Finally got the St Andrews unconditional acceptance. Philosophy. Very happy.
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i have!
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Congrats!
My son applied to Oxford PPE, Edinburgh, UCL and Glasgow around October 15th. So far got a rejection from Oxford and a conditional offer from Glasgow. We did not know better and he applied initially without predicted grades - we added them around first week of December (school counselor sent a “predicted grades correction” to UCL and an email to University of Edinburgh with predicted grades for this year where he takes 6AP classes and 1 honors. Does anyone have experience with late submission of predicted grades? How would that affect him and what can we do? Thank you
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Good luck to all those awaiting Oxford decisions on Tuesday.
It is all college specific, but in my son’s case, his email was sent at 0900 GMT (0400 Eastern) on results day as everything had been scanned and prepared prior to the Christmas holiday.
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+1
Also, I wish there were subs here for each of the UK schools (or at least the bigger ones which draw a number of US applicants).
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My daughter got accepted to St Andrews!
(FYI a month and a couple of days after submitting app). Does anyone here know about their English major & more specifically within that, creative writing? DD is fretting about going for Kenyon ED2 which is very geared towards writing & is a great fit for her. But the romance of red-gowned students romping around 16th century bldgs is hard to pass up for Kenyon where an acceptance (IF offered) would be binding. Any thoughts on English/writing at these two schools & perception/prestige of these schools in USA?
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The course at St Andrews will be more restrictive compared with Kenyon / US schools. She should read the course catalogue and map out her modules over the 4 years and see how they compare.
I would also say to visit St Andrews before the late spring to understand the weather, and lifestyle.
(I went to St Andrews many years ago but did not study English)
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Also to add - Kenyon has the year at Exeter (UK) for English majors, so if she wants an overseas experience, she has that option via Kenyon.
Congrats! I can’t speak to the English major or creative writing specifically. Droid1 was accepted for Philosophy (with an intended side helping of language study/linguistics, TBD). We’re holding out for RD decisions but very happy for St. Andrew’s if that’s the way it goes.
Congratulations!
Since my S24 also applied to St Andrews, I did a lot of due diligence. As a general rule, St Andrews is reasonably well-known among most next-step gatekeepers in the US, and US students who do well there seem to tend to have very good options when they return to the US, including with employers, graduate and professional schools, and so on. Indeed, some people believe being from a relatively uncommon but highly-regard university from outside the US, but without any issues like visas and such, is an advantage, at least sometimes. I am always hesitant to assume that is true, but it is probably right it certainly doesn’t hurt.
I do not know a lot about it, but I can see that St Andrews offers an MLitt (one-year Masters) as well as an MFA in Creative Writing. Creative Writing is then one of their specialty areas in the undergraduate English program.
You can look through the way they structure that degree here:
https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/subjects/english/english-ma/
What they call modules is more or less what we would call courses. It looks to me like the first two years, what they call Sub-Honours years, require four literature modules total. The last two years, the Honours years, is when you can specialize more in Creative Writing, or indeed Playwriting.
My feeling–which you can overrule if you get better information–is this does seem to be sort of oriented to going on to a MFA for writing. Of course I am sure you can get an English degree from St Andrews and go into all sorts of writing-related jobs anyway, or just be a good writer and start getting published.
But I guess you would have to assess how that compared to Kenyon, where technically the structure is similar (Creative Writing is a concentration in English), but it seems to me you can maybe focus more on Creative Writing as an undergrad. Like, as I understand it they really offer a lot in Creative Writing starting at the 200 level, and you can start those as soon as spring of your first year.
Thank you for all these thoughtful answers which totally jibe with my impressions of Kenyon & StA & their English/writing programs. Big question of course is also vibe & distance. We visited both schools & both fit different aspects of my DD’s
personality. I guess we (mainly she) will figure it out over the next week. Much appreciate everyone’s intelligent feedback!!!
For what it is worth, my S24 has also been sort of up and down and maybe up again or I don’t know is that sideways? on St Andrews. It is a really interesting issue because the UK higher education system is so different from the US system, particularly the part of the US system where Kenyon and such are located. And although you can make an argument St Andrews is in some ways closer to a US college than most, those differences still start becoming really obvious when comparing curriculum structures.
And my understanding is a few US kids really struggle with that, and some transfer back. But then others absolutely, positively, love it. And then it becomes clear, oh, this is also a totally unique opportunity as compared to US colleges.
Anyway, we are visiting in late March before he decides, and my wife also pointed out some kids from his high school have recently gone there, so maybe we can put him in contact with one or more of those kids. And I remain very curious about where he lands on all this, because it is such a different set of tradeoffs than really anything else he might end up considering.
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i was accepted to st. andrews for english / psychology dual degree and am also applying to kenyon for rd so kind of in the same boat!
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This photo juxtaposition is very funny. Love it. Schools for romantic souls…
i spent two weeks at kenyon for the KYWW a couple summers ago. absolutely GORGEOUS campus; the things i would do for a drink from wiggins right now…
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I cannot picture my son getting up at 0400 Eastern for any reason. 
Good to know, though, thank you! We hoped the result would be waiting when he woke up for school.
Alas, son was rejected from Oxford. He was admitted to his REA in early December, however, so his spirits are good. Thanks very much for the support during the shortlisting process!