do univerisities admit state school students more?

I do understand why some universities admit state school students more...but if I am a private school student then how to get more chance to go to good universities like cambridge?

Reply 1

River85

Improve your grammar for a start.

I didn't mean that to sound harsh but I can barely understand your post and, if you do have a poor grasp of grammar, this will show in your personal statement.

Obviously a greater number of state school students are admitted as there are far more state school applicants. There is still a disproportionate number of students from the independent sector at many top universities. It's actually argued that some have a pro-independent bias (whether this is deliberate or, in the case of Oxford or Cambridge, an inevitable consequence of their interview system which, it can be argued, favours those from the independent sector who are more likely to receiving "coaching" and less likely to be intimidated).

There's nothing you can do to improve your chance of being accepted. At least nothing that a state school student is unable to do. Make sure your personal statement is as strong as possible, get as strong grades as possible and so on.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 2

Chapeau Rouge

You won't get discriminated against for being a private school student. You will however for appalling grammar.

Reply 3

paperclip

When controlling for entry grades, state school pupils perform better at university than private school pupils. Thats why.

Reply 4

Mike93L

The top unis admit a disproportionately high amount of places to private school students already - you're in no way disadvantaged.

Reply 5

aspirinpharmacist

Because there are more state schools and more people at state schools than private schools? Stands to reason really.

Reply 6

username932763

The only real way that you're disadvantaged is that a lot of unis contextualise GCSE and AS results- so you may get 6A*s and 4As at GCSE, but if that's what everyone else got in your school (or if a lot of people got even better results), then universities will look more favourably on a candidate with 6A*s and 4As from a school where most people get far worse results.

Reply 7

Fynch101

Original post by paperclip

When controlling for entry grades, state school pupils perform better at university than private school pupils. Thats why.

source?

Reply 8

Origami Bullets

Original post by Fynch101

source?

I believe the Sutton Trust has done some research on this.

Reply 9

paperclip

Original post by Fynch101

source?

I first read it in the penguin handbook of applied economics, it is a fairly well documented phenomena and i believe it should be found in most big, bulky applied economics textbooks which i had to trawl through for my psychology dissertation, as i am interested in education policy. However, other TSRers have asked this of me in the past so i have found another reference that is online to make life that much easier for you, from my understanding it is a fairly robust finding and one most educational institutions are aware of:

"Type of school attended also affects student achievement, controlling for the effects of A-level/Higher level score. The results indicate that students who come to university from indipendent schools perform worse, on average, than those who attended comprehensive schools...This lends support to the idea that students from private schools have an advantage over those from state schools in gaining admission to university because they are able to achieve higher average A-level grades for a given level of student quality. It also suggests that consideration should be given to this when formulating university admissions policy, and lends some support, at least, for policies aimed at widening participation" (p.491)

McNabb, Pal & Sloane (2002) - Gender differences in educational attainment: The case of University students in England and Wales: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-0335.00295/pdf

EDIT: I copied and pasted the reference from another post, which shortened the link so it was broken. It should be working now. You will need a athans/institutional log in to see the actual pdf though.