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Is it true you can BUY your way into Oxford?

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Original post by evening sunrise
Didn't our heir to the throne go up to Oxford with D D ? Read History I think.


are you referring to the Prince of Wales ?

he went to Cambridge is 1967 with Bs and Cs at A level ...

it has to be noted that University offers in the 1960s based on the then current Norm referenced A level grades were several grades lower than today.

Grade inflation is something confined to the past 15 years - in the late 1990s it was only Oxbridge and Medicine/ Dentistry that were looking for AAB / AAA and for various subjects it was entirely possible to get a place at a redbrick University with Bs and Cs ...

There seems to be a lot of confusion over 'historical' offers and grading , which seems mainly to forget the change from norm referencing to criteria referenced grading, as Norm referenced grading allowed the exam boards to restrict upward pressure on grades by expressing them in terms of a proportion of candidates to each grade and/or standard deviations from the mean mark. .
David Cameron probably bought his way in or was admitted partly due to his aristocratic links. He smoked cannabis at Eton and was apparently not especially learned. Oxford was much harder to get into then, too.
Original post by Romanorum-Hellas
David Cameron probably bought his way in or was admitted partly due to his aristocratic links. He smoked cannabis at Eton and was apparently not especially learned. Oxford was much harder to get into then, too.



wikipedia, yes but linking to a reference, writes...

Cameron passed 12 O-levels, and then studied three A-Levels in History of Art, History and Economics with Politics. He obtained three 'A' grades and a '1' grade in the Scholarship Level exam in Economics and Politics.[28] The following autumn he passed the entrance exam for Oxford University, where he was offered an exhibition.[29]


And he went on to get a very high first.



David Miliband is a better example of someone whose family connections perhaps led to his grades being overlooked for entry, though he as well did excellently once there.
Reply 183
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Bax-man
2
Original post by Romanorum-Hellas
David Cameron probably bought his way in or was admitted partly due to his aristocratic links. He smoked cannabis at Eton and was apparently not especially learned. Oxford was much harder to get into then, too.


Vernon Bogdanor commented of Mr Cameron that he was one of the most able students he'd met, so I think it's probably a little hasty to claim he wasn't particularly well learned.

Also, do you have any evidence to support your assertion that Oxford was harder to get into only a decade or two ago.
Original post by DD2
law and enlish offers are more regaularly made BBB as the oxford tutors don't trust the A level markers for some subjects.


Are you mental :P ? The standard offer is AAA, for both. Never heard of it being lower than that.
My English offer was AAA and so was the one of every successful applicant I know...

All in all, I think the applicant in question may have been underestimated, don't think he bought his way in there.
If he had...he would have had the common sense to lay low and not to brag about how questionably low his offer was and arouse suspicion.
Tbh, I think he might be lying about how low his offer is, but he might actually have got in because of unexpected academic merit. Perhaps he cracked a few epic jokes during the interview, who knows :smile: they turn down great applicants every year and pick other ones because, well. i don't know. they saw something in them that may be hard for us to identify? like repressed potential?
Original post by Romanorum-Hellas
David Cameron probably bought his way in or was admitted partly due to his aristocratic links. He smoked cannabis at Eton and was apparently not especially learned. Oxford was much harder to get into then, too.


Wait, how does smoking cannabis make you any less intelligent?! :tongue:
Original post by fudgesundae
in the 60s, and it was archaeology I believe. My father went with BCC. A grades were much much less common then.


Exams were much harder, a C in the 60s is easily worth one of the confetti like A grades that are are tossed out now just for good attendance or spelling your name right.
Original post by GStevens
Exams were much harder, a C in the 60s is easily worth one of the confetti like A grades that are are tossed out now just for good attendance or spelling your name right.


exactly
Reply 188
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Regent
Most Oxford graduates are privately educated (fee paying schools) and often have additional sums of money spent on them through tuition lessons for GCSE and A level preparation. So yes, indirectly you can buy your way into Oxford.
Reply 189
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kidoo
14
Original post by ellasmith
Don't rate me down, but I've heard across the grapevine that some people with contacts in Oxford and with some extra moolah can BUY their way into Oxford.

For example, this super rich russian guy in my year is not really oxford mat. He's a distinctly average student who isn't really loquacious enough to blag his way in via interview or personal statement. He has links to admissions tutors in Oxford and a **** load of money and got an Oxford offer for law at BBB.

WTF? :hmmm:

OPINIONS?


OP you are the one making accusations / claims.
Thus the burden of proof is on you.
If you can't prove it then please end this thread because the amount of chit-chat and rumours about Oxbridge of this nature is damaging.

/thread.

E: Why neg rep? Obviously someone wants to continue spreading false rumours and damaging an institutions reputation on no basis.

In the judiciary system the accuser has to provide proof, it should be the same in this instance.
(edited 12 years ago)
My grandad left school at 15 and he has a 1st in English from Oxford. He just slept with a couple of admissions tutors. They're all gay in Oxford.
Reply 191
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Tabris
16
Though I doubt it actually ever happening, or at least, it's something that happens once in a blue moon. I'm sure you could, if you knew the right people and made an appropriate donation to said department, you could get in anywhere. Money talks and very few people would yield, given the right amount.

However, it's not something you'd boast about or really mention or boast about in the public domain though. Plus it'd end up being quite scandalous if it ever got out. So, if it has been done, there's a good chance you'll never know about it.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 192
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Sbapu
It's about who you know, not what you know!
Reply 193
Avatar for Tabris
Tabris
16
Original post by Sbapu

Original post by Sbapu
It's about who you know, not what you know!

It's not about who you know; it's about who you blow.
Original post by Tabris
It's not about who you know; it's about who you blow.


about to whom you're a ho?
Reply 195
Avatar for Colmans
Colmans
11
Original post by Whatever9999
I know this girl ,her dad paid so much ,she got into kings college with low grades ,but she studied her ass off and did well ,but still without her dad help she wouldn't have got into dentistry in the first place .

Except there is no dentistry course at Cambridge...or Oxford
Original post by Regent
Most Oxford graduates are privately educated (fee paying schools) and often have additional sums of money spent on them through tuition lessons for GCSE and A level preparation. So yes, indirectly you can buy your way into Oxford.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/4974562/Oxford-University-admits-fewer-private-school-students.html less than half, so nope. You're wrong.
Original post by GStevens
Exams were much harder, a C in the 60s is easily worth one of the confetti like A grades that are are tossed out now just for good attendance or spelling your name right.


Yes, precisely :smile:
Original post by Veronique:-)


No, he's almost certainly right in saying that most Oxford graduates went to fee-paying schools. In recent years things have begun to change, mind, as you helpfully illustrate in linking to the figures for Oxford undergraduates admitted last year.
Original post by redferry
He was a sax player himself. Hence the interest.
All I have to go on is what she said, but I had no reason not to believe her on it.

He was a sax-player, so he spent the whole of the science interview talking about that?

People often exaggerate what happened in interviews; people often play-down what happened in interviews; people are often coy about what happened in interviews; people often just downright bull**** about what happened in interviews. Most of the time people are quizzed by several tutors (usually of different genders) in one or two interviews, and then everyone meets up and discusses who to accept afterwards. I suspect that in these meetings, "she was blonde and she plays sax" doesn't go down too well as a reason for accepting someone.

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