Thanks @collegemom3717. She received an unconditional offer to KCL yesterday. She’s in a gap year due to wrestling with social anxiety, so hopefully we find her ready to go when it’s time.
any info about upcoming decisions? i applied in late october to sustainable development and have not heard anything yet. im dying!!!
My son just got an unconditional offer for History yesterday. He applied mid December. It was the last school we were waiting to hear from so now it’s decision time.
Congrats to your son, @Mom2Boysx2! What’s the thinking?
Thanks @collegemom3717! He was beaming the brightest when he got the acceptance yesterday, but he also got into Edinburgh, and some really good offers Stateside. We need to buckle down and talk about each. Also this Coronavirus is putting a cloud of uncertainty over everything. Thankfully we had already toured both St. A’s and Edinburgh so he has seen the campus’s and locations.
We had a gradschoolkid and a collegekid going through admissions this season. My biggest wish was that they would each have at least 2 choices that they were genuinely happy about. It is both very happy and very hard to have to actually choose- and the process of the choosing really brings all the growing and maturing that has been going on with them throughout the admissions process together. It’s sometimes tortuous (esp for the parents, who get to enjoy the downs as well as the ups…), but miraculously it seems to work more often than it doesn’t.
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Has anyone else heard anything? I’m an international student who applied in early November, but I was just accepted to Columbia University so I think that’s where I’m going to go. I’m a bit confused though as I submitted my app to Columbia in January and heard before St. A’s!
You haven’t heard back and you applied in November?! I applied early Feb, and am getting anxious to know. This is my last college I am waiting to hear from. Hopefully you hear soon!
Hello! Does anyone know the timing for the virtual offer holder day? I live in Los Angeles and I think that it may start at 9:30am BST, which is late at night my time.
Great tips - what do you mean by 80 percent academic and 20 personal with re to your personal essay for them, could you give me an example? And do you know what the minimum SAT score is for St A? Thank you -
@VickiSoCal
Hi - very green with this process w re to st andrews from parent perspective, can you please invite me to St andrews FB group page- i am not sure how to PM you via college confidential…
In the UK system the primary focus in your PS is on who you are as a potential student of the subject you are applying to study, not on who you are as a potential member of the community: it’s all about the academic fit. StA’s is more attuned to the US system than typical UK unis, so there is more room for you to put in stuff about yourself, but it’s secondary (they also care more about GPA than UK unis typically do).
The admissions requirements (there are several options) are spelled out in detail on their website.
edit: just saw your post #150- are you a parent or a student? is this for an application for 2021 entry?
Morning @collegemom3717 - I am the parent, and yes for 2021 entry. Thank you for the response. Do you have any insight re the subjects/majors and guidance. My son is presently highly undecided with re to applying to a major so soon. If they offered an “undecided” he would check that box for sure. He has fallen in love with St A, he has even gone so far as changing his ED goal w another US university to not wanting to apply ED now, he has wanted ED for two years now…and yet here we are. Can’t visit in person, so unfortunate, but now in a huge pickle with re to selecting a major/subject when he is prob the kid that doesnt know what he wants to do until he does it. If I HAD to guess what would be the best fit for him now and he agrees, it would be Management. But, he has also chatted Psych. He will be taking a couple AP classes in Biz and Psyh this year, however, he will most likely apply prior to really knowing what he truly is drawn to. Also, he has several local peers that all (maybe ironically) applied Sustainable Development and were admitted. He is now exploring SD and researching this subject. Any insight here would be appreciated. Also, I have read some mention to “modules” can you please explain those? Have you heard of any flexibility in changing majors once there if you are unhappy with your chosen path? While understanding that you can’t enter in via an easier route per say and just switch over with ease into a much more competitive path. Aside from pouring over their website, are there additional sites/forums/blogs for newbee parents interested in learning more on ST A? Thx
@ilovepuppybreath Going to the UK without a clear desire for a specific course of study is a recipe for disaster. The vast majority of UK students choose 3-4 subjects (A levels) for the last two years of high school and just focus on those. So they are already deciding on their long term plans at age 16.
