Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Flip

1 2 3 4

Original poster

How good is the University of St Andrews?

97 replies

indiraisindiaisindira · 30/11/2016 21:21

DD has a conditional offer for history there and she's considering it even though it's 10 hours away!

It looks very traditional! I like the look of the small town life, much safer and less worrying for me

How prestigious is it?

I see that it is 3rd in the league tables this year. Is it really the third best university in the UK?

How well regarded is it for getting into the city for banking/law?

We are going up to visit it for a feel of the place soon

OP posts:

blueskyinmarch · 01/12/2016 12:51

It is fantastic. I went there and met my DH there. We live on the outskirts of the town now and really love it still.

It is a very small town so none of the attractions of the big city. Students make their own fun. The union has just been refurbished and is really great. That said, for a small town there is actually lots going on.

There are lots of wealthy students and lots of foreign students (the two are not mutually exclusive), however there are also plenty of students from a fairly average sort of background.

Your DD really needs to visit it to see if it is for her. My DD has just gone to uni this year but ent to Bristol as she was slightly fed up with St Andrews having gone to school there. She really needed bite at city life.

AddictedtoLove · 01/12/2016 12:55

Kr1stina tough, but probably true.

OTOH, OP The History department at St Andrews is a good one. I wouldn't say stellar, but your DD will get a good all-round humanities/liberal arts training there.

Your DD probably needs to do a bit of research about the structure of Scottish degrees - they're quite different to English/Welsh/Irish degree programmes.

bojorojo · 01/12/2016 12:55

The students I know who went to Scottish universities flew home quite a bit. Not just at the end/beginning of term. Therefore the cost would add up. This is what I really meant by having money. It would not be just one 10 hour drive to get stuff up to Scotland vs one flight.

I am amazed that students there are so rude, Paperdoll. That is extraordinary! There are other universities who have a high intake of boarding/privateley educated students, but I think rudeness on that scale would be unprescented. Also, plenty of well off people buy High Street clothes! Non-one should be put off a university because they buy from Zara or Top Shop. Kate wears plenty of High Street, even now!

IHaveBrilloHair · 01/12/2016 12:59

As I mentioned, my Mum went and certainly wasn't from a monied background, DD is less than privileged, she's currently a 'looked after child'.
I'm also from Durham, went to a comp and had friends who went to Durham uni so it just doesn't strike me that being from an average background should be a problem, but maybe I'm unrealistic.

user1470997562 · 01/12/2016 13:02

My niece left a few years ago. There was an accommodation issue when she was there, not nearly enough for the number of students being taken on. At one point she was looking at living in a static caravan in the middle of nowhere. Just something to bear in mind.

PaperdollCartoon · 01/12/2016 13:04

bojorojo yes it is really surprising. The friend who's friend it was said to went to Cambridge herself and describes that as being much less...snobby for lack of a better word.

BaggyCheeks · 01/12/2016 13:05

I'd be inclined to suggest that the comments about "high street clothes" say more about the people making the comments than the university. I'm from a below average background - poor town, first in my family to go to university - and knew a lot of people from similar situations.

AddictedtoLove · 01/12/2016 13:12

I think the difference with Cambridge is that, even if you had a bought-for-you secondary education, you still have to be very bright and hard-working to get there AND stay there. So there's a democracy of brains, if you like.

Might not be so clearly the case at St Andrew's, particularly given the Windsor lad went there (from a family not exactly endowed with intellect). It might be seen as a "prestigious" training ground for marrying a rich spouse by some sections of the undergraduate community. Who must be joys to teach not

chemenger · 01/12/2016 13:14

My dd is there and loves it despite dressing from Primark . There are a lot of privately educated students there, there are a lot of really well off students there and a lot of overseas students, but it is not my impression that it is unwelcoming to those who don't fit those descriptions. DD took it in her stride when asked where her "other homes" were after she said where she lived! Accommodation is expensive but I think there is not a desperate shortage of it. It is quite a closed environment but there is a lot going on. People I know who went there seem to look back very fondly on their time there and to have very strong and long-lasting friendships.

BertrandRussell · 01/12/2016 13:19

I loved my first two years. Got a bit of cabin fever in year 3, and couldn't wait to leave from early in year 4. But that was a long time ago- it may not be quite as closed and insular as it was then disclaimer-yes it is! . I discouraged my dd from going and she is now at Edinburgh.

You will get the offensive posh and the non offensive posh at any university. Exeter, for example, has plenty of both. But I think that the way St Andrews is geographically concentrates things- it can get a bit pressure cookerish.

