St Andrews

[Innisfree]

Happy new year to all 2024 St Andrews hopefuls!

Gearing up for a few months worrying about DS’s UCAS Uni offers. His first choice is St Andrews, then Exeter, Durham, Glasgow and he has had an offer from Newcastle. All for Classical Studies (always small cohorts). He’s at an independent school in Scotland on a scholarship, and predicted 3 As. He’s also contextual as a young carer, helping to look after me (I have MS and, this year, breast cancer). I desperately want him to get some good offers as I am feeling terribly guilty about the level of impact the caring has had on him and his studying both practically and emotionally.

Hoping St Andrews might give us an early ish offer as a home contextual, but nothing yet, though they have been in touch late Dec to say his carer status has been verified. There are so many applying with A star grades though, so not sure how his application will go.

Would love to hear of any St As offers coming through.

Joining your thread @Innisfree as I have a dd hoping for a St Andrew’s offer. She has Manchester and Durham so far. Waiting on Exeter and not submitted final choice yet. She has grades in hand as did A levels last year.

Everything crossed for your DS- and also for you, it sounds like you’ve been through a really rough time x

Thank you and good luck to your DD @Bibbetybobbity it’s an anxious wait! Well done to her for the Manchester and Durham offers! What does she want to study?

Psychology @Innisfree 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

My DS is a St Andrews applicant for a science. Not necessarily his first choice, but would love to go there. It’s so competitive for a place and because they are generally late to make offers, it’s a tough wait.
Would be great to hear of offers coming through. We’re based in England so think we’re the last to hear!

My DS is another St A’s hopeful - we aren’t expecting any news anytime soon though! He has applied for CS so very competitive and an offer is a huge long shot. He loved the uni and the course so wanted to give it a go.

Good luck to everyone applying!

Yes it is a long shot. Especially because they seem to take a lot of international students.
I’ve heard they place a lot of emphasis on the personal statement as so many who apply have the predicted grades and higher.
Anyone know what they actually look for? Or know when the majority of offers are made?

I spoke at length to the comp Sci course leader at the open day and because it’s so competitive she explained they put A LOT of weight on the personal statement. She said they look for passion in the subject, examples of how they have done extra projects / courses / lectures in CS and what the students aspirations are in the field.

Of course, I would very much assume that each subject would have their own criteria. My impression was that the CS department were looking for students who could demonstrate they had gone ‘above and beyond’ the A level curriculum and explored the field in other ways as well (writing their own programs, building apps, hackathons etc).

I really hope DS personal statement is good enough, he’s so passionate about the subject and I think it does come through. We got the scholarship email in December so will explore that. I think he’ll be fine wherever he ends up but really feel he deserves to get his first choice given everything.

I think the Scottish universities have a reputation for offering a bit later.

January is still early for a lot of offers to come in, but it’s worry they just don’t need while they should be concentrating on their studies.

Fingers crossed for your boy.

DS1 also keen on StA for his first choice, largely because of their focus on Middle Eastern history. It’s the place that just has the broadest range of options in the space that he wants, but we’ll see.

He has an offer for history at Manchester, ABB.

Waiting on Leeds, Liverpool, Edinburgh and StA.

When do we think we will hear? If RUK maybe April? And slightly earlier if based in Scotland?

Former Russell Group admissions tutor here. Your collective DC have shown excellent taste, but St A’s is sadly famous for the leisurely pace of its admissions decisions.

I hope the DC can hang loose, because absolutely no conclusions can be drawn until a decision is given. Best wishes to all of them.

Scottish students have lower acceptance rates for most courses at St Andrews than RUK applicants so don't tend to hear sooner in general. It's usually pretty late for everyone except some internationals on popular courses.
It's a bit of myth about Scottish students getting priority. There are different batches of places, Scottish students compete with many other Scottish students for the fully funded Home student places and RUK students compete for their ring fenced places places with other RUK students.
The acceptance rates usually go: easiest to hardest - international, RUK, Home

Yes, this was my impression. It’s tough for Scottish students, even contextual ones. Especially when applying to subjects with small intakes to begin with. I think DS has a good personal statement though and is genuinely very interested in the subject. We’ll see! Last year it looked like a lot of the rejections came through late March/April.

