opinions on st. andrews?

OP

BRUH anyone??????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! even if u've visited

Reply 2

Diem2015

8

Never mind, it's the same regardless of your ethnicity

Reply 3

OP

Original post by Diem2015

Never mind, it's the same regardless of your ethnicity

What's the same? I meant if there's few POC and if it's boring there?

Reply 4

londonmyst

19

A lot of people automatically steer clear of St Andrews because of the 4 year degree, cold weather conditions and quiet small town Scottish location with very limited nightlife.

My best friend applied to St Andrews for undergrad 8 years ago but turned the place down because she found the the atmosphere very weird, the weather unpleasant, temperature conditions far too cold and wasn't keen on the four year undergrad.
She was born in India and is a dual national.
I'm a lifelong Londoner and wouldn't consider applying to study at St Andrews or anywhere in Scotland.

Reply 5

OP

Original post by londonmyst

A lot of people automatically steer clear of St Andrews because of the 4 year degree, cold weather conditions and quiet small town Scottish location with very limited nightlife.

My best friend applied to St Andrews for undergrad 8 years ago but turned the place down because she found the the atmosphere very weird, the weather unpleasant, temperature conditions far too cold and wasn't keen on the four year undergrad.
She was born in India and is a dual national.
I'm a lifelong Londoner and wouldn't consider applying to study at St Andrews or anywhere in Scotland.

Literally same bruh, I'm from London and I know St. Andrews would be a completely different world to me. I'm only considering because of its rep and I'm contextual for the uni :colondollar:

I haven't heard anyone say anything positive tbh, it's making me rethink my choices...

Reply 6

OP

Original post by Reality Check

x

Nah stop

that sounds like hell - from a minority, state school student from London

That's so annoying though. I might apply because the course I want to do means we have a compulsory switch to a different uni for 3rd year to Barts or Manchester, so at least it's not all terrible news...

Reply 7

OP

Original post by Reality Check

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Unfortunately, Scotland is quite the trek for south England so I don't think I'll be able to visit :frown:

I'm so stuck because the course seems really good and I like the switch but I don't want to be bored out of my brains there or, worse, subject to racism.

Thanks for the input though, appreciate it. Have you visited by any chance?

Reply 8

OP

Original post by Reality Check

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That's so surprising, I always thought Cambridge would be very preppy and full of private school kids. Is there a lot to do at Cambridge?

Reply 9

Reality Check

22

Original post by Anonymous

That's so surprising, I always thought Cambridge would be very preppy and full of private school kids. Is there a lot to do at Cambridge?

Cambridge is about 70% state school now. There's load to do in Cambridge, both in the city and through your college, but the best thing is that it's only an hour by train to central London, and it has a very good train service, so when things get claustrophobic in Cam you can just go up to town very easily.

Reply 10

OP

Original post by Reality Check

Cambridge is about 70% state school now. There's load to do in Cambridge, both in the city and through your college, but the best thing is that it's only an hour by train to central London, and it has a very good train service, so when things get claustrophobic in Cam you can just go up to town very easily.

Haha, Cambridge seems like a dream. What did you study, if you don't mind me asking?

Reply 11

Reality Check

22

Original post by Anonymous

Haha, Cambridge seems like a dream. What did you study, if you don't mind me asking?

No, I don't mind at all :smile:

Natural sciences (bio) after law. I stayed to do my Part III (a Masters, essentially) and PhD, so I was pretty happy there!

If you're smart and motivated, and get the grades, then consider applying. There's loads of resources about Cambridge on TSR, so well worth a look. You can PM me with any specific questions or anything if you like.

Reply 12

OP

Original post by Reality Check

No, I don't mind at all :smile:

Natural sciences (bio) after law. I stayed to do my Part III (a Masters, essentially) and PhD, so I was pretty happy there!

If you're smart and motivated, and get the grades, then consider applying. There's loads of resources about Cambridge on TSR, so well worth a look. You can PM me with any specific questions or anything if you like.

You actually must be crazy smart wtffff PhD?!! Haha, I would love to apply but I'm only applying for medicine and the selection process for that seems very daunting as they usually want a BMAT score of over 6 :s-smilie:

To be fair though, I do have a pretty strong academic record (9 A*s at GCSEs and 3 A* predicted for A-levels) but I heard somewhere that hardly anyone gets in with just 3 A-levels which is probably why I haven't really considered it. If I change my mind though, I'll definitely PM :smile:

Reply 13

Original post by Anonymous

BRUH anyone??????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! even if u've visited

I'm going this September. I was like you at first, I was scared that it would be small and boring. I visited it in June, and the town is small, but it isn't tiny. There is still a very respectable town centre with several highstreets and 30 pubs (or so I've heard.) There is 1 club too. I highly doubt it will be boring, considering St Andrews is renowned for having the highest student satisfaction in the UK. Apparently, it has a strong sense of community. Also, in terms of diversity, the Uni published its diversity quota earlier this year. I will link it when I find it. St Andrews has the largest international population and in that sense, is very diverse.

