St Andrews - Ask A Current Student Thread

I have a couple of questions..
first, accommodation; in which years does st andrews provide accommodation/ is university-owned accommodation available? and what is it like, is there quite a range of quality?
secondly, how many additional courses (as well as the one you entered for) can you take in your first year? do they have to be in your faculty (e.g. humanities)?
And thirdly, does your major have to be the subject you entered for, or can you change it and graduate with a different degree if you change your mind?
thanks!

Wow, the school of physics is serious business.

3) You can change your degree, but you can only do that up until the end of 2nd/3rd year, not 100% sure which on it is.

1) You can apply for university accommodation every year. From what I've been told anyway. But you're only guaranteed accommodation for 1st year, and only if you apply for it before May 31st.

2) It really depends on how many modules you need to take for your actually degree. But the extra modules can be from anywhere within the University. As long as it doesn't clash with any other lectures, you can choose anything.

3) You can change your degree, but you can only do that up until the end of 2nd/3rd year, not 100% sure which on it is. But generally, you ought to stick to roughly the same area, as a complete change (i.e. History to Theoretical Physics) is difficult and you have to prove a genuine reason why you want to swap.

Hope that helps.

By the end of 2nd year it is. By the end of 3rd year you're already halfway through your honours modules so it's too late to change.

Yeah. But I think the first one is just a warning. But do it again and it's a proper alert.

So yeah, you're best off doing to work... but in Physics you need to at least turn up to the tutorials and workshops.

Or be me and turn up to every single little thing.

Things change in honours

Good!

Or are you trying to say they get even worse...?

I got in with AAAAB for Maths. My friend got rejected with AAABB! (all 1st sitting) so its pretty competitive. However, if your personal statement is strong then you always have a good chance!

Was that a conditional offer or an unconditional out of curiosity? I've applied for Maths and have 5 A's at higher. I've heard that they still reject some people who have 5 A's . This true?

There's not much they can do when more people apply than they have places except rejecting people. Also, if someone with 'worse' grades (which are still within the entry requirements) submits a better application, why shouldn't they consider that person instead of the one with better grades?

I guess that's very true. I'm just hoping the rest of my application is good enough then! Thanks for the reply =)

I've applied to St Andrews but am still slghtly confused by the Scottish system. If I have a Scottish MA, ist that equivalent to Bachelors or Masters?

The MA (Honours) is equivalent to the BA elsewhere in the UK and Europe.

Thanks! That's what I thought. But why does it take a year longer?