study abroad for a semester???

[aislingeach]

i have decided to study @ st. andrews for a semester of my junior year. i am having trouble deciding which semester to come? 2nd semester would be nice, because it would spring/summer when the semester ends. but 1st semester would be nice too because you start if summer, but you end in winter... which semester usually has the best activities going on? which semester would you recommed?? thanks!

[niall]

if you were here for semester 1 you'd get freshers week, rasin weekend and you'd be here till january.

semester 2, you get the may dip and most balls.

to be fair, you should come here for a year!

[hr]I'm not a lumberjack, or a fur trader
and I don't live in an igloo or eat blubber, or own a dogsled.

[HappyCamper]

Coming for 1st semester usually requires more plane trips if you plan to fly home for christmas.

[immunodiffusion]

[s]HappyCamper wrote on 14:09, 5th May 2003:
Coming for 1st semester usually requires more plane trips if you plan to fly home for christmas.


But then if you fly home for the spring break in 2nd semester it works out the same.

From JSA students I've met over the years, I'd say 1st Semester (Martinmas Semester) is the best one because then you are starting at the same time as everyone else, so you're not the only new person in your Hall, and there are events specifically to help you get to know other people.

If you start in 2nd Semester (Candlemas Semester) then it is more difficult to get to know people because people have already formed into friendship groups during the Martinmas semester. A lot of JSA's in the Candlemas semester mainly seem to be friends with other JSA's.

However, if you come in the Martinmas Semester you miss a lot of the Hall Balls, and the May Dip. As Niall said, I think coming for the whole year would be best of all!

[Okocim]

Coming for the first semester however also means that you arrive at the point when the first years all arrive and get to meet one another. This means more opportunity for socialising and joing in with all the freshers weeks fun. I've heard those who arrive in 2nd semester complain that they feel left out when they arrive and everybody else seems to know each other already.

[Okocim]

Ok, so immunodiffusion got there minutes before me and my last message!

[immunodiffusion]

Sorry!

[MercuryAnna]

Actually, if you're just here for the fall, you might not have to come back for exams after Christmas. Most of the JSAs I know got to take their exams early or have an alternative assessment... their last few weeks were jam packed, though.

You should check with your university at home... I know mine (Middlebury College) makes you come back and take exams with everyone else, but that's the exception rather than the rule.

But I agree with the others who have posted saying you should come for the whole year... I'm a JYA and it's the BEST! I almost wish I had come here for all four years (if I could have afforded it)!

[Cain]

My experience with JSAs is that the ones who come in the 2nd semester are adopted by big groups of friends and end up being an important part of the group, so you don't have to worry about being the only person there.

I'm yet to see a JSA in the 2nd semester that only hangs with other JSAs.

[hr]
whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance

[LeopardSkinQueen]

In my first year, in Melville, a big group of American JSA's arrived in the second semester and only socialised with each other.

[hr]�Master Took, I hear you do a very good, or at least passable, Freddie Mercury, and since Galadriel is indisposed, would you oblige us with Bohemian Rhapsody?�
http://bagenders.stormpages.com

[highway_to_hell1982]

funny you should talk about the year abroad scheme. for those in st andrews who wishes to take an academic year abroad in their honours, can this be done only in the junior year or the senior year as well? i would like to know since i might be interested in flying abroad to get away from the british scene for awhile (not saying that its bad, just need a change of scene ya know?)