Anonymous
05/05/2025 18:57
Subject: Why do so many private school kids go to St Andrews?
In recent years, multiple UK university guides have placed St Andrews in the top 3 UK universities. It pretty consistently is in the top 6 going back a longer period of time. One important caveat though is the rankings in those guides include some non-"prestige" variables such as student satisfaction -- so not directly equivalent to US News or similar US rankings.
Anonymous
04/21/2025 15:16
Subject: Why do so many private school kids go to St Andrews?
Anonymous wrote:Another plus is the peers. The UK peers you will have at St Andrews are on par with the top kids in the US. It is much harder for them to get in and most need A*A*A* just to be considered or a 42+/45 IB.
This. While they list minimum standards, the reality is that it is very difficult to get in from RUK. We are in London and my son was just rejected with A*A*A* for Econ and accepted at LSE and UCL.
My niece was admitted to History at Oxford and denied at St Andrews last year. It is a small undergraduate class and the intake for RUK is about 600 to 700. A lot of competition for those spots.
Anonymous
04/20/2025 00:43
Subject: Why do so many private school kids go to St Andrews?
I know multiple St Andrews students who were accepted to low ivies (Dartmouth, Columbia, Penn).
St Andrews grads place well at top consulting firms and investment banking firms (others in the thread have also echoed this).
St Andrews is only suited for a certain type of student, a great experience nevertheless
St Andrews grads place well at top consulting firms and investment banking firms (others in the thread have also echoed this).
St Andrews is only suited for a certain type of student, a great experience nevertheless
Anonymous
04/16/2025 13:20
Subject: Why do so many private school kids go to St Andrews?
Interesting Post on studentroom about this kid getting 4 A* in A levels, being accepted to LSE and rejected at St Andrews….it feels like a crapshoot for RUK students.
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7519579&p=100518796&page=53&viewing_newpost=1#post100518796
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7519579&p=100518796&page=53&viewing_newpost=1#post100518796
Anonymous
04/16/2025 10:55
Subject: Why do so many private school kids go to St Andrews?
Anonymous wrote:Yes. Predictability and ability to slot it in between t20-t50 schools. If you look at the other thread, there are tons of kids giving up spots at the USC’s, NYUs, W&M, UVAs of the world for St Andrews depending on major.
Cost is also a factor. If you have OOS costs or a private tuition with no merit in the US, St Andrews ends being a decent deal at about $50k per year.
Great School.
This was the exact reason for our kid. He got in 4 different t40 schools, but no t20.
Anonymous
04/15/2025 18:24
Subject: Why do so many private school kids go to St Andrews?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I looked there for a bit but I couldn't find any with three A*a rejected.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Wouldn't Oxbridge peets be on par with the top kids in the US? I would consider StA peers to be T50 level. Also, the admission requirement minimums seem to be ABB, not 3 A*s. E.g. https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/subjects/management/management-ma/#entry-requirementsAnonymous wrote:Another plus is the peers. The UK peers you will have at St Andrews are on par with the top kids in the US. It is much harder for them to get in and most need A*A*A* just to be considered or a 42+/45 IB.
You are wrong. The minimum is a worthless metric. Sta has the highest Tariff entry for Scottish students. And the highest in the UK.
The avg entry grades of Oxford/cambridge and Sta kids are very very similar for English students. Minimums get you to apply. If you are applying to non-competitive program, sure. Same everywhere. Please go to student room forum. It is a UK forum with kid discussing their acceptances and rejections….many A*A*A*s rejected at Sta. That is top of the top.
Not going to babysit you….you can look through here starting with the Oxford kid rejected at Sta: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7519579&page=48
The required grades don’t mean much for UK students. Obviously you have to get these grades to get in but all of the top universities require similar. And simply getting the grades doesn’t mean you automatically get in either. It isn’t a useful metric to rank quality of the university. As has been exhaustively discussed in this forum, St Andrews is extremely popular in the US but it is not super popular in the UK (for lots of reasons including extra year of study, weather, location, etc) nor is it super prestigious compared to Oxbridge, UCL, LSE, Imperial, etc. However, it is a sort of hack for Americans because it is considered prestigious here.
Sums it up well.
Wrong again. Nobody is ranking any uni based on grades. saying it isn’t popular in the UK is just not factual. There are more than 11,000 Applicants from RUK (Rest of UK, not counting Scotland) to St Andrews….That is a HUGE number. Another 5,000 applications from Scottish Students.
DATA from UCAS and St Andrews
Total # of Applications to St Andrews was 26k with 16k from the UK (8k total undergrads)
For comparison, Durham had 34k applicatinos last year (17k total undergrads). Cambridge had 21k (13k undergrads)., Imperial had 30k (11k undergrads), UCL and Edinburgh 70k with 25k students at each.
So please show me again where it not popular with UK students?
11k Applicants from RUK for what is typically 1/3 of the class of 2000 (650 students) is pretty good.
Anonymous
04/14/2025 17:58
Subject: Why do so many private school kids go to St Andrews?
The data suggests it is a preferred choice by applicants... that yield rate would be amongst the top US programs.
Anonymous
04/14/2025 11:05
Subject: Why do so many private school kids go to St Andrews?
Anonymous wrote:Offer and offer acceptance rates are available by program of study, but true yield is not available. The data on acceptance rate does not discern between those not meeting the conditions of their offer and those choosing not to enroll.
Offer rates vary by program and range from the mid/low teens to high 20s. Acceptance rates range from the mid single digits to low/mid teens.
There is some old data for a small subset of programs that shows about 30% of conditional offer holders did not meet the terms of their offer.
If you extrapolate, this suggests yield is 65%+ but that’s just an estimate. However, based on the raw offer:acceptance information, overall yield is north of 50% and varies by program.
Who cares if it's not most students' first choice? The vast majority of students end up at universities that were not their first choice.
Anonymous
04/14/2025 11:03
Subject: Why do so many private school kids go to St Andrews?
Offer and offer acceptance rates are available by program of study, but true yield is not available. The data on acceptance rate does not discern between those not meeting the conditions of their offer and those choosing not to enroll.
Offer rates vary by program and range from the mid/low teens to high 20s. Acceptance rates range from the mid single digits to low/mid teens.
There is some old data for a small subset of programs that shows about 30% of conditional offer holders did not meet the terms of their offer.
If you extrapolate, this suggests yield is 65%+ but that’s just an estimate. However, based on the raw offer:acceptance information, overall yield is north of 50% and varies by program.
Offer rates vary by program and range from the mid/low teens to high 20s. Acceptance rates range from the mid single digits to low/mid teens.
There is some old data for a small subset of programs that shows about 30% of conditional offer holders did not meet the terms of their offer.
If you extrapolate, this suggests yield is 65%+ but that’s just an estimate. However, based on the raw offer:acceptance information, overall yield is north of 50% and varies by program.