St Andrews Open Day


We are on the university trail again, starting with last week's open day at St Andrews. I was exceptionally well-behaved, only taking my camera out at the very end of the day, when the crowds of prospective students and their parents had dispersed and there was less scope for being an embarrassing mum. The weather was not particularly photo-friendly: a typical east coast haar (thick sea fog) in the morning, followed by an afternoon of almost-sunshine. Part of me regretted that it wasn't raining - it's always good to get an early dose of realism about the place in which you might spend 4 years. In the photo above, the spire of St Salvator's Chapel fades into the bright haze. The two red gowned individuals are undergraduate students who have just finished a day of guiding visitors around the university.

You'll see that gown of one the students is slipping off their left shoulder. This is carefully orchestrated. Below, you can see three of the four ways in which the gown is worn. On the left, barely hanging on, is the gown of a fourth year student. In the middle, the gown is slipping off the shoulders slightly - denoting a second year student. On the right, the off the left shoulder look shows that the student is in the Faculty of Arts. A first year student wears the gown high on both shoulders.


One lot of ancient university customs down, three or four more to go on our open day rounds. British students can apply to a maximum of five universities - so far there are four on my daughter's list. Applications open in September for entry the following autumn, so we'll have a summer of touring campuses with historic buildings, state-of-the-art this, that and the other, to say nothing of eye-wateringly tiny hall of residence rooms.

Comments

  1. Must the students all wear gowns while going to classes? A few of the colleges here required gowns when eating in certain hall but I think that has all ben done away with now.

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  2. An interesting custom of wearing the gowns denoting the year of the wearer.

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  3. Thanks for sharing st-Andrew's with us! Strange tradition for the gowns though, I'd hate to have mine almost falling off like that!

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  4. Hi Linda :) I'm really intrigued about this custom of wearing gowns. The only time a gown in put on in the colleges in the US, customarily, is to graduate. Otherwise, you never see them.
    What an exciting journey for you both this summer!
    St. Andrews has been in the US media of late with the royal wedding around the corner. It looks like a beautiful campus.

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  5. RedPat - the gowns aren't worn to classes, but for formal dinners in hall of residence, and traditions such as the Pier Walk (walking along the harbour pier on a Sunday after church). Perhaps any St Andrews graduate reading this will chip in with their own gown-wearing stories.

    Farmchick, I was interested to hear more about it on our visit. I was vaguely aware of the tradition, but learned more from our tourguide.

    Karine, I thought the same! I'd always be wanting to hitch it up.

    Jenni, I was curious to see what mileage the university might try to get out of the royal wedding at the open day, but there was only one very low-key mention. Royals or not, it is certainly a very beautiful setting - basically the town of St Andrews IS the campus.

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  6. That's fascinating, I had no idea about the gown code. And it isn't the sort of thing that you would figure out as a casual observer! I'm glad you enjoyed your day in St. Andrews.

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  7. Surely you have some of the most beautiful universities in the world, there. This must be, at once, exciting --- and nail biting --- for you and your daughter. When will you know where she will attend?

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  8. Christine, Aberdeen also had an undergraduate gown, but it hasn't survived in the way that it has at St Andrews. I remember wearing the red gown when I was at the top table at a formal dinner in my hall of residence (the now demolished Dunbar), but that was the only time anyone wore one during my time there in the 70s.

    Breezy Point Mom, our older universities are indeed lovely. But yes, it's nail-biting, and more so for me this time round. Having been through the process already with my son I know all the pitfalls! If my daughter chooses a Scottish university we'll know this time next year. If she chooses to go to England, she'll have to wait until August 2012, because she will have to take further exams because English university courses are a year shorter.

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  9. It is an interesting process in order to get to college. Some students get accepted to various ones and then decide of over here and of course some can't get accepted at all.

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  10. i thought maybe you were having a laugh about the gowns but the fact that you are serious is mind-boggling. i would forever be wanting to hootch it up on my shoulders. beautiful buildings although possibly cold inside? St. Andrews has always fascinated me with all the history that is there and the beauty of the sea so close by.

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  11. I went to St. Andrews!!!! Loved it. I wore my gown in exactly those ways. I still have it, with the raisin receipts dangling from it. The gown off just the one shoulder also denotes that the wearer is a 2nd year student.
    It doesn't rain all that much in St. Andrews so there probably was a note of realism.

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  12. Did I say off one shoulder was 2nd year? It isn't, it's 3rd year. Sorry. I just realised when I was strolling about over lunchtime.

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  13. Heck, here I am again but someone asked for gown wearng stories. They make good dressing gowns. We didn't wear them that infrequently. We sometimes wore them to classes and just to wander about in. Sometimes you just wanted an alternative to a coat. We used to ride around in them on our bikes and get them caught in the chain.
    I still have mine and it gets used in plays sometimes.

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  14. Glad to see that daft gown tradition still exists! When Wills & Kate visited St.A's recently, I was dismayed to see that their undergraduate audience all had their gowns demurely hitched up. You do sort of get used to having it hanging off - and indeed there is (inevitably) a certain kudos in being a fourth year with it half way to your waist. I remember that we wore gowns to debates, too.

    Don't worry about the lack of rain/realism: in my experience, St. Andrews was exceptionally dry and sunny (when there wasn't a haar, of course). Just absolutely FREEZING.

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  15. Larry, the not getting accepted is a problem here this year as students rush to apply in order to beat a rise in fees (in England) the following year. We don't know yet what the fees situation will be in Scotland.

    Journeys to Scotland, it is indeed serious, as Foody and dancingbeastie attest. The buildings we were in were warm enough, even the medieval history building.

    Foody and dancingbeastie, I wondered if I'd flush out some St Andrews graduates! Thanks for your gown stories. Funny you should say that about using it as a dressing gown, Foody. That was my daughter's first thought of how she would use hers if she went there. Dancingbeastie, I thought I was used to east coast cold after Aberdeen and Edinburgh, but this was a particular version of cold. Ah well, I daresay termperature will feature on daughter's comparison list when it comes to choice of university.

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  16. Is your daughter considering Medieval History then? Ooh, go for it. That's what I did at St.Andrews. A really good course, some very engaging teaching and a very well-stocked library (to the extent that I used to go back to it to do research in the holidays when I had nominally gone on to Oxford for my doctorate). You can't get better than doing medieval history in a medieval town.

    The other factor worth considering is the beach. Windswept walks along the West Sands helped to keep us all sane in the face of the usual student crises (love, exams, looming adulthood etc.) I really missed it when I left. Oxford is full of crackpots - no beach, you see. ;)

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  17. Ah, the beach! Perhaps the UCAS application should be based on that. Aberdeen, St Andrews, Aberystwyth, Brighton...

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  18. How interesting about the gown traditions!
    kids here in the states can apply to as many colleges as they'd like provided they pay the application fee. & many popular colleges make a nice sum off of the many applicants trying to get in.

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