Holly - Level-two Entrant to Physics, 2007

When I arrived at St Andrews to study physics, I was determined to do first year even though my friends (who had also done Advanced Highers or A-Levels in sixth year) were telling me not to bother and become one of the many ‘direct entry’ students. I was worried that going straight into second year classes would be too much to handle on top of moving to a new place and making new friends. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

My advisor suggested that I attend both the first and second year lectures for the first week, just to see how comfortable I felt in each. This turned out to be a fantastic idea as I soon realised that I found the second year lectures much more interesting as it was all new material – I wouldn’t have time to get bored (or become lazy about taking notes), which I felt I might do if I attended the first year lectures. I didn’t feel alone in this choice as so many other students chose direct entry for physics and it didn’t narrow my options either - I still was able to study physics, astronomy and maths modules.

I chose St Andrews because it seemed to be the perfect place to study and live. After visiting the town on an open day, I realised that due to its ideal size, everything is no more than a fifteen-minute walk away – it only took me six minutes to get from breakfast to my seat in the lecture theatre! The small size of the town makes it feel very like a campus university and means that you constantly bump into your friends and (academic) family. I would like to add at this point that (as the Facebook group says) St Andrews is not part of the real world, and that’s what makes staying here so much fun. Where else are you adopted into an extended academic family, encouraged to have a foam fight on the 15th century quad’s lawn or deemed normal for running into the North Sea at 5am?

First posted BDS 8.9.08