University of St. Andrews in Scotland

<p>Well I apologize to you tkdkid for my sarcastic tone. The posts around yours were polemic, so that’s how I responded.</p>

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Oh, that’s easily explained. </p>

<ol>
<li><p>It’s a decent school for those who couldn’t get into top American schools. Most unhooked applicants with a 1300/1950 and 3.30 GPA would stand a snowball’s chance in hell of getting into most of the Ivies and elites. St Andrews is delighted to admit them, as long as they’re willing to pay full freight. </p></li>
<li><p>St Andrews leaves other UK schools in the dust in recruiting at prep schools and college recruitment fairs in the US.</p></li>
<li><p>American obsession with royalty.

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<p>I don’t mean anything arrogant by saying that. I’m only saying that St Andrew’s University has deep traditional and historical links with Harvard and Yale etc hence why Americans flock to it. It’s also because it is cheaper too.</p>

<p>Believe me, St Andrew’s is a fantastic uni and a lot of people go to it have a great chance of graduating in Yale etc. They just take the view that sat scores isn’t the be and end all of judging someone’s competence. They take on board personal experience and other achievements that support your application. I’ve talked to a tutor about this.</p>

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<p>Again, what do you mean by this? I know of no salient connection between HY and St. Andrews that would cause Americans to flock to it. Americans do flock, and they do so for the reasons IBClass enumerated above.</p>

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<p>This statement is vague to the point of incomprehensibility, but I’m just going to go ahead and deem it false.</p>

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<p>There’s the good kind of holisticism, and then there’s euphemism for seeking full-pay students.</p>

<p>James, what’s with the hostility? I have just told you that St Andrew’s has deep traditional links to Yale and Harvard. The American education system was based on the Scottish system, what more do you need to know?</p>

<p>Why don’t you go and do your own research and you’ll see. Look up the deans etc of St Andrew’s and the organisers and you’ll see a lot of them are from Harvard and Yale. I don’t have to prove jack ***** to you when the information is readily available for you to look up.</p>

<p>I bet your some sort of cambridge guy trying to shoot me down because you have some sort of ‘I’m the greatest’ mentality. I’ve spoke to the tutors and they have told me what they look for in applications. Sat scores are not the be and end all of judging admissions.</p>

<p>RML you really do have a chip on your shoulder don’t you?</p>

<p>I rejected Cambridge for my undergrad as St Andrews was much more superior for Psychology than Cambridge. However, my later research interests drew me to apply to Cambridge for my postgrad research masters, and low and behold I recieved an offer</p>

<p>I am therefore a Cantabrigian as well as a former St Andrian (I am reading my MPhil in Social Psychology this year). The department and university have not thrilled me with their superiority at all, and I am returning to St Andrews next year to undertake my PhD. </p>

<p>To be honest most of my friends at Cambridge are extremely dissatisfied with the way in which Cambridge handle things and also administer their teaching and tutelage. </p>

<p>Having been a student at St Andrews and now Cambridge I think I am the best to comment on this debate between yourself and the other protagonist. St Andrews provides the best environment for a young undergraduate to grow and flourish, and with the flexible system, a student can really decide what they want to do.</p>

<p>To be honest I am rather shocked by the standard at Cambridge, and not in a good way. I think there is more superior academic talent at St Andrews, and to be honest entry to Cambridge and Oxford is simply a lottery amongst equally fit candidates, and alot of the decision goes down for tutors preferences for students on the day.</p>

<p>I think RML you need to get over the fact you went to Cambridge. 4 generations of my family have including me - ITS NO BIG DEAL!!!</p>

<p>LexiGR,</p>

<p>How many people would turn down Cambridge for St Andrews??? I suppose not a lot. I would even go far and say that less than 10 students do that annually. I can understand why some students would turn down Cambridge for London colleges (LSE, Imperial, UCL) or Warwick, but for St Andrews??? I bet only those students who have a very serious reason would turn down Oxbridge for St Andrews. </p>

<p>But in all fairness, I think that, in general, St Andrews is slightly more difficult to get into than Georgetown. I think the example mentioned in the writeup that IBClass quoted wasn’t the norm at St Andrews. I know some kids who didn’t get into St Andrews but have been accepted at UPenn, Cornell, Rice, Northwestern and UCLA (not to mention NYU and USC).</p>

<p>Lexi, I am no expert on British universities, but the two rankings of UK Psychology departments I have seen had Cambridge ranked #1 in the UK and St Andrews was ranked #4 and #10 in the UK. </p>

<p>I have only known two students who attended Cambridge for their undergraduate studies, and both raved about the quality of instruction. </p>

<p>At any rate, I have known many British students in Dubai and none of them has ever mentioned St Andrews in the same breath as Cambridge.</p>

