A concerned applicant

Hi!

St Andrews is a lovely town and the university is amazing. The only negative thing that comes to mind is that it is a small town, but if you're okay with that then there is nothing to worry about.

If you prefer a wild night-life with a number of clubs and bars to go to then maybe a different uni would be better suited for you, seeing as St Andrews has like- one club and the union but the many pubs all over town offer a nice, intimate alternative, which I personally prefer. The lack of clubs is also remedied by the numerous house parties that take place all over St As over the course of the semester

That is the only thing I would say could be seen as negative, so if you have no problem with living in a small town, I wouldn't be worried, if I were you~
Hope this helped

It's decent I guess. I'm doing a semester here currently, after finishing my undergrad in England. It's got fairly good teaching and great labs, but the uni really lacks a student experience and the town is meh. I did my undergrad at Surrey, which is well known for giving students a enjoyable and great uni experience. St Andrews just doesn't have that. They have events on every now and then, and yes, there is a feeling of community, but you'd be pushed to go any further than that.

Oh and it rains a lot. Like every day. Ehhhhh.

See I had assumed that, given the university is pretty much the whole town, it would be a good student experience?! As in all the resources you need are local and pretty much everyone around would be a student... I can imagine it is quite a change from Surrey but perhaps since I haven't been anywhere else and can't compare it I might not really notice? There also seemed to be lots of societies and things which I had hoped would have stuff going on :/

As I said, it's a decent uni. I'm just focusing on the points that you may not have heard so much about, but on the whole it is still a decent uni.

The town lacks the resources to give a fully enjoyable student experience, in my opinion. I think after four years here I would be very, very bored of seeing the same streets every day.

The societies are probably all right. Surrey was renowned for great societies. Every student was a member of at least one, and they got so much funding, plus you could make a society about anything you wanted. My experience at Surrey has set the bar very, very high. But St Andrews seems a bit different. It seems like most students don't actually attend a society (can a St Andrews undergrad correct me if I'm wrong here?) and while there is a good choice of societies listed, most of them seem quite dead to me. Still, they look ok I guess. The student's union is fairly good here at St Andrews too.

As I said, it's a decent uni. I'm just focusing on the points that you may not have heard so much about, but on the whole it is still a decent uni.

The town lacks the resources to give a fully enjoyable student experience, in my opinion. I think after four years here I would be very, very bored of seeing the same streets every day.

The societies are probably all right. Surrey was renowned for great societies. Every student was a member of at least one, and they got so much funding, plus you could make a society about anything you wanted. My experience at Surrey has set the bar very, very high. But St Andrews seems a bit different. It seems like most students don't actually attend a society (can a St Andrews undergrad correct me if I'm wrong here?) and while there is a good choice of societies listed, most of them seem quite dead to me. Still, they look ok I guess. The student's union is fairly good here at St Andrews too.

I think it really depends on what students you speak to, concerning societies. Last year I went along to loads for the first few weeks, but got so stressed I quit everything. This year, I've been fairly active in a sport and a society, joined an evening class, and generally gone to more activities overall, and loved it! Whilst the university itself doesn't hold a lot of events as such, just joining Facebook groups for loads of societies offers up themed nights in the clubs, arts events (galleries, open mics, concerts), things like that. Not really sure what Surrey offers so I can't really say what's similar to be honest, sorry!

I'd say to get the most out of a society, you really have to invest in it, because we're a small university and so generally have smaller societies. Sorry that I can't comment more!

That makes sense! So I suppose if you did get involved in a variety of things then there probably would be quite a lot to do. The main criticism does seem to be that there aren't any clubs, which is fair enough but i'm not sure what people are expecting and that the students aren't nice but that just seems to be people's personal experience. Everyone who I have met or spoken to has been lovely! Everyone also seems to ignore the actual work when criticising St Andrews too which probably means that they're enjoying it and that would take up a lot of time as well...

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The societies are probably all right. Surrey was renowned for great societies. Every student was a member of at least one, and they got so much funding, plus you could make a society about anything you wanted. My experience at Surrey has set the bar very, very high. But St Andrews seems a bit different. It seems like most students don't actually attend a society (can a St Andrews undergrad correct me if I'm wrong here?) and while there is a good choice of societies listed, most of them seem quite dead to me. Still, they look ok I guess. The student's union is fairly good here at St Andrews too.

Not a current undergrad, but I did 8 years at St Andrews so I think I'm somewhat qualified to offer an opinion, and I think that you couldn't be more wrong about the societies/sports clubs. Obviously I can't compare them to Surrey, but I can say that almost everyone I know/knew was involved in at least one club or society, and they're all really active. After all, as plenty of people noted, we don't have any nightclubs (not really anyway), so we have to get our social scene somewhere, and in my experience that was at club/society events, socials and balls.

The uni actually ranks pretty highly on its student experience in surveys, and normally only falls down on things like the library (lots of efforts are being made to improve that!), and before it was redeveloped the union was seen as a bit naff, but people really seem to love the redevelopment.

OP, I'd say if you've visited and you liked it then, then it's unlikely that you'll hate it here. The vast majority of haters are people who didn't visit, and didn't know what to expect from a small town.

Hi everyone,

I have applied to St Andrews this year as I fell in love with the town, the university and their degree programme when visiting them on an open day this September. Although I don't yet have an offer it is currently my second favourite university. Unfortunately since applying I have seen a lot of negative press about St Andrews; on TSR, the Tab etc etc. Whilst I am aware that these aren't hugely reliable sources I was just wondering whether these views are representative, do people really dislike St Andrews? Or is it simply a few people with a loud voice and a personal vendetta? Here's hoping it's the latter....

Many thanks!
A worried applicant

I've yet to meet anyone who doesn't like it here! There are always the minority who did not visit the town/had unrealistic expectations about its nightlife

I probably am a bit biased because I love it so much here, but I think your views are a little too, for example there are definitely ways to socialise without drinking!