Are universities in the UK as competitive as the top unis in America?

Why are you asking?

Only Oxbridge and Medicine courses really compare to the Ivy League in terms of competition. But America also has the added layer of discrimination against Asians and positive discrimination towards African Americans which the UK (thankfully) does not have.

I mean it seems like a huge problem, if you do everything, yet not get into some of these universities. I mean I've seen some get into MIT and rejected into 'lesser' universities. That just seems like a mess. The question is how competitive are the top universities. Is it as competitive as the ones in America?

Only Oxbridge and Medicine courses really compare to the Ivy League in terms of competition. But America also has the added layer of discrimination against Asians and positive discrimination towards African Americans which the UK (thankfully) does not have.

Hmm, so it seems. I'm not trying to get into Oxbridge(I may, if my journey goes unexpectedly well), but if these people who are at the very top in terms of grades still get rejected by many other top 10 uni(not even MIT/Harvard), it seems discouraging to work that hard.

I'd be scared if that was the case for good universities outside of the Oxbridge group(imperial, UCL, practically any other Russel group).

you didn't hear Trump reversed affirmative action? this means no longer applies. you're worried about nothing.

tbh not sure how we're supposed to compare the US and the UK considering the US has 5 times the population, so would have more applicants but also more universities. there are just too many factors.

I'm not worried about affirmative action, but I think it's a bit daunting that some can get near max ACT, SAT, GPA, have multiple international awards, have plenty of leadership roles, have many volunteer hours and not get into any school they want. But what can we do? I mean if there is many that are in the same boat as you, you can't do anything. I just hope it's not the same here. I think this generation is particularly lazy, so IDGAF! I'll try get into the best UNI i can, because why not? But if I don't it's not the end of the world, most learning is done after school and your uni is only for bragging rights and to assist you to get your first job. After that, you can use experience. I'm very sure companies will take a more experienced candidate from a decent universe over the one with no experience but from Oxbridge. Not only that I want to pursue business and be self employed.

I've seen people with near max stat(ACT,SAT, GPA), plenty of leadership roles, plenty of sports, personal side-projects and 100 volunteering hours get denied in the top universities. A lot seems to do with affirmative action, with Asians maxing out ACT scores yet being denied. What have Oxbridge applicants experienced from your knowledge and is it random like many in America have stated?

The US system lets you apply to as many universities as you want, hence being less likely to get into a single one. In the UK, for undergraduate study, you can only apply to five, and only one of Oxford and Cambridge. We also don't care about a long list of non-subject relevant volunteering and leadership roles.

However, Oxbridge does more individual assessment, e.g. admissions tests and interviews, than most US universities. The UK system is also much more subject focussed than most US universities.

The US system lets you apply to as many universities as you want, hence being less likely to get into a single one. In the UK, for undergraduate study, you can only apply to five, and only one of Oxford and Cambridge. We also don't care about a long list of non-subject relevant volunteering and leadership roles.

However, Oxbridge does more individual assessment, e.g. admissions tests and interviews, than most US universities. The UK system is also much more subject focussed than most US universities.

That's interesting. Thanks for bringing that up. I should note to research the universities that I pick and work to fit their criteria, since it seems like many either have these entrance exams and others don't. But yeah, I'm very much happy to hear that it shouldn't be that competitive. I'm sure stuff like medicine at Oxbridge will be very hard, but not like in the USA where even top 10 is hard for the best of students.

Are you a US applicant applying to UK universities? I'm British, but live in California. My son completed the last 9 years of school here, and is about to start his second year at Imperial.

Applying from the US is fairly easy. You don't need a good High School transcript - just good APs / SAT subject test results, and money ..

I'm in the UK, but I was seriously shocked seeing that some of these students were getting near max marks and had lots of leadership roles yet getting flat out rejected left, right and centre.

Did you see their actual applications?

If you didn't, you can't know exactly what is going on.

People do sometimes get rejected from UK universities too with applications that sound perfect (this was possibly more common when there were caps on the numbers of students each uni could take). However, unless you have seen their whole application (reference included) and sat in on their interview (where relevant) you cannot know that their application was perfect.

Maybe their PS had terrible grammar/punctuation. Maybe they had a terrible behaviour record at school that their referee felt obliged to include. Maybe there is something else going on that means the admissions tutor didn't feel they were suitable.

Top universities and competitive courses in the UK and abroad do get more qualified applicants than they can offer places to- so they have to turn some people down. They can't offer places to everyone who is qualified.

In the UK this is somewhat mitigated by the application system- you can only apply to 5 unis initially and most people apply without knowing their grades- this means it is rare to get someone applying to the 5 most competitive unis for their course (and of course you can't apply to both Oxford and Cambridge) as the risks are higher.

In the US, if you're a top applicant with great (known) test scores, you can apply to 20 unis (if you can pay the application fee) and lots of people apply to the top 5 or 10 most competitive courses for their subject. Unless they have financial constraints, most US applicants don't have to think quite so tactically about their applications as people do in the UK.

This isn't the only reason, but it does perhaps explain why it may be more common to get lots of rejections in the US. In the UK, getting 4/5 rejections is a bit of a disaster, but in the US it isn't as long as you have another offer you are happy with. The systems are quite different so it's hard to compare.