St Andrews University: A Warning

why does this topic keep getting dragged up.. -.-

You all know from a few pages back that I, myself, spent two years at St Andrews before leaving for personal and academic reasons. It's interesting to see that this thread is still limping along after such an extensive period and the bitching bandwagon rolls steadily onwards with the OP getting summarily pwnt at every turn. I personally feel that most of your criticism of the OP is fair, and she hasn't fully embraced or understood St Andrews or its student life and biased, insidious and jaded ranting never helped anyone.

However, there's one glaring point which I feel needs to be addressed and that some of you have been very unfair to the OP about: the Careers Service. The OP may be wrong or biased about many things, but that most definitely wasn't one of them - it was a total joke and I absolutely agree with her.

At the University of Dundee (where I moved to), you sign up with the Careers Service and something called "The Placement Basement" and I was getting literally about 3-4 e-mails a week from them with job adverts, not to mention I regularly got e-mails from our School Secretary forwarded on from outside employers which basically said "We've got this role going, could you pass this onto your students in case some of them might be interested please?". In peak periods (e.g. close to graduation), this ballooned to a total of about 8-9 e-mails a week just about jobs and placements with near immediate availability.

In contrast, St Andrews Careers Service was a bit of a joke, especially considering how much they crow about their graduates' prospects and employability due to the prestige of the university itself. The staff were dismissive and flippant, the place was poorly organised with inconvenient opening hours and access to information was desperately poor with the information itself being somewhat out of date. Try as you might, you can't argue with her about that unless they've given it an epic overhaul since 2007, which I highly doubt - although I do try to avoid wanton dogma where possible and I'm open to be told I'm wrong, providing valid proof is presented



That's fine, because you don't really need shopping centres or nightclubs and they should be considered a nice bonus. I have easy access to both of those in Dundee and rarely use either; in terms of nights out, I prefer local pubs/bars and the two student unions because they're reasonably priced and not half as scummy as the "proper" clubs, which have prices amounting to theft.

I don't agree about the snobbery part, to be honest. One of my course mates was from a dirt poor background and had grant money and scholarships coming out of his ears, but he still mixed with us no problem. For the record, I'm from an upper-middle class private school background and I don't look down on people like that at all. As for the idiots in halls, if they're causing you hassle by blocking corridors etc. chances are they're causing others hassle as well so they're bound to take some flak for it at some point, and they're probably lucky that you're being so reasonable about it. Again, ignore and move on. Their fault for being immature meat heads and you're the bigger and better person for not rising to it - failing that, accidentally trip on them and injure them in the process.

There is definitely a lot of posing and snobbery going on, but I'll happily wager that it's because it comes part and parcel with the age group, the clientele and the sort of student experience St Andrews offers. Like it or lump it, there's no way around it and I learned very quickly to ignore it and wasn't ever terribly bothered. You get posing at every university, with my advice being to file them under T for "tosser" and moving on.

When you're studying and living somewhere, it's a good bit more difficult to paint an objective picture of it and bias/personal opinion definitely comes into play. Looking at St Andrews from the outside and no longer living and studying there, I have to say that it's different in many ways to everywhere else and I don't consider that a major issue; in fact, that in itself could be commendable if it weren't for the fact that there are a small number of obviously negative points:









St Andrews is very much a "love it or hate it" environment and it is definitely not for everyone. 99.9% of people I knew there absolutely loved every waking minute and I enjoyed it for the time I was there, with this unwavering until things started to unravel. I was genuinely gutted and apprehensive about leaving (although the exact mechanics behind this are highly complex and highly personal), but the grass was most definitely greener on the other side and I picked myself up and moved on. Turned out to be a fantastic decision and my life improved leaps and bounds afterwards.

Looking back on it now and compared with my original response to this thread last year at some stage, I have to come to this conclusion: as much as I enjoyed my time in St Andrews, it definitely has its flaws and isn't for everyone. In fact, it has some quite alarming negative points. However, find me a place that doesn't and plenty of people love St Andrews in its current form and it is definitely different to, but not necessarily better than, other places.

