What do universities prefer? Students from State or Indies!?

[Northdad]

I heard from a parent of NLCS girl that the A Level grades being sought after by Oxbridge universities are often lower for state school children than privately educated children for the same course. Is it the case that many universities are providing positive discrimination towards state school students?

[Guest55]

No - there is a list of schools [some are Private] where lower grades may be offered.

Here is an example:

http://www.southampton.ac.uk/studentadm ... sions.page#" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Catseye]

I have been through this rigmarole with Oxbridge and Imperial, the minimum grades stated are true for ALL but there is significant difference when it comes to the entrance exams eg STEP,CSAT.....LANT,CAT exams.

All high performing selective schools would be expected to do well at these but poor performing schools who have traditionally have got few students into top flight universities or top end courses like medicine or vet science are and should be excluded from such entrance exams imho.

The pressure on universities to increase their social diversity is enormous otherwise they will be barred from increasing tuition fees.

If you have a bright child, never, ever choose a private school-says someone who has an investment in private education.

[Daogroupie]

Your NLCS parent is not in possession of the facts. There are more than enough aspiring state school students to make the grades that Oxbridge demand and in fact many other universities ask for higher grades. There tends to be a grade requirement for each course at most top universities. I have not heard of any students getting different offers for the same course at the same university.

Oxbridge are looking for the best fit students to the course. DG

[mad?]

It is not as simple as state v indie. DD1's state friends received lower offers across the board than her indie friends (despite several of her indie friends being on FSM qualifying bursaries) but this might be
a)a blip, a pattern of personal experience does not make something a fact
b)based on the state schools they went to (under performing, not grammars and with a low historical uni application history)
c) something else. Most of all her state friends found the climate more favourable when they missed their offers, but again for emphasis these were under performing schools, not grammars.

Reading into your question, don't over think it, go for the school you prefer, live with the consequences, 7 years is a long time.

Good luck.

ETA crossed posted with G55

[mad?]

I have not heard of any students getting different offers for the same course at the same university.

I have, loads of times, but largely rightly so.

[scary mum]

Bristol certainly give "contextual" offers for students from schools in the bottom 40%
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/study/undergra ... fications/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Daogroupie]

But these are not the state schools that parents choosing between NLCS and a state school are going to go to.

It is incorrect to say "Go to a state school as you will get a lower offer."

I know several local students who had Maths offers at Oxbridge this year, some from Habs, some from St Albans and some from local state schools. They all had exactly the same offer. DG

[KB]

Contextual offers are based on real data.
If you send your child to an underperforming school to gain this "advantage" then they will also experience life at an 'underperforming' school.

[Catseye]

Contextual offers are based on real data.

This is true.

If you send your child to an underperforming school to gain this "advantage" then they will also experience life at an 'underperforming' school.

This is not necessarily true, you could privately tutor ( investing up to £15,000 a year ) our DC to Oxbridge standard and still send your DC to a sink school-circumventing the Government's attempt to socially engineer university entry.

There is no way out of it-The well informed will always out maneuvered the naive.