How many Scottish students are still 17 when starting Uni?

[Ban6]

My DD's got a place at Glasgow Uni starting in 2023. We're in England and she'll be 19 when she starts. She's a bit concerned that lots will only be 17, so she'll stand out. I've told her it's common to stay for S6 now and take Advanced Highers. Is that right though - ie new Uni students are mostly 18 now rather than 17? I don't want to tell her the wrong thing!

I was 17 when I stated Glasgow Uni but I was 18 in the December. Most Scottish students and all the English students I met were already 18. Try not to worry :)

I was 17 when I started at Glasgow and turned 18 in the December. I'd say the vast majority of the year were 18+ so I was considered young. One of the great things about uni was meeting folk of all ages so she doesn't have anything to worry about!

I only knew one person who was 17 when I started. And I would say it’s quite unusual. I also went back to do another course when I was 20, and the age difference of being with 18 year olds really didn’t seem to matter.

Most will be 18, some will have been for several months. She'll be fine, and Glasgow is great for students

My dd was 17 when she started - with advanced highers. Not unusual at all

My dd was 17 I think but turned 18 within a couple of months of starting as she had a November birthday. I was actually 16 when I started about 30 years ago as I went from 5th year.

The Scottish school year runs March to Feb. So anyone who has completed S6, born October to February, and goes to uni straight from final year of school will be 17. It is possible, though less common to go after S5 with just highers and could be 16 still. I knew a couple of people who did that.

I only knew a couple when I was there. There was one in my hall of ten.

Those coming from a Scottish S6 will be 18 and the rest (Oct- Feb birthdays) would be turning 18 within the first 4 months.
There'll also likely be plenty of other RUK and International students who won't be 17, those who have come through articulating from HNC/D at college, who will be older than 17, and depending on the course there will likely be adult returners too.
Glasgow has applications from all over the place so I think she's maybe overthinking it.

My eldest DDs both went to Glasgow and both were 17 when they started.
DD1 didn't turn 18 till the Feb - she would have been one of the youngest.

If their birthdays are between September and end Feb, they'll be 17 when they first start

Another that was 17 as I'm a November birthday and I did my S6 and advanced highers. If you're born in the 5 months after September but before Feb you'll be 17. So it's not uncommon but it really doesn't matter and there are people from all over the world at uni. 1 or 2 years isn't going to make much of a difference. My husband came from NZ and he was 19 due to the way their school terms work theirs run to December for summer holidays for example. Made no difference to him and he made plenty of friends.

Most students going to uni do stay on to S6, going straight to uni from S5 is fairly rare in my experience.
The way the birthdays/deferral system works in Scotland means that kids leaving S6 in June will range in age between 18 and 6 months down to 17 and 4 months, and may not be 18 until the February of their first year at uni. Mine won't be 18 until the December after he leaves school, so he plans to take a year out (assuming he decides to go to uni at all). Hope that makes sense! If there's a lot of other English kids on the course she'll be of fairly average age, and lots of kids do take some time out before starting.

My eldest was only just 16 when she was accepted by Glasgow Uni. When my next daughter was in S6 she was the youngest by months; she was still 17 but all the others were 18 and still in s6. She started Uni at 17. 18 and 19 are common.

Ah, interesting! Thanks to all for speedy replies. I'll let DD read this - she's really looking forward to all things Glasgow and I'm sure your answers will reassure her. She's a July birthday so she'll only just be 19 anyway!

Just out of interest, how many Scottish kids tend to take a gap year before going?

Mine didn't go until they were 22, they also had students in their classes in their 50s etc.

People go at different times in their lives.

My son did S6 and turned 18 on the first formal day of lectures (mid September birthday) at Aberdeen Uni.

The variation of ages was never an issue.

Gap years not common amongst families I know.

I think this is a hard question to answer as everyone's experience is different. In my friendship group, those of us who went to Uni didn't take a year out. However, when I got to uni loads of folk had taken gap years or had studied other subjects first etc...

I was 17 my whole first year and went to uni straight from s5. There was only me and one other in our halls that did that out of 15. So our ages ranged from 16-26 and really the age difference only mattered when deciding who to send to the bar

I went to St Andrews Uni (which is predominantly English ) from S5 when I was only 17.5 (I was one of the oldest in the my school year).

I did get teased a bit for being young and naive - but I soon learned to cope

And yes, who went to buy drinks was the main issue ..... it was a loooooong time ago though

Most will be 18 or over but children that started school at 4 1/2 and go straight to Uni after S6, will still only be 17 yes. In reality it’s will probably only those with birthdays that fall in October, November and December as a lot of people choose to defer school starting until their child is 5 nowadays. For example my son is an October birthday and he’s the third youngest in his class of about 30.

My younger DD stared at 17 but turned 18 in October. No gap year - I think the more middle class you are, the more likely you are to do a gap year. Or gap yaah as my girls call it!

My son started Glasgow Uni following S6 and he was still 17. His new group of pals varied in age between 17 and 20, and it mattered not a jot.

BTW, great choice of uni your daughter's made!

I went at 16 straight from S5, turned 17 in the Dec...most others seemed to be English or international students and were 18/19+. At that age a year or two either way really doesn't make too much of a difference.

I have a DD just started 2nd year at Uni in Scotland. In her flat of 6 last year, 2 of them were 17. They turned 18 in October and December in 1st year. The rest of the flat were all 18 and started turning 19 from January in 1st year.

It's not common to take a gap year amongst all the families we know. Some have gone to college for a year after S6 as they didn't meet their uni offer. They then started Uni 1 year later at age 19