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?

Thanks Newgirls. I'll point DH towards that as he's never been there and is feeling much more conflicted about it all than I am. I grew up in Edinburgh, so there's a little bit of me that's already excited about visiting, although the journey is very long for us (SE England).

Worth reading the wiki page like I just did. Wow amazing history and alumni.

We are SE too - flying will be quicker but train more eco. Just waiting for a start date to plan transport and amount of bags!

Dd thinks she will get accom info on Monday. Does that sound right? Would be useful to know when she is going

With a start date of 1 sept? Website says 7th?

newgirls based on info up thread, arrivals appear to be between 31/8 and 13/9, with orientation week starting 7/9 and teaching on 14/9.

31/8 is scarily soon!

But I've no idea when we can expect accommodation to be confirmed (and therefore arrival date). Inside information welcome!

When you accept your accommodation, you have to book an arrival date and time. I think that's how it works anyway.

Thank you both. We had a good look at the website last night and it seems she waits for a st a email, will then get her accom, and then can choose an arrival date. So hopefully that will appear soon. I assume the 31/8 is for international students who need to quarantine/settle in and England students might be later but it does seem like they choose. Impatient to book trains etc now but I do need to be patient!

I’m hoping she gets something about accommodation soon. Mainly because I’m on leave Monday & Tuesday next week, so could use the time to get stuff sorted for her.
We also need to get her a proper waterproof winter coat. Even though she has enough jackets to open a small clothes shop, I don’t think any will be good enough for the north east Scottish coast

The 31st is the start of uk students moving in. One of Dds friends is moving in on the 31st as her parents are off that day, but she is basically dropping stuff then coming home as we are just over an hour away. Think she is going back up later in the week. There were quite a few time slots so dont worry. We chose an early morning one on the 5th as not far to travel and thought those from further afield may prefer something a bit later.

It is our local uni and I really think it depends on your DD if she will find it a good fit.
I've had 4 friends DC's go. One loved it, one hated it but stuck it out and 2 have moved to Edinburgh after 1st year. All of these DC's attended our local state school that would probably be classed as a deprived area.

Hello Chicken, I was looking out for your news, but have only just managed to catch up on this thread. Sorry to hear your DD did not quite get what she wanted, but she did really well to get an offer for Cambridge. DS also had a Cambridge dream, but that slid quite easily into a St A dream as soon as he visited the university. It has a similar vibe to Oxbridge with a more stunning location.

In previous years accommodation offers have been very slow coming out, going right to the end of August, but hopefully they may be quicker this year.

I can confirm what @Heffapotamus said - after you have accepted your accommodation offer you do the on line accommodation induction (slides going through the rules with a quiz at the end) and the final stage is to select your arrival slot. We went for 5th Sep, but it would not surprise me if the A level students end up arriving during orientation week if the earlier slots are full. The orientation week is all on line for DS, so whilst not ideal to arrive once it has started, it should not affect their ability to engage with the activities. He has been allocated a mentor from the year above.

They have allocated rooms now, I don't know whether they are keeping subjects together. They have said that students will form a household of 5-20 people, in catered standard they household will be the people sharing a bathroom.

Hope our DCs manage to get a really good St A experience in spite of the virus.

Can I ask a equation from the 2021 cohort? Do many english students start St A in year 2? I thought this was a thing but it didn't seem to come up on the online open days so perhaps I am out of date?

Some science and maths courses allow 2nd year entry depending on grades and subjects taken. @Monkey2001 did your son get an email about actual room number or was it on the portal thing?? Dd out at work but will get her to check when home.( She is not the best at checking emails hence we nearly missed her accommodation offer in July🤦‍♀️!)

After the year they’ve just had we are very pro the extra year. Hopefully not too pressured, and dd can do some socialising and some English courses alongside her key science course. It will cost more but hey ho perhaps the job market will be better on the other side.

Has anyone else's offspring had an email from St Andrews asking them to complete a criminal records check on the applicant portal? DD had one but there was nothing on the portal for her to complete. She's confused, and has emailed, but I wondered if others had the same thing and fixed it?

My DC could go into yr 2 but is adamant on taking yr 1. Think it will be revision but that's necessary after a year like this!

Yes, DS did the criminal records thing.

@Alittlewornout the room number is on the financial statement.

@Monkey2001 thank you I havent seen that yet but that's not to say it isn't there Dd is going to have to get a bit more with it I think. All brains and no common sense springs to mind.....

If she logs into Mysaint it is in "my details and development" "student finance" "financial statement". I guess it will mean something to you as your DS is already at St A.

DS is in the Lumsden Wing of University Hall - do you happen to know how many rooms are on each floor? He is hoping not to have a massive "household" of 20 as there will be a higher risk of lock-down. I told him that it is great to be able to mix with 20 people as it is more likely that everybody will find people on their own wavelength.

@Monkey2001 thank you so much for that info very much appreciated. Dd is just in from work so we will look at that tomorrow. Going to primark tomorrow for some more bits and pieces( how much does one room need I ask myself!! Ds was def more minimalist!!)

I think the chance of a lockdown in st Andrews is surely very small. The rest of the country would prob get it first. One upside of being so remote!

@Monkey2001 sorry I don't know the set up of uni hall but am sure it will work out for him. Found the accommodation info thanks and a bill for the whole year!! When ds went you paid each semester at a time so 2 chunks. Dh currently investigating if that's still a possibility. Def beans on toast for us if we have to pay it all at once!!

@Newgirls it will be OK if people stay put, Scotland has done really well, no Covid deaths for 3 weeks. But it they go into Edinburgh/Dundee, away for weekends student populations may well end up with people isolating because they have been in contact with people who develop it. I think the benefit of being able to have un-distanced contact with a larger number of people makes it worth the risk, but there is a bit of a risk. He is not worried about getting it for health reasons - fit healthy young people are fine, just does not want to miss out on any of his course/normal life.

@Alittlewornout you can pay in instalments, don't worry! We will be paying in 4 instalments (max possible).