St Andrews into 2021 (new thread)

[Newgirls]

Ok can’t think of a catchier title! If anyone can send the other thread over here pls do!

Prospective and existing parents etc all welcome here. Transport, accom, cloaks, choirs, beaches and more to be discussed. Next year will be better surely!

Loving the positive stories. Hope none of yours have picked up the Freshers' Flu or Covid going round.

Yes, finding friends to do things with is such a relief!

Mine has joined rifle club, but said his aim was not so good at his second session because he had been out the night before. I LOVE signs of normal student life!

@Monkey2001

Loving the positive stories. Hope none of yours have picked up the Freshers' Flu or Covid going round.

Yes, finding friends to do things with is such a relief!

Mine has joined rifle club, but said his aim was not so good at his second session because he had been out the night before. I LOVE signs of normal student life!

😂

I wonder if "morning after the night before" is on the Rifle Club's risk assessment!

Did you see the news that The Times has ranked St A as top U.K. uni for the first time? I’m sure that will lead to a few drinks tonight 🥂

Indeed! As the parent of a Cambridge reject who is now very sure they are in the right place, I'm particularly delighted for them .

Was clearly meant to be!

Saw that too ladies and delighted for the university and our students. They all received an email this morning about it. No doubt it will set the cat amomgst the pigeons in some quarters!
Can see a steep rise in applications this year. Hope they all celebrate tonight.

Haha, another Cambridge reject who feels he ended up in the right place here! Maybe we should nip over to the Oxbridge thread and tell them how happy "re-directed" students can be.

I think a real strength for most people of the Scottish approach is the flexibility it gives people. I did a Maths degree, but think that if I had been somewhere at flexible as St Andrews I would have gone down a different path.

My miseriguts caveat to this news is that I think the UCAS points give an unfair advantage to Scottish universities as Highers and Advanced Highers both get points, but in RUK, AS levels only count if you don't do the AS. I don't think that St Andrews students really have higher entry standards than Cambridge.

@Monkey2001 I agree with what you say about the ucas points but Scottish student numbers are capped at Scottish unis so in effect harder to get a place. Also no extra points for A1s at higher or advanced higher ( as not shown on certificates).
I also agree that St A don't have higher entry standards than the others. But St A look beyond the straight A student to the personal statement which is given a lot of weight. I include my ds in this. He has just graduated but at entry had a B in one higher subject. The uni were the ones to pick up on his dyslexia ( from primary school had dismissed our concerns re this) and put measures in place to support him. I am very grateful to the uni in this regard.

@Alittlewornout the UCAS points comment was in response to the Times article that St A beat Cambridge on entry tariff, which was one of the key criteria for calculating rankings.

@Monkey2001 I see exactly what you mean now, yes that is not correct. However still nice to bask in the glory of top spot

And of course they don’t have beaches 😉

What's the experience of lectures everybody - back to normal in lecture halls or over Teams and online delivery?

Medicine is mostly online so far. I think a couple of classes have been in tutor groups over the past week but the rest (90%) have been online. Wondering why they were asked to come into the university if it could have been done online! And I'm not buying the 'our lecture rooms are not big enough to cope with people social distancin' because the uni clearly haven't been too concerned about social distancing in the bars.

@NadiSel last year, for dissection half the group were F2F each week, the other week they would watch the other half of the group on line. I think they had clinical skills most weeks. I don't know how much the second years have this year, but I am sure it won't be less. This mean medic first years had more F2F than any other first year students at St Andrews.

For context, I have read on line that Leeds medics were fully on line last year and looks like they are again. UEA only have their PBL F2F. I think Birmingham were pretty much all on line last year too. St Andrews medics have been relatively lucky.

Neuroscience labs are happening in actual labs. Lectures online.

I had an interesting chat with some lecturer mates last night (not st a) who said their timetabling and room allocation was chaos. They all have kids in secondary schools but seem seem reluctant to do f2f teaching themselves due to the ‘risk’ 🤦‍♀️

Glad to hear labs in person. How is she getting on in Old Wing? My son was on the High Table last night, all dressed up in suit and gown 🥰

I think a lot of us find it difficult to break out of lock down mode, but it needs to be done.

Re St Andrews student experience and Dame Sally's video, did anyone on here benefit from the St Andrews "can do"? I don't think it had any impact on DS, maybe it was used by the SA officers and their friends? I think that for most UK first years, semester 2 was a write off socially.

Can do seemed to start when most had already left. Some tents and a few outdoor bar tables was all a bit half-hearted after the chaos of term 1. Not even allowed to do walking groups… this year already SO much better

She has a lovely room in old wing and had been to a few social things already so very positive so far thanks monkey

What’s the top table thing? Are they in red cloaks?! Are they still wearing masks about the place?

@Newgirls there was a "formal hall" last night - she probably dressed up for it too. DS was at the top table with the wardens because he is a friend of the Chair of the hall committee. Glad she likes her new room, did all her stuff make it? Must have been so odd to be reunited with things she had not seen for nearly a year!

Oh lovely! Will catch up later today and hopefully hear about it. It did arrive tho a day late and a few things will be switched in reading week but otherwise ok!

This is all sounding very positive for them 😀

I do agree that the Can Do stuff probably mainly benefitted older students that already had a social network that could get together and engage with it - and those who were in St Andrews in Semester 2. But DD did overall feel like the university had been more proactive about enabling stuff to happen than many of the universities that their school friends were attending. Some of their societies were operating virtually in Semester 2, while they were at home - which wasn't the case for several friends who had no clubs and societies at all. And there was significant irony in the fact that DD was able to take part in Wind Band rehearsals in Semester 1 - albeit online - whereas their friend that is actually studying music elsewhere had no ensembles operating at all!

Cloaks were worn monkey at the formal and yet more plans for tonight so all good 👍

dd had an in person tutorial today - and more importantly met some of the group afterwards for coffee! That's a big improvement on last year!
She makes friends very slowly and was sad (after only 2 weeks!) that she had made no new friends yet - so hopefully meeting people in tutorials will be a help.
Can't say I've checked Scottish govt guidelines for a while but I thought that the uni was not allowed to have lectures over a certain number in person - so not necessarily the uni's fault?

I think the gov decision is very much in consultation with the unis and unions. Unions have been very against return to f2f and full lectures.

I put out a request on a local group for an unwanted copy of the GUG for the crest with all the names and got two! I think it was a lovely thing to do, putting one in a frame for DS to put on his wall.