Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is weird how so many people hate a school they have not visited, and their kids don't attend. I have visited (it's lovely), I do have a child attending (who had a 34 ACT and doesn't party), and I work with Brits. I actually heard last week from a UK colleague whose child is head girl at a very famous UK boarding school and will be attending St Andrews next year. It was her top choice and my colleague is thrilled.

I'm not a huge fan of rankings, especially at the undergraduate level, and I really don't care what random DCUM people think about a school my DC loves, but for those of you whose child is interested in the school I will point out one objective factor in the Guardian ranking table shared by the PP: the average entry tariff, which is a numerical score UCAS assigns to each student based on grades, test scores, and qualifications. St Andrews has the highest average entry tariff, which means that in DCUM-speak there are quite a lot of high stats students attending the school.

St Andrew’s is not a difficult admit for a US student. A B+ average will get you in. They are happy to take your money, and even though you’re paying a lot more than the locals it’s still cheaper than a US private.

I never visited St Andrew’s but I did have a kid at Edinburgh. Such a nice city and so much to do. The typical Edinburgh student is more self sufficient and confident than a St Andrew’s student and would be bored to death there. My kid visited for a weekend and said they’d go crazy there. Compared to Edinburgh there’s absolutely nothing to do. It also has far too many American students, which detracts from the international experience. It’s almost like a junior year abroad program. You don’t truly get the entire international experience in most of them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is weird how so many people hate a school they have not visited, and their kids don't attend. I have visited (it's lovely), I do have a child attending (who had a 34 ACT and doesn't party), and I work with Brits. I actually heard last week from a UK colleague whose child is head girl at a very famous UK boarding school and will be attending St Andrews next year. It was her top choice and my colleague is thrilled.

I'm not a huge fan of rankings, especially at the undergraduate level, and I really don't care what random DCUM people think about a school my DC loves, but for those of you whose child is interested in the school I will point out one objective factor in the Guardian ranking table shared by the PP: the average entry tariff, which is a numerical score UCAS assigns to each student based on grades, test scores, and qualifications. St Andrews has the highest average entry tariff, which means that in DCUM-speak there are quite a lot of high stats students attending the school.

St Andrew’s is not a difficult admit for a US student. A B+ average will get you in. They are happy to take your money, and even though you’re paying a lot more than the locals it’s still cheaper than a US private.

I never visited St Andrew’s but I did have a kid at Edinburgh. Such a nice city and so much to do. The typical Edinburgh student is more self sufficient and confident than a St Andrew’s student and would be bored to death there. My kid visited for a weekend and said they’d go crazy there. Compared to Edinburgh there’s absolutely nothing to do. It also has far too many American students, which detracts from the international experience. It’s almost like a junior year abroad program. You don’t truly get the entire international experience in most of them.

Anonymous wrote:It is weird how so many people hate a school they have not visited, and their kids don't attend. I have visited (it's lovely), I do have a child attending (who had a 34 ACT and doesn't party), and I work with Brits. I actually heard last week from a UK colleague whose child is head girl at a very famous UK boarding school and will be attending St Andrews next year. It was her top choice and my colleague is thrilled.

I'm not a huge fan of rankings, especially at the undergraduate level, and I really don't care what random DCUM people think about a school my DC loves, but for those of you whose child is interested in the school I will point out one objective factor in the Guardian ranking table shared by the PP: the average entry tariff, which is a numerical score UCAS assigns to each student based on grades, test scores, and qualifications. St Andrews has the highest average entry tariff, which means that in DCUM-speak there are quite a lot of high stats students attending the school.

Anonymous wrote:For undergrad, St Andrews seems a decent choice.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/ng-interactive/2021/sep/11/the-best-uk-universities-2022-rankings

Anonymous wrote:There are about 1500 american students at each uni currently. There were almost 3k at Edi back in 2018. I am not sure why your hear more about St.A.

Anonymous wrote:Amazing how polarizing St Andrews is. As someone whose sibling went (yes people actually go there and get educations) and whose DC turned down an offer but seriously considered it: it's a great school. Curriculum is different, and yes they d their best to appeal to Americans. Their ratings tend to be artificially low when rated against research universities (because they're not really), or artificially high when the ratings bring in student satisfaction (which is very high). Note that none of the above correlates well with the DCUM crowd's odd obsession with "prestige" through percentage of rejection. If you're shopping for an education rather than the most elite bumper sticker, it's a solid option.

So's Edinburgh. Very different experience: city, much bigger school, more comprehensive and research driven.

And BTW having been a hiring manager for years: any American kid who decides to go to university in another country won points with me for their spirit of adventure. I'd take a kid who had the courage to do this over someone who went to their mom's alma matter so they could tailgate and party any day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to live in Scotland. St Andrews is much better ranked than Edinburgh, both in terms of academics and research. If you want a UK uni, St Andrews has steadily improved in the rankings and is now at top. I'm sure Oxbridge will wrestle the title away, because they can't believe they're not n1 and will do everything they can to reclaim that title... but St Andrews will stay in the top 5.

It's a bit far for my oldest, who is making a college list now and prefers to stay close to our new home in the US. But perhaps my DD may be interested down the road...

Did you mix up your universities in your post? St Andrews is a great school but it has literally never been ranked higher than Edinburgh.

British ranking publications inexplicably place St Andrews ahead of Edinburgh. Global rankings place Edinburgh well ahead of St Andrews and among the top 15 or 20 schools in the world. So it depends where you look.

Because they need to let the future king and queen look smart.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lived in the Uk. Edinborough by a mile. People are impressed by seeing Edinborough on a CV. One of our Ops directors graduated from there, and it was forever ‘so and so went to Edinborough’’. That never happened with St Andrews.

You'd be more convincing if you'd didn't spell the name of the school wrong three times in a row.

Sorry did it on my phone. I’m still right.

Another troll blaming their phone

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lived in the Uk. Edinborough by a mile. People are impressed by seeing Edinborough on a CV. One of our Ops directors graduated from there, and it was forever ‘so and so went to Edinborough’’. That never happened with St Andrews.

You'd be more convincing if you'd didn't spell the name of the school wrong three times in a row.

Sorry did it on my phone. I’m still right.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to live in Scotland. St Andrews is much better ranked than Edinburgh, both in terms of academics and research. If you want a UK uni, St Andrews has steadily improved in the rankings and is now at top. I'm sure Oxbridge will wrestle the title away, because they can't believe they're not n1 and will do everything they can to reclaim that title... but St Andrews will stay in the top 5.

It's a bit far for my oldest, who is making a college list now and prefers to stay close to our new home in the US. But perhaps my DD may be interested down the road...

Did you mix up your universities in your post? St Andrews is a great school but it has literally never been ranked higher than Edinburgh.

British ranking publications inexplicably place St Andrews ahead of Edinburgh. Global rankings place Edinburgh well ahead of St Andrews and among the top 15 or 20 schools in the world. So it depends where you look.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lived in the Uk. Edinborough by a mile. People are impressed by seeing Edinborough on a CV. One of our Ops directors graduated from there, and it was forever ‘so and so went to Edinborough’’. That never happened with St Andrews.

You'd be more convincing if you'd didn't spell the name of the school wrong three times in a row.