I’m an American student in senior year, and my application for St. Andrews is currently being considered. I really want to go, and being so anxious about whether or not I’ll get in, I was hoping to get a few opinions on whether or not I have a chance. Can anybody help??
Applied for: International Relations
GPA: 3.4/4
SAT: Critical Reading 760, Math 730, Writing 800 (Combined 2290)
SAT II: Literature 670, Math II 750, US History 730
ACT: English 34, Math 32, Reading 36, Science 36 (Overall 35)
AP: Chemistry 4, English Language and Composition 5, US History 5, Euro History 4 (Will be taking seven more this summer, don’t know the predicted scores)
Other notes:
My GPA is pretty low, but my transcript shows that I took the hardest classes my school has to offer (11 APs over the course of four years). Will that help?
I applied to other schools in the UK, but I applied to their Political Science programs. For that reason, my personal statement is all about my passion for politics (while I applied for IR at St. Andrews). Will my personal statement hurt my chances of getting in, and if so, how much?
Honestly, regardless of your GPA, you have a good chance of getting in. Your ACT, SAT, and SAT II are pretty strong so that will help. According to my college counselor and the regional admissions counselor, St Andrews places high emphasis on the personal statement, so if you did that well and talked specifically about programs at St Andrews and your own interests (and how extracurricular activities or other programs helped you decide on Politics), you should be fine! I applied in September and got in less than 2 weeks later and I have friends with much lower GPAs and they got in as well. The only thing that might make it difficult is that you applied for International Relations which is easily the most popular major and one of the harder ones to get into. Good luck!
Misha,
I trust that you have had a positive response from St. Andrews at this point. Your statistics are very strong. As you probably know IR is one of the most competitive programs to get into at SA. I, however, believe that if you haven’t already been accepted you will, indeed, get a positive response.
Let my say that my daughter is a freshman there this year (English) and absolutely loves it at SA! She is also American. She was a bit surprised with the number of Americans at SA! She has made many, many friends from many countries!
At the recent Open Day, they said that some students apply to an easier course and then switch in their first year. They said this was particularly true of International Relations and Sustainable Development, two of their most competitive courses. Note that St Andrews will give far more weight to your test scores than your GPA. So don’t worry.
If in doubt, ring their International Admissions Office. They are brilliant.
Major: Financial Economics
SAT: 2140 (740V, 700M, 700W)
APs: 11 by end of senior year (English 5, APUSH 4, Comp Sci 4, 3s in Comp Gov, Bio and French)
SAT II: 660 on Math I
GPA: UW 3.28/W 3.73
You have the numbers, so yes you can get accepted. Whether you do or not depends on your Personal Statement, your recommendation and how competitive the course is.
St Andrews is very generous when accepting American students because we are willing to pay so much. (Scottish residents have tuition payed 100%). Keep your head up