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Ivy League Prep
US vs UK university applications: what’s actually different
The instinct is to treat the US application as a longer version of UCAS. It is not. UCAS asks one narrow question — can you think about this subject? — while the US system asks who you are, and expects the answer to hold together across essays, activities and recommendations.
This guide is in preparation
Watch this space.
We are writing this one now — drawn from the same cycle we sat ourselves. Here is what it will cover.
- One subject, or a whole person
- The essays
- The personal statement against the Common App essay
- Supplementals and the ‘why us’ question
- Activities, and what actually counts as depth
- Testing: SAT and ACT alongside A Level predictions
- Timelines that overlap badly
- Applying to both without diluting either
Work through this with us
We guide applicants through both systems in parallel in our Ivy League Prep. Sessions are one-to-one with a Cambridge student who has recently sat these exams.
Work with us