Second year entry

hi, im applying to study biology at St Andrews and im wondering what the process for applying directly to second year is? Like how on UCAS do i do that and how can i ensure that that’s actually an option.

Reply 1

Anonymous #1

At the open day yesterday, they said you “ticked/selected” year of entry: “year 2” on the UCAS portal.
At the biology talk, they said there were only about 5-10 students per year who went direct into year 2 (total cohort was about 280) but they really recommended doing year 1…

Reply 2

Anonymous #2

Hello- I reached out to UStA with this question and this was their response: "I would advise you to apply for Year 1 entry, and if you gain the grades for Year 2 entry you can arrange to do this on arrival at the University. Transfer directly into Year 2 is subject to gaining the appropriate grades and discussions with the Biology Director of Teaching to ensure you are fully aware of the advantages and disadvantages of Year 1 and Year 2 entry."

Reply 3

Anonymous #3

hello! it's been a few months since this thread was last updated but i wanted to leave some notes on my experience here should it help you or future people considering this route.

i've just done direct entry into biology at st andrews (first semester down, whoop whoop!). like anon 1 said, provided you're on track for the grades, it's just a dropdown option on ucas or a couple of conversations once you're at StA in september. i chose DE on my ucas form so it literally came down to a yes/no email after a week or two for me.

i can see why first year is strongly recommended. people who did y1 tell me they've found the step up to y2 pretty tough - possible caveat being biology focus increasing from max. 1/3 of y1 credit load to ≥50% credits from more difficult, narrower y2 classes... but they've at least had the chance to adjust to uni and start building up a personal network. one of the lecturers straight up said that y1 is for settling into & exploring uni a bit + syncing everyone up whereas y2 is a massive infodump ahead of y3 & y4 (honours years).

it's worth noting that if you do direct entry, you're much less likely to be able to take modules from other schools due to y1 prerequisites. this also limits some of your module choices in honours years, especially in the neurobiology direction. so if you'd be interested in exploiting the flexibility of the scottish degree system or have any interest in neurobiology/neuroscience, you'll need to do year 1. conversely, if you know your study skills are robust and you're set on a bio and bio only degree, the focus from day 1 of direct entry could be a great blessing.

in hindsight i should've expected to be more proactive from the start of the semester - don't be lulled by the introductory lectures (read: copy and paste admin bulletins) in freshers & week 1! if, like me, you're a bit slow to cotton on to how things work at uni, e.g. signing up to lab slots, choosing coursework projects, "even" figuring out how to study for each class/assignment type, things will move past you and overwhelm can hit pretty hard and fast. luckily, most all of the biology faculty are very lovely and approachable - but biology doesn't have fixed office hours per se so the onus really is on you to keep up and chase up any (potential) issues/questions as soon as they pop up.

having ticked several boxes for reconsidering DE -

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wanted to try other subjects - was seriously interested in a neuroscience bsc;

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speedran school but never actually learned how to study let alone study smart/hard;

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and overall being extra young, dumb and stupid

DE wasn't the right choice for me personally.

with only a few weeks to decide, not 3 months of lessons (l)earned the hard way, i'll testify it can be hard to know.

so proceed with honest caution...