Good luck to all of you in whatever you choose in life and whatever you end up doing

You'll have to come, visit and try and get a sense of the social atmosphere yourself to decide, but personally, in my experience, there are ordinary people here who are upper working class, lower middle class etc in halls and places like Albany Park and Fife Park, because they're cheap...but the snobbery and cliqueishness which charcetrises St Andrews is unavoidable, really, is evident in everything from the housing prices to the weird traditions that this university is catered towards a particular demographic (they're currently trying to tear down some of the cheaper accomodation in Fife Park to make way for 6,000k a year flats)....the tone here is set by the upper middle classers and above.

Moreso than that, its a place where like I've said, theres a limited amount of mixing and socialising between social groups, as a previous poster has stated (ch0llima), for such a small place, its a sad fact that people just stick to their cliques, which is dissappointing and boring really- everyone needs a group, but whats a University experience without a sense of community and social mixing? There are a fair amount of people that don't wear designer clothes to Tescos, but you will feel in the minority as someone from a poorer background, I can guarantee it. I'd suggest going to a city-based Uni where you're more likely to mix with people from a similar background- and where a lot mroe socialising between and amongst people goes on which makes the whole social side of things way more reqarding...but again, its up to you, if you want the benefit of having St Andrews on your CV you may feel its worth sacrificing a better overall experience for....but as I said, visit, talk to other people when you do visit and try to get a sense of the place.

It's controversial?

Just how cliquey is it? :/ And how are the cliques divided into?

And as a general question how is it for people who don't drink? Or for muslims in general?

why does this topic keep getting dragged up.. -.-

Both fine

I dont care what anyone says Im still applying

No its one guys whiney rant when he realised he should have read the prospectus.

was going to apply to st andrews over edinburgh for medicine this year, but this has really made me think twice.

though i do remember someone telling me that, because theres no nightlife, theres always house parties on? though as folk have said its cliquey so maybe it just depends.

You ain't kidding.

I read the entire link. What a loser

Anyway, I love the town. I visited St. Andrews and I ****ing love the place. I'm not into clubbing or going out every single day so that's why I think I love it. I also love the fact that it's just beside the sea You know...stress out with work, **** up lecturers, relationship issues, yada yada, so the solution is, no matter how cliche it sounds; just walk to the nearest beach and just let the problems leave you. Well that's the ideal world for me

I was about to apply to St. Andrews for some grad work. Maybe I'll consider it in future. But I don't know. Need to revisit the department first, look 'physically' the accommodation, and future supervisors. If the supervisors are one pompous ****ed up people, expecting me to have the brain of Albert Einstein, then I won't apply. Made that mistake and won't make it again. Hopefully.

What's your degree?

was going to apply to st andrews over edinburgh for medicine this year, but this has really made me think twice.

though i do remember someone telling me that, because theres no nightlife, theres always house parties on? though as folk have said its cliquey so maybe it just depends.

That sounds like heaven for me (except the careers thing). I've spent my entire life living in the country or near the sea and I don't want to live in a city with lots of hustle and bustle, that's my idea of hell! I enjoy being in small towns with character and enjoying nature. Clubbing isn't really my scene, I'd rather go out during the day. And as someone mentioned earlier, if I get bored I could jump on the train to Edinburgh!

You're my kinda person.



Hurm....maybe the OP couldn't afford the transportation going there? Who knows? Some students rely heavily on scholarship money or grants in order to go to certain place. I know I do. It would be ideal if he/she could go there though. I completely agree on that part.

If I were reading the post when I'm 18-20, I would not have sided with the OP and probably criticized him/her for the lack of effort on researching things. But at this stage of my life, I see it as not everything is all black or white, straight line or the saying if you put you mind into it you could do it. Sometimes, though try as hard as you can, sometimes you just need to be realistic on certain things and unfortunately luck can not be on your side, most of the time.

Make sense? Hope it does.