Are English students at a disadvantage?

I'm thinking of applying to study Chemistry at St Andrews and I am wondering what people's opinions are on whether English students are at a disadvantage. I got 5As at AS Level (Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Geography and Critical Thinking) and I'm taking Chemistry, Maths and Physics next year. The university says that it isn't biased (of course it would). Also - I've heard that people hear back from St Andrews about their offer on the last possible day - is this often the case?

RUK students (so English, Welsh and Northern Irish) are considered in a group by themselves, so it would be difficult/impossible to discriminate against them.

My son got his offer AFTER the last possible day - promised by 31 March and he heard on 1 April. Cruel wait - we had given up hope by midnight on 31st.

Depends what you mean by disadvantaged. The university recruitment and admissions strategy (downloadable from this page http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/staff/policy/planning/ ) says:
The University will retain its character as “Internationally Scottish” by managing the balance between Scottish (1/3), Other UK (1/3) and Non-UK (1/3). These proportions will remain flexible in order to be responsive to changes in funding models or markets and the current need to contain home/EU numbers within government-set limits and to move towards a population constructed broadly as Scottish (1/3), Other EU (1/3) and Non-UK (1/3).

They certainly want English students, as they bring in fees, and there is a cap on the number of Scottish students the Scottish government will fund.

Assuming he got his application in before the January deadline, the actual last date was May 9th:
http://www.ucas.com/apply/key-dates?field_key_date_grouping_tid=All&page=0%2C0#tab-1
so they were being quite early by some standards! The March 31st 'deadline' is what UCAS asks them to do, but in practice this means almost nothing. (I'm a sixth form tutor, so I see this every year.) My son got his Edinburgh offer on the last day in 2010, which was May 8th, iirc. He's English, too, and his experience has been that there are plenty of other English students there.

True, though the university itself had also sent emails promising he would hear by 31 March, so it was pretty nail-biting. We were braced for Scottish universities tending to be later than English (older brother also at St As) but it was worse this time round.

They are indeed very naughty about this. Every year we have the same universities leaving it until last minute, and some courses are worse than others, too. The record holders for fastest turnaround for many years at our school have been Manchester University history and politics departments, who very often turn them around within a week.

Yes, they actually say in bold on their 'how we make offers' page that we aim to make all of our decisions by 31 March. I guess they'd say they did make the decision by 31 March in our case, but just didn't tell us what it was till the next day. But 8th May must have been agonising for your son (and you...)

I'm thinking of applying to study Chemistry at St Andrews and I am wondering what people's opinions are on whether English students are at a disadvantage. I got 5As at AS Level (Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Geography and Critical Thinking) and I'm taking Chemistry, Maths and Physics next year. The university says that it isn't biased (of course it would). Also - I've heard that people hear back from St Andrews about their offer on the last possible day - is this often the case?

I'm thinking of applying for Medicine at St. Andrews (and am English) so slightly worried by this disadvantage to English applicants! What is it about the sorting process that disadvantages the English?


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you get more points for 'achieved grades' ie. scottish highers get 'cached in' in lower 6th, than you do for 'predicted grades' ie. A2 levels. This means that for the academic qualifications bit, you can get less points if you're doing A levels unless you already have your grades (ie apply after school) in which case it makes no difference.

TBH it prob won't matter that much, I did A levels, the place is filled with English kids..

I see... Thank you! Also, I'll be applying with one A* at A level that I took early, in addition to my predicted grades, do you know whether St. Andrews would count that towards my academic score?


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