University Applications - Personal Statements

[Tubthumper]

But would a UHI or OU degree be any use to me? I'd far rather have something from a real university.

[Serenity]

Also, that isn't true about the 3 subjects. When you go into first year you have to do the subject you choose, and lots of subjects have an additional course which they force you to take, especially in the science. Really you only have the third one and that is severely restricted due to lecture times/tutorial times of the first two courses.

That's why I added in brackets the bit about set courses. In a lot of cases it is true, especially if you have advanced highers in the additional courses they want you to take. And most universities have options so people can take a range of combinations. It is one of the things that make Scottish unis so good.

In my opinion a lot of the reasons behind Edinburgh having a lot of applicants are pure hype and in my experience students from Glasgow and St Andrews are more well rounded. But that is just my opinion - no-one get on their high horse about it!

[jimbews]

mind you she does want to study biomedical sciences

In the Guardian rankings:
http://browse.guardian.co.uk/education/2009
Enter Biosciences to get the University rankings.

The Times version:
http://extras.timesonline.co.uk/tol_...rsityguide.php
has this as "Biological Sciences".

You may need to tweak this if the bias is more on the medical rather than the biological side.

From chemistry in St Andrews there is entry advice at:
http://chemistry.st-andrews.ac.uk/ad...ns/whysta.html

Have to admit a vested interest here, hence my link to that. Chemistry is linked (both physically and academically) with the Centre for Biomolecular Sciences and in fact it is a Chemistry professor who is currently director of the CBMS:

http://biology.st-andrews.ac.uk/cbms/

And its me who provides some IT support for CBMS as the 2 departments are spread over the 2 interlinked building (with another building hopefully starting this summer) but don't hold that against us :-)

Anyway - get the grades!! Can't speak for biology, but know we have put our entry requirements up twice recently. Also for the last few years St Andrews has NOT been in a position to have places left for "clearing".
Check the University website and arrange a visit on an open day.
There's ones on Wednesday afternoons for the whole Uni. In chemistry we also have some Saturday open days (and subsidise an overnight stay).

Next year will be an exciting one for all of us as the chemistry and biology teaching labs (and all of medicine) move into the new medical building which is nearing completion.

Well - suppose I'd better stop the hard sell (it's not like me, honest) and crawl back into a network closet!

JimBews

[~~Tides~~]

They are from Edinburgh University which is probably the most difficult university to get into in Scotland. From experience I can tell you that there standards are high.

You only think that because you are there.

Between Scotland’s top 4: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and St. Andrews it completely depends on the subject. However, if you want to look at it on average general terms, then St Andrews in the most difficult to get into followed by Glasgow. But as I said, across those 4 universities, it depends on the subject.

Not suggesting anything here, but Edinburgh seems to be quite easy to get into for fools with no life experience but who continually think themselves superior and are completely unjustifiably up themselves. Just my experience though...

[Alan16]

Not suggesting anything here, but Edinburgh seems to be quite easy to get into for fools with no life experience but who continually think themselves superior and are completely unjustifiably up themselves. Just my experience though...

And here lies subtlety. Sadly beaten to death on 19 November 2009, at around 10am.

[Tubthumper]

Not suggesting anything here, but Edinburgh seems to be quite easy to get into for fools with no life experience but who continually think themselves superior and are completely unjustifiably up themselves. Just my experience though...

Maybe I won't go to Edinburgh then. Heriot-Watt or Paisley sound OK though, for social life?