So I recently gave my friend Jenn the idea to write a blog post about her bucket list for second year in St Andrews. Since then, I’ve been struggling to come up with inspiration for my own posts (sorry for the lack of updates), thus, this is the result; I’ve decided to create my own bucket list for the rest of my time in St Andrews. I have three years left here and I hope that I manage to cross off, if not all, the majority of these things on the list. So, here goes nothing…
Wake up early and walk along the pier at sunrise.
I really don’t take advantage of the fact I live in a beautiful town with beautful beaches and a pretty awesome pier. I haven’t even taken part in the traditional Sunday pier walk as I’ve never woken up on time. I’ve seen pictures on Overheard in St Andrews of the gorgeous St Andrews sky in the early morning and I want to witness that in person.
Explore the castle grounds.
Apparently its free if you wear your gown. But I think it’d be a fun adventure to explore with friends at night.
Go to the Lizard.
I’ve never been drunk enough and I don’t think I’m willing to go in there without being in the correct state to at least feel like I’m enjoying myself and Dj Ian’s sick beats.
Join the History society.
My major is Modern History so its a given that I find the subject interesting – I’ve only ever been to one of the society’s events. I’ve never found the time and although this year might not be my year, I definitely want to join… Maybe next time.
Play golf. St Andrews is the home of golf – it’d be rude not to have a go at least once!
Ceilidh at Forgans. Possibly my favourite restaurant in St Andrews – I’ve heard the ceilidhs are a night not to be missed.
Go to the top of St Rules tower.
I’d like a bird’s eye view of this stunning seaside town.
Go to one of the beaches in the AM. I’ve walked East, West and Castle Sands plenty of times and been to bonfires at night but I want to go at 3 or 4 in the morning with a group of friends. I reckon it’d be quite fun.
Actually eat seafood at the Seafood Restaurant. Arguably one of the most popular restaurants in St Andrews in terms of tourism, it’d be silly not to try sea food, right? Tell that to First Year Helen who had the opportunity to dine there and chose steak. It was lovely but not what the restaurant is known for. Obviously.
Visit the Secret Bunker. Recommended to me by my driving instructor at home.
Visit every single pub in St Andrews.
I promise I’m not an alcoholic. St Andrews has the most pubs per sqaure mile in all of Britain – probably it’s greatest achievement (forget the 600 year old leading university thing.)
Play ukulele at one of the balls. St Andrews is host to dozens of balls every year and even though we’re a little ukulele band, we have big dreams.
Happy as larry. Clearly.
You should check us out on Facebook. (getting that promo)
Actually finish a set reading. This is a personal goal. I’m working on it. I swear.
I am an only child yet I have 5 sisters and a brother, 2 mums and 2 dads.
It might sound a little weird but that’s just life at St Andrews. Biologically, of course, I only have a mum and a dad but no siblings. However, I was adopted when I came to St Andrews and with my new academic parents came new academic brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles… the list goes on.
Me with my academic mum and sisters! (Looking a bit messy on Raisin Sunday)
So, how does it work? Well, the system is like this. Third years choose to adopt first years – usually in Freshers Week but it can sometimes be a lot later than that – as a way of creating their own academic family. The whole idea of the family is that on Raisin Weekend, which is a tradition for the university, you give your parents the gift of raisins as a way of saying “thank you” for taking care of you. However, this has evolved over the years and parents now much prefer an alcoholic based beverage in place of these raisins. During the weekend, on the Sunday, kids will generally begin their day with a party at their mum’s and then head to their dad’s for an evening of family fun. Then, on the Monday, kids head to their mums’ in the morning to be dressed up in a costume of their mum’s choice before heading to their dad’s to receive their raisin receipt (essentially just any object your dad can find) which they take to Sallies Quad (or in my case Lower College Lawn due to construction on the quad) to have a massive foam fight with the whole of first year at the university.
If you’re lucky and have good parents (like me!), you will continue to have events long after raisin which is great fun and you always meet new friends in a variety of years because of the Academic Family idea.
Raisin Sunday
Expect alcohol and LOTS of it! Like I said, you will usually begin your day at your mum’s, however, some dads will be cruel and force their children to wake up extremely early and head to the north sea for beach and water games with alcoholic consequences. I was one of the lucky ones who did not have to endure it but many of my friends and academic family did – arriving at our mum’s and aunts’ already pretty tipsy. HOWEVER – if you don’t drink or just don’t feel like drinking, then don’t worry you won’t be made to!
