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St Salvators Quad, University of St Andrews
University of St Andrews

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If you want to come to St Andrews, didn't completely mess up AS, and think you can get the grades required, you should apply :p: Simple as
St Salvators Quad, University of St Andrews
University of St Andrews
Original post by Ecosse_14
The PS is extremely important and plays a big part in whether you get an offer or not. There are plenty of straight A candidates who have been rejected because their PS just wasn't good enough whereas others who may not be straight A candidates get offers because they have a great PS. It doesn't all come down to grades.


What is meant by a great PS? Im applying for spanish with latin this year, and my ps focuses mainly on academia, obscure books that i've read in the languages.. film.. media... etc etc. It's mainly academic as i'm oxbridging, but st andrews is my first choice, so i was just wondering what people who are at st andrews actually put in their statement? do you have to be head girl etc?
Reply 102
How competitive is it compared to somewhere like Edinburgh? For an international student
Does anyone know how competitive zoology is at St A? I would like to put it as my first choice, but I'm not so sure...
(edited 11 years ago)
Does anyone know how competitive Philosophy is there?
I'm currently doing a BTEC level 3 in IT and A level mathematics and got offered a conditional offer. So it is competitive, but not impossible. I have to also now get DDD and an A in maths :smile:
Original post by Wild@Heart
Does anyone know how competitive zoology is at St A? I would like to put it as my first choice, but I'm not so sure...


I would say apply for general biology instead and then switch your second year as all of the modules are the same anyway (first year). Unless you are an international student and then you don't have to worry.
Original post by bob247
How competitive is it compared to somewhere like Edinburgh? For an international student


Its slightly more competitive than Edinburgh in general for both home and international students.
Original post by LucyRoss25
Does anyone know the likelihood of getting accepted into St Andrews to do journalism?


Pretty unlikely considering they don't teach that... 😅
Does anyone know how competitive it is to get into St Andrews for Maths (specifically the Pure Mathematics course) ?
Original post by mcride98
Does anyone know how competitive it is to get into St Andrews for Maths (specifically the Pure Mathematics course) ?

Anecdotal, but I know someone very smart that didn't get in.
Can anyone tell me how competitive is it to do a masters or PHd?
Original post by shmeo81
Dunno if anyone will see this, but how competitive for physics? especially compared to edinburgh and other AAA unis


Someone on TSR has created a thread with the likelihood of an offer for Physics with predicted AAA for several universities (incl. St Andrews and Edinburgh)

If you take Physics, Maths and Further Maths and are predicted AAA you have a 11% chance of getting an offer from St Andrews and >90% chance at Edinburgh :smile:
Hey everyone I made a facebook page for St Andrews 2017 applicants because i couldn't find one myself - https://www.facebook.com/groups/314392885624420/ ! Hope you join and get to meet some other fabulous prospective students!
Anyone know the how competitive masters in international security studies is? I just applied recently, and hope the fact that Im a girl (heard not many girls apply for security studies) and Norwegian (we pay much more in fees bc not in the EU) I stand a chance. I might not get a first overall though, which worries me a bit...

any comments??
Reply 115
St A is competitive but they seem to look for very different things than other unis. One of my friends got into Oxford and not St A this year and out of 5 people who applied for history (all with A*A*A-3A* prediction) no one got a place.

Only 2 out of 12 applicants from my school got in, all with applicants at least A*AA prediction and most with 4A's at AS. I think they put greater emphasis on your personal statement and reference than most other universities. Myself and another girl who got in both noticed that our personal statement unintentionally drew upon specific and unique parts of the St A course, so it might help you out but i'm not entirely sure.

In comparison to the others my GCSE grades were relatively weak but still good. From what I can gather it seems like they look more at the person rather than the grades.
I'm thinking of applying this year to do ancient history and archaeology, the course requires AAB which is what I'm predicted for psychology, English lit and ancient history in that order (although there's scope to get it up to A*AA according to teachers). I have pretty average GCSEs (1 A*, 2 As, 5 Bs, 1 C), my AS in ancient history will hopefully be a B, which is good but it isn't great. However, my EPQ is based on the subject and I think I will do well in it, and my PS and reference should also be pretty good (good essay skills, lots of reading, relevant work experience etc).

The course is pretty competitive, about 38% of applicants get an offer. Is it worth applying or do I not really stand a chance against people who are predicted A*A*A and have amazing GCSEs?
Original post by laurenshuff
I'm thinking of applying this year to do ancient history and archaeology, the course requires AAB which is what I'm predicted for psychology, English lit and ancient history in that order (although there's scope to get it up to A*AA according to teachers). I have pretty average GCSEs (1 A*, 2 As, 5 Bs, 1 C), my AS in ancient history will hopefully be a B, which is good but it isn't great. However, my EPQ is based on the subject and I think I will do well in it, and my PS and reference should also be pretty good (good essay skills, lots of reading, relevant work experience etc).

The course is pretty competitive, about 38% of applicants get an offer. Is it worth applying or do I not really stand a chance against people who are predicted A*A*A and have amazing GCSEs?


You should apply, St As values PS a lot and it def shows in how long they take to answer applications. The modules required for Ancient History + Archaeology are the same as Ancient History, and - if it helps w/ PS and acceptance rates - you could just apply for Ancient History and add Archaeology at the end of 2nd year for the Archaeology only Honours classes. ((Although tbh most unis will want at least an A in the subject you're applying for if you study it now.))
Original post by JM_1998
You should apply, St As values PS a lot and it def shows in how long they take to answer applications. The modules required for Ancient History + Archaeology are the same as Ancient History, and - if it helps w/ PS and acceptance rates - you could just apply for Ancient History and add Archaeology at the end of 2nd year for the Archaeology only Honours classes. ((Although tbh most unis will want at least an A in the subject you're applying for if you study it now.))


Hey, thanks for replying. I'd most likely be applying for ancient history and archaeology elsewhere too so I think I'd probably just go for that off the bat. I think I could maybe get my predicted for ancient history up to an A because because I sucked at the AS exams format, which held me back, but it changes in year 13 (in my favour). Tbh I'm not sure I will have even passed the AS which is freaking me out because the exam went badly for me, though I was doing well and getting 90%+ in past papers beforehand. Guess we'll see on Thursday lmao, I just really dont want to be applying to uni with a D at AS in the subject
Anyone pursuing Masters in Psychology at St Andrews?

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