It was revealed this week that the number of British students applying to top American universities has risen by one third in the past year. The news was greeted not with outrage, but with resigned nods of the head. There’s one thing that all British students acknowledge: you’re expected to work much harder at an American university. “You take five subjects per semester, and in each you have to attend two lectures and one discussion per week, or you get marked down,” says 24-year-old Edward East, who went to the University of Virginia, at Charlottesville.