Transferring from Scottish University to the USA

Transfer Students
1

<p>hello all,
Due to some personal reasons (distance from home, relationships, learning style) I am a first year International (from USA) student considering transferring from the University of St. Andrews back to the US. My question is about my grades and what sort of institution I could get into. First semester was extremely rough, I went to the hospital six times and had a hard time with home sickness so I under performed in my modules receiving 14s in Pysch and Sustainable development and an 11.9 in Economics. This semester I am likely to receive around a 16 in management and psych as well as a 15 in Economics. I was an extremely high achieving student in high school with 9 APs all fours and fives and a 4.0 GPA (highest possible) . Would I realistically be accepted at William and Mary? What schools do you think I should try for if I go through with this? It is not a solid option as I am having a much better time this semester.</p>

<p>To give the Americans some background on my current institution, St. Andrews is one of the best universities in the UK behind Oxbridge and is equatable to BC, W&M, UVA, and Brown, Cornell depending on the subject. It has an extremely international population with famous alums like the current Crown Prince of England and the princess of wales. The GPA system is on a non-linear 20 point scale with a 7 pass and an 11 pass with honours. Our grades for the first two years do not count towards our degree or GPA and all that is required to continue on is a 7. There is also a fair deal less grade inflation in the UK in general and exams are more high stakes. My econ exam for example counted for 75% of my grade. Any help would be greatly appreciated.</p>

2

hey!
I don’t know if this will exactly be helpful but I’m kind of going through the exact same thing as you. I actually got into W&M but had to change and now I’m at University of Glasgow. I haven’t done well which is incredibly frustrating as I was a very high scoring student in high school so I was looking at transferring back to the US as well. I emailed W&M a while back about transferring and they were super helpful so I recommend!

3

@annikadm, this thread is 7 years old! whatever happened the OP is almost certainly well out of university now :slight_smile:

Good luck making your decision. If you are in your first term at Glasgow you may find that (once you get over the different approach to grading) it is a lot of fun. I know the days are short and dark now- but spring is miraculous there: by the beginning of February you can see the days getting longer and by the middle you are seeing daffodils everywhere! Glasgow has a great student scene- are you involved in any socs? they make such a difference to getting to know people.

It is hard to go from getting all As and being top of your class to a system that doesn’t give you that kind of feedback: but if you can finish with a strong 2.1 or a 1st, you will be able to do anything you want after college- and once you are out of college, and in grad school or that first job there won’t be the focus on grades and scores that you are used to. In that way, the UK is a good transition from the small world of HS to the bigger world beyond school. Think about it anyway!