average entry standards amongst universities in the UK, with new undergraduates averaging 197 UCAS points, equivalent to just above AAAA in A-level grades. It gave offers of admission to 33% of its 18 year old applicants in 2022, the fourth-lowest amongst the Russell Group.
In 2022, excluding courses within Edinburgh College of Art, the most competitive courses for Scottish applicants were Oral Health Science (9%), Business (11%), Philosophy & Psychology (14%), Social Work (15%), and International Business (15%). For students from the rest of the UK, the most competitive courses were Nursing (5%), Medicine (6%), Veterinary Medicine (6%), Psychology (8%), and Politics, Philosophy and Economics (10%). For international students, the most competitive courses were Medicine (5%), Nursing (7%), Business (11%), Politics, Philosophy and
Economics (12%), and Sociology (13%).
For the academic year 2019/20, 36.8% of Edinburgh's new undergraduates were privately educated, the second-highest proportion among mainstream British universities, behind only Oxford. As of August 2021, it has a higher proportion of female than male students with a male to female ratio of 38:62 in the undergraduate population, and the undergraduate student body is composed of 30% Scottish students, 32% from the rest of the UK, 10% from the EU, and 28% from outside the EU.
=== Graduation ===
Graduation ceremonies are held in the purpose-built McEwan Hall. At the ceremonies, graduates are 'capped' with the Geneva Bonnet, which involves the university's principal tapping them on the head with the cap while they receive their graduation certificate. The velvet-and-silk hat has been used for over 150 years, and legend says that it was originally made from cloth taken from the breeches of 16th-century scholars John Knox or George Buchanan. When the hat was restored in the early 2000s, a label dated 1849 was discovered bearing the name of Edinburgh tailor Henry Banks, casting doubt on the supposed 16th-century origin; however, it is unknown whether Banks …
