confused about degree structure here- help needed asap

hi my friend is stayin at my house now- but she wants to get her ucas sent off tonight.
a teacher today told her to apply for st andrews
shes interested in geography.

and does have choices already but is thinking of swapping leeds (which she doesnt like) for st andrews.

however were trying to work out whats so amazing about st andrews, and were both confused about applying to a facutly.
for e.g. does she chose a joint honours like english and geography or something and then can add other arts subjects later.

also we cant find anything about what student lifes like here.

her as grades are ABB but she is resitting-- so tryin to get AAA for A2
and predicited shes predicted AAA, but woried that its too competitive.

Is ther interviews?

if no reply is recieved tonight she may delay her ucas, becuase shes really interested, but anny help at all is needed!

:smile:

Thanks xxx

Reply 1

Amae

Hi there

Id say have a look at the prospectus (ideally) or at least the website and get a feel for the uni. There are many factors about St Andrews to consider such as its size, location, lifestyle etc. Having said that however I put it down as a bit of a wild card choice and only seriously considered it after visiting it on an open day.

If worries over competition are holding your friend back id say just go for it, as long as you have some back up choices too. Your personal statement will count for a lot, your grades are good as it is and you have great predicted grades so id say you've got a good chance.

As for applying to a faculty, you really just apply for your subject and your faculty is determined by that. With geog you can do it in either sciences or arts and by the sounds of it you're going for arts so you just apply for MA (hons) Geography (or joint hons). When you get to St Andrews the degree structure means that for the first two years you take three subjects which are equally weighted. You need 120 credits in a year and generally each subject will be 20 credits per semester. So you might take geography, english and history in the first semester say and then could take geography, philosophy and economics in your second semester of first year (providing you're still intending to take just geog as your degree). To be safe most people take another subject all of first year (like english). This means that by third year you can change your degree (providing you've taken english all the way through) from just geography to Joint hons with english, or even just english on its own or with another subject. This is a very common scenario.

The nature of this degree structure is therefore incredibly flexible, allowing you to carry on with a couple of subjects and not commit yourself to a degree straight away.

As far as i know there are no interviews, except maybe for medical degrees but im not entirely sure. Certainly for geography or english there shouldn't be an interview in most circumstances.

Hope this helps you in some way :smile:

Good luck with your decision!

University of St Andrews

Reply 2

<3 Caterpillar

Amae

Hi there

Good luck with your decision!

Thanks that was sooo helpfull!
one last question though.. whats the difference in doing a joint arts honours say in english and geography or just taking geography and choosing english modules?
:s-smilie:

aha

thanks again! :smile:

Reply 3

dragon500uk

i think its the difference in your degree name at the end of the four years.

Reply 4

Amae

Yep.. there really is no difference in first and second year, its just in honours that it will have an impact on you. If you do a joint degree you just do half of each subject in third and fourth year so it'll limit the depth you go into in a particular subject, but give you greater breadth overall and more variation in your work, just depends what you prefer :smile: