American schools in the UK have larger American and international student populations and, consequently, send larger numbers of students to Harvard and other American colleges.

At the American School of London (ASL), 80 to 85 percent of the graduating class of about 110 students attends college in the U.S., said Thelma Bullock, director of college counseling at the school.

Ten to 15 of these students go to Ivy League colleges, but only one or two go to Harvard. Bullock said the most popular Ivies are Brown, Columbia and Cornell.

"Brown recruited much longer and more strenuously internationally than some of the other Ivies," Bullock said.

Six ASL students applied to Harvard regular decision this year, compared to 10 who applied to Brown.

"I knew I would be happy at lots of different schools," said Agesha Menon, who was accepted early to Princeton. "The prospect of knowing months before April was awesome."

At TASIS England 76 percent of the graduating class attends college in the U.S., according to Constance T. McEvoy, college counselor for TASIS.

"Our list of colleges that students attend is incredibly diverse, ranging from Stanford to Harvard to Lewis and Clark to the University of Texas at Austin," McEvoy said. "We do have applicants to Harvard every year. We have applicants who are Harvard material who don't go and go to Cambridge and Oxford instead."

McEvoy said that one student from TASIS--Daniel Jepson--was admitted early action to the Class of 2002.

Students and counselors said applying from overseas can be both a blessing and a curse.

"American universities for someone over here are a minefield," Winchester's Gregory said. "The lack of the equivalent of UCAS [a common application for British universities] means that they have to do a lot of homework before they can make a choice."

Halksworth of Eton said British students are not conditioned for the tests and applications required for entrance to American colleges.

"I think there is always going to be a problem for British students who are not used to the SATs, but colleges like Harvard are more aware of the difficulties," Halksworth said.

ASL's Bullock and TASIS's McEvoy agreed that communicating with colleges across the expanse of the Atlantic Ocean takes a toll on applicants.

"Time is a problem," Bullock said. "Finding the week to visit. All the applicants are inside the school. There is not as big a frame of reference."