American schooling better than British?

All american unis let you get out of introductory level classes if you score high enough on your ap exam. i go to UCL.

And no, isn't it a bit unreasonable to force an 18 year old to specialize in one subject for the rest of their life? What if your interests change? You are basically screwed.

i meant proportion as well.

If you are not mature or don't know yourself well enough to know where you interests lie by that age then I would say you are not mature enough for university. Besides in the UK system of earlier specialisation it means we don't have to piss away more money on pointless undergrad degreew we don not want to live so we can live a life of paying of monumentous debts.

Yeah, I want to double major. You can't do that here and I worry that my softer ECs will affect this. I still have 2 years to fix this but I will be up against people who have been serious about it since year 7 (up till this year, none of my teachers told me to worry about ECs or exams for previous years) and I am average physically and dreadful musically.



I could get into Oxbridge with excellent grades (which I have) and decent extra curricular (social work, work exp., couple of awards, couple of distinctions to show you're serious about your area of study, be part of a sports team).

Whereas I could have that and still not even get an interview for Ivy League because I would be up against Maths competition winners, club presidents, music award winners, and sports stars who have been on ESPN.

Obviously it all depends on the individual but you have to make a generalisation at some point. You can't account for everybody.

Ok fine I follow the English and Welsh curriculum.

it does make them better in a sense that the student body will be more well rounded and have broader interests.

Are you kidding me? At 18 you expect everyone to know what subject they want to study? Allot of college majors are subjects that you can't even study in high school, how would you know if they were for you?

I've heard of Oxbridge interviews - they ask you some weird/hard stuff. It's not easy. Face it, Ivy League interviews (for the most part) are extras, you could do them in your sleep. Oxbridge ones, you NEED prep. you need to be on your toes.

That's where your wrong, roughly 15-16% of Americans go to Uni, about 50% of Britons go to Uni...

Most tutors can spot a heavily-'prepped' candidate, and will quite easily trip them up. What you need is the ability to listen, a certain fluidity and rapidity of thought and the ability to argue a point well. Those are the sort of things that stand you well.

Wow, you are on another planet. 50% of brits are educated to degree level? give me a break.

there are only approx 150 unis in the UK, that would be impossible.

If American Universities base their admissions on non-curricular criteria for submission to an academic course, that's their own stupid fault

EC is just a distraction. If you're the best of the best academically you shouldn't have to compete with club presidents or sporty types if they are not as good academically as you.

The UK system makes it so that you are aware can have a taste of everything so you know. The US system keeps you moving around so that you are confused. Hence it is flawed. Hence you're not 'mature' enough to choose.

But I still want to know how you chose? Mr. I'm at UCL

what if you change your mind? i think this type of flexibility is great.

I don't think that's necessarily entirely true.

First, don't start playing the statistics game. For example, Cambridge has an applicationffer ratio of around 5:1, whereas Harvard's is about 13:1. On the surface, this would make it look like Harvard is much harder to get into, but in actual fact UK applications are limited to 5 unis (4 if Med Applicant), but in the USA you can apply to as many colleges as you like - it just costs more! Hence, while only the best will apply to Oxbridge if they think they're in with a real chance, lots of American students will apply to Ivy League universities, just in case, even if in reality there's next to zero chance of them actually gaining a place!

Furthermore, it's generally accepted that A Levels are at least on a par with, if not rather harder than, APs (which are the closest the American education model comes to an equivalent). The only reason American students have so many qualifications is because they're required by universities! PSAT is largely irrelevant (unless you're applying for scholarships, or so I'm informed!) - it's a practice for the SAT, and isn't actually counted for anything. SATs and SAT IIs are comparatively much easier than A Levels, but are still required by US universities to demonstrate whatever level of ability in key areas of study. Generally speaking, academically the UK secondary model is probably more stretching than the US one, (although of course you have to choose the right subjects...), and lots of UK students studying in the US have spoken about how the first year (sometimes two years) of their university education really wasn't much harder, if any, than Sixth Form. In fact, some US unis will let UK students skip a year of their degree if they have enough academic *credits* upon entering the college.

As far as ECs are concerned, it's true, lots of Americans are much more involved outside of school than UK students, but that's because US universities traditionally place much greater emphasis on these than their UK equivalents. Here, universities such as Oxbridge are far more focused on academic achievement, whereas in the US places like Harvard, Yale etc are interested in the whole package; are you a talented musician, are you widely involved in community activities, are you a good sportsman...and because this is so engrained into the system US students are naturally more likely to go into Extra-Curriculars and take them far more seriously than some of their UK counterparts, merely because they know how important they can be when it comes to application time.

Overall, I wouldn't say it's necessarily 'harder' to get into either - both have very different requirements, and it's hard to compare standards because students aren't assessed on similar criteria.

Are you thinking about applying to the US?

This is about what stance people in different countries take w.r.t evolution. I don't know about education as a whole but American scientific education must suck.