I don’t think this term goes back until 15th so I think it will be radio silence until at least then. When we were at the open day the Classics lecturer said they do often get to see the personal statements in addition to General Admissions, Academic School Admissions teams etc. Seems like they take their time and really scrutinise the whole application, particularly the PS.

I get the impression contextual admissions are looked at ‘gathered field’ by Admissions Officers, once verified. DS had his carer status verified just before Christmas, the Uni was pretty quick about that and he was asked for evidence within about two weeks of submitting via UCAS. Then he got the usual scholarship email etc.

StA is the last one DD is waiting on. She completed the Sutton Trust summer school at StA for her chosen subject and would be a contextual admission. she has received offers for all her other choices so it's just a waiting game.

I have a feeling that she will choose Glasgow over StA though even though she loved her week at Summer School due to second year housing issues and she will also Need to find a job which would be easier in Glasgow

Hope they all hear back soon

Fingers crossed for your DD @StoorieHoose. St Andrews do give guaranteed offers to some contextuals, so she might be in that position? We qualify for the Minimum Offer, along with quite a few others I’m sure.

I have lots of friends who have DC at St Andrews and although accommodation is tight they all found flats in town in second year. Though it’s not cheap, and as you say, there are limited jobs in town. If they have transport, a job in Dundee is an option.

I was at St Andrews 1989-1994 and iirc the accommodation situation was just as crazy even then!

According to their calculator DS1 would be minimum entry, but I assume they don’t have an unlimited number of those places either so I’m gently encouraging him to look favourably (which he is to be fair) on all the other options.

None of his options are really ‘back up’ if that makes sense. He looked very carefully at the modules and variations (accepting lecturers leave/go on research leave etc) so has only opted for unis with Arabic and ME studies dept/institutes and made sure he can pick the occasional module from there even in the history department. That did mean that the 5 he put down were the only options for him but he would be happy at all of them.

He worked really hard on the statement in spite of a lot of people around us saying most unis won’t read it, but he wanted to make it as clear as possible why he would like and be best at StA so focussed on his EPQ subject and passion and frankly devotion to that topic.

DD got an offer from St A in November. We weren’t really expecting to hear that soon, or for it to be a yes, so was a nice surprise! She’s RUK, non-contextual, so can only assume it’s because it’s a bit of a niche subject (ancient & medieval history). She does have 3 A* predictions but I imagine many of the applicants do, and she’s not doing an EPQ.

I was a bit dubious about her PS because it wasn’t like the more typical ones my older two produced, and she refused many of the suggestions the school made, but it was unmistakably ‘her’ and who knows? - maybe they liked having something more left field to read. 🤔

Congratulations to your DD@BiancaBlank , my son studied Medieval History at St Andrews ( he applied for History but chose mostly Medieval modules). The Medieval History dept is lovely, great staff, nice old building etc.

A PS unmistakably in an excellent student’s own voice is (almost) always a pleasure to read. It may have made a difference at an excellent student-focussed university like St A’s

Congratulations to your DD! We were told at the open day that a PS with a bit of personality and flair is well received at St Andrews.

He’s doing A levels at school in Scotland? To get into a Scottish university? That’s a bit crazy. What’s wrong with our education system?

In England, friend’s son, who is eligible for a contextual offer, got an offer from SA in November – and an easy one at that. It is for a reasonably niche subject though. Good luck OP!

My dd is there now and you are right in that personal statement is so key. Hers was very specific to the St. Andrews course as it was her clear favourite and quite niche. Her GCSEs and A levels were good but not 9s etc. English state school throughout her education.

He had the choice to do Highers or A levels and decided on A levels so he could do the subjects he likes. He’s applied to Unis in Scotland and England.