Maths at St Andrews

Hi i was thinking of applying to St andrews for a joint maths/physics degree in 2005. I have read on various sites that St Andrews is highly regarded for maths and is regarded as the "cambridge of scotland". However, the grades needed is BBB, which is significantly lower than most good universities in England. Doe anyone know why it would be quite low for a uni thats meant to be really good for maths? Do they get many people applying because it is so far up north and quite secluded? Also, I read in the prospectus that they do not do interviews, but if competition is quite tough because the grade requirements are low, do they solely base acceptences and rejections soley on your personal statement, and people who gain AAA?

Reply 1

HammaL

11

Kookie

Hi i was thinking of applying to St andrews for a joint maths/physics degree in 2005. I have read on various sites that St Andrews is highly regarded for maths and is regarded as the "cambridge of scotland". However, the grades needed is BBB, which is significantly lower than most good universities in England. Doe anyone know why it would be quite low for a uni thats meant to be really good for maths? Do they get many people applying because it is so far up north and quite secluded? Also, I read in the prospectus that they do not do interviews, but if competition is quite tough because the grade requirements are low, do they solely base acceptences and rejections soley on your personal statement, and people who gain AAA?

St. Andrews' v.good at matha no doubt about that.
But Maths in general is not a very popular subject and only the very popular unis require AAA-AAB for it...e.g. Nott, Warwick, UCL, IC, Oxbridge.
Grade requirement is therefore decided by "suply and demand". SA is in scotland so they r not going to people for interviews as most unis don't do this for Maths, Inc Warwick, LSE etc...So don't worry about that

Reply 2

Marie55

I'm not sure about Maths but the relatively low grade requirements may be because the English have a year extra at school and a year less at university. So they are asking for the equivalent to what they are asking the Scots who are doing Highers and have done a year less studying. I'm not 100% sure but I think that might be why.

Reply 3

mussed

Kookie

Hi i was thinking of applying to St andrews for a joint maths/physics degree in 2005. I have read on various sites that St Andrews is highly regarded for maths and is regarded as the "cambridge of scotland". However, the grades needed is BBB, which is significantly lower than most good universities in England. Doe anyone know why it would be quite low for a uni thats meant to be really good for maths? Do they get many people applying because it is so far up north and quite secluded? Also, I read in the prospectus that they do not do interviews, but if competition is quite tough because the grade requirements are low, do they solely base acceptences and rejections soley on your personal statement, and people who gain AAA?

It is highly regarded. It's a four-year degree, though, so BBB is roughly equivalent to those going in from Scottish fifth year - if you get AAB or something you can go straight into Second Year for Maths at St And.

Also, as someone pointed out, Supply and Demand.

They get a lot of apps because of William :smile:

It is, however, very secluded - and they don't always give BBB offers. They will like most other unis base acceptances on PSs and references as well as past achievement, but bear in mind that they will give out more offers than they have places and will be rejected by many people who put them down as an insurance.

Reply 4

sat

I applied to 2nd year ("fast track") in MPhys maths & theoretical physics and was asked to get AAB in advanced highers - not the same as BBB! Of course 2nd year entry might be more difficult and need a "better" student (not to say I would actually be better, though).

Reply 5

lou p lou

2

when i went to st andrews the admissions guy for maths said that they very rarely do 2nd year entry anymore as so many of their applicants have advanced highers anyway and the whole system got too complicated. mayeb if you did tripple maths or something and were predicted AAA they might consider it (but it is not the general rule)

i found the maths course at st andrews to be very physicsy/computingy and so wasn't for me at all (wheras dundee where i'm going does a lot of biomedical stuff and applied maths)

lou xxx

Reply 6

eviltwin

lou p

i found the maths course at st andrews to be very physicsy/computingy and so wasn't for me at all (wheras dundee where i'm going does a lot of biomedical stuff and applied maths)

lou xxx

A few things about maths at St Andrews (I'm going into 4th year).

There is obviously pure and applied. I'm doing pure maths, and I haven't seen anything resembling applied maths since 1 course in 2nd year. Nothing has been physics like! I've had to do 1 compulsory computing in maths course.

Also, the year I arrived here, the Times rated the St Andrews maths dept. as the best maths dept. in the UK, with cambridge 2nd, and oxford way back.
So there you go. It's good for maths!

Maths at St Andrews

Related discussions

Articles for you