St Andrews - Ask A Current Student Thread

Hi, I'm wanting to apply next year (2018 entry) for a Joint Honours in English and French but I'm a bit confused about the Scottish sub-honours/modular system. Would I have to take 3 subjects in my first two years, and then only properly specialise in 2 in my final years, or could I study only English and French right from the outset? Thanks for any replies.

That's right, you would take English, French, and another subject for the first two years, and then just English and French for the final two. The third subject doesn't have to be the same in each of the first two years; for example I studied modern history and German, with Italian in 1st year and ancient history in 2nd year.

This system means that you can change your degree to single honours English, single honours French, or even single honours "third subject" (or a combination of these subjects) before you go into the final two years.

Right so I essentially would have to take a 3rd subject, even if I didn't necessarily want to? Or is it just say a few modules from a different subject? Thanks for your reply! 🙂

I should add that because English and French only offer 40 credits-worth of subhonours modules per year anyway, it's not possible to get up to 120 credits just by taking these subjects (as you would only have 80).

I think in second year French actually offers 60 credits worth of modules (FR2201,FR2202,FR2203,FR2204,FR2205 and FR2206 all worth 10 credit each). So in second year you could get 100 of your credits from just English and French, and you'd only need to find 20 from elsewhere.

Hi! I'm going to be studying chemistry from September and I've received an offer for MChem. I was hoping to switch to the degree with a year's work placement, but looking at the financial side, I'm feeling a bit confused! So SAAS says they only pay half of your tuition fees....are you expected to pay the other half or is it not necessary since you are not actually at the university? Also SAAS no longer pay any bursaries that year, does the uni still pay scholarships? I am attempting to have no loan throughout university, so do you think my wages would cover my rent?
Also, what do you do for your fourth year if you are not on a placement? How does applying to placements work?

Sorry for the millions of questions and thanks in advance!

When I did the placement year I was liable for half the fees as well, and I had to cover them out of my salary, which in 2011/12 was £16,500. Where you are based affects your living costs, but I found it manageable.

If you aren't on placement (as most aren't), you will carry on with a course of lectures as normal, and carry out a research project with in an academic group. Applying for placement is much like applying to graduate jobs, consisting of application forms, interviews and possible assessment centres as well. I would strongly recommend it as it does help you to see the relevance of the subject a lot better and raise your employability going forward.

The hardest part was actually managing the distance learning material you are required to submit assignments for. Doing that after a full day's work was pretty tough!


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Thank you so much for your reply! That's good to know, do you happen to remember the amount you had to pay towards fees? Where did you go for your placement. And that's good, the salary should cover it then.

So if I don't do the placement and instead do research, what would I do in my fifth year? Would I miss out on the research aspect? Sorry for the questions again! It does sound really interesting though, and it would be great to have experience like that before leaving uni!

How much distance learning is there? I can imagine that part would not be fun!

Thanks again for your reply!

5th year is also a research project carried out alongside taught lecture courses. You are given at least 2 days of no lectures to spend in the research side, though you are encouraged to do more if you can. You are expected to produce work of a higher standard in the 5th year project, but you will leave with academic research experience as well as industry.

In the distance learning you are sent bumper packs of lecture notes for physical/organic/inorganic. You use these notes to teach yourself the material and then submit assignments electronically. It is about 30 credits out of 120 for the year. The uni also assigns an academic to you while you are on placement and they come out to visit every semester and moderate the marks awarded to you by your placement supervisor. In my case my supervisor actually argued for a higher mark, but it can often be the other way round.

I did also go on to do PhD work at St As as well and although I left over a year ago am happy to answer questions on that too.


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Hi, I'm wanting to apply next year (2018 entry) for a Joint Honours in English and French but I'm a bit confused about the Scottish sub-honours/modular system. Would I have to take 3 subjects in my first two years, and then only properly specialise in 2 in my final years, or could I study only English and French right from the outset? Thanks for any replies.

Hi, I am looking to apply to study Physics Second Year Direct Entry in 2018. It looks like the direct entry students settle in fine academically from the looks of other forum posts but what about in terms of social life? Is it hard to make friends? Do you have to live out in your first year if you are a direct entry student? Do you feel out of place with the others having known each other for a year?

Thanks in advance.

Hi all,

I was just wondering if I applied to St Andrew's with one of my friends, doing a different degree to me, is there any way we could get a shared student accommodation together? Providing we both applied at the same time and for the same type of accommodation. We would like to stay in a student accommodation and were wondering if this allocation was just random or we could get put in the same flat.

On a different note, is there anything specific they would ask for from someone applying for maths/astrophysics?

Thanks

Hi, I am looking to apply to study Physics Second Year Direct Entry in 2018. It looks like the direct entry students settle in fine academically from the looks of other forum posts but what about in terms of social life? Is it hard to make friends? Do you have to live out in your first year if you are a direct entry student? Do you feel out of place with the others having known each other for a year?

Thanks in advance.

Hello. I just accepted an offer of postgraduate study starting September 2017.

I'm quite late in applying so I have missed the visiting days and therefore haven't had a chance to view accommodation.

I would like to make a visit to the university if possible to view it, but in the meantime could any current postgrads give me any opinions on postgrad accommodation?

There's a lot to think about. Ideally I would like to spend as little money as possible as I'm funding myself entirely, also proximity to the arts building is also going to be a major advantage. I'm also a fairly quiet student, I don't go out much, don't drink and would rather not be kept up at night by noisy undergrads, I would also prefer self catered as I like to keep to my own schedule and I can be picky, but I could be open to catered if people have had a good experience.

So far my attention has been taken by:

Fife Park (+ new, + good facilities + close to sports centre for fencing; - undergrads, - distance from uni, - could be noisy)

St. Gregory's and 3, Gregory Place (+ close to the uni, + sea view, , + probably quiet, - doesn't include utilities, - older could mean poorer condition)


Agnes Blackadder (+ looks like good facilities especially study space, + cheap, + close to sports centre again, - undergrads, - could be noisy, - distance from uni, - construction work)

I'm also a little confused there because Agnes Blackadder is not listed on the postgraduate accommodation page, but it is listed on the postgraduate accommodation fees comparison table.

So I would be really grateful to get any info you can give me - what has your experience been and what would you recommend?

Did you choose to live far out and regret having to slog bricky books across the city, or is it worth the daily cycle? Also if you stay in accommodation that doesn't include utilities, what roughly does the utilities cost come to per month/week?

Thanks.

(Sorry for the long post)