Mum’s
In my case, we spent time at my mum’s and aunts’ playing drinking games and having a general good time. They made breakfast for us and let us have some chill time in the afternoon because some of us (NOTE: NOT ME!!) got a little bit too drunk. Included in this part of the day is usually a scavenger hunt. Your mum will give you a list of things to do/find across the whole of St Andrews and give you a time to get back to hers or face the consequence – usually alcohol based. For us, we had teams because my mum and her flatmates held raisin together so I was with my sisters while the other’s were with their own siblings.
Playing the Jenga drinking game at my mum’s
My sisters and I were last to arrive back from the scavenger hunt but luckily for us the competition was a point based system and we got the most so we won! Our prize was a pretty awesome Frozen propelling pencil… great for notes in lectures, I was definitely one of the coolest students in my class.
Dad’s Generally, you will arrive at your academic dad’s house at some time in the late afternoon or evening. Usually he will set you a time which you must arrive for – no earlier or later than that time of you will receive a forfeit.I was late to my academic dad’s because my mum’s party went on much later than expected so he sent my siblings and I (one was so drunk she didn’t even turn up!) on a scavenger hunt and then we received shots when we arrived back at his house. My experience of my dad’s party was quite different to my mum’s as it was much more relaxed because everyone (his flatmates were my uncles and their kids were there too) was pretty tired and had drunk quite enough for one day. However, the games continued on into the night and William (my brother on my dad’s side, cousin on my mum’s… weird, right?) and I decided to leave around midnight as we had been up pretty early and drinking all day.
On my dad’s scavenger hunt with my brother.
I was pretty surprised to learn that when I got back to my hall I was one of the only ones who had lasted the day without passing out or vomiting. I found my roommate conked out in the room and later learnt that she had been there since 2.30pm! Please don’t worry too much about this though, as long as you know your limits then you will be fine – don’t feel like you are being forced into anything. Just say “no thank you” and your parents should understand as they will have been there as a Fresher too.
Raisin Monday What I found very surprising about Raisin Monday is that classes still went on as normal – don’t be concerned about this though as although professors etc seem like they will be strict if you don’t turn up, they won’t be! Hardly anybody goes to classes on the Monday and usually lecturers are prepared for this so just hold a revision lecture or lecture about the library, pretty pointless.
In the morning you will be expected to arrive at your mum’s and she will have hopefully told you whether or not to bring or wear certain things. She will then dress you up in a costume of her choice and this can be anything at all. For my sisters and I, we were all animals – I was a mouse, one was a giraffe, another a bunny. My academic cousins were jelly beans and tellytubbies – it was so cool to see and later in the day when we met everyone for the foam fight you will see just how creative St Andrews students can be!
With my academic sisters and cousins on Raisin Monday!
Once you’re all dressed up, your mum will send you on your way to your dad’s place and this is where you will be given an academic receipt. This can be absolutely anything and its usually something annoyingly large and a little awkward (and possibly stolen!) so as to embarrass you even more! It is a lot of fun, I promise. My dad found an old table at a dump and made us carry that. Unfortunately for us, one of our cousins was a little under the weather the night before and vomited on it. My dad managed to get most of it cleaned, however there was a little puke on my fingers (gross!).
The receipt is then taken to the foam fight (typically in Sallies Quad but for us it was in Lower College Lawn because the Quad was getting a makeover) as part of a large parade (locals, tourists and students all come to watch) and is usually just thrown out when you get there – it seems a bit pointless but it’s a tradition. On the receipt your father will have written a Latin phrase; “Ego civis (name of parent), tertianus/a (if you’re a third year) or magistrandus/a (fourth year) huius celeberrimae universitatis Sancti Andreae, qui (father’s degree subject) studeo, a te (child’s name), meo/a bejanto/ina carissimo/a qui (child’s degree subject) student, unam libram uvarum siccarum accepisse affirmo pro qua multas gratias tibi ago.” This means “I, (name of parent) a third year/fourth year fellow member of this celebrated university of St Andrews who with great natural ability and toil studies (father’s degree subject), gives this to you, (child’s name) my beloved bejant, of tired and invalided mind, who studies (child’s degree subject), and as thanks for this will accept from you one pound of raisins.”
Now, its time to get foamy! As soon as you enter the fight you will be already covered in foam. Make sure you buy cans of shaving foam in advance as it is normally sold out in the shops the night or a few days before Raisin Weekend! I took 3 cans with me but found that was too much; I’d say having two cans is the perfect amount. There are lots of photographers about taking photos and it is normally one of the trending topics in the news the next day.
This was after we had wiped ourselves up a bit!
It really is so much fun! However, fighting for the (COLD!) showers afterwards? Not so much.
Anyway, I hope this was informative and if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask.
