NASCAR and Barbour jackets: reflections from a BA (International Honours) fourth year
Sara is a fourth year History student in the BA (International Honours) Programme. Read about her experience at both universities, and what she has learned from it.
When I arrived in St Andrews at 17, I had no idea what I had gotten myself into. Coming from the Belgian (Flemish) school system, where I studied 12 subjects at once in Dutch, I floundered at first when adjusting to the extra time on my hands and writing so much in English. Besides, all my friends had enrolled in this university for 3 or 4 years, while I was planning to leave after the first, return for the last, and adjust to a new system and social scene at least two more times.
I fell in love with Ceilidhs, judo, and polar plunges in Scotland. I got a mullet, went to NASCAR, and got my driving license in Virginia. While at William & Mary, I got academically married and adopted children in the BA programme—then organised Raisin for them the following year at St Andrews (academic families are a massive St Andrews tradition). Despite the struggles of moving back and forth, I would not want it any other way.
There are two possible routes to take in the BA programme. You either spend the first and last years at one institution and the middle years at the other (ABBA), or you switch every year (ABAB). There are valid reasons for both, which are described and reflected on in WaMStA blog posts.
I chose to spend the middle years at William & Mary. Being at St Andrews for just one year gave me so little time to properly adjust to living abroad, that I wanted enough time to settle in during my second and third years. In hindsight, I did not realise that opting for ABBA meant that in many ways, I would feel like a fresher in years 1, 2, and to some extent, 4 as well.
During my first year—when all my friends were trying to convince me to drop out of the programme and stay at St Andrews—I kept reminding myself why I had chosen this unique degree in the first place. One of my parents is American, but I had never lived in the States. I had always wanted to study in English, but had no idea if I would like the academic structure of the UK with only two or three subjects at once. I knew I wanted to find out how living in the US and the UK would be, without the pressure of staying there long-term if it didn’t suit me. This is one of the biggest strengths the programme has to offer: besides discovering the academic systems of both countries, students get to experience life and make friends in both places while finding out if they have the resilience to see it through.
At William & Mary, academics are completely different than here at St Andrews. For the past two years, I had 5 modules per semester, in-person classes all day, and near-constant assignments. This resulted in what, to many William & Mary students, feels like a hamster wheel. At St Andrews, you plan your week; at William & Mary, your week is planned for you.
This is just to say that William & Mary offers far more structure than St Andrews. Besides, having more subjects and requirements than at St Andrews, BA students can (must) be exposed to a broader range of topics. For example, I study History but had the opportunity to take economics courses throughout my time at William & Mary, study and teach German, and take a philosophy/literature course taught in French.
Even the relationships between students and professors are different: at William & Mary, I could walk into a professor’s office hours and chat about anything under the sun, from regular academic advice to a political debate. At St Andrews, there is usually a bit more distance between students and tutors, who are happy to help but mostly stick to the subject of the course.
Besides academics, students have the opportunity to engage in the different traditions and cultures of each university. William & Mary has that American college vibe: there are frat parties, lots of clubs with extremely dedicated members (the Latin American Student Union, Symphony Orchestra, etc) and intramural sports leagues for handball, football, badminton, and even pickleball. St Andrews is more international and mysterious, with its pier walks, many black-tie events, Raisin, fashion shows, societies for things like clay pigeon shooting, and students from all over the world in just about every classroom.
Living in the US and UK is also very different. At St Andrews, it often feels like we live in a bubble. There is no train station, most people don’t have cars, and the university is in a town in seemingly the middle of nowhere. At William & Mary, which is on a campus, this is even clearer. Williamsburg is a small city, with a train that comes twice per day in each direction and buses that drive in a loop (so it takes 30 minutes in one direction and 45 in the other, once you exit the centre of Williamsburg). The university itself is centralised, with nearly all “on-campus” housing within a 15-minute walk of all university buildings. To go anywhere far beyond the campus, a car becomes a necessity.
Being from Belgium, where almost no students have cars and education is nearly free, I often find myself trying to explain or justify why I went abroad at all. You might think that “where do you go to school?” is a simple question, but any student in the College of William & Mary/University of St Andrews Joint Degree Programme will tell you otherwise. Whenever someone asks me this question, I either only mention the school I feel most emotionally attached to in that moment, or give a convoluted explanation that rapidly turns into rambling. I think by the end of 2nd year, we all got used to it.
As my time in this programme nears its end, I have realised how drastically my time at both St Andrews and William & Mary has shaped me. Participating in this most interesting and sometimes frustrating programme allows you to find what works for you, what doesn’t, and that you can overcome far more than you thought possible. At the end of the day, we all change and grow during our time at university. The BA programme requires more resilience than most, but therefore it also prepared me for just about anything that life can throw at me in the future.
This brings me to what has been the best part of this programme: the friendships that the constant adjustment, relearning, and goodbyes create. As we move between universities, doing something that our friends who study full-time at one institution cannot really grasp, we inevitably hold on to each other. It takes a certain kind of person to enrol in this degree and finish it. There is usually a mix of stubbornness, academic overachievement/perfectionism, a drive to reinvent ourselves, and a drop of madness. This makes for a wonderfully interesting bunch of people, whom I am so lucky to have met. Committing to this programme is the best decision I could have made.
To learn more about the BA (International Honours) Programme, check out the website or contact [email protected].