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?

@Newgirls this has a link to the interview - m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2405384829767742&id=100008887449805

It was interesting to get a sense of the people in charge and I'm sure they found it useful to find out what people were asking about. I was glad that they mentioned the recent news stories about sexual abuse (albeit rather obliquely) and seemed serious about continuing to tackle issues about diversity, student culture etc and not make the year entirely about Covid.

In terms of additional numbers, they have about 1000 extra and I thought they skated over the accommodation issues a bit too much. They are at a number they were intending to grow to by 2025 which must give them a headache in terms of handle admissions fairly next year.

I totally get that about getting infections from elsewhere - yet if there are no cases by w3-4 then surely no reason not to be able to do f2f. Seems stacked against students.

Thanks Monkey - I would watch but it would only give me more rage 😂

Being so oversubscribed is a nightmare. I can’t imagine they will be able to offer uni accom to anyone other than next year’s freshers.

My taxi driver pointed out a huge development about 5 min outside st a which is going to be used for uni services. He thought idea would then be to release more town centre space for students. It is prob a year or two away from use so I can see plans are in place and the gov mess has made everything more complicated

I think that being oversubscribed this year might encourage them to keep numbers down next year, so it may be easier to get uni accommodation for returning students. There is more likely to be a shortage of private housing if there are 1,000 extra students chasing the same, limited, housing stock. There may also be more demand for uni accommodation if people have not made enough connections to find house shares.

For medicine (not St A in particular, but generally) there is talk of universities having a high failure rate at the end of the first year to get the numbers back on track as medicine is usually carefully balanced so that the number of students starting have jobs to progress into all along the way. This is quite likely anyway as people who would not have met their offers will have got places and will find it difficult.

Chicken - yes, I thought it odd that they said planning for 1,000 extra students in 2025 made any difference to what they could accommodate now. They were clearly giving the message that it is all under control, but we know that is not quite true with single rooms made into doubles, some triples, and systems experienced by our DC not being what was described. I think they closed a load of old accommodation this year, the old S/C standard at Albany Park and are knocking it down and building something new, but that will take years, unless they do what Newcastle did and get bolt-together modules from China - their newest hall was made like lego!

I hope the med students are ok - surely we need them now we’ve annoyed all the international docs.

Hope accom next year is ok - i shouldn’t have raised that particular worry just yet!

@Newgirls

I hope the med students are ok - surely we need them now we’ve annoyed all the international docs.

Hope accom next year is ok - i shouldn’t have raised that particular worry just yet!

Re the accommodation, I logged on to the event this afternoon and they said that although they always give priority to first years, they are able to accommodate about 40% of their student body at any one time....so this would be more than just first years. I typed in a specific question about whether in a flat of 5, they can have one visitor between them (to get up to 6) or if no one else is allowed in the flat at all and will post the reply when I get it. They said their Covid policy was clear....I think there are lots of ponderables hence the question.

40% students in uni accom is very high! Very useful info dotoall

I hope they can offer lovely accom to this year’s freshers who may have been allocated in Dundee or wherever. So they get that experience.

Ds has a friend who apparently has been given accommodation in Dundee.

Yes the rule of six seems very strict - households in halls would also mean no visitors really. Perhaps very tricky to actually check and if no new cases this week and next I hope the town might be covid free. We shall see

@Newgirls the numbers should be low as St A is quite isolated, but it is unlikely to be Covid free as people will be coming in and out. I think our DC will be very lucky compared to cities like Birmingham which had 134 new cases yesterday.

I also think very low risk there. The locals are a feisty bunch though so I am sure rules will stay as long as pos

Over on the fb page a poster has said two medical students expelled for being at a large party at macintosh.

Im conflicted about that, i think a very scary warning would suffice, imagine having to tell your parents you'd been chucked out. I'm perhaps biased as one of my normally sensible teens recently did something very irresponsible and out of character and ended up in big trouble.
I also read speculation that medical courses might fail more students at the end of this year to cull numbers (due to not enough training places later). Not a good time to be a med student.
As an aside, I'm horribly fascinated by the American parents on that facebook page, dont get me wrong, they mostly seem very nice but so invested in their children's every move and expecting a whole different order of communication and service from the uni.

I’m conflicted too - it’s so hard to get into med school and it’s been a very tough year. I’d want leniency for them.

It is a fascinating fb page! I should step away! I did watch the talk one of them posted though and that was interesting to see the head peeps at the uni.

Dd gone quiet which I am taking to be a good sign 🤞

There was a question about what disciplinary measures had been taken following breaches of rules, but they did not answer that bit of the question. I agree that if the students had not been given a final warning, unless it was a massive party, it seems like a sledgehammer approach when a more nurturing approach could have been taken.

I have a theory that it’s a rumour to scare everyone and hasn’t happened - would be effective!

Hope you are right for the sake of those maybe fictional medics!

@Newgirls that occurred to me too, might just work on first years.

Having a testing centre in st a seems quite amazing, following the news this week. Hope it can stay a while

On a completely different note just told dd Bake off is back on the tele next week. Have just made her night!😂 I will miss watching it together with her, it was our thing. Anyway she is now off to the union with some flat mates hope she booked a table.

DS tried to go to the Union on Saturday but his new group of friends is mostly Scottish and a couple of them are only 17, so they were not allowed in. I am SO glad they had a week to find friends before it all got even stricter, there were no age controls on the first few days when they met people on the beach.

I am feeling cross that the wardens have not done more to oil the social wheels for catered people and people who have not hit it off with flatmates. I think there used to be things like Freshers' vodka nights and pizza nights. Whilst they could not do whole hall things this year, they could have reserved a slot in one of the common areas at some point for each bubble and provided drinks and pizzas for bubble parties. DS has no communal space in which to meet his bubble, so they talk in passing in the corridor, but there is no natural progression.

I am very grateful that they have not gone for the exam hall dining style at Edinburgh and, according to a sad mum on the other thread, at Exeter too. One of the reasons they are advised to go for catered accommodation is because it is a sociable experience, but I think that on the whole, self-catered is best this year if you get on with your bubble and have a nice big kitchen to meet in.

Hopefully you will compare notes on bake off - strange these things when they aren’t here.

Dd seems to be settling and likes her course - hooray!!

I agree monkey I think the wardens could have done more or should be allowed to do more. Outside drinks? Walking group? Common room pizza etc? Book club? Anything?!