University of St Andrews
Diversity at St Andrews University
Is it true that there isn’t much diversity in St Andrews? What percentage would you say are from minority ethnic backgrounds?
Scroll to see replies
Original post by Anonymous #1
Is it true that there isn’t much diversity in St Andrews? What percentage would you say are from minority ethnic backgrounds?
According to the Times league table’s social inclusion index, 17.4% of students are from an ethnic minority. I don’t know if this includes international students or only Scottish and RUK ones though, as 42% of students are international, so if it doesn’t include them then the total percentage will probably be higher.
I think this stereotype usually pertains to the English students there, and whilst there will be some truth to it, St Andrews are becoming more committed to widening access and attracting types of students who are less represented at St Andrews, so are becoming more diverse.
Maybe any current StA students on TSR can help you out with what the level of diversity feels like there?
University of St Andrews
It lacks diversity and I was put off by it from the open day. It's full of american and british students not good enough to get into Oxbridge or a decent US college or americans who just want to drink at 18 and doss around. Good for undergrad and for Medicine, terrible for anything else. It's a poor man's Oxbridge. In turn Durham and Exeter are a poor man's St Andrews. It's like asking for a PS5 and you get given a crappy knock off from Bangladesh.
Save yourself the bother and go somewhere else and if you must go to Scotland then go to Edinburgh and Glasgow instead which have bigger profiles internationally.
Heck I'd choose Trinity College Dublin over St Andrews.
Save yourself the bother and go somewhere else and if you must go to Scotland then go to Edinburgh and Glasgow instead which have bigger profiles internationally.
Heck I'd choose Trinity College Dublin over St Andrews.
Original post by Anonymous #2
It lacks diversity and I was put off by it from the open day. It's full of american and british students not good enough to get into Oxbridge or a decent US college or americans who just want to drink at 18 and doss around. Good for undergrad and for Medicine, terrible for anything else. It's a poor man's Oxbridge. In turn Durham and Exeter are a poor man's St Andrews. It's like asking for a PS5 and you get given a crappy knock off from Bangladesh.
Save yourself the bother and go somewhere else and if you must go to Scotland then go to Edinburgh and Glasgow instead which have bigger profiles internationally.
Heck I'd choose Trinity College Dublin over St Andrews.
Save yourself the bother and go somewhere else and if you must go to Scotland then go to Edinburgh and Glasgow instead which have bigger profiles internationally.
Heck I'd choose Trinity College Dublin over St Andrews.
Original post by S1098
So hang on, you are saying it is good for undergraduate, not quite as good as Oxbridge but better than Durham or Exeter. That sounds quite good to me!
St Andrews is great for undergraduate study. As a university in general beyond that it's a hard sell for me. Trinity College Dublin for me has that all round profile and has a cultural standing too but suffers from a real lack of money.
Original post by Anonymous #2
It lacks diversity and I was put off by it from the open day. It's full of american and british students not good enough to get into Oxbridge or a decent US college or americans who just want to drink at 18 and doss around. Good for undergrad and for Medicine, terrible for anything else. It's a poor man's Oxbridge. In turn Durham and Exeter are a poor man's St Andrews. It's like asking for a PS5 and you get given a crappy knock off from Bangladesh.
Save yourself the bother and go somewhere else and if you must go to Scotland then go to Edinburgh and Glasgow instead which have bigger profiles internationally.
Heck I'd choose Trinity College Dublin over St Andrews.
Save yourself the bother and go somewhere else and if you must go to Scotland then go to Edinburgh and Glasgow instead which have bigger profiles internationally.
Heck I'd choose Trinity College Dublin over St Andrews.
