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!

Some second years will stay if they can as they haven’t had much chance to find people to house share with or get the full hall experience so there will be a mix. It’s a bit like Cambridge in that being an old college/uni town it is set up for lots of catered/hall accom. Even final year students sometimes book it.

DS has 1st, 2nd and 3rd year friends in hall. He is applying to stay in hall next year. He also likes the food and it is very convenient. @Strawberryshortcake40 I hope you're DD comes to term with the "re-direction" soon. I remember DS was like a lost thing as a plan he had for a long time disappeared. I think he would already say no regrets for how it turned out, and once the normal social life resumes I am sure he will think all turned out for the best!

On the sharing question, I was impressed with the level of detail on their accommodation questionnaire. They ask about all sorts of stuff like music taste, hobbies, whether they are early risers/late to bed etc. DD is not sharing, but does have two neighbours who are very compatible and I feel they do a decent job of allocating accommodation.

Here are a couple more gratuitous pictures - illustrating that DD's hall of residence (Andrew Melville Hall) is something of a 1960s concrete lump, but has a fine outlook towards the town and lots of nice green space for mooching around in.

And I think between us we have demonstrated that it doesn't always rain!

In terms of mental health support, I can't comment in detail. But I did have cause to raise a concern during lockdown, when DD was quite stressed about changing rules and so was I. There is a contact email for their support services, which parents are encouraged to use if they have concerns. I was quite reassured by that ... some universities seem utterly unwilling to engage with parents but St Andrews seems to recognise that sometimes we may need to highlight issues they might otherwise be unaware of. That may be related to the fact they have a lot of overseas students who are very far from home (and often have rather demanding parents IME!)

That sounds very positive about the sharing. I think she may be more inclined to go for it if it is well thought out in that way.

And good news from the mental health stand too, I don’t want to be one of those kind of fussy parents but DD does have some pretty major problems that could well snowball if we only see her in holidays.

She has bounced back quite well really. After months of being told she was “a dead cert” by teachers etc and working her arse off for it all, it was such a shock for her. Compounded by the fact all her friends have got in
I was utterly at a loss how to support her and so very worried she would lapse back into being depressed.

You can go up during term time - it’s a quick flight if you are near Luton/stanstead (you say near cam) or get the train in 3-4 hours? Lots of fab hotels there too. I think book a visit and once she sees it she may never look back.

Just have to hope lockdown lifts and we can get up there soon. It’s a hard decision to make just going by photos.

What is her subject? There are a few St Andrews youtubers who talk about course and life.

History of Art.

Yes she’s working her way through the YouTube videos!

Ah yes sorry I meant if she goes there and you are worried and she needs a visit. It can be a bit odd in the first year anyway without any health concerns so a visit might be very welcome. It’s not as far as it seems.

DS has been very organized and already put his accommodation application in for next year, he asked for Uni Hall Old Wing, B floor - hope that will be broad enough to give him a good chance of getting it. From the FB group it looks like private accommodation will be advertised later than usual.

My stepson is in his final year there. Absolutely loves it. Started off doing chemistry but switched to economics after the first year. He’s wanting to now do medicine as a postgrad and st Andrews is his first choice, so it must be good!! He’s got very into polo while there. His first year halls were lovely but he was put with a strange bunch and made friends elsewhere- who he has lived with for the past three years in private houses. He’s been home since Xmas, everything is online, but a couple of his flat mates went back after Xmas. I’m a bit nervous for how his finals will be remote, and sad that they probably won’t get much of a graduation ceremony this year.

A few photos. This was a November day.

Dd has applied for accom too.

I follow the weather on an app and it’s often nicer in st Andrews than London. It’s a weird bubble. Prob why people settled there.

Sorry for being off grid lately. Glad all are happy with exam results dd ecstatic with hers. She has also secured a flat with 2 other friends for the next academic year so thats one less thing to worry about. So sad it is all on line for them at the minute. Its study central here and ds is working hard on his fourth year dissertation but actually really enjoying it.
Hope everyone gets the accommodation they want, its all really stressful isn't it??

@Alittlewornout your DD really seems to know how to do life! Well done to her for getting flat - is it central or did they have to go a bit further out?

@Monkey2001 it is very central! Hope street I think. It was only advertised for one day and they interviewed 6 groups so they were very lucky to get it. One of the other girls saw it by chance. The girls were all at school together and their teacher reference was amazing as prior to covid they were going to house sit for said teacher which I think may have swung it for them.

On a different topic anyone else in awe of the amount if work our kids do?? Both myself and my husband dont remember it being quite so full on workwise abou 30 years ago!!😉

Yes! DD is working harder than anyone else in the house.

Very much enjoying the Americans on fb today - they all seem to have places in the Hamptons.

I hope dd gets to go back to st a before summer. What do we think are the chances gang?

Just looked at the latest St A Covid numbers - 2 students and 1 staff member this week, presumably including the student from Peru who was quarantining at ABH. www.st-andrews.ac.uk/coronavirus/numbers/

The wider community numbers are low, looks like the university cases might be all the St Andrews cases. I really hope they can go back, but it does look like Scotland is hunkering down - NS wants to hotel-quarantine all arrivals from overseas. It is impossible to predict the future at the moment, back in November I really thought that things would be getting back to normal this term. Hope they decide to let people back after the Spring break if not before. One of the issues for St A is that the link between covid stats for the area and student stats is obvious, so they feel responsible for protecting the community.

It must be very frustrating for the St A students from UK seeing so many students going back to other UK universities, including Edinburgh, and international students returning to St A. There are people on the St A FB group openly planning travel routes to avoid hotel quarantine. The university should have said that Internationals should only go back if they could not re-arrange their travel without incurring significant costs.

There do seem to be a lot of international students there and I don’t think the air fare cost was really an issue for many of them.

I thought Edin had said no undergrads to go back til Sept which worries me.

A lot of my stepson’s foreign student friends at St Andrews didn’t even get to go home last summer - they’re still there and haven’t seen their parents for 18 months. I feel sorry for them..

@honeyroar yes, really tough for the ones who have not been home for over a year, but there are a lot of students who went home for Christmas, and have gone back from US in the last few weeks. There is at least 1 person over on the main first year Mumsnet thread who has gone back to Edinburgh. I think that Edinburgh and Glasgow have both said that there will be no F2F teaching this year, but it looks like they are allowing people back into uni accom. I live in Bristol and lots of students are coming back, including subjects like French and Politics. People on that thread are saying that going back is like moving house, which is allowed. I am just confused!

Honey yes that’s true I’m sure but lots have flown back in in the last two weeks - hence the party probably

In the us most of the unis are open so I think there is a different mindset.