<p>There seems to be a fair deal of back-and-forth about the rankings of the schools in the United Kingdom. Completely avoiding the "Which is better?" question, I'm looking for information about the atmosphere/campus life at St. Andrews. I would be applying as an American, and I haven't been able to find out much about the "feel" of the place other than "It's traditional." I'd like to know what I'm getting into before I apply/attend.</p>
<p>Any information would be helpful. Thanks!</p>
<p>My daughter started there a month ago as an American with UK family connections and loves it so far. She likes the relatively small and intimate size of both town and uni, the friendliness of people in hall, and some seriousness in purpose in the academics balanced with opportunities to do fun stuff after hours. Although the University dominates the (smallish, but lively) town, it is not really a campus university. It does indeed have a traditional “feel”, but that only needs to impinge as far as you want; it’s your choice whether you want to buy and wear the scarlet gown (lots of students do, but because they want to, not because they have to), or participate in some of the rituals like Raisin Monday. In other respects it’s a modern university with the usual approaches (for the UK, if not US, and you should understand the differences if don’t already) to classes and academics, and with a social life predicated on a wide range of student societies, hall events and the pubs and restaurants of the town. </p>
<p>There are a number of places online where you might get more of a feel of the place: the student union site at yourunion.net, thesinner.net (counterpoint to The Saint student newspaper!), and discussions on the UK equivalent to CC, The Student Room **************.co.uk). Also, St A. recruiters are remarkably ubiquitous in the US and you may find they are at college fairs locally or even at your high school.</p>
<p>Finally, there’s not much downside except a few bucks and a bit of your time to apply. There are several ways to do that, but the cheapest is through the common UK UCAS scheme, which is only £11~=$17 for one uni application, or twice that for up to 5. So a bargain (and enjoy it while you can, I don’t know if there are others) compared to the US process!</p>
<p>I am applying as an American as well! 
But my top choice is the University of Edinburgh…</p>
<p>I suggest you go on **************.co.uk (it’s like College Confidential for the UK) and ask there…</p>
<p>Acadad:</p>
<p>Did your daughter consider Edinburgh???</p>
<p>And does she ever go to the city of Edinburgh, now that she is at St Andrews?</p>
<p>She did, she applied and was admitted there, and she knows the city. I think she preferred the course offerings at St. A. as being closer to her interests, and the scale of both town and Uni as being smaller and more intimate, which isn’t for everyone of course.</p>
<p>They are both good universities and probably the most internationally minded of all the Scottish unis, so perhaps easier for an American to fit in. But the others are worth a look, too – Glasgow + Aberdeen are the other two “ancient” universities, and Dundee and Stirling are good modern unis. (You probably have figured out that Scottish unis in general, with their 4-year undergraduate programs, are a better fit for US HS graduates than the English ones, at least without doing a further foundation year.)</p>
<p>Glad to hear your daughter is happy at St. Andrews. My daughter is set on going and is waiting to hear for IR/SA. She did a direct app since she is sure it is her first choice and the only issue is if her offer will be conditional or unconditional (she is applying from Canada and they seem to give conditionals outside the US). Looking at a few different “budgets” on the St. A website it seems the students need a lot of spending money. A recent post on the Facebook site for American parents recommended 100 GBP/week. What do you think?</p>
<p>I think £100/wk is pretty generous if she’s in hall and has little catering or travel expense.</p>
<p>St. Andrews is my first choice right now I think! I applied for biology with psychology (I am a UK citizen but I live abroad and go to an american boarding school) and sent in my app on Nov 8th and am still waiting to hear back. The suspense is driving me crazy!</p>
<p>@cricket have you heard back from your choices?</p>