Should I attend the University of Aberdeen or St. Andrews? PLEASE help me with some information!!?

Question

I am from America and I have been looking into attending St. Andrews or Aberdeen. As I was looking at the St. Andrews website, I was astounded by the prospect of attending a traditional university with formal dinners and unique traditions and such. However, I was somewhat put down when I read that the university is practically in the middle of nowhere.

Aberdeen on the other hand seems very scenic, however somewhat gray. Is it at all traditional.....like with formal dinners and such as well? What are some traditions there?

Any information on these two universities would be helpful, as well as any personal opinions with good reasons supporting your answer. Also, a very important thing to me, are people pretty friendly at both universities?

Thank you very much!

Answer 1

I attended the University of St Andrews. It has a better reputation than Aberdeen. St Andrews is a bit isolated but there is a bus station in town that can take you directly to Edinburgh or to the train station, where you have access to just about everywhere in Scotland. Aberdeen is a bit gray and gloomy. It takes a bit of getting used to. St Andrews is a beautiful seaside town. There are a lot of formal dances and dinners at St Andrews.

Answer 2

St. Andrews is indeed the better university.  You may also want to look into other UK universities if you want to study there. Many Americans only really know of St. Andrews and such, but you should look into University of Manchester, University of Newcastle, London Unis, etc.

I am not familiar with the people from these universities, but as an AMerican studying in the UK I can safely say that people are very welcoming, barring you don't come off as a jerk. Be prepared to spend money, as the UK is much more costly then the US.

Answer 3

Hello, I'm also a St Andrews student, so blatantly I'm going to be slightly biased towards it!

I believe St Andrews to be a simply beautiful place, it has beaches, a castle, an amazing golf course (if you're in to that sort of thing) and no matter which halls of residence you're allocated to, you're not more than 15-20 minutes away from the other side of town.

I'm in the second year, and come from a small place in England, which could also be considered the middle of nowhere. I felt that although St Andrews can feel quite isolated as there isn't a train station, there are incredibly frequent buses (every 15 minutes) to Dundee (a nearby city) and to the train station at Leuchars - which can get you to Edinburgh and Aberdeen. I find that the fact St Andrews is not a big city and the fact it is not a thoroughfare makes it a really great close-knit community. You walk down the street to the shops and undoubtably you'll see someone you know - it makes it feel really safe and friendly.

The traditions in St Andrews university are also really great - I don't know how much you've read/heard about them, but I was amazed in my first year at how strange some of them were!

The most famous tradition is Raisin weekend. Before the weekend, you get academic parents, who are students in 3rd year or above, and look after you, show you the ropes etc. On Raisin weekend, your academic mum will give you a tea party which lasts all day, and then in the evening your academic dad will give you a party - both of which may include... a lot of alcohol.. but if you're not a drinker, then that's alright as there are alternatives. The day after (if youre in a fit enough state) your academic mum dresses her children up in ridiculous outfits then you parade through the town until you reach St Salvator's quad (a really old and beautiful setting) where you have a shaving foam fight with the rest of the academic children in St Andrews - its .. completely wild.

There are other traditions and things, for example I was in University Hall last year, and we had numerous Ceilidhs, which is traditional Scottish dancing - i thought it sounded a bit lame before I went and tried it, a load of big scottish blokes flinging me around - it was ace, hehe

In hall, we also had formal dinners where we wore our university gowns (which are bright red and made of a thick fleece material) and we also had themed dinners - such as the Harry Potter dinner - the University Hall dining room does look a bit like the Great Hall in Harry Potter, so that was a bit of fun at Halloween!

The town of St Andrews is full of studenty bars and things, there's a cinema, which is quite traditional - there's no adverts or anything before the films, and on wednesday nights, they play old films on the big screens - The last one of those I went to was when they replayed Indiana Jones, it was amazing!

There's also an aquarium, swimming pool, sports facilities etc etc, and tonnes of societies you can join.

I'm an academic parent this year, and one of my academic children is from New Jersey - he was only intending on spending one semester here, but after just a couple of months here he changed his mind and made it a full year! that's a good sign :P

Anyway, I hope all this helped!

Fran