Interestingly, although Princeton has no professional schools, it has very robust PhD programs. Just for comparison, in the lastest NCES cohort, Dartmouth granted 100 PhDs, Princeton 445.
I note the Good University Guide, Complete University Guide, and Guardian Guide all let you search by subject, so you can look up English specifically (as do some other research rankings, but I agree that doesn’t make much sense for English). It seems St Andrews does very well in those rankings, which does not surprise me. Core Humanities is one of its notable strengths.
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My takeaway is that St. Andrews has a great reputation for its undergraduate education and is one of the most prestigious universities in the UK - maybe only behind Oxbridge reputationally.
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The train from Edinburgh to Leuchars (closest train station to St. Andrews) is about an hour - maybe even a little less than an hour. It’s a short five minute cab ride from Leuchars station to St. Andrews. We did not use the bus system, but the trains were great (ScotRail).
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I agree with much of what you stated except that the students take 3 subjects (3 modules each semester) in their first 2 years (sub honours) and then go down to 1 or 2 subjects during final 2 years (honours). Note that they will have had to study both subjects in their sub honours in order to progress to those subjects in honours. During the honours years (3 & 4) they will take 3 modules each semester in either the 1 or 2 subjects. I have a child who graduated from St A in '23 (joint honours). Let me just say FABULOUS school!!! He is now finishing grad school in the US at a very well-known, highly selective uni and says can’t compare to the rigor and fantastic teaching at St Andrews! It is not for everyone … your student will need to be very independent both academically and socially. They also need to have some sort of an idea of what they want to study. My son knew what he wanted to study, so not an issue. No opportunity to take core classes and decide later like schools in the US. But if they know what they want to study, their coursework will go VERY deep and honestly, they come out with a level of understanding as if they went to grad school. St Andrews is very well-known and respected in the acadmic world in the US. No issues at all being accepted to top 5 graduate programs in the US for my kid.
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For those who have or are St. Andrews alums, what subjects did they/you study while there, if you are able to share? Thanks and no worries if not.
32 ACT, 4.4W GPA, 10 AP classes
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My D25 applied in November for Chemistry and got her acceptance this morning. Officially her acceptance is for - Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Chemistry with Medicinal Chemistry.
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What are the biggest Pros and Cons for American students when making the decision of whether or not to enroll at St. Andrews?
How is St. Andrews different from selective American universities?
“Biggest” is subjective, and even pros and cons can swap for different people, but some of notable differences typically include:
(1) Far less of an exploratory curriculum and much more limited ability to change majors, coupled with essentially no form of gen ed requirement at St Andrews;
(2) A quite different system of teaching and evaluation (hard to give a pithy summary);
(3) Less dedicated student support outside of academics;
(4) Sports clubs at St Andrews, but no real equivalent to NCAA-style athletics;
(5) on-campus recruiting obviously draws very different firms and such;
and (6) all the predictable travel/convenience consequences to being in such different locations.
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Yes, my daughter was accepted on Feb. 28th. It’s an unconditional offer, but she had applied for International Relations and Social Anthropology and was admitted instead for Honours in Social Anthropology. IR was apparently oversubscribed. She’s thrilled, but we need to hear back on her scholarship application etc etc before she can decide, as we’re very low income.
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Yeah, they have rolling admissions and I’m pretty sure they filled up IR even before the equal consideration date. Congrats on social anthropology and good luck on the scholarship!
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For those accepted, is your DC attending? My son was offered an unconditional for Management and after visiting it, is highly considering it as his first choice.
C25 offered the opportunity to apply to a different course of study: Geography or Sustainable Development. Initially applied to Chemistry, but with a requirement of a 5 on AP Chem exam at year end, they feel that is not a likely score that they could achieve. Looking for any first hand knowledge about either of these courses for study, beyond the St. Andrews website and the admissions representative. Thanks in advance for any additional info provided.
Please note she can take the IR classes in her 1st year. Last 2 years there was plenty of spaces in those modules for anybody that wanted to take them.
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