Wow!! How ignorant are you? Did you go to Oxbridge? Because I am at Oxford and going to do my doctorate at either St Andrews or Edinburgh...because that's where the best supervision for my specific subject is. To answer the OPs question, St Andrews is not very diverse at all and a bit like secondary school at undergrad. The Americans make it a bit weird if I am completely honest. But it is an academically sound school, and, in some subjects, such as IR, it is very respected worldwide. I hated my undergrad in terms of socialisation, but I had a good academic experience. At Oxford, I made a lot more friends, though, and enjoyed my time here more because of that. I felt a bit like an outsider at St Andrews, and I am not a PoC, only a white European, and I often felt like people were mocking my accent and silly stuff like that.
PS The fact that you say "Heck" tells me all I need to know
I studied there quite a while back...I am a P of C and was born and brought up in Scotland. It was one of the worst experiences of my life there : racist abuse was regular and that was just from the students (I have to be specific here in that I NEVER received any form of abuse or intimidation from any scottish student, just from the exclusive "Yah" english types and from some of the local townsfolk yobs.) TBH, I never heard of the terms "Ya" or "Yah" in reference to these upper middle class english types hailing mainly from the SE part of England but a good chunk seem to be in the mindset of Victorian/Edwarian era England and are really studying at that place really just to have a good time studying the weaker arts subjects like art history. My advice to any minorities and/or PofC is to veer clearly away from this place and try to get into a more city oriented locale as you'll fit in better and experience little or no antagonism based on who are what you may look like. Peace...
Original post by tsgarch
I studied there quite a while back...I am a P of C and was born and brought up in Scotland. It was one of the worst experiences of my life there : racist abuse was regular and that was just from the students (I have to be specific here in that I NEVER received any form of abuse or intimidation from any scottish student, just from the exclusive "Yah" english types and from some of the local townsfolk yobs.) TBH, I never heard of the terms "Ya" or "Yah" in reference to these upper middle class english types hailing mainly from the SE part of England but a good chunk seem to be in the mindset of Victorian/Edwarian era England and are really studying at that place really just to have a good time studying the weaker arts subjects like art history. My advice to any minorities and/or PofC is to veer clearly away from this place and try to get into a more city oriented locale as you'll fit in better and experience little or no antagonism based on who are what you may look like. Peace...
Original post by tsgarch
I studied there quite a while back...I am a P of C and was born and brought up in Scotland. It was one of the worst experiences of my life there : racist abuse was regular and that was just from the students (I have to be specific here in that I NEVER received any form of abuse or intimidation from any scottish student, just from the exclusive "Yah" english types and from some of the local townsfolk yobs.) TBH, I never heard of the terms "Ya" or "Yah" in reference to these upper middle class english types hailing mainly from the SE part of England but a good chunk seem to be in the mindset of Victorian/Edwarian era England and are really studying at that place really just to have a good time studying the weaker arts subjects like art history. My advice to any minorities and/or PofC is to veer clearly away from this place and try to get into a more city oriented locale as you'll fit in better and experience little or no antagonism based on who are what you may look like. Peace...
Oh wow, the replies to this thread are worrying me quite a bit as I'm a POC and got accepted into St. Andrews for this year.... I mean I experienced racism growing up and was hoping maybe people wouldn't be like that at uni :/
Original post by Anonymous #3
Oh wow, the replies to this thread are worrying me quite a bit as I'm a POC and got accepted into St. Andrews for this year.... I mean I experienced racism growing up and was hoping maybe people wouldn't be like that at uni :/
(edited 1 month ago)
Original post by A Rolling Stone
it's one person with some axe to grind, i have no idea about their experience but it is not representative. St Andrews is predominantly white but all of the black/asians are integrated into the student community more easily than any other uni in the UK for various reasons (eg. academic families). if ethnic minorities use the lack of ethnic minorities as a reason not to attend, the issue will self-perpetuate.. students are notoriously woke so forgive me for not believing that person had actually experienced racism to the extent they are claiming
Original post by Anonymous #2
It doesn't take much to be better than Durham and Exter to be honest. It has more Nobel Prizes than both combined. The only subject I'd really do at Exeter would be Medicine tbh maybe something in History but not above and beyond Oxbridge, UCL, King's, Edinburgh, or Manchester.
