Will UK/US universities understand that in my country, it is common to deliberately fail and retake classes?

Question

I wanna apply for Master’s programs at LSE and Oxbridge starting next year. I’m currently on completing my undergraduate studies, have the equivalent of a first-class honours will most likely graduate with distinction and Top 5% of my class.

So far so good.

However, I have just read here that it can be quite an issue with admission officers if there are bad grades and/or failed classes on the undergrad transcript. It appears that bad grades and/or failing classes are much more troublesome in the UK and USA. I heard that you can’t just resit a class and that such grades may even count toward your final grade (USA).

The thing is, where I’m from, it’s totally normal to (deliberately) fail a class for whatever reason. In fact, it’s pretty simple. If you fail a class it doesn’t count towards your final grade (why should it, if you didn’t pass?) and you can retake it whenever you want. At my university you’re even allowed to retake exams you have already successfully passed, a good thing if you want to optimize grades. Hence, it’s obvious that little attention is given to a fail or whatsoever.

I’m concerned, however, how this could be perceived with graduate admission at the top universities in the UK. On my home university transcript, failed classes doesn’t show up, only passed ones. I only have two classes where I passed with a 3 but I’m gonna retake them next semester and get a first on them. Unfortunately, I did an exchange in the US last semester where I passed two courses (A-, B+) but failed two and q-dropped one. I failed because I knew it was easier at home and I had other things in mind during this time. By now, I have already completed these classes I failed in the US and got excellent grades on them.

In light of these circumstances, is there even the slightest possibility that graduate admission would reject me despite a first-class degree just because there are 2 failed courses on an exchange semester transcript? Given that in my country the culture of failing classes for whatever reasons is commonly practiced. Does graduate admission generally understand those critical differences between UK vs non-UK universiy life?

Answer 1

Let me try and give an answer from the perspective of someone who is involved with, but not responsible for, PhD admissions in my discipline (mathematics) at a UK university. I know that you are asking about a Master's place, but I will try to make points which also apply to some extent in that setting.

Standard disclaimers apply: while I hope what I say is not inaccurate, it does not represent the official opinion of my department, my employers, etc.

I'll confine myself to the final parts of your post/question:

In light of these circumstances, is there even the slightest possibility that graduate admission would reject me despite a first-class degree just because there are 2 failed courses on an exchange semester transcript? Given that in my country the culture of failing classes for whatever reasons is commonly practiced.

Rejection or success has to be understood against the context of who else is applying for a limited number of places. So I would say that there is a slight possibility, in the sense that when it comes to ranking candidates and making offers, the two fails might be noted and interpreted as a sign of some deficiencies, as compared with some other applicant who has the same overall GPA or degree mark but doesn't have those fails. However, there may be people on the relevant departmental committee who know that different countries have different systems, and who could then counter that interpretation with context such as the explanation that you give in your question.

Put another way: I don't think a 1st class degree with 2 failed courses on an exchange semester would be ranked below someone with an upper 2nd and no fails; but when compared with someone who has a 1st class degree and no fails, you might find yourself unlucky.

That said: my impression is that provided all other marks are good, a couple of low marks are not regarded as so significant, provided that the good marks are not in subjects/courses regarded as "easy" and the low marks are not in subjects/courses regarded as "hard".

Does graduate admission generally understand those critical differences between UK vs non-UK university life?

As I've mentioned above, there may be people who do understand, but this is very hard to predict. For instance, I have a colleague who did his PhD in Rome, and so he is able to give very informed opinions on how we should interpret transcripts from applicants who did their undergraduate degrees in Italy. I have worked in Canada, so if I see a transcript from someone from that system I have some idea how to interpret the transcript and the likely content of courses. Other departments in other universities may have similar random connections.

If you are very concerned that these marks on the transcript could jeopardise your chances, then I think the best thing to do is to ask one of your reference-writers to make some brief comment about how the system where you did your exchange visit differs from the one where you did your main degree, and how (in their view) those fails do not represent your true potential.

To finish: you should nevertheless reflect on the fact that if you do want to do a Master's in the UK then the mode and culture of assessment will be different from what you previously experienced and are used to. Lecturers are unlikely to make allowances for a student who seems, from their point of view, to give up at a certain point because they wish to take the hit of a bad grade at an early stage with the hope of then ratcheting it up. They are not going to set assessments which cater to that way of thinking. I mention this not to claim that the UK approach is better, or that the UK courses are harder (they might actually be easier!) but because you need to know what you are getting into.