Twitter; @JeMappelleHelen
Today I should be revising. Instead, I am writing a blog post as a means of procrastination. However, I’m hopeful this post won’t just be a way of me distracting myself from revision but instead is of use to those who would like to find out a little bit about Freshers Week in general and at St Andrews.
Yesterday, whilst making our way to Blackhorn for dinner* I was speaking with my friends Erin and Violet about Freshers Week while comparing it to Violet’s friend who was visiting. Whilst discussing it, I realised my memories were more than foggy but very fond. Freshers was most definitely one of my favourite parts of the first semester at St Andrews, however, being underage at the time I did not manage to go to as many of the events as I would have liked. Although nervewracking, the first week at university is one of the most exciting times – meeting new friends, having new experiences, moving to a new place. It’s all the start of something great and a brand new adventure so yes, it’s okay to be scared but it’s also okay, in fact encouraged, to have fun and let loose! Don’t let your worries about making friends and not knowing the place take over – enjoy yourself!
Some of my favourite events in Freshers week included a Scouting For Girls concert and Clan Warfare which I didn’t even have a ticket for. I think the concert speaks for itself really but Clan Warfare is a little different and something I’d never really heard of until I came to St Andrews. Each “clan” is in fact a hall of residence in the town, mine being McIntosh, and the point of the event is a competition between halls (mainly senior students) to see who would come out on top. Each hall dresses in their hall colours and competes to see which has the greatest hall spirit. Although I didn’t have a ticket to the event (more about tickets later), I still had a great time getting involved by wearing my colours and having my face painted. Before heading to the union, where clan warfare took place, my hall had a pre-event with drinks, dancing, pep talks and speeches. This was the first time I really began socialising with more than just my roommate and a few people I had met on the “Coffee Crawl”** held by hall the night before (the first night of freshers). I had so much fun and at the PACKED union, while a lot of people were inside Venue 1 for the event, I managed to be adopted by my lovely academic parents. (I’ll write another post about that in the future)
In hall colours for Clan Warfare – we won, of course!
Other events in the week included a comedy show, ceilidh, garden party, Welcome to the Bubble and Fridays at the Union (evenings filled with dance and drinking etc)
Tips for Freshers Week
HAVE FUN! This is my top tip because if I could go back and change anything about my Freshers Week, I would relax a little more and have even more fun than I already did. It’s not meant to be a tense time, it’s meant to be for you to enjoy yourself, get used to your new surroundings and make a load of new friends.
You don’t have to make a whole load of new friends immediately. Yes, make sure you do try and socialise as much as possible but don’t worry if you haven’t made too many friends! To be honest, most of my good friends now I made along the way and some of them I met just recently! I’m still friends with people I made during Freshers, of course, but don’t worry if you haven’t made a new best friend – it takes time and some of the greatest friendships will develop way after classes have even begun.
Go to events during the day. I can’t emphasise this enough because I really wish I did this. At the beginning of the week, you should be provided with a Freshers Pack by your hall committee. In this, there will be a book with a schedule of events occurring throughout the week, including things to do throughout the day. There will be everything from library tours (I still haven’t stepped foot in that building and we only have 3 weeks left!) to sports to theatre workshops to music cafes. There is so much to do and I wish I had taken advantage of the fact there were FREE(!!!) activities instead of lying in bed, hungover, for the majority of the week – although, I know I’m not the only one who did this. I did however go on walks around the town with my new friends and had little coffee dates which was just as fun.
Go to the Freshers Fayre. One of the best things about university is the social life and clubs and societies which are on offer. There is a whole range of extracurricular activities you can get involved in and by going to the fayre you are able to find out more about these societies. There are over 140 societies in St Andrews so you’ll never be short of one to join! Currently I’m a member of the Disney society and about to join the music society because of my place in Ukelear Fusion. Be keen but not too keen, don’t sign up and pay membership fee for something you don’t have intentions of committing to!
Buy tickets in advance. Although it might seem daft to buy tickets to events before meeting new people and finding out what events they’ll be going to, St Andrews sells tickets to Freshers events in advance on the union website. I can’t tell you how many people missed out on events because they didn’t know about this and tickets had already sold out. Even if you end up not going, people are always willing to buy the ticket off you and sometimes you can even make a profit, which is great for a student!
Wear comfortable shoes. And clothes for that matter! Sure, its great to be fashionable as you probably want to impress all these new people but since St Andrews is a place with a lot of cobbled streets, I’d recommend flats to wear as it can often be difficult (and painful!) to walk – especially when intoxicated.