St Andrews is great for undergraduate study. As a university in general beyond that it's a hard sell for me. Trinity College Dublin for me has that all round profile and has a cultural standing too but suffers from a real lack of money.
St Andrews is great for undergraduate study. As a university in general beyond that it's a hard sell for me. Trinity College Dublin for me has that all round profile and has a cultural standing too but suffers from a real lack of money.
(edited 1 month ago)
Original post by Picnicl
An about 600 year old university has more Nobel prize winners than 2 universities with a combined age of about 250 years? Who'd have thought it?
Original post by Anonymous #2
Relax yourself: St. Andrews may be so old but hardly has more than a kfc family feast’s worth of Nobel laureates. It’s an overrated university that survived because of its age, the medical school, and because of the rahs and preppies who outside of Medicine couldn’t get into a decent U.K. or US college.
Original post by S1098
I'd love to know why you feel so moved to keep making these comments but apparently not confident enough to put your name to them. As far as I can tell you are basing all your comments on your experience at an open day rather than any actual experience at the university. It certainly isn't representative of my daughter's experience there. Where did you choose to go in the end?
My comments are based on rankings and perceptions of St Andrews by both academics, and professionals as well as current and former students, as well the university's wider impact.
None of what I said is untrue: outside of subject areas like Medicine (which to be honest is highly rated and competitive everywhere in the UK), and International Relations, St Andrews' isn't an "outstanding" university in the sense that people would trip up on themselves to get into it say in the Oxbridge or Ivy League sense. Did I ever say it was a bad university? No. I merely pointed out some accurate facts:
•
It's global ranking doesn't reflect it's somewhat high national ranking.
•
That being said, it is not a research-intensive university compared to even a place like Manchester or Bristol. So it is going to be ranked lower in that sense.
•
It isn't viewed as a "target university" by the big Investment Banks and firms. A lot of this is down to its location.
•
You cite it being a university of considerable age, yet it can only claim 5 or 6 Nobel Laureates amongst its staff or alumni. I think only one of those, Sir James Black, was actually a graduate of the university. So for a university of considerable age and prestige, it hasn't produced any alumni who have gone onto excel in their field even if they conducted their research elsewhere.
•
Did people really care that much about the University of St Andrews outside of the medical school, until Prince William showed up? Not really. Even in Scottish terms, Edinburgh and Glasgow, and to an extent Aberdeen, were seen as the top Scottish Universities even though St Andrews did play a role in the Scottish Enlightenment.
•
You can't really deny the fact the social scene at the university, for better or for (most likely) worse, has been dominated by this culture of 'rahs' and uppity preppies from the US (who just want to get bladdered), who couldn't hack it elsewhere and want to go to a secluded part of the country and spend the next 3 or 4 years, burning through daddy's money, and prance around in tweed pretending they're at pseudo-Oxford when they really aren't. Durham is similar in that regard.
Did I ever say St Andrews was a bad university? No. Is it as "prestigious" as people make it out to be? No not really. Prestige is subjective though.
This thread was about diversity though and a simple google search will show you St Andrews perhaps more so than Oxbridge or an Ivy League school has some serious issues regarding diversity, accessibility and representation. It shows for a place where the nearest train station is a considerable distance away and up until recently had some stupid African Ball where people came in blackface, and they have this Kate Kennedy Society or something which is just a pale imitator of the Bullingdon and Pitt Clubs.
To steer back to the original question at hand, St Andrews lacks diversity and not just in the ethnic sense. In terms of career prospects, it will not give you a significant if any advantage at all over attending any of the other Russell Groups (depending on the subject).
Original post by Anonymous #2
I don't see why revealing my real or fake identity would make such a difference here? Perhaps you need to examine your own self-esteem or ego here because I seem to be deflating it?
