Kate didn’t want to go to St. Andrews, the college where she ended up studying with Prince William. Her dream school had long been Edinburgh, and she had apparently gone so far as to apply and be accepted before deciding to make a big life change and apply to St. Andrews.

In 2001, Kate Middleton met Prince William at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, and their friendship blossomed into a romance.

However, if the future Duchess had studied at her preferred university, the royal couple would not have met.

Kate had rated Edinburgh as her top preference and had a seat at her dream school, according to Jasper Selwyn, the career mentor at Kate’s boarding school, Marlborough College.

He told royal specialist and biographer Katie Nicholl in her book Kate: The Future Queen, “As far as I am aware she had a place confirmed at Edinburgh.” She was accepted through the usual UCAS routine. In those days, you applied for five courses and got acceptances and rejections depending on your grades. You chose one firm place and one insurance. Kate’s firm choice was Edinburgh and that was confirmed .”

Kate, on the other hand, is said to have changed her mind at the last minute and decided to take a gap year before applying to study art history at St Andrews, where William was attending.

The explanation for Kate’s change of heart has never been revealed or officially stated, but she would not have met her Prince Charming if it hadn’t been for it.

Kate had a compelling reason to go to Edinburgh. She decided to study art history, and Edinburgh’s curriculum is regarded as one of the finest in the UK. When you consider that two of Kate’s closest friends from high school were both going to Edinburgh, it’s a surprise that she decided to drop out, take a gap year, and gamble everything for the opportunity to study at St. Andrews.

Kate’s decision was a “dramatic and sudden change of heart,” according to Nicholl. She writes in Kate: The Future Queen,

“It was a bold move and very risky, and rather out of character for Kate. There was no guarantee that she would get a place in the history of art program at St. Andrews, which was oversubscribed now that William had confirmed his place. Kate was convinced it was the right thing to do.”

Robert Lacey describes Kate’s efforts to put herself as William’s best pick for marriage when she was only 19, in his latest book Battle of Brothers: William and Harry—The Inside Story of a Family in Tumult. Kate wasn’t meant to be studying at the University of St. Andrews when she met him in 2001, according to Lacey.

Lacey describes Kate as “very strategic”. “She gave up her place at one of Britain’s premier universities, Edinburgh, and opted for another one [St. Andrews] that probably didn’t have the same academic standard. She had already been to Edinburgh to get her flat accommodations sorted out but switched universities and switched her courses to history of art because that was William’s. She delayed her own education by a year and even takes the chance she won’t get into St. Andrews.” (Kate took the exact same gap year trip Prince William did, although months after him.)

Kate’s meeting with William wasn’t by chance, according to Lacey’s book, but she wasn’t alone. According to Lacey’s book, admissions to the university in Scotland increased by 44 percent after it was revealed that William would be attending. They met in their first semester of college, but William didn’t think much of Kate until she wore a see-through dress in a fashion show on March 26, 2002.

Lacey tells ELLE.co, “She’s there and about to walk down the runway on the fashion show, and she strips off an extra layer of clothing.”

After dating for about seven years, William proposed to Kate in Kenya with a sapphire and diamond ring from his late mother, Princess Diana, and their engagement was confirmed in November 2010.

On April 29, 2011, the pair married at Westminster Abbey, in front of millions of people around the world, in a royal wedding that was broadcast live around the world.

Prince George, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s first child, was born in July 2013, followed by Princess Charlotte in May 2015 and Prince Louis, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s youngest son, in April 2018.