Intro

Hello! My name is Ashmita, and I will be starting my first year at Imperial College, studying biotechnology. Previously, I studied at K. International School Tokyo in Japan, where I completed the IGCSE course as well as the IB Diploma.

Why the UK?

There are two main reasons why I chose to study abroad. Firstly, having been born in Japan and living here, I wanted to explore the world outside of it. I feel that people often get a bit spoiled living long-term in Japan because of how disciplined, organized and convenient it is. Therefore, I wanted to know what other countries are like, expanding my horizons. Secondly, I thought that STEM majors are comparatively more advanced in Europe or the US than in Asia. However, due to the unstable political climate, I didn’t choose the US.

Therefore, I chose the UK, as it had both safety and universities with great facilities.

My Choice of Imperial

I applied to UK universities through UCAS, which allows you to apply to up to 5 universities. I applied to Cambridge, Imperial, UCL, Manchester, and Durham University, and was accepted to 4 – except for Cambridge. Ultimately, I chose Imperial, which is ranked 2nd best in the world for the 2026 QS rankings.

I chose Imperial mainly because it has a separate biotechnology course, which not all UK universities offer. As I have a research interest, and it has many modern facilities compared to other UK universities, Imperial would offer amazing research opportunities, even abroad! Additionally, being located in the city and having a great reputation, Imperial also has access to many pharma firms that allow me to work in the industry, even at an undergraduate level.

My Application

For UK universities, all applications are done through UCAS, which only requires one essay, called a personal statement, that will be sent to all schools. I wrote about the subjects I took for IB, my extracurriculars, and how they connected to my intended major.

For the extracurricular I mentioned, I talked about an online research program I did on genetics after 10th grade. It included attending lectures for 6 weeks, where we learnt about genetics, cancer, and genetic diseases. At the end, I wrote my own research paper on diabetes, which I presented to my lecturer. Overall, I found it very fun and quite helpful in understanding what the research world is like. I also mentioned how I’ve always really liked biology since I was younger, which led to me studying biology and chemistry HL for my IB Diploma.

Other extracurriculars I did include Piano and traditional Indian classic dance, which I continued on a long-term basis.

As UK universities don’t require the SAT, I only submitted my IB score, which was a 43/45.

Costs

My application was free due to applying through Cialfo, which my school pays for. For the tuition, I will be covering it myself, as the UK does not offer any scholarships, totalling around £43,300 per year.

Looking Back…

I think looking back, I wish that I had started my research process for universities earlier. This would’ve allowed me to explore more options and apply to more universities. As I started around 11th grade, I think starting around 9th grade would’ve helped my knowledge of universities and the application process.