Also note that in general the more highly regarded courses are those on a specific academic subject (English, History, Geography, Maths, Physics, Modern Languages, Classics, Engineering, Computer Science, etc). Psychology would typically be seen as more prestigious and challenging at most UK universities than Management or Sustainable Development.
If you really want to go to the UK, but don’t want to be committed to a specific major right now, then you might be better just doing it as a junior year abroad.
@ilovepuppybreath I went to St Andrews back in the day but I recommend you double check this info with more recent attendees!
In first year, you would do 3 modules or courses, so he could do Psych, Mgt and SD. Same in second year. Third/fourth year he would need to choose one (or two where joint major is allowed) to complete his degree. I actually applied for and was admitted for English, and took Econ and Geography as my other 2 modules. Ended up taking my degree in Geog!
There isn’t any choice outside of this, and once you’ve started, you can’t suddenly decide to switch over to History or Physics. There are no distribution requirements.
Some subjects have strict pre-reqs that act as weeders - I remember Econ had a nasty math class for 2nd years designed to weed out anyone who was not good at Math. You would need to check for each subject, Psych may well have a stats requirement.
As for what he applies for, I guess that is up to him. Each subject will have the entry requirements listed and you can figure out what the US version is. He could apply for one and take the other two subject to make up his 3 modules. The only thing to check is that some subjects are very over subscribed and are limited to those who applied directly. IR is most famous for this, but it could apply to his subjects too.
But I agree with @Twoin18 - the UK system is not designed for those who do not know what they want to study. Applications are reviewed by teaching faculty, not admissions officers, and they decide who to admit. They are looking for students they want to teach, who are passionate about the academic subject to which they are applying, and who will thrive in the academic department to which they are admitted. When you write your Personal Statement, it is all about how committed you are to your subject. Your teacher LoR is also about what a great student of ‘x’ you are.
Although St Andrews knows the US system better than many other UK unis, and has been actively recruiting Americans since before I was there (my 2 BFFs from there are Americans), it is still a Scottish university and operates on that basis.
Finally - there is no financial aid so make sure you can pay the full amount for 4 years. Aberdeen Uni does offer merit scholarships based on SAT/ACT.
Agreeing with @Twoin18. Although the Scottish unis are more flexible than the English ones (thanks to the extra year), and StAs is probably the most flexible of the Scottish unis, by US standards it is not flexible. There is maneuverability between closely related subjects, but a wholesale change not so much.
This is another red flag. Falling in love with swishy red gowns in a beautiful castle setting with lots of fun traditions is easy. So is falling in love with brochures of Bali. In both cases, there is much more to the story.
I see you paged @VickiSoCal- she has a very happy student at StAs right now and is a great resource, so I hope she chimes in.
Thank you everyone!
I spotted on another thread someone just now getting an offer for IR at St A’s (via the W&M dual program).
I wonder if this is an indication a lot of 2020 admits have decided not to go this year due to coronavirus/Covid and related fears? If some have deferred to 2021, that could make admissions for 2021 harder. And bc St A’s has a lot of US students, it could be under unprecedented financial pressures.
Indeed, let’s hope it’s not one of the 13: https://thepienews.com/news/uk-targeted-bailout-could-save-13-unis-from-insolvency-suggests-ifs/?utm_source=Bibblio
So, StAs was already running a slight deficit for 2020 before the pandemic:
http://www.thesaint.scot/2019/11/st-andrews-in-the-red/
They were also staring at a Brexit-related issue: nearly £100m of StAs funding from the Scottish government is to pay for EU student tuition (EU students currently pay no tuition to go to university in Scotland, and vice-versa). The most likely Brexit scenarios do not see that continuing after this year.
And as early as April they had estimated losses of £25m+ from Covid-hit research grants, summer income, and cancelled tenancies: