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.

Home student still waiting. Knows of several people with offers so wonder if he’s now in the rejection pile. Though no idea why it’s taking so long (2/3 weeks ago since others heard).

What subject are you waiting for? The offers I’m hearing of all seem to be subject dependent.

Econ and Sustainable Development. Econ offers are definitely out.

pantsnomore unless your specific course has sent out offers I wouldn’t be concerned.
They’re prob coming out in batches. And joint degrees often are considered by both depts and so takes longer.
Good luck! We’re waiting on computer science.

Good luck! It’s a painful process.

My DS is home and contextual and still waiting for classical studies. He’s doing A levels though and all of the recent offers (going by the spreadsheet anyway) have been unconditional offers to Highers candidates. Really really hoping he hears some good news this week!

Wishing everyone good luck and offers soon!

Waiting for History too

Yep, history here as well.

I've said before but my DS didn't hear about his History offer until at least 20 the of March ( I remember because its my birthday). Good luck!

Yes, I think we are pretty relaxed now he has Edinburgh at a contextual offer. The breadth of the modules at StA are something else though.

DS1 does History at St As and he heard early February two years ago. But every year is different. DS1 tells me they have a lot more applicants this year.

I’ve said it before but I don’t understand why it can’t be centralised, given we have UCAS. Unis could still make the decisions early/late but everyone notified of their offers on one day like school applications, then you can firm/insure etc.

Such a sensible suggestion.

I suspect it is a lot to do with finance. They must need a fair amount of international students to accept who pay higher fees.
I wish it was more transparent with regards number of places available for each course and how many are normally allocated to International/home/ruk. This would help students to decide whether it’s actually worth an application. Especially as the wait is so long and it’s quite common to turn down students who have extremely high grades. The extended wait just exasperates that.
I really hope everyone hears before the end of March. We have an offer holder day at Durham this week too. I suspect that might swing it for DS.

You can look up the stats where people have requested them under freedom of information rules, I searched them out when DS was applying, don't have them on my phone anymore but a bit of careful googling should turn them up if you're interested, I think I originally found a link on The Student Room.

I think it needs to be more transparent and available than having to make a FOI request or search the depths of data on the internet to see if someone else already has.
It seems a bit cloaked in mystery. Not just St A, but others too.
Students who apply in sept/oct/nov waiting until April/May to be rejected seems unnecessary. But then there is a lot about the whole application process and UCAS which doesn’t work anymore for students. So much anxiety around it all to even get an offer and then hoping you then actually get the grades to go.

Centralising offer dates would solve a lot of that angst. Internationals could be funnelled separately if that is the issue. I think this is a where there is a will, there is a way type problem. But it is what we have.

A centralised system is def needed. So offers are all released on the same day. And also a much clearer insight into the percentage of places offered to International/home/ruk.
There is much in the news about attracting international students because of the higher fees. Which is understandable as universities need finance but seems unfair to UK students who have all the predicted grades and more.
At least if students knew the percentages of the breakdown they could make a more informed decision when applying. If there are 200 places and 100 are allocated to international and then 40 to Home and 60 to RUK that reduces the chances a lot. International students seem to get their offers much earlier too and other UK students left hanging for months and months.
Just thoughts on the system and how it doesn’t work well for a lot of applicants. And the unreasonably long wait from some universities when students should be going to holder days, firming offers and then focusing on the exams.

DC received an unconditional for St Andrews today. Woo!

Great news congratulations. May I ask was it home or grades in hand? What subject? Curious if there are still departments leaking out offers or if they’re now moving onto RUK from home.

Ds got an unconditional from edinburgh today so am not bothered about St A now tbh!

Grades in hand, Scottish student for mathematics.

Great school. Well done!

DD, Scottish Non Contextual received an Unconditional yesterday

Great 👏🏻

Ds has withdrawn his St Andrews application and accepted Edinburgh so that's it finalised 😱