My comments are based on rankings and perceptions of St Andrews by both academics, and professionals as well as current and former students, as well the university's wider impact.
None of what I said is untrue: outside of subject areas like Medicine (which to be honest is highly rated and competitive everywhere in the UK), and International Relations, St Andrews' isn't an "outstanding" university in the sense that people would trip up on themselves to get into it say in the Oxbridge or Ivy League sense. Did I ever say it was a bad university? No. I merely pointed out some accurate facts:
Did I ever say St Andrews was a bad university? No. Is it as "prestigious" as people make it out to be? No not really. Prestige is subjective though.
This thread was about diversity though and a simple google search will show you St Andrews perhaps more so than Oxbridge or an Ivy League school has some serious issues regarding diversity, accessibility and representation. It shows for a place where the nearest train station is a considerable distance away and up until recently had some stupid African Ball where people came in blackface, and they have this Kate Kennedy Society or something which is just a pale imitator of the Bullingdon and Pitt Clubs.
To steer back to the original question at hand, St Andrews lacks diversity and not just in the ethnic sense. In terms of career prospects, it will not give you a significant if any advantage at all over attending any of the other Russell Groups (depending on the subject).
My comments are based on rankings and perceptions of St Andrews by both academics, and professionals as well as current and former students, as well the university's wider impact.
None of what I said is untrue: outside of subject areas like Medicine (which to be honest is highly rated and competitive everywhere in the UK), and International Relations, St Andrews' isn't an "outstanding" university in the sense that people would trip up on themselves to get into it say in the Oxbridge or Ivy League sense. Did I ever say it was a bad university? No. I merely pointed out some accurate facts:
•
It's global ranking doesn't reflect it's somewhat high national ranking.
•
That being said, it is not a research-intensive university compared to even a place like Manchester or Bristol. So it is going to be ranked lower in that sense.
•
It isn't viewed as a "target university" by the big Investment Banks and firms. A lot of this is down to its location.
•
You cite it being a university of considerable age, yet it can only claim 5 or 6 Nobel Laureates amongst its staff or alumni. I think only one of those, Sir James Black, was actually a graduate of the university. So for a university of considerable age and prestige, it hasn't produced any alumni who have gone onto excel in their field even if they conducted their research elsewhere.
•
Did people really care that much about the University of St Andrews outside of the medical school, until Prince William showed up? Not really. Even in Scottish terms, Edinburgh and Glasgow, and to an extent Aberdeen, were seen as the top Scottish Universities even though St Andrews did play a role in the Scottish Enlightenment.
•
You can't really deny the fact the social scene at the university, for better or for (most likely) worse, has been dominated by this culture of 'rahs' and uppity preppies from the US (who just want to get bladdered), who couldn't hack it elsewhere and want to go to a secluded part of the country and spend the next 3 or 4 years, burning through daddy's money, and prance around in tweed pretending they're at pseudo-Oxford when they really aren't. Durham is similar in that regard.
Did I ever say St Andrews was a bad university? No. Is it as "prestigious" as people make it out to be? No not really. Prestige is subjective though.
This thread was about diversity though and a simple google search will show you St Andrews perhaps more so than Oxbridge or an Ivy League school has some serious issues regarding diversity, accessibility and representation. It shows for a place where the nearest train station is a considerable distance away and up until recently had some stupid African Ball where people came in blackface, and they have this Kate Kennedy Society or something which is just a pale imitator of the Bullingdon and Pitt Clubs.
To steer back to the original question at hand, St Andrews lacks diversity and not just in the ethnic sense. In terms of career prospects, it will not give you a significant if any advantage at all over attending any of the other Russell Groups (depending on the subject).