<p>Alexandre… I know you weren’t talking to me but it is a public forum:</p>

<p>So what? St Andrew’s has its strengths that top Cambridge and Oxford. You will not find a better university for english, literature, communications and journalism than St Andrew’s (100% in the polls consistently, Edinburgh uni is neck and neck for literature while Napier is the elite for film and media writing/directing/producing that works with the NFTS (which tops Oxford and Cambridge). St Andrew’s also one of the elite for politics (started a parliament during Lonshanks’s reign and the ancient debating chamber is still used today) and it has stronger links with the Ivy Leagues than Cambridge and Oxford (and don’t think it is brainwashed it has many societies including a socialism society etc).</p>

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Source, please. John Harvard himself was educated at Cambridge, and both Oxford and Cambridge have had close ties since.</p>

<p>As for strength in politics,

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<p>St Andrews is a great school, but putting it in the league of Oxford and Cambridge is a bit ridiculous. That said, one can count the number of equivalent American schools on one hand. I don’t see how arguing about its prestige against Oxbridge is at all productive, unless one is simply trying to denigrate St Andrews.</p>

<p>This is so pointless… It’s a good university… St. Andrews is much harder for Scottish students but it is wayyy easier for North Americans to get into… mostly coz they want full pay students… but doesn’t take away from the fact that many want to still go there and get a good education. Lets move on.</p>

<p>Moving on to a slightly different topic…</p>

<p>How would you guys compare St. Andrews to American schools? Most of the time I’ve heard it is on the same level as Tufts, BC, GW. </p>

<p>RML - You said St. Andrews is harder to get into than Georgetown? Really? How is that possible?</p>

<p>[Screen</a> Academy Scotland](<a href=“http://www.screenacademyscotland.co.uk%5DScreen”>http://www.screenacademyscotland.co.uk), the only reason it isn’t in the tables is because it is only 5 years old and isn’t a big name yet but it has become one of the best beating the top schools already (Napier).</p>

<p>[University</a> Subject Tables 2010 : The Complete University Guide](<a href=“http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/single.htm?ipg=8727]University”>University Rankings and League Tables 2024)</p>

<p>This ranges from literature, journalism, film etc and anything qualitative (language).</p>

<p>[University</a> Subject Tables 2010 : The Complete University Guide<a href=“where’s%20oxford%20and%20cambridge%20for%20drama?”>/url</a></p>

<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/single.htm?ipg=8727]University”>University Rankings and League Tables 2024]University</a> Subject Tables 2010 : The Complete University Guide](<a href=“http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/single.htm?ipg=8727]University”>University Rankings and League Tables 2024)</p>

<p>Consistently neck and neck for politics, some years it’s number one with oxford 2nd sometimes vice versa (where’s cambridge).</p>

<p>2nd for german
[University</a> Subject Tables 2010 : The Complete University Guide](<a href=“http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/single.htm?ipg=8727]University”>University Rankings and League Tables 2024)</p>

<p>2nd for french</p>

<p>[University</a> Subject Tables 2010 : The Complete University Guide](<a href=“http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/single.htm?ipg=8727]University”>University Rankings and League Tables 2024)</p>

<p>and a lot of the other subjects have lesser known universities right at the very top with st andrews not far behind.</p>

<p>Literature is not cited as a specific subject but from knowledge and people i’ve spoken to and the general history and culture of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Uni is right at the top with it.</p>

<p>Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.</p>

<p>If you look REALLY carefully on the internet you will find that St Andrew’s teaches a lot of covert esoteric courses to do with warfare strategy, anti terrorism and diplomacy and dare I say it: spycraft. But this is another discussion for outside of this website.</p>

<p>hough numbers have been declining, Oxbridge still produces 78 percent of U.K. judges, 42 percent of politicians and 39 percent of the chief executives of companies listed on the FTSE 100 Index, according to the Sutton Trust.</p>

<p>Alan Bennett Was Right About Getting Into Oxford, Coaches Show - Bloomberg.com</p>

<p>Duh!!! Why do you think this is? Let’s see, Scotland only has a population of 5 million people and there are far more cities & institutions in England because of the amount of people there. London alone has the entire population of Scotland.</p>

<p>Gordon Brown is an alumini of Edinburgh University.</p>

<p>has anyone applied for the Ransome Scholarship or know anybody who got it?</p>

<p>I applied but you don’t find out until later if you passed the first round.</p>

<p>tkdkid: Does only one north american undergraduate get it per year?<br>
And have you applied for any other scholarships or financial aid? I’m trying to find all the money I can…</p>

<p>Yeah - only one…so not one to bank on in particular. </p>

<p>There is another you can apply to if you go on the website, but only if you qualify with need. You have to send fafsa. They call it “scholarship” but it’s really for need money not merit money. My efc on fafsa isn’t that low so I wouldn’t be able to get anything. </p>

<p>=/ I’ve just been applying to a lot of independent scholarships. Hopefully I’ll get something?</p>

<p>Is there a specific data base to search for students going to international schools? My school doesn’t help us find scholarships and I haven’t been able to find much of anything. Is there something like fastweb.com for international schools?</p>