Hi! I recently got accepted into St. Andrews for Neuroscience and I love the school and am very seriously considering it as an option. However, I am concerned about whether or not it has good opportunities for research outside of the school. Because I live in the US and would be attending school abroad, I am worried that making connections for summer internships/jobs would be difficult, and in the long term, make it difficult to get into a US graduate school as I don’t intend on staying in the UK.
Is this a valid concern? In terms of research opportunities/making connections would a US school be significantly better?
Info on the St Andrew’s website: https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/careers/exploring-your-future/course-matters/using-your-degree/neuroscience/
You will also have a research project as part of your degree.
Contact them directly if you have any specific questions about preparation for grad study in the US.
StAs has some summer research options- do your level best to get one for summer after 1st year (start looking into it as soon as you know your way around campus).
Summer after 2nd year, REUs* are your friend, and while you will need an LoR from a prof or advisor (preferably from your supervisor from last summer), you will not be at a disadvantage compared to US-based students (assuming you are a US citizen). Start looking for them by November- application deadlines are often as early as Dec/Jan. Do NOT go just for the names you have heard of- look at the program and the focus, and follow your interests. You will be much better off developing depth in an area of genuine interest than chasing names that impress you (grad schools are impressed by different things).
Summer after 3rd year can be a pay-off year: with 2 summers of research behind you (esp if the areas of work overlap and you have some specific lab skills) you are now an asset to a lab, and you should be developing a sense of where your own research interests lie, and you can get into some pretty good programs, REU or otherwise. Also this summer, study for the GRE.
Come autumn of 4th year you will have some good ideas for your senior research project, which can be the framework for your Statement of Purpose when applying to grad programs. Your REU supervisors are 2 of your 3 recs (a prof is the 3rd) required for your grad school application. Take your GRE and you are good to go 
*https://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/
REUs are competitive, so you have to apply to quite a few. They are decently paid, but the exact packages vary. Sometimes housing is provided, more often there is some form of affordable accommodation available. You work pretty much the whole summer. Some of them will have start dates before your term ends - that is often negotiable, but it means you go straight from one to the other.
My daughter says no one gets summer research after first year and even now in second year she was told third years get priority but that she could apply if she likes. She hasn’t asked any professors yet and I am guessing it is not going to happen second year either.
She doesn’t know a single second year even trying.
This is in chemistry fwiw.
Thanks for that update, @VickiSoCal - that’s unfortunate for both your daughter & the OP!
OP, you can apply for REU’s as a 1st year- it can happen. You may have to work harder / be more creative for summer after 1st year- think laterally about places that would give you experience either in relevant lab techniques (even if a somewhat different field) or in the applied end (such as working with people with the neurochallenges you are most interested in).
I would suggest that anyone planning to get a BS at a UK university in the sciences rethink their feeling about undergrad research on top of their course load, at least during the first couple of years and during the school year.
It just is not as common for a variety of reason.
You can, as pointed out above, seek these experiences in the US during the summer.
My daughter spends more time in the lab than her US counterparts. 4 x 3 hour lab sessions per week as a second year. Doing more varied labs and using more instruments than I ever used as a sophomore chem major.
She also is taking far more hours of chemistry lecture than a US student.
I do not feel her experience is anyway lacking at the moment and I don’t see where she could pack many more chemistry hours in to the week.
Many of the top UK students in her department are enrolled in 5 year Masters programs and will have opportunity for industrial placement and/or research in their 4th and 5th years and are not thinking about it right now.