

Do you mean that they apply with lower grades, and yeah of course

Yeah, some will apply with lower grades; they won't subsequently get in!

Do you know about unis like Harvard and Stanford?

If you mean "does Oxford admit students the way the US schools do?", then the answer is no. The UK schools are very focused on academics, and they admit people on the basis of their suitability to study a specific subject. ECs help insofar as they demonstrate your interest in the subject.

"Diversity" isn't a goal of admissions in and of itself, so unlike the US schools, Oxford doesn't have a "quota" for international students. If you're good, they'll take you.

So international students compete against eachother in US, whereas at Oxford they don't?

I would say so yes.

how is that for int for usa

int's are usually the best applicants - the creme de la creme and have the highest academics usually..

Why ever not? They are perfectly entitled to use whatever admissions criteria they want (short of it being illegal). If your criteria is "diversity", it makes sense to ensure that you have a good spread of people geographically.

That internationals are by default the best applicants is also an assumption. There are a lot of international applicants who are just applying to "try their luck" too.

They admit a certain amount of each ethnic group - discrimination at its finest.

No it's a fact if anything. The two Pakistani boys who got 23 a levels each one example, and I will have to compete against all the Asians who have similar high academic creditentails.

Candidates internationally and domestic with weak grades will get wittled out at the first stage.

Not much I can do about the bias selection process.

Thanks for your help regardless.

Pretty sure SCOTUS quite recently handed down a judgement saying something like taking race into account during university admissions is an acceptable form of discrimination. SCOTUS definitely said that this is legal under the US Constitution more than once. I personally think affirmative action is the wrong way to go, but it is arguable that there is a historical reason behind it.

Getting 23 A levels might be an indicator of academic prowess, but even then, I'm not sure how good that is as a predictor of University performance. That guy had 2iis for his first two years at Cambridge, and got a 2i in his final year.

Why ever not? They are perfectly entitled to use whatever admissions criteria they want (short of it being illegal). If your criteria is "diversity", it makes sense to ensure that you have a good spread of people geographically.

That internationals are by default the best applicants is also an assumption. There are a lot of international applicants who are just applying to "try their luck" too.