Allthebestnamesareused · 01/12/2016 13:20

Friend's son is there at the moment.

He benefits from being able to play golf there at the Royal and Ancient if she's into golf.

wigglybeezer · 01/12/2016 13:22

DS2 wants to go, there's a particular combination of subjects he wants to do available. He had Aspergers and is not very socially adroit so I am a,bit concerned about the social mix limiting his opportunities to make friends (or meet a lovely girlfriend!) but he likes the town, doesn't like big cities and there is even a direct bus that drops off at the end of our street. A bit worried about accommodation issues though...

Sunbeam18 · 01/12/2016 13:22

It's hardly 'far from anywhere' - it's about 20 mins from Dundee and an hour away from Edinburgh

wigglybeezer · 01/12/2016 13:31

It is famous for meeting future spouses though, I know a few St Andrews couples.

IHaveBrilloHair · 01/12/2016 15:18

Bertrand, DD is considering Edinburgh too.
I'm wondering if St Andrews would feel less pressure cookerish given we live in Glasgow* so easy to come home and has the big city life which she can share with new friends?
*we don't yet, but will be by then, and are only 45 mins out atm, it's also likely she'll have a car.

dementedma · 01/12/2016 20:02

My friends Harrow educated son goes there. Fits right in!
Will probably meet a suitable gal from a suitable background while he's there. His parents met there. It's pretty stuffy.

goodbyestranger · 01/12/2016 20:11

My parents met there too, in the Forties, when it wasn't in the least bit stuffy.

goodbyestranger · 01/12/2016 20:15

Anecdotally, my parents' friends from St Andrews from the Forties (several of whom were our godparents) seemed a markedly more intelligent bunch than the crowd I knew in London in the Eighties, though the latter were markedly more rah. Definitely less clever though, without a shadow of a doubt.

bojorojo · 01/12/2016 22:26

I am actually wondering if anyone much pairs up at university now. One of DDs friends has - her former boyfriend. No-one else at all! They seem to want to continue looking in their 20s - even more possibilities?

SharkBaitOohHaha · 02/12/2016 06:34

I did my undergrad at St Andrews.

I absolutely could not fault the academic side of things. First-class teaching and I feel a bit spoiled by it (now at a uni where none of the teaching staff seem to give a shit). The pastoral support was very strong as well.

However, I didn't like the town itself. I got cabin fever after first year, all in-town accommodation was too expensive, etc. I ended up living in Dundee and commuting in, which made me feel a bit more human.

dotdotdotmustdash · 02/12/2016 07:33

My Dd found it to be her least favourite Uni of all the Scottish Unis she visited on open days. She found the atmosphere and the lecturers unfriendly and elitist. She much preferred Edinburgh.

goodbyestranger · 02/12/2016 07:36

bojo big generalization there. All of my twenty somethings are with boyfriend or girlfriends they met at university - seven years together, four years, three years, eighteen months etc. I don't get any sense that they're looking but of course things may change (I hope not - I really, really like all the partners!).

alteredimages · 02/12/2016 07:54

I had a choice between St Andrews and Edinburgh a very long time ago when I went to uni. My observations about teaching quality etc are probably now very out of date, but what I would say is that although I chose Edinburgh in the end and enjoyed my time there, I would have benefitted much more from the better pastoral care at St Andrews and fewer distractions. If you are talking about yahs, then Edinburgh has just as many and is simultaneously so large that it is easy to get lost in the system a bit. I didn't have very many contact hours and tutors changed all the time, while the lecturers were alternately too busy with their research and disappearing on sabbaticals. I don't know for sure that St Andrews was any better, but I do remember that on the open day the head of department met me individually and discussed all aspects of the course, which I probably should have appreciated more than I did.

unlimiteddilutingjuice · 02/12/2016 08:02

It is considered very prestigious. However, it's in a pretty small town, dominated by very posh people and pretty remote from anywhere else by public transport.
A friend of mine did a postgrad there and got horribly depressed. We used to drive out from Glasgow to pick him up and take him away from there for a day to try and cheer him up.

LordRothermereBlackshirtCunt · 02/12/2016 08:05

As far as getting into the City for banking / law, where it helps to be part of a particular social set, I'd say it fits the bill perfectly. I've been there for a few conferences, and it is very Rah. I went into a bar one evening with some other conference delegates and we stumbled across a fancy dress party where the students were all blacked up for some colonial theme or other.

Flip

1 2 3 4

Swipe left for the next trending thread