St Andrews Economics

I am applying for Economics for 2024 entry and was thinking of putting down St Andrews. My other Options are Bath, Birmingham, York and Surrey.
However St Andrews is very competitve and I don't know my chances of getting a place. I study Geography, Econ and Maths with A*AA predicteds and my GCSEs are 9998887765. I also meet the minimum entry requirements (due to my school).
Is it worth applying or should i just not bother?

Reply 1

Anonymous #1

go for it you have a chance

University of St Andrews

Reply 2

Anonymous #2

Original post by FlyingAir

I'm a first year at St Andrews currently studying Financial Economics. I was a Scottish home applicant and due to my school I also qualified for minimum grade requirements. My grade requirements were AABB, I achieved AAABC and got an unconditional offer. I think as long as you have the minimum of what they want you should be fine.
I think the most important part of getting into St Andrews is the personal statement as I've heard that's what they look at the most and ultimately it's how they pick who to offer a place. On the 2023 applicants thread there's an excel spreadsheet and applicants list their grades and whether they got in or not. I have seen people get three A* and not get in and individuals who just satisfy the minimum requirements got in so it all depends on the statement.

They really are looking for you to show a real understanding of the subject. In my statement I spoke about an online course that I have completed on Coursera and what I have learned from it. I have also mentioned books that I have read. They key is to show your interest.

This is what I used in my statement.

I started off with mentioning certain topics that I have studied during high school and emphasised that I enjoyed them due to their close relation with economics. ex. certain topics covered in A level Maths.

You want to show that you are going out of your way to understand more about the subject you are applying for ex. reading books (In first year at St Andrews we cover The Economy by The Core), Participating in work experience or free online programmes, reading articles online on The Economist.

You want explain what you have learnt and show that you have understood what you have learnt about. you can pick out a small topic that you have enjoyed reading about, potentially state your opinion/insights and relate it to an event you may have read about in the news. I remember I mentioned inflation as that was a big issue at the time. I think the field of Behavioural Economics is easy to explain and show your interest in however it is also quite commonly used in personal statements.

I wouldn't personally spend a lot of your statement talking about extra curriculars and activities as showing them your passion for econ and that you have went out of your way to self study is far more important and is what will get you in.

When writing my statement I closely looked at the successful econ statements used for Oxbridge and LSE and wrote mine on the basis of those as St Andrews will be expecting a similar standard.

Hope this helps and feel free to ask any more questions!