Could anyone give me application advice? I'm a US student looking to study in the UK!

Hello everyone! I really want to study in the UK as an international student. I already have a few schools in mind--I will be applying to five--and I would like some input/advice on my chances for being accepted. I have already look at the websites, but I would just like outside opinions. I am considering Queen Mary Uni of London, Kingston University London, City University London, Royal Holloway Uni of London, and either Brunel or KCL. I am in the International Baccalaureate program; I made a 5 on Spanish B SL earlier this year and a 3 on Physics SL. I will be taking the Biology HL, English A1 HL, History of the Americas HL, and Math Studies SL exams at the end of this school year. My unweighted GPA is 3.0 out of 4 (a B average in the United States), I am in the top 25% of my class/grade at school, and my SAT score is a 1950 (610- Critical Reading, 640- Mathematics, 700- Writing). Can anyone tell me their opinion on my chances of being accepted to schools and maybe tell me about the school reputations as well? Thank you!

What degree are you looking to study?

Undergraduate Biology/Biological Sciences or Biomedicine/Biomedical Sciences. If biomedicine isn't available, then biology is my next preference.

The best university out of your choices would be KCL. If you are checking if you are likely to enter the university with your grades then head over to UCAS and check their entry requirements for your course, if you match them or exceed them, you have a good chance of getting in

That makes sense, with its ranking. The only thing I'm not sure about is if I'll meet the entry requirements. KCL would be the most difficult school that I apply to. For UK universities, do you know if any requirements are deal-breakers? In the US, most schools look at the entire application, and you don't have to meet every single requirement if other parts of your application look appealing. How does that compare to schools in the UK, if you know? As for the other schools, I've exceeded some standards (Kingston, GPA and SAT; QMUL, SAT; etc.) so I think I have a relatively good chance of acceptance, but I'm not entirely sure--not that you can really be certain when it comes to this.

I think universities in London are often very over subscribed. The first thing they will do is reject all applicants who do not meet their MINIMUM entry requirements and then assess the strengths of each persons application. Also, if you are confident about getting into the other 4 universities on your application, then why not have a more aspiration university such as king's on your list?

Understandable. That method is probably easier for making faster decisions and responding to students, though it's definitely more brutal (if you don't have a certain requirement). I'll probably apply to King's; if I don't get in there, I'll probably get in somewhere else. As for responses, how fast do unis typically respond? I'm sure it varies between schools, but I haven't seen a very clear indicator on the websites.

Hello everyone! I really want to study in the UK as an international student. I already have a few schools in mind--I will be applying to five--and I would like some input/advice on my chances for being accepted. I have already look at the websites, but I would just like outside opinions. I am considering Queen Mary Uni of London, Kingston University London, City University London, Royal Holloway Uni of London, and either Brunel or KCL. I am in the International Baccalaureate program; I made a 5 on Spanish B SL earlier this year and a 3 on Physics SL. I will be taking the Biology HL, English A1 HL, History of the Americas HL, and Math Studies SL exams at the end of this school year. My unweighted GPA is 3.0 out of 4 (a B average in the United States), I am in the top 25% of my class/grade at school, and my SAT score is a 1950 (610- Critical Reading, 640- Mathematics, 700- Writing). Can anyone tell me their opinion on my chances of being accepted to schools and maybe tell me about the school reputations as well? Thank you!

Maybe it would be worth looking into universities outside of London, often they are much less competitive for international applicants and are just as good. what about Sheffield, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh. If transport to and from home is a problem manchester has great links with the US via flights, as does Birmingham and Edinburgh.

Also being an international student you will have to pay for all of your students fees (which are much more expensive than home applicants fees), and you will not be eligible for a student loan in the UK, so you will have to fund travel and living yourself.

Living in London is so pricey, Honestly places like Sheffield are much more affordable and you could probably live on half if not less amount of money each week. its ok if your parents are loaded but its worth thinking about.

I was considering schools outside of London (Manchester, Oxford Brookes, etc), but my parents are wanting me to only look at London because of church (long story). I thought I could use US federal loans to help pay for my fees (financial aid); that's what many schools have said. I'm also applying for some scholarships specifically for international students. I completely understand your point and pretty much agree with it, but I just don't think my parents are okay with it. There are definitely some good schools outside of London. Haha, I've been researching them for about a year and a half now... There are a few that I'd consider if I could.

London is such a lovely city, but honestly some of the universities outside of London are much better than those inside.

I understand your parents may have specific wishes, but it may be a good idea to talk to them and try to get them to understand what you want. after all, its you who is going to university not them. I dont know what you mean by church, but honestly if you are looking for faith, then in some of the other cities and towns in the UK, we have churches of both catholic and protestant faith.

Honestly, it took me ages to finally get my mum to allow me to apply to Cardiff, I just had to let her know that I wanted to get my degree there.

and I have no idea about anything to do with financial aid and the US, all I know is University in the UK is expensive to any overseas applicants.

That is difficult to estimate as it not only varies by university, but also varies by department. There are normally three different time periods for universities to respond:

1) 0-7 days (Normally worse universities, or those where you greatly exceed requirements)
2) 6-8 weeks (Most universities)
3) In February/march (Top universities normally)

Thank you! Could you tell me anything about conditional vs unconditional offers? Are many unconditionals given out? I understand that it depends on your qualifications, but from a general standpoint...

My parents want me to go to a specific group of churches, that's all. Yeah, I previously considered a few outside of London, and I may still. Even with international fees, studying in the UK is much cheaper than studying in the US, thankfully.

I would be surprised if London were the only place you'd find the type of church you want. Worth looking into more if you haven't already. Also bear in mind that London is massive, traveling from one side of London to the other is going to take a looooong time and if you are going to spend that much time travelling for church you could study somewhere like Birmingham and be in central London within the hour, albeit for a substantial weekly cost!! Similarly it's worth considering Royal holloway is it's a great distance from Central London. Queen Mary's is also reasonably far into East London etc, so if your church is in NW London it will be hassle anyway whether you're at Queen Mary's or, say, Birmingham.

It's worth applying to a range of unis, eg two ambitious choices (eg king's, maybe UCL), two kind of normal, realistic but not easy choices (maybe like RHUL or QMUL) and then one choice which is a sure fire, definitely will get an offer.

Good luck!

KCL is definitely good. My sister studies there and she loves it. Take into account accommodation, feeding and transportation inside London, they could be on the expensive side but if expenses are no problemo, then that's sorted������������. I'm not too confident about Kingston, though this is subjective. Royal Holloway could be the dark horse because specialist uni's are quite good according to reports. I don't know anything about the uni (RH) so I'll keep shut on that. For some reason people like brunel, you could check out surrey uni as well, they seem to have gotten better recently.
Anyways good luck with the research and application and hope you enjoy your study in the UK .

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cannot comment on your qualifications. Kings is highly prestigious and very competitive. people who get into kings are amongst the best students in their class. Queen Mary and Royal Holloway also have good reputations but not as prestigious as kings. I don't know much about Brunel or City