St Andrews

[IthinkIsawahairbrushbackthere]

DD has received a very good offer from St Andrews. She loves the look of the course and is very keen to go there. Aside from the course she loves the idea of a small town, has no interest in nightlife as part of the "student experience" and loves the quirky traditions.

Does anyone have any experience of being there and the extra expenses that could be involved such as the extra cost of travel, formal dinners and the like?

We are a low income family in an economically deprived area. She is part of a very small 6th form - 12 in the Upper 6th. Her school is not in special measures but is holding on by the skin of its teeth! They are very keen for her to go to St Andrews but she is not going to be their responsibility!

We will support her as much as we possibly can but I am worried that it will be a lot more expensive than a less elite university.

Any thoughts?

@Monkey2001thank goodness for that

Let’s hope they choose to stay there for winter term and give st a the best chance 👍

No news on accom here yet.

@Newgirls somebody on TSR said accommodation offers can take 2 weeks. Hopefully they will be quicker this year, but don't hold your breath!

2 weeks?!! We need to book transport! That will be very tight!

Might see if DD will ring them next week

@Newgirls get your Dd to keep checking my saint if she now has log in details. Although dd friends had standard email confirmation regarding accommodation my dd only found out via her uni account. Nearly missed it!!

Ok thank you!

@Newgirls - also worth advising her to set the university e-mail address up on her phone so that she gets the e-mail without having to log into MySaint.

Details of how to set it up are at www.st-andrews.ac.uk/it-support/services/email/

DD has now been allocated accommodation. She’ll be in David Russell apartments, self catered.
@Newgirls has your DD heard anything yet?

@idsisatwat is she happy with that? DRA was DS's favourite of the en suite options, I think he plans to live there next year. They say it is "so" far from everything, but at St A that just means a 15 minute walk!

DS has not joined the FB page for University Hall as he does not do social media, but I assume your DD knows she may be able to find her flatmates on the DRA page if she wants to.

Was there still a good range of arrival slots available?

@Monkey2001 she’s really happy. Mainly because it’s self catered en-suite. Her cooking is fairly limited, so she’ll be very involved over the next few weeks We only saw Agnes Blackadder when we went, but from the pictures it looks lovely. And like you say, nothing’s really far away in St Andrews
She’s only just joined FB, I think for this purpose. So I’ll tell her about that page, thank you.

She didn’t mention anything about drop off slots, so I’ll get her to go back on when she’s up. As soon as I know something more about drop off slots, I’ll post.

No news here and dd is checking all pos places for info - are they doing it by accom alphabetical? Or is that just coincidence 😂

Not a great deal of arrival slots. We’ve got the 8th @5pm. So it looks like I’m booking another night in St. Andrews if possible.
I’ve no idea how they’re doing the allocations @Newgirls

@idsisatwat she needs to do the accommodation induction - the slot booking is at the end of that. Glad she is happy! Did you pick up that she can get her room number from the financial statement if she wants to find her flatmates?

@Newgirls I think the accommodation types seemed to be done in batches in the first wave of offers, so maybe they got DRA out yesterday. There are not enough people on here to get a feel for whether any of the standard catered for A level people have gone out.

@idsisatwat - bit annoying for her to move in the middle of the orientation week. As it is all on line I guess you will want to be somewhere with a decent internet connection.

You might like to consider staying in a travelodge somewhere south of Edinburgh on the 8th - might feel odd for you hanging around in St A if she wants to spend the evening with her new flatmates, although as she is self-catered it may be different. DS wants us to drop him off and disappear so he can get on with his new life!

No accommodation news here - I hope DS hears soon though!

No news here either. And there was a hold-up getting her criminal records declaration done, because the website was flaky. So I'm worried she's at the end of a very long queue .

They guarantee places for all first years so it should be ok... could do with a date though!

We cant seem to find the room number - she's had a look at the financial statement. I've now paid the first installment for the accommodation. So at least that's another thing sorted.
@Monkey2001 we managed to stay another night in st Andrews, and we're then going further north for a few days. Might as well make a holiday out of it

DD now has her entrant details but a bit confused by the welcome screen on the IT system. Did your kids have to install Outlook in order to access email?

@idsisatwat DS it was on the financial statement for DS - this is the beginning of the summary. It says hall and room number (cut off as this is public)

@AChickenCalledDaal - DS used instructions here to set up on his phone, don't think it was outlook. www.st-andrews.ac.uk/it-support/services/email/

If any of you are planning to get a red gown I just got one on ebay (DS hoping to join choir, so would need it). Still £80, but at least it was not £159 which is the new price!

Meant to say there are quite a few more available