Tell me about St Andrews in Scotland

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Parent of a current St Andrews student here. I think it's a fantastic school, and it's been ranked higher than Edinburgh, LSE, and Imperial for the past 4 years. You can dismiss it all you want, but in every UK ranking it is in the top 3. Now, do I think it's a cut-price Ivy? Of course not. I do, however, think it's miles better than many of the top 50 US schools. It's a different academic model, and it's not a research university, so it's hard to compare apples to apples. But I have an another student at a top 50 US university and I can tell you that the academic rigor at St Andrews is much higher than at the US school. If you don't have first-hand experience with a student at St Andrews or if you are basing your opinions on some vague impression from 25 years ago, I would take your comments with a shovelful of salt. But please, haters, keep on hating. I'd rather keep St Andrews a secret for a bit longer.

The academic rigor of any top 20 British university is considerably greater than most American universities, I will give you that.

NP well if you give her that, then why slag St Andrews at all?

I wasn’t slagging it off at all, it’s a good school. It is not a great school though, more like bottom end of the Uk top 10…which is comparable to a mid tier school over here. St Andrews is the equivalent of a William and Mary or a Lehigh. It cleverly markets itself to Americans as this amazing university but, honestly, it is very few British students first choice - it is incredibly small and relatively remote. Edinburgh, Bristol, Durham, York, Imperial College, LSE - all more appealing to British students. And as for Oxbridge? So far in the distance it’s not even visible.

+1. The strange thing is that Americans don’t understand the prestige of Imperial College. It’s much more highly sought after than St Andrews but never mentioned here

Imperial is highly ranked here https://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings at number 6 just 2 spots below St Andrews.

Or is this another poor ranking guide?

Imperial is the MIT of the UK. St Andrews is the Elon. You do the math.

I don't think St Andrews is known for it's sciences, particularly, whereas Imperial is the place to go for all the sciences including Medicine. I have a niece there right now.

Beg to differ. St Andrews is well known for medicine - and students continue their study at main hospital in Manchester after required coursework completed - I believe 3 years.

Look up Imperial. You'll find nuclear scientists and inventors come out of there. Go on, have a little fun. Not just 2nd rate doctors who end up in Manchester. Ha!

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Parent of a current St Andrews student here. I think it's a fantastic school, and it's been ranked higher than Edinburgh, LSE, and Imperial for the past 4 years. You can dismiss it all you want, but in every UK ranking it is in the top 3. Now, do I think it's a cut-price Ivy? Of course not. I do, however, think it's miles better than many of the top 50 US schools. It's a different academic model, and it's not a research university, so it's hard to compare apples to apples. But I have an another student at a top 50 US university and I can tell you that the academic rigor at St Andrews is much higher than at the US school. If you don't have first-hand experience with a student at St Andrews or if you are basing your opinions on some vague impression from 25 years ago, I would take your comments with a shovelful of salt. But please, haters, keep on hating. I'd rather keep St Andrews a secret for a bit longer.

The academic rigor of any top 20 British university is considerably greater than most American universities, I will give you that.

NP well if you give her that, then why slag St Andrews at all?

I wasn’t slagging it off at all, it’s a good school. It is not a great school though, more like bottom end of the Uk top 10…which is comparable to a mid tier school over here. St Andrews is the equivalent of a William and Mary or a Lehigh. It cleverly markets itself to Americans as this amazing university but, honestly, it is very few British students first choice - it is incredibly small and relatively remote. Edinburgh, Bristol, Durham, York, Imperial College, LSE - all more appealing to British students. And as for Oxbridge? So far in the distance it’s not even visible.

+1. The strange thing is that Americans don’t understand the prestige of Imperial College. It’s much more highly sought after than St Andrews but never mentioned here

Imperial is highly ranked here https://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings at number 6 just 2 spots below St Andrews.

Or is this another poor ranking guide?

Imperial is the MIT of the UK. St Andrews is the Elon. You do the math.

I've lived in the UK. THIS. Facts. Imperial is impessive. St. Andrews is not. At all.

+1 I'm British. I got my undergrad and 2 post-grad degrees in the UK. I think the US populace is more obsessed with St. Andrews than anyone in the whole of the UK. It's almost amusing. But I do understand it has "risen" in the ranks officially and good for them.

I’m Scottish, Oxbridge educated (under and post), heavily involved in recruiting at a top tier Strategy Consulting firm - we consider St Andrews to be second tier in the UK, behind Oxbridge, LSE, Imperial, Bristol, Edinburgh, Durham and York.

They do a wonderful job of marketing over here, but your kids not going to be entertained by the top employers just because they have good marketing.

Yes, and you live in the US and I expect you're also American (as well as being Scottish) and the Scots are notoriously proud. Aren't you? Of course you're going to say what you do.

I live in the US because I got offered a great job here, and no, I’m not American, just British. I’m sorry if it’s hard to hear the truth about St Andrews. It’s a marketing con job to lure in gullible Americans……the fact is, you would have much better sending your kid to instate VA or MD.

[Anonymous]

You Brits just can’t stand it when the Scottish have something good. St Andrews is a small town in Scotland with an ancient university that has been improving by leaps and bounds over the past 10 - 20 years.