Original post by JMarlb
Have you ever been to St Andrews? The train station (Leuchars) is literally 10-15 minutes away. The medical school only offers the first three years of medical education, and ranks below Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen. You’re just talking sh!t at this point. I am sorry you didn’t have a great time and I agree that St Andrews has some serious issues, but, at least in the UK, it is a respected institution. Also, St Andrews is not a Russel group uni 🙃
WRT Medicine as most know the rankings mean squat for Medicine. Where you obtained your PMQ (Primary Medical Qualification) from has zero bearing on your career prospects certainly from the NHS training route perspective and even beyond that hardly if any at all. Nobody chooses a medical school based on its rankings.
And yes I know it's not a Russell Group. I mentioned the RG to stress the point that attending St Andrews won't give you some magical advantage in the jobmarket that you couldn't obtain by attending one of the strong RG universities like Edinburgh or Manchester or even Bristol or Nottingham.
Even in the UK people know St Andrews as being only decent-ish at the undergraduate level and only then it's well known because the future King went there. Not because it oozes academic excellence or because it made an outstanding contirbution to the history of the UK and the world.
St Andrews is great if you go there as an undergraduate, and if it's one of the places you receive an offer to study Medicine (and in any case you do your clinicals elsewhere). Beyond that it's basically Durham and Exeter level of pseudo-Oxbridge inferiority complex zone. Of the three at least Durham and Exter are now Russell Group universities and Exeter at least has a medical school with its own clinical teaching hospitals.
Beyond that if you go there as an undergrad for anything non-serious like I don't know Philosophy or Classics, work hard and hope and pray you get a 1st, go do postgrad at Oxbridge or an Ivy and then go onto better things.
St Andrews will NOT open any doors for you unless you are white, male and filthy rich to begin with. Or unless you're white, female look like a model and would-be wife for a rich man.
Original post by JMarlb
Have you ever been to St Andrews? The train station (Leuchars) is literally 10-15 minutes away. The medical school only offers the first three years of medical education, and ranks below Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen. You’re just talking sh!t at this point. I am sorry you didn’t have a great time and I agree that St Andrews has some serious issues, but, at least in the UK, it is a respected institution. Also, St Andrews is not a Russel group uni 🙃
(edited 1 month ago)
Original post by JMarlb
Have you ever been to St Andrews? The train station (Leuchars) is literally 10-15 minutes away. The medical school only offers the first three years of medical education, and ranks below Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen. You’re just talking sh!t at this point. I am sorry you didn’t have a great time and I agree that St Andrews has some serious issues, but, at least in the UK, it is a respected institution. Also, St Andrews is not a Russel group uni 🙃
Quick Reply
Related discussions
- Pakistanis of St Andrews
- Bristol vs. St. Andrews?
- Could I afford to go to St Andrews?
- st andrews racism/classism
- Careers Tab
- Questions/Concerns about St. Andrews
- help me choose a uni (history/politics/IR)
- Part-time PhD study at St Andrews advice.
- How good/elite is the University of St. Andrews?
- drop out of Imperial doing engineering to go to Newcastle?
- St. Andrews vs LSE: Which to pick?
- St. Andrews
- St Andrews - Ask A Current Student Thread [part 2]
- Which is the better university?
- Edinburgh or Saint Andrews for economics
- Unis similar to Glasgow and St andrews
- Durham VS St Andrews: Who would YOU pick?
- The honorable non-russell group hurt/heal game
- Part-time PhD at Cranfield advice
- Cambridge with no scholarship Vs University of St Andrews with full scholarship
Latest
Trending
Last reply 3 hours ago
Official University of St Andrews Applicant Thread for 2024Last reply 1 week ago
Does Sutton Trust actually guarantee an offer? For St andrewsLast reply 1 week ago
Is it difficult for graduates of university of St Andrews to find a job?Trending
Last reply 3 hours ago
Official University of St Andrews Applicant Thread for 2024Last reply 1 week ago
Does Sutton Trust actually guarantee an offer? For St andrewsLast reply 1 week ago
Is it difficult for graduates of university of St Andrews to find a job?
