<p>Hey there! I'm an American senior looking to study at St. Andrews for International Relations! I visited the university over the summer and loved the atmosphere and surroundings. I've traveled extensively and can see myself studying abroad full-time and have the full support of my parents and their checkbooks.</p>
<p>Stats:</p>
<p>Female
Public School in Northern Virginia
GPA: Weighted - 4.19 U/W: ~3.8 [both going to increase//strong upward trend]
Classrank is largely irrelevant but top 20%
SAT Reasoning: 740 CR, 780 M, 720 W [2240/1520]
SAT 2: 680 maths 2 [should I submit?], 700 United States History
AP scores: 5 World History, 4 US History, Spanish, 3 Calculus AB
Predicted Scores: 5 for Chemistry, Literature, Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, US government, Comparative Government, and Statistics</p>
<p>Awards: National AP Scholar with Honors
Extracurriculars: 4 years of choir including final year - Vice President of Choir
All-County Choir all 4 years, All-District choir all 4 years
Piano for 10+ years
Varsity Girls Tennis
Drama
Work Experience in Tutoring</p>
<p>Any advice would be helpful! I'm really hoping to get in!</p>
<p>Anyone out there? Maybe everyone’s asleep^^</p>
<p>To add to the rest of the information, I did get a reference from my Harvard-alumni literature teacher that I’m sure will be glowing with praise and well written at that.</p>
<p>I appreciate the feedback:) I want to go because while I would enjoy a full-term study abroad, I have never lived far from home and the large number of american students attending seems like a relaxed transition in comparison to a larger, more difficult and less american-infested [for lack of a nicer word] university. :p</p>
<p>That’s what I mean, what’s the point in studying abroad if you’re only going to be surrounded by Americans (and you will be, St Andrews is full of them). It seems a tad indulgent to me but each to their own.</p>
<p>How HAS St Andrews managed to get this amazing rep in the US?? Most people here see it as a good, but by no means exceptional university with a reputation abroad that it does not live up to. Plus it’s in the middle of nowhere! Lots of the international people at my school from Europe, Asia and North America applied… I think one person from the UK did and it’s only because they lived in Scotland.</p>
<p>I’m from Northern Virginia which is one of those ‘fastest growing places in America’ and at one of the top 200 schools in America overall, and while it may look like it’s insanely popular to go to St. Andrews from the feedback on the forums and the numbers enrolled at St. Andrews, when I started talking about it with my friends, they were like… St. Andrews? Where is that? Scotland? Why?! There are maybe 2 from my class applying there.</p>
<p>So as far as it looks, it’s one student here, three students there, and most of these students are probably looking into studying in the UK as a whole including oxbridge. I’m one of the rare ones who has visited St. Andrews and STILL wants to go there [it’s not just an insurance], as if I wanted a city frame, I’d go next door to DC based schools.</p>
<p>And also, as to the high number of Americans, it’s simply a transition, obviously with IR, I have intentions of foreign diplomacy of some sort, 33% is still far less than I’m used to:)</p>
<p>But so you know, I am also applying to Edinburgh, only fair.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to imply St Andrews isn’t good, it is and for IR it’s hard to beat. I just find it a little strange that you’d come all this way only to study at a university which increasingly feels very American.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t pick Edinburgh over St Andrews for IR… not unless I really wanted to live in a city.</p>
<p>I considered Britain, looked into Essex, Oxbridge, but am already applying to 11 or so universities in the states, and am trying to cut back on the amount of application materials. The better universities in GB all required some amount of supplementary portfolios/surveys/etc. That I simply lack the time to do as it is now. Especially if I will need to study for my 5’s in AP exams.</p>
<p>Furthermore, I plan on going for a ‘real’ masters, unlike the MA at St. Andrews, which I regard as little more prestigious than a BA [if at all], and would plan on doing so directly following my bachelors. The cost of attendance at St. Andrews isn’t too bad in comparison to the other universities I’m applying to in the US and would allow me to spend a bit more on my graduate education [continued abroad or back home somewhere].</p>
<p>And cities are alright, depending on the amount of industry versus green space, however, I visited and did not like Dundee as far as cities in Scotland go, and I visited Malmo in Sweden and detested it.</p>
<p>@missxmachine, what univerisites in the UK have you visited?</p>
<p>I will be applying to U of Edinburgh, U of St. Andrews, Durham U, U of Nottingham, and UCL for psychology.</p>
<p>Edinburgh is my first choice.</p>
<p>I, like many other posters, do not find the high percentage of Americans at St. Andrews appealing. However, I think that if that is the university experience you are looking for, you should go where you think you belong. :)</p>
<p>@missxmachine Essex and Oxbridge? You have some really odd choices in that list. Also, judging Scotland by Dundee is like judging the US by the Bronx… aka it can’t be done. Edinburgh is one of the best cities I’ve been to anywhere in the world, Dundee… isn’t.</p>
<p>The City is just… nice (sounds dumb but it’s a good way of describing it ha). Mix of all sorts, mostly old but with a major shopping district, great places to eat and drink, huge park in the centre. I mostly go there in the Summer for the Fringe festival which is obviously the best time to be there, but I have a friend at uni there and she loves it.</p>
<p>It also has (I believe) the highest ratio of bars/pubs per person of any city in the UK.</p>
<p>Odd choices, yeah, but honestly I’m not sure where I fall in universities in the UK. I looked for the obvious, and a couple more unknown in case I’m not all I’m cracked up to be when my personal statement is under a British microscope.</p>
<p>And that’s good to know, I unfortunately only had a day in Scotland during my Europe tour, so it was not a good insight.</p>
<p>As far as admissions go. Edinburgh V St. Andrews, which is more open to EU applicants? I know the fees issue makes them lean heavily international, but would a well qualified EU applicant stand half a chance? Presuming they’re applying for the sciences instead of IR?</p>
<p>You have completely misunderstood the Scottish MA, it is not and does not pretend to be a masters degree. It is a bachelor’s degree; it is exactly the same as a BA but for historical reasons is called an MA. Master’s degrees in Scotland are either called MSc or MLitt.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>What did you expect from Malmo? Why didn’t you visit Lund or Uppsala instead which are delightful cities and home to Sweden’s best universities?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Absolutely, lots of EU students go to St Andrews and Edinburgh.</p>
Unconditional, I’m not sure about…</p>