Don’t forget it is the alma mater of your future king and queen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You Brits just can’t stand it when the Scottish have something good. St Andrews is a small town in Scotland with an ancient university that has been improving by leaps and bounds over the past 10 - 20 years.

Don’t forget it is the alma mater of your future king and queen.

“You Brits”? You mean “you English”?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You Brits just can’t stand it when the Scottish have something good. St Andrews is a small town in Scotland with an ancient university that has been improving by leaps and bounds over the past 10 - 20 years.

Don’t forget it is the alma mater of your future king and queen.

“You Brits”? You mean “you English”?

Thank you I stand corrected.

[Anonymous]

The English generally concede that Edinburgh is excellent. They're just not terribly impressed with St. Andrews. (Nor are the Scots, for that matter.)

[Anonymous]

and yet they get 16k applications from the UK for about 1100 "home" seats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:and yet they get 16k applications from the UK for about 1100 "home" seats. [/quote]


Now, think about that for a minute. How many applicants total in England applying? How many universities after Oxbridge? There aren't that many. It's not like the U.S. where we have 3,000 institutions of higher learning,

[Anonymous]

Just checked ^^ there are only 160 colleges and universities in England. so do the math. It's not the U.S.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:and yet they get 16k applications from the UK for about 1100 "home" seats. [/quote]


Now, think about that for a minute. How many applicants total in England applying? How many universities after Oxbridge? There aren't that many. It's not like the U.S. where we have 3,000 institutions of higher learning,

Yes, lets do the math. There were about 767,000 UCAS applications in 2022 for the 160 universities in the UK. The 3 universities receiving the most applicants were:

Position University Applicants per place
1 LSE 10.93
2 Edinburgh 10.53
3 St. Andrews 9.39

Or looking at it from a UCAS entry tariff St Andrews ranks 4th at 200 points, behind Cambridge - 207, Glasgow - 206, Strathclyde - 204, and ahead of Oxford - 199.

Considering UCAS limits a student to applying to only 5 schools unlike in the US where students often apply to 10 or more, many students appear to be interested in a St Andrews education. So, it appears to be more than just good marketing.

[Anonymous]

agree. I know there are 50 year women here who have things to say about their UK college experience 30 years ago (same as their US counterparts), but St Andrews is a top school now, as demonstrated by it's popularity, selectivity, job placement stats, and ranking. But as someone else said, nobody will force your child to apply so if you are anti this one school for whatever reason, it's perfectly okay to leave it off your UCAS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You Brits just can’t stand it when the Scottish have something good. St Andrews is a small town in Scotland with an ancient university that has been improving by leaps and bounds over the past 10 - 20 years.

Don’t forget it is the alma mater of your future king and queen.

And that says it all. Americans want to go because of Prince William. That’s lovely, and they are welcome to go and have a great time, but Prince William isn’t known for his brains, and he didn’t pick St Andrews because he was looking for the best education. St Andrews is absolutely incredible… at marketing to Americans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You Brits just can’t stand it when the Scottish have something good. St Andrews is a small town in Scotland with an ancient university that has been improving by leaps and bounds over the past 10 - 20 years.

Don’t forget it is the alma mater of your future king and queen.

And that says it all. Americans want to go because of Prince William. That’s lovely, and they are welcome to go and have a great time, but Prince William isn’t known for his brains, and he didn’t pick St Andrews because he was looking for the best education. St Andrews is absolutely incredible… at marketing to Americans.

Yes, and 16 thousand UK students. Only about 4 thousand less than Oxford, about the same as Cambridge and Imperial didn't make the list of the top 50 oversubscribed UK universities, so can't compare stats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You Brits just can’t stand it when the Scottish have something good. St Andrews is a small town in Scotland with an ancient university that has been improving by leaps and bounds over the past 10 - 20 years.

Don’t forget it is the alma mater of your future king and queen.

And that says it all. Americans want to go because of Prince William. That’s lovely, and they are welcome to go and have a great time, but Prince William isn’t known for his brains, and he didn’t pick St Andrews because he was looking for the best education. St Andrews is absolutely incredible… at marketing to Americans.

Yes, and 16 thousand UK students. Only about 4 thousand less than Oxford, about the same as Cambridge and Imperial didn't make the list of the top 50 oversubscribed UK universities, so can't compare stats.

Comparing St Andrews’ applications to those of Cambridge and Oxford ignores that students can only apply to either Camb or Ox.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You Brits just can’t stand it when the Scottish have something good. St Andrews is a small town in Scotland with an ancient university that has been improving by leaps and bounds over the past 10 - 20 years.

Don’t forget it is the alma mater of your future king and queen.

And that says it all. Americans want to go because of Prince William. That’s lovely, and they are welcome to go and have a great time, but Prince William isn’t known for his brains, and he didn’t pick St Andrews because he was looking for the best education. St Andrews is absolutely incredible… at marketing to Americans.

They do? I don’t think that’s true at all. Everyone knows William couldn’t follow his father at Oxford so wound up at St Andrews. Kate too isn’t known for raw intelligence. I haven’t heard any American saying this.