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?

Good news @Newgirls.

I have been reading the FB parent thread - a while ago I was amused to read that somebody's daughter was taking her two horses to university with her - very grand. There was a lovely photo of somebody out riding in the area, looks beautiful. Lots of them taking golf clubs and lacrosse sticks! Anybody here with a DC planning to try golf?

I missed the horses! Well I never.

Golf has not been mentioned. But might be all there is to do so who knows?!!

Agree ladies more could have been made of the communal spaces for small groups to meet. Dd knows she is very lucky with the bubble she is in as they appear to get on well ( at the min anyway!!). So glad your dd likes her course @Newgirls mine does too although she scared herself by accidentally watching a week 3 1st lecture instead of a week one 3rd lecture!!😂 Anyway all good so far and she seems to be coping with the second year entry ( realise its early days yet though).
Really hope everyone finds their tribe it's so tricky for them all, I have to say I admire their determination and general optimism in the face of this pandemic.

@Monkey2001 talking of grand there was also talk on Facebook of buying flats, as though that was an everyday thing to do, im really learning how the other half live on that page. Think DS2 would prefer my slightly more hands off parenting style though.

Haha, yes @Wbeezer, if you have quarter of a million to spare for a 1 bed flat......

I enjoyed the surprise at how expensive flats are in St Andrews compared to the rest of Fife. Well, er , yes that will be due to the wealthy parents fuelling the demand on behalf of their precious offspring.

I agree about the lack of organised activities in catered halls. I really thought there would be some live welcome events of some sort, even if they were in really small groups. Three common rooms in AMH - only one is open with a capacity of eight. The corridors are absolutely tiny and rules prohibit door stops, so meeting household mates casually isn't really working.

DD settling in though. She decided to stick with first year entry in the end and seems to be enjoying dabbling in Astronomy. So far, the maths has been stuff she already knows, but that's not unexpected as she did STEP last year and taught herself a load of extra stuff. Hopefully there will be enough to keep her engaged and it will give her time to try out the many societies in her wish list.

Its such a shame, so limited compared to previous years, my son is not even bothering to go into town, hes just staying in his flat really, at the edge of town. He's not one for partying much anyway but he was making progress at being sociable and I'm worried Covid is cementing his hermit tendencies.

I hope the uni picks up the social side in spring if not before. Mental health really is key with this age and having a couple of counsellors and a web page isn’t going to help 1000 freshers and say a quarter of them being hermits. Maybe this will soon be the focus once everyone is there and routines have started. Must have been a logistical nightmare for the uni.

It must cost a fortune to send a kid over from the us to study at st a. Sadly I won’t be buying a flat 😬

I persuaded dd to opt for catered to give her a greater chance to meet people, which may not have been the best decision this year. At least she has her bubble kitchen to hang out in although it’s not a particularly comfortable space. I too thought the halls would be doing more to help them socialise when they’re so restricted elsewhere.
The parents FB page was discussing polo ponies the last time I checked...

@Newgirls it does cost US students a lot of money but DS US friends say it's still cheaper than studying in the US. They all have college funds from the minute they are born!!

It is another world!

I think catering is still fairly sociable - at least in the various queues!

It is cheaper, i remember being given a tour on an open day by a lovely American girl whose Dad was a postman, she'd won a scholarship from the postman's Union to pay for college but the fund wouldn't stretch to tuition and maintenance at a US college but just covered tuition and board at St Andrews. She was just the kind of person who you think "she'll go far/do something worthwhile"

@Wbeezer that's a fab story.

The US system is super complicated. I think the famous ones offer a lot of bursaries, so it may be that the "squeezed middle" who don't get the bursaries but baulk at the full fees are the ones sending their DCs abroad, although there are some seriously wealthy ones who come over too. Somebody I know said her nephew was friends with the DS of something like the Director of the FBI and the dad bought a flat and her nephew was able to flat share. Apparently he had some amazing holidays visiting his US friends. DS is expecting to find all his friends from state educated UK students, but maybe he will realise that other people are OK too!

Great story 👍

Well there are more state educated kids than any other 🙌 but it will be fun to mix with others. I’ve been checking out the year abroad that dd might do (I’m ever optimistic that she will love it all!) and some fab us places on the potential list. So I hope she makes pals with some soon.

I must admit i managed to stay in a rather grand flat in the New Town in Edinburgh due to making friends with a posh girl at art college. At one point i had 3 friends whose fathers were a Lord, a Bishop and an admiral, it was quite entertaining but the friendships petered out after uni, i wonder what they're up to now? I jokingly said to DS2 to make sure he made at least one rich friend with a flat and he did! Although his friend is a farmers son and the flat is probably in the ugliest building in St Andrews so it's still quite a down to earth experience.

I have one friend who bought a flat herself and rented it out to other students as a way of paying herself through uni.

She's still a bit of an entrepeneur ... and only slightly bitter about the fact that one of the flatmates went on to start an extremely famous company that you've all heard of and now has their name on one of the university buildings!

Quite a legacy to be a student and to later get your name on a building!

What is the company chicken?

Update - dd really enjoying her course. A good step. Likes that you can pause lectures and rewatch bits so that’s a positive out of all this. Floor above is all American and theirs is all English she thinks.

I think Ivy League and other popular colleges have very low acceptance rates, as low as 3%, because so many apply, St Andrews makes a good insurance choice for Americans because they have such a high acceptance rate for internationals (much, much higher than for Scottish kids ).

WTF about this weekend lockdown? Really thinking about bringing dd back

@Newgirls I agree it's very premature, have told dd to pack and come home. We are lucky that we are not that far away she can "quarantine" at home as at least she can sit in the garden. If they dont let her back into hall next week too bad. I am really done with this whole situation. I feel for all the international students too.

Fair enough little

It all makes no sense - my fb feed is full of students setting off to unis around the uk - will they all be sent back again?

@Alittlewornout at least you're quite close. DD has just told me about a friend whose Dad is coming up to pick her up. From Surrey!