“I couldn’t have chosen a better place” – Logan’s summer in St Andrews
Applications for St Andrews Summer Study 2025 are open,
More information on our courses and how to apply can be found on the St Andrews Summer Study webpages.
Logan is a student from Salisbury University who studied Scotland’s History: Kingdom, Nation, People as part of St Andrews Summer Study 2024. Read some of her experiences as a Summer Study student in St Andrews.
St Andrews was an absolute dream. As a small-town kid leaving my home country for the first time, I couldn’t have chosen a better place to travel to, or a better university to do it with! The town itself felt like a little slice of coastal paradise and as an added bonus contained a wealth of history. As someone coming to study just that, I certainly considered this a perk and felt like St Andrews Summer Study did a great job of capitalizing on it and genuinely made the program go as smoothly as possible.
“The summer program was so unique both in the way we learned and the physical places it took us”.
A typical day of summer study started with a lecture inside a classroom overlooking the beach, in a building dating back to medieval times. We would then get to enjoy the view as we ate a lunch that had been delivered right to us and discuss the lecture and the itinerary for the afternoon, which included a myriad of things depending on the day. The course also included excursions each week such as traveling to Dunnottar Castle or Falkland Palace –which is where they filmed Outlander by the way– or getting to explore one of the university’s archaeological dig sites. The social program included daytrips to places such as Edinburgh, a stroll down the Royal Mile, a visit to Edinburgh Castle –yes, the Edinburgh Castle– and even a whiskey tasting in the countryside, because what seems more Scottish than that?
“The social program included daytrips to places such as Edinburgh, a stroll down the Royal Mile, a visit to Edinburgh Castle –yes, the Edinburgh Castle– and even a whiskey tasting in the countryside, because what seems more Scottish than that?”
It’s safe to say that that’s not my typical schedule, nor my typical learning experience. The summer program was so unique both in the way we learned and the physical places it took us, but also in the way it brought a group of total strangers to live, learn, and explore the world together in a way that fostered friendships and cultivated a whole new experience that traveling alone or even with friends couldn’t have achieved. For me, being sponsored for the program by the Fulbright UK Summer Institute, I came in with a group of students that I had met just once before on a brief Zoom call, who I now share some of my most precious memories with. People I now know almost everything about, and plan to remain in contact with for a long time. Getting to take those friendships with me and the impact that my classmates had on how I think and live my life, in addition to everything I got to learn and experience at my time in St Andrews, is something I could not be more grateful for.
Thank you to Logan for sharing her experience. More information on our courses and how to apply can be found on the St Andrews Summer Study webpages or you can contact the team at [email protected].