Uni admissions

[tiffinboys]

6.5% Indie students takes 44% of places in Oxford.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-38842482" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[quasimodo]

6.5% Indie students takes 44% of places in Oxford.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-38842482" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

As far as Oxford is concerned as the article points out the figure for state schools is much higher in 2016 and it also states the independent sector educates 18% of children post 16.

We are all aware more students from the independent sector as compared to the state sector get the very highest grades at A level and top grades are generally a prerequisite for admission to the best courses at the best universities.

[Guest55]

.... top grades are generally a prerequisite for admission to the best courses at the best universities.

I hope you are not implying that Oxbridge has the 'best courses'?!

Many of my students who are on course for top grades aren't interested in the Oxbridge 'myth' - they want courses in subjects Oxbridge don't offer or a career in industry.

Please don't make sweeping generalisations.

[Amber]

We are all aware more students from the independent sector as compared to the state sector get the very highest grades at A level and top grades are generally a prerequisite for admission to the best courses at the best universities.

We are also 'all aware' that far more comes into play here than getting the 'very highest grades at A level'.
We would also perhaps do well to remind ourselves that the 'best courses' aren't all at Oxbridge; and that the 'best universities' for some children are not Oxford or Cambridge - even for some very able children from the state sector who do not want to go to these places, for whatever reason. Statistics like this do more to put off many children from applying than they encourage - one of my DC took one look at Oxbridge and ran a mile, despite having well exceeded the grade requirements.

Independent schools of a certain type market themselves as shoe-ins to Oxbridge and their students are systematically prepared for this path from an early point - both by being encouraged to think of themselves as - how to put this without offending people?' - a cut above - and by doing interview prep etc. These schools are businesses and parents pay into the business model. The end-point for many is an Oxbridge offer and they can then gloat about their investment and how well their enormously bright DC has done. Even some state schools are buying into this now, and putting pressure on bright children to apply to Oxbridge, even if that isn't the wish of the parent or the child - who may then be made to feel something is 'wrong' with them for not 'aspiring to' it. The more we hear how the places are flooded with independent school children, the less many state school children will 'aspire' to spend time there, I think. If Oxford and Cambridge really are looking to attract more state school children then they are not doing a very good job of it, are they? Why do they keep on taking the same predictable bunch every year if what they are hoping to do is attract creative and diverse young minds rather than those who have been through the slick preparation mill offered by the same 'top' schools?

So much of this is snob value and it is set to get far worse frankly as the universities get more and more strapped for cash and look to attract rich foreign students who pay higher fees, squeezing the domestic market further.

Good luck to all those children who after careful consideration choose Oxbridge for what it can offer them, and it is always good to hear of children who attain a place at their chosen university, wherever that my be. But I for one would love to see a day when these places were knocked off their pedestals and stopped being attractive to a whole set of parents who just want to give their children a leg-up by dint of 'prestige' and to boast about them at dinner parties.

[quasimodo]

.... top grades are generally a prerequisite for admission to the best courses at the best universities.

I hope you are not implying that Oxbridge has the 'best courses'?!

Many of my students who are on course for top grades aren't interested in the Oxbridge 'myth' - they want courses in subjects Oxbridge don't offer or a career in industry.

Please don't make sweeping generalisations.

I am sorry Guest55 and Amber you made that interpretation not me.My second paragraph was of general application to many different courses at many different universities for which it remains true.

[Guest55]

Quasmodo - the inference was there, whether you meant it to be or not, when you posted that statement on this particular thread.

[ToadMum]

To be fair, there are people to whom the best place for them genuinely is the place with the most prestige and who really are not bothered at all by the possibility that somewhere less prestigious might actually be a whole lot better at teaching their chosen degree subject.

Just like there are parents at the secondary transfer stage who will be tied up in knots if they find out that a school other than the one they put at the.end top of their DC 's CAF got one percentage point more A* grades last year, and OMG what have I done to my DC 's chances of ever having a career which will impress our relatives / the next-door neighbours?

(But yes, I know, I should remember the words of the immortal F Howerd ).

[quasimodo]

Quasmodo - the inference was there, whether you meant it to be or not, when you posted that statement on this particular thread.

You may not believe it I actually thought about it and how it might be interpreted.I cannot control how others think and their interpretations.I thought I had written it in a neutral and objective fashion others can come to their own conclusions in the context of the posts and the article.

[Amber]

As you will be aware, Quasi, my post quoted that second paragraph and addressed its points before moving on to more general points about Oxbridge and the mystique it enjoys.

Like your post ToadMum. Subtle.

[Amber]

.I cannot control how others think and their interpretations.

A whole thesis could be written on the exploration of that phrase in various 21st century contexts.