University of St. Andrews

There is so much support available from staff and peers! Everyone is really friendly and there are so many societies to join! There is a big focus on mental health and a large student union striving to make an impact on the university and surrounding community. There are many fun traditions to take part in and a big history. The town is beautiful full of old stone buildings that you might have lectures in, the science building are modern and there are a lot of study areas. The library is huge with various study spaces and there is a new sports facility with everything in it! It's an awesome university you should definitely consider coming here!

I will always recommend St Andrews as the top uni to study medicine. Not only is it the only uni that awards a bachelors degree after 3 years, but also the only one to offer full body dissection from week 1 of the course!
St Andrews in general is a beautiful place to study and, despite what people may think, the social life is too-notch!

Freshers week was so unique at St Andrews university! We have such interesting events at our union and house parties that arent like any other. Even compared to the nights out ive been to in London back home, i actually prefer it at St Andrews. I stayed in Andrew Melville hall during first year and it was a great experience. We had such a tight knit community and there'd be such fun events like free bars and speed friending. I was in a corridor with 7 other people and they also became my academic sisters! The facilities were very good in my opinion. Everything is so close in town so very easy to access. This year ive been to the gym much more frequently and am really enjoying using the facilities! I could tell right from the start that my lecturers were passionate about the subjects they were teaching. The course is challenging but we also have great support from our tutors. Everyone is there to learn and thrive which creates such a conducive environment for academia. St Andrews is such a special town, it's a really tight knit community and you'll be sure to bump into a few people you know on your tescos trip. It means the nights out are so fun as you'll never know which house party you'll end up in. We are also surrounded by 3 beautiful beaches which is such a bonus

Freshers week was amazing! I manage to make a lot of new friends and settle into uni well! Medicine is tough but I'm hanging on! I stayed in David Russell Apartment in St Andrews and it was a lovely experience despite being slightly far away from town. The library is amazing, it's 3 levels and there's a silent section which allow students to really concentrate. The student sports hall/ gym is really nice too! it has a lot of different facilities and equipments. Medicine is great in St Andrews, the lecturers have really good slides and deliver their lectures to a very high standards. St Andrews does not have much of a city life, but it is never boring! We have a lot of house parties, pubs and bars and definitely the student union that we all end up at the end of the night.

Great lots of diversity and excellent teaching . Lots of industrial experience.

Amazing! Has been a reat uni experience in all ways.

I honestly can't imagine a better place to live/study than St Andrews. It's literally Hogwarts- the buildings are beautiful, you're right by the coast, and everything has this sort of magic to it. Yeah, the work is intense, but here everybody works hard and plays ever harder. The nights out are awesome, and you soon learn the hidden tricks to have a great night (esp. 50p toastie Fridays).

Freshers week was more dependant on your halls of residence in first year than it was on your course/subject. My halls organised a different pre drinks and event to go to every night and then there would be the university wide events at the student Union or through other society's which would be the part of the night to look forward to. I really enjoyed the sports fayre and the societies fayre as it was all in one big room so you could walk past each stall and see everything if you just followed the route, I thought it was organised very well. The university of St. Andrews has many student halls of residence which vary in size. Normally while at St. Andrews students stay in halls of residence in first year and then move into a flat in town with friends in their later years. The housing market in St. Andrews is really competitive as there isn't many houses (it's a small town) so the landlords can charge very high prices compared to elsewhere in the UK. My house in second year was £700 a month not including bills (between £600 and £700 is average for St. Andrews houses) and my catered student accommodation in first year cost £6,600 for the whole year, sometimes people will make the decision to stay in student halls as opposed to a flat because of the difference in price. The library is not as grand and traditional as the other university buildings and I really think it needs to be able to fit more students- most days when exams are coming up it is really difficult to find a seat in the library. It does have a lot of open space and different seating arrangements and it is nice and colourful so I find it a nice place to study, I just think it needs expanding. The classrooms are really nice places to learn- almost all of my tutorials and lectures for languages were in the main quad which is the really famous university building, but there is also buildings which aren't as exciting to learn in as these. The sports centre is really newly built and I am on one of the university sports teams so I train there a lot and I've used the performance suite at the sports centre several times and the equipment in there is really advanced. I liked how in first year the course was fixed and you couldn't choose specific modules. This meant that you covered a wide variety of different literary genres and periods of history which enabled you to discover what your strengths and weaknesses are in your subject. Then for second year you were given more freedom to choose but still had to take certain modules and in your final 2 years (when your university grades start counting towards your degree) you have freedom to choose what you would lie to study. Life in St. Andrews is very different to any other university experience. The university is right on the coast so you have 3 beaches and a coastal path right on your doorstep. As it's a smaller university, you also know a lot of people in the town so as you're walking down the street you can stop and chat to any friends and people you bump into which is a really nice thing. In terms of St. Andrews as a place, it's a really beautiful place to live which is why so many tourists often come on the weekends so to be studying in a place like St. Andrews sometimes feels too good to be true.

It was really really good! Honestly so much to do and so many people to meet. Loads of opportunities for everyone to get involved with sport, societies or whatever it is you enjoy :) Overall the accommodation is great. It is pretty expensive but I believe the quality is good. I was in DRA in first year, it was very modern and was easy to make friends with my flatmates and people in my building. The kitchen was lovely and very big as well as the living space. Overall the facilities here are too small for the university size. The library is great but needs an extension, the range of books is really good and the staff are very helpful. The students union is good for most things apart from the nightclub experience. The various bars are great, especially main bar on a Friday night. But 601 is just depressing most of the time except from sinners etc. The sports union is again excellent but the gym is far too small for a growing university. Medicine here is unique in that it's very anatomy heavy but still had clinical sides to it. The course is really well managed and run, the lectures are great and always 99% of the time helpful and in depth. Dissection is the best part of the course in my opinion as no where does it really like how we do it. It's very immersive and great for anatomy. Clinical skills are good, we have many rooms for this and it's very well taught. Well St Andrews isn't a city, it's a town but it's great that way. You can't go anywhere without bumping into someone you know. Yes at times it's not great for when you want to avoid people but it feels so intimate and close knit. The student and town relationship is good for the most part apart from the usual student mess or the locals complaining for no reason. The town has everything you really need except a spoons or a McDonald's.

Unfortunately I was only 17 when I started university and so couldn't drink legally in pubs, clubs or the union. Much of the freshers activities are to do with drinking culture so I didn't have the best time at freshers. However I did enjoy freshers week in the following years. The accommodation was great. There's lots of options to suit many, the o my issue is it is so expensive. Once you move out of student halls and into flats there is a big battle because lots of students in a small town with only a certain number of HMOs. Landlords often put prices very high and this wasn't great for average students, I had to work a lot to afford it! The university facilities are lovely, all the old buildings with so much history. The university is spread over the whole town with beautiful gardens and spaces, also the beaches that you have to stroll on. It's one of my favourite places. Library is a little small, gym has just been refurbished and has everything with the exception of a pool! You have the opportunity in the first two years to study different courses so you can really be sure going into your honours years that you're making the right decision. The geography department was the best, they were so supportive, had a door open policy and in the later years they treated you like academics and not just students. I got to go on some great trips too, like to Iceland to conduct fieldwork. Contrary to what a lot of people belive the night life in St. Andrews was great. Mostly pubs and house parties which is great for getting to know people and then there is still a small club and the union if you really want to boogie. They university holds a lot of events, but tickets to the balls are very expensive and there are lots of them so can break the bank a little.