We’ll see what happens. I was deferred from Yale REA but applied to Harvard, Brown, Cornell, Princeton and Dual BA with Columbia for RD, so we will see what happens. Having St. Andrews to fall back on is such a relief. Even if my RD applications don’t work out, I don’t have to worry 
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My daughter received an unconditional offer in English today! She is a talented writer. Happy day! She applied in November. Any other students reading English? Waiting to hear from Vassar, Barnard, Grinnell, Kenyon, NYU, BU, and Oberlin. Acceptances at UNC-Chapel Hill and Fordham. Waitlisted at Wesleyan.
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Same- about the same bio application date and still waiting…
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Did anyone else get an email today from Admissions talking about the next steps and listing all of the scholarship opportunities along with deadline dates?
Yep my son got it also - looks like a general applicant thing though?? He applied 1/1 and probably won’t hear back for another month?
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Hello! My son received an unconditional offer for the History program - he’s thrilled! Wondering if anyone on this thread can shed some light on the student population/experience at St. Andrews. He didn’t attend a private school here in the States; I, though, work at one, so I’ve got my feet in both world. “The vibe” of the elite private schools isn’t appealing to my son, and I’m curious if St. Andrews feels like a larger extension of some of the American prep experience or if it sheds that for a more diverse student community. I would love thoughts on this. Is it cliquey? Is the American expat community hard to break away from? Would a public high school kid who loves basically everything but sports be at home there? We we saw campus on our own on a cold Sunday right before COVID shut everything down, so we weren’t able to get any sort of sense of the students themselves. Would love any insight. Thanks in advance!
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@MissingTravel - I’d be interested to hear the response to your question as well.
Conversely my daughter did attend private school and there are aspects that she loved (curriculum, connections to teachers) and hated (extreme privilege). She’s now trying to decide between Edinburgh and St. Andrews which she knows couldn’t be more different. While we visited, still hard to discern the right fit as there are great, unique qualities to each.
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My son is also deciding between St. Andrews, Edinburgh and Trinity! We didn’t have a chance to see Edinburgh, so it’s not really vying for that top spot in his mind…whereas he feels such a pull to both St. Andrews and Trinity. I’d love to know what your (and your daughter’s) thoughts on the feel of Edinburgh were?
Remember Edinburgh is a much bigger school than St. Andrews. Edinburgh is one of top cultural cities in the world where St. Andrews is more intimate. They are only an hour apart by train so visiting the one from the other is easy. Go with the one with the more highly ranked program, maybe? Can’t go wrong with either St. Andrews, Edinburgh or Trinity.
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Thank you so much! I appreciate this!!
Simplifying a lot, but:
StAs: super-small town, tight community. Yes, Edinburgh is ‘just’ an hour away, but it’s not something people do every weekend.
Edi: full-on integration with a decent sized large town/small city. Noticeably more hands-off than StAs.
TCD: porous to a small city. More of a central campus than Edi, but most accommodation is spread out -some a good ways out. Somewhere between StAs & Edi in terms of hands-on/hands-off. Depends on the course, but typically more structured courses. Gets about 1/2 hour more sunlight/day than the Scottish unis.
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One thing on the ‘privilege’ thing- it generally manifests itself differently in the UK and Ireland than it does in the US. For a start, even students from families of very modest means are likely to have travelled frequently internationally (package holidays are cheap, and laws require everybody has at least 4 weeks holidays- to start). English, Scottish and Irish students - even from families with tremendous resources- don’t tend to have flashy wardrobes or do up their rooms to the nines, and very rarely have cars at university. The majority will not have been to “elite” schools. Culturally, ostentatiousness is not generally acceptable in either country and what there is of that will come mostly from the international students.
The biggest ‘privilege’ proxy is accents. US students will bring their tell-tale accents - and will face a LOT of opinions on all things American, current and past- but there is a different kind of social judging for local/regional accents that US students won’t be affected by.
@collegemom3717 - incredibly interesting observations on the way privilege manifests in different cultures, and so very helpful in understanding what to expect. I’ll note that for my daughter (and for me) the realities of wealth and privilege are interrelated but not synonymous. Her concerns are less about an individual’s ability to acquire “things” and more about (1) conflating the ability to do so with individual self worth and (2) the idea that that one is naturally deserving of these things as opposed to recognizing it for what it is (more often, an unearned privilege based on inherently biased systems). That said, she’s actually really interested to see how these dynamics run through other cultures - it’s part of the attraction of studying internationally.
@MissingTravel - @collegemom3717’s notes on the differences between Edinburgh and St. Andrews are at the core of what we saw when visiting. Since you already visited St. Andrews, the only thing I’ll add regarding Edinburgh is that it seemed to reflect an inherent academic gravitas that my daughter was attracted to, also we live in a large city presently and she’s used to having access to many arts and culture opportunities outside of her school as well as an array of restaurant options. Additionally, the student body appeared to possess a greater diversity of thought and experiences. The drawback of Edinburgh being how large it is and the certainty that access to professors would be less. All that said, she’s leaning strongly to St. Andrews at this point because of the value placed on community and connectedness - Edinburgh sort of felt like a graduate school program and environment?
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@collegemom3717 @UCASQuestions Thank you both so very much for your thoughts on this! I am so grateful for the insight as we start to filter through the options to try to help him find the best fit for who he is and hopes to be. I think he’s also leaning UStA because of the emphasis on community and the pull of the house experience.
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My son has had no issues fitting in at Oxford as an American from a zip code associated with “privilege”. He’s made a great group of friends and is even staying in the UK to work post-graduation. He’ll be sharing an apartment with two of his current house-mates.
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Just to emphasize that even at StA’s & Oxford the ‘access to professors’ is never what it is at a US LAC- there is a much bigger status divide. The reference to grad school / environment is apt: the UK undergrad experience is closer to a US grad experience in several ways, and that includes in the way that students & profs relate.
Also, the emphasis on community and connectedness is the upside of the status divide: the adults (admin & profs) are much more hands-off, but the students watch out for each other in a very different way. StA’s has some specific rituals (including ‘families’) for that; Ed much less so, TCD as ever somewhere in the middle!
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Thank you so much @collegemom3717 - really great insights and helpful framing. Yes, definitely both had a graduate school feel but St. Andrews absolutely appeared to have a wonderful network of students supporting students. The tours also brought this aspect forward.
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Hi @mom2jgd
I’m wondering what London university your son attends and how his experience has been? My D is debating between Imperial and UCL as her top choices in the UK right now.
Thanks so much!
University of the Arts London. Experience not great but it’s not the university’s fault.
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Thanks. I assume covid had a big impact.