Reply 14

Original post by Anonymous

Unfortunately, I couldn't visit this summer but I'm thinking of applying there because I've heard good things about it. My only worry is if it's really boring there ? Some people have said there's literally nothing to do there and no night clubs or activities. This is isn't a huge deal-breaker, but I would like things to do.

My main concern is diversity; I'm a POC and I've heard it has a very low % of BAME students (I already live in a very white-dominated area and I would like a change of scenery for the next few years of my life)

If anyone studies there or lives around the area, I would love to hear your opinions.

https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/about/edi-progress-reports/student-equality-diversity-and-inclusion-report-2019/population-by-ethnicity/

"Of the UK domiciled population 10.9% are BAME, 0.5% are unknown and 88.6% are White.
Of the non-UK population 29% are BAME, 6.4% are unknown and 64.6% are White.
Of the total undergraduate population 17.9% are BAME, 2.8% are unknown and 79.3% are White."

(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 15

Original post by londonmyst

A lot of people automatically steer clear of St Andrews because of the 4 year degree, cold weather conditions and quiet small town Scottish location with very limited nightlife.

My best friend applied to St Andrews for undergrad 8 years ago but turned the place down because she found the the atmosphere very weird, the weather unpleasant, temperature conditions far too cold and wasn't keen on the four year undergrad.
She was born in India and is a dual national.
I'm a lifelong Londoner and wouldn't consider applying to study at St Andrews or anywhere in Scotland.

So basically, you have no experience of St Andrews.... and you are trying to give someone an insight into St Andrews. Odd.

Reply 16

A Rolling Stone

20

Original post by Anonymous

Unfortunately, I couldn't visit this summer but I'm thinking of applying there because I've heard good things about it. My only worry is if it's really boring there ? Some people have said there's literally nothing to do there and no night clubs or activities. This is isn't a huge deal-breaker, but I would like things to do.

My main concern is diversity; I'm a POC and I've heard it has a very low % of BAME students (I already live in a very white-dominated area and I would like a change of scenery for the next few years of my life)

If anyone studies there or lives around the area, I would love to hear your opinions.

what is say to people is that st andrews is pretty-much appallingly un-diverse in terms of domestic students but the #1 most diverse uni in the whole of the UK in terms of international students. yes, a plurality of them are Americans, but ultimately st andrews is an EXTREMELY cosmopolitan experience as there are internationals from all over the globe to an extent you don't get anywhere else (i.e at LSE they're mainly Chinese)... you'd just have to prepare yourself for the place being mostly white. the 'boring' comments about the town are moronic. you don't have full clubs but you do have plenty of bars, and besides that a completely unique student experience that is not replicated anywhere else in the UK that every student there loves

(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 17

username5245084

19

Original post by Anonymous

Unfortunately, I couldn't visit this summer but I'm thinking of applying there because I've heard good things about it. My only worry is if it's really boring there ? Some people have said there's literally nothing to do there and no night clubs or activities. This is isn't a huge deal-breaker, but I would like things to do.

My main concern is diversity; I'm a POC and I've heard it has a very low % of BAME students (I already live in a very white-dominated area and I would like a change of scenery for the next few years of my life)

If anyone studies there or lives around the area, I would love to hear your opinions.

I applied to St. Andrews last year and got a place, though I’m not going in September because I didn’t get the grades lmao. But I am POC, and had so many doubts about applying. In the end St. Andrews became my favourite of my choices, just because in the end I decided that I didn’t want their low diversity rate to put me off. At the time I was determined to not let it stop me, on the whole diversity was improving (at a very slow pace) and even though it’s low, st a didn’t seem to suffer from the same racial incidents and isolation other unis seemed to (eg: Durham). Ofc itll be a culture shock, in my case I would’ve been moving from a big diverse city to a small very un-diverse seaside town. But it’s up to you whether you like St. Andrews enough to take the plunge.

My mum and I did visit in the summer while we were on holiday in Edinburgh and you’ve got to give it props, it is beautiful there. We did stand out like mad, it didn’t help that it was summer so the vast majority of students had left. I didn’t feel 100% comfortable, more like an 70%. Plus my mum told me that she’d been getting some funny looks from some ladies when we went to a cafe in st a. It was nothing major, and we didn’t let it spoil our day there, but we both noted it down mentally if ygm.
I’d just suggest - I’d gotten over the racial thing (before applying) somewhat quickly as I decided I didn’t want it to hold me back. But make sure that you’ll be ready for the difficulties that may (but not guaranteed that’s for sure) come with it. Even if it’s small, only you know how much that’ll impact you. Moving to uni is a big thing, and comfort is more important than many realise.

sorry if I waffled and I didn’t make complete sense grammatically or something like that, it is almost 1am after all! I hope this helped though.

Reply 18

This thread may also be useful:

https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6546848

Reply 19