St. A’s has a Scottish/EU tuition rate, RUK rate, and International rate.
W&M has an in-state rate and OOS rate.
The tuition for the W&M/St. A’s joint degree is different from all those (it’s slightly below the W&M OOS rate and above all the other rates) and the same regardless of which campus you start from (with VA residents usually getting full fin aid if they start at W&M). St. A’s offers a few small merit scholarships for the program.
The program (like many special programs), looks to be a money-maker for the two schools.
"Looking at the future of the program, Kennedy listed some aspirational goals, including enrolling a 20-person St Andrews-based class and increasing international student participation. Of the first eight St Andrews-based students, two were not from the United States.
“American students remain the main draw for the program so far and we think the main reason for that might be that we haven’t graduated a class yet,” Kennedy said. “We think that, once we graduate a class and we can say, ‘Here’s what those students are doing,’ we’ll get more and more applicants.”
"
Talked to the kid. Straw poll of the three joint program kids on her floor. All second year Americans doing their first St. A year.
All three said they should have done straight St. A. Cheaper, more of a cohesive experience. Liking their St. A experience better so far.
Interesting.
Can echo the above sentiment after speaking to some students who are on their first year of the W&M/St As programme.
They wish they would have just gone straight to St Andrews as they’re liking the experience much more than they expected, don’t like the added pressure of how their grades count for all four years (rather than only the last two), are unable to apply for committee positions, feel like they’re ‘over-paying’, and ultimately don’t want to lose the connections they’ve made here.
Tricky thing is that they have to re-apply to St Andrews if they want to stay and it’s not a guaranteed acceptance; the one I know who has done so has been unsuccessful and has to stay on the joint programme.
P.S. Considering that both St Andrews and Edinburgh have mutual exchange programmes with UPenn, I don’t think UPenn themselves think that either are horrible!
@Brit17, Penn definitely doesn’t think that St. A’s and Edinburgh are horrible, though do note that American colleges may exchange with unis far from their level just to provide more study-abroad destinations to their students (they have a more relaxed attitude towards student exchanges than British unis, who are more loathe to establish exchanges with schools much below them or take in as study-abroad students who don’t meet a particular standard). Penn also has exchanges with Cardiff and Oxford Brookes, for instance.
As a rule of thumb entry to UK schools are based on academics alone, how you fair in your final high school examinations dictates where you go. The complete university guide shows entry tariffs for all institutions, so those at the top attract the most able students overall. There is significant talent outside Oxbridge just as there is outside the Ivy league, just that in the UK, on the whole, it tends to be concentrated in fewer institutions. To suggest Edi and St A’s are ‘horrible’ compared to Penn is laughable.
D on her own volition applied to St. Andrews and got an unconditional offer in Biology last week. I’m doing some research and it seems like St. Andrews has a lot of same vibe as a US mid-sized university in terms of community and support. Her course also seems to be highly ranked on the “league” tables – not that I really understand them, lol, and the school ranks high in student satisfaction. All this is great!
My question is that when i look at world university rankings St. Andrews doesn’t do very well. Does anyone know why? Is it more focused on teaching like a US LAC or is there something else going on? I am guessing a lot of the world rankings is based on research reputation, but in my D’s case, that is somewhat important b/c she’s on a PhD track – tho obviously it’s more important when she gets to grad school.
Right. W&M isn’t high up there in global rankings either. Neither is Dartmouth. Yet, on a per capita basis, both are in the top 25 in the US among universities in terms of undergrads they send on to a STEM PhD.
I have same questions as @almost there2018. Also, different colleges (US included) have better departments than others when it comes to research etc. does anyone have first hand experience w the BIOLOGY department @StAs? My Ds offer stated HONOURS acceptance. Is that different than “biology”? Then last question. Not sure if that HONOURS BIOLOGY is actually a mistake. On her common ap, she listed Faculty of Science and Biochemestry. So im a bit perplexed.
@LD3790, they are all ‘honours’ courses, so yes it is just normal ‘biology’. Biology is in the Faculty (Department) of Science & Biochemistry. Don’t get too hung up on nomenclature- there are even more confusing bits to come!
Pomona is a liberal arts college. Dartmouth is essentially a liberal arts college with limited graduate programs
(business, medicine) . They are not therefore comparable to St Andrews, which is a research university. It is just a research university without very good international rankings. You can make of this what you will, but international rankings are generally the most reliable rankings. UK domestic rankings are heavily based on subjective student surveys. I have said this before, and I will probably get criticized for saying it again, but this is the truth of the situation. St Andrews is not comparable to US liberal arts colleges because it isn’t a liberal arts college.
