University of St Andrews

private and grammar school educated

I've been looking at all the people who are going to be in my halls and considering this is fife park and the cheapest most people seem to come from private schools. If they're not private school educated they're from grammar schools. Coming from a fairly rubbish comprehensive sixth form in Essex I'm really worried I won't fit in. I can't afford anything Hunter or Barbour and well most of my clothes are F&F (tesco). Is it going to be really rubbish for me?

Reply 1

Bill_Gates

Most these kids parents are in enormous amounts of debt and only one pay cheque away from destruction. Just wait for the next financial crisis and you will be swimming in friends.

University of St Andrews

Reply 2

Pfalzgraf

While a lot of students at St Andrews did attend private schools, I don't think you should worry at all about having to fit in. I would like to think that the people really worth getting to know wouldn't care about the clothes you wear, and that if you approach university life with this concern, it might end up as a self fulfilling prophecy. I've never worn anything from Hunter or Barbour etc. and purposely boycott anything like Jack Wills - and I've never had any trouble.

Also grammar schools are non fee paying (at least mine was), so people who attended them come from all sorts of backgrounds

Reply 3

monkyvirus

For the record I went to private school on a 100% scholarship so you can be poor and privately educated. Also, I though Fife Park was only for people with financial difficulty? So even if they seem posh they must be poor...

While I realise you didn't say this OP there is this really wierd attitude that I see a lot... why do state school pupils have this highly illogical impression that by having like 40% private school students we are somehow overrun with posh people? You're still the majority! if you threw a rock into a crowd of st andreans you're still more likely to hit a average-income state school kid (not that I advise throwing things, it's not the best way to make friends). So duh you'll fit in because there are more people like you! :biggrin:

Half of my clothes are from tesco, tesco clothes are totally fine. No one will be able to tell. We're students: most of us live in t-shirt, jeans and battered trainers.