[AtomSmasher]

Interesting that 45% went to comprehensive. This is slightly reassuring. The results may not be accurate if the % of people on TSR that go/went to comprehensives is higher than the national average, however.

[SpicyStrawberry]

My friends got offers and we all went to comprehensive schools.

[nexttime]

(Original post by AtomSmasher)
Interesting that 45% went to comprehensive. This is slightly reassuring. The results may not be accurate if the % of people on TSR that go/went to comprehensives is higher than the national average, however.

Not sure why this got negged...

If you are actually interested in this topic, however, Google is your friend. Both Oxford and Cambridge release detailed admissions statistics every year to address exactly these questions. Exactly 54.9% were state sector last year, for example, with 33.5% of students being comp/sixth form and 17.7% grammar.

[la-dauphine]

Last year Oxford interviewed 500 students from 'flagged' (highly disadvantaged) backgrounds. They accepted 100 (20%), in line with the general success rate. But only 35 of these students actually made it to Oxford (15 turned their places down and 50 failed to meet their grades). It just goes to show that often the problem is not with the university but with the school and Oxford is working this year to try and help more of these bright students to meet their offers.

[tuckla07]

(Original post by mrshinyshoes)
No, you have a much higher chance if you have the same ability, same test scores but you get coached more to pass the interview at private.

tbh when I think about my interviews, there is no way that you could have been coached for those questions- they were to test how you could deal with things you hadn't seen before and on one or two of the questions which I had some background knowledge on, and they quickly picked up on that and moved on to something else that I hadn't done.
Most of the other questions were about my motivation etc. which you don't really need preperation for. In fact, if you are prepared and sound robotic, I think it'd count against you
Also, they have a flagging system in place to show the standard of school you are at, and if you are at an underperforming one they give more lenience for nervousness/ gaps of knowledge in the interview. This also makes it look more impressive if you have high grades "against the odds" as it were. I'd say it all even out in the end I'm a comp btw

[nulli tertius]

(Original post by la-dauphine)
Last year Oxford interviewed 500 students from 'flagged' (highly disadvantaged) backgrounds. They accepted 100 (20%), in line with the general success rate. But only 35 of these students actually made it to Oxford (15 turned their places down and 50 failed to meet their grades). It just goes to show that often the problem is not with the university but with the school and Oxford is working this year to try and help more of these bright students to meet their offers.

From where did you get this?

The turn down rate seems very high. Have you any more information on that?

[medbh4805]

state grammar.

[la-dauphine]

(Original post by nulli tertius)
From where did you get this?

The turn down rate seems very high. Have you any more information on that?

There was an article in either the Cherwell or the Oxford Student about it a few weeks ago but frustratingly I couldn't find it in the archive (then again, I didn't do a very thorough search). I also have a friend at Oxford who originally told me the statistic. I'll PM you his name and you can ask him more about it. He did mention something to me about going to a strategy meeting, which was about those statistics. They are reliable figures.