Join Facebook groups and “like” university pages. People are often discussing things there/selling tickets for events/posting general information. You can find a few St Andrews page for freshers here and here. Make sure to also join pages for your hall of residence to keep up to date with whats going on! Prior to your arrival, there will be info about hall and you may even be able to find out who your room mate or flatmates are before you get there!
Facebook page for my hall – McIntosh.
For anymore advice, feel free to get in touch with me on twitter!
*Although I live in a fully catered hall, we do not have evening meals provided for us on Saturday or Sunday and so we usually make our own! However, on Sundays there is a great deal at Blackhorn which I find myself occasionally (well, more than occasionally) indulging in.
**There was a Coffee Crawl in the evening for people who had not yet turned 18 whilst others in hall were able to go on a Pub Crawl. Thinking of it now, I probably could have joined them but being naive and worried about being caught for underage drinking, I didn’t.
Why did I choose St Andrews? I chose this university because for me, its perfect! The town isn’t too big or overwhelming but its not so small that I’m bored – I think its just the right size. Aside from that, it’s a dream university. I never thought I’d have the chance to study at such a prestigious university with amazing history. The lectures are amazing and most of them are very interesting. You’ll always see a friendly face around town and there are always people willing to help you out – whether it be academically or not. I wasn’t going to apply at all until I received my Higher results and my mum said I actually had a chance. I’m so glad she encouraged me because I’m so happy in this lovely little town!
Tips for applicants First of all – don’t worry if your grades aren’t what the university expect, yes, they’re important, but I know people who have missed out on their results and still managed to get a place at this lovely uni! Don’t panic! Work hard but make sure you don’t kill yourself while doing so – take breaks and try not to cram it all the night before. I promise its worth the work in the end!
I think the most important factor of the application process (for St Andrews in particular) is the personal statement. I don’t know how many times I edited and redrafted mine – I got so frustrated and hated it by the end but it was so worth it in the end!
Make sure you put some effort into your statement and BE YOURSELF! Don’t lie about anything because it isn’t going to help you in the long run. However, do make sure you write about things you’ve done or achieved which could be relevant for the course you’re applying for. For example, one thing I wrote about was the fact I’m an ambassador for the Holocaust Educational Trust and visited Auschwitz with them, educating my peers and others after visiting – I was applying for Modern History. As well as that, I wrote a little about why I chose the subject I was sitting in Sixth Year and how they would help while at uni – two of those were Advanced Higher History and English in which I had to write dissertations, so obviously I spoke about how the research for that etc could be applied to my studies at uni.
Make sure to write a little about things you do outside of school – do you have a job? Do you play sports? Do you lead any groups? Do you volunteer? All of these show that you are a well rounded person and have potential to get involved with university life outside of classes!
If you haven’t visited the university during the open days, try and make it to an applicant day before you make a decision as these are really useful and give you a great feel for life in St Andrews. I think these tend to be held between January and March; usually around the time offers are being sent out.
If you would like any more info please do get in touch; https://twitter.com/JeMappelleHelen
My name is Helen and I’m just about to finish my first year at the University of St Andrews. I’ve decided to blog about my experiences as when I was researching universities, I also wanted to have a sneak peak into the life of students at my prospective university.
A little about me: Age: 18
Studying: My main degree is Modern History but at the moment (first year) I’m studying side modules of Social Anthropology and Film Studies.
Hometown: Inverness, Scotland
Year of Graduation: Hopefully(!) 2018
Societies: At the moment just the Disney Society but I’ve just become a member of the ukulele band Ukelear Fusion which is I’m so excited about! Check them out here!
Hall of Residence: The best hall, obviously, McIntosh Hall.
What I like most about St Andrews: I love how small it is! Growing up I always thought I’d study in a big city but when I visited this town I knew it was just right for me – everyone (well, almost) is so friendly and there is such a feeling of community amongst us.
Favourite pub/nightspot: I love Brew Co (St Andrews Brewing Company) as its so chill and the Thistly Cross cider is just amazing, you have to try it! I’m also partial to a wee night at Rascals, The Vic and Ma Bells (although it can get particularly crowded and the thought of being drenched in not only your sweat but the sweat of others is a little unappealing – but entry is free and its always a good nigh on a Tuesday!)
One piece of advice I wish I had received: During Freshers week go to the free(!) “Give it a Go” sessions held by sports clubs. I wish I took the opportunity but I’m definitely going to go along to one this year – I really want to join tennis or basketball or something along those lines.
Thats it for now but I’ll be updating this blog every so often with my experiences and any advice I think Freshers might find useful! If you have any questions feel free to contact me on twitter.
The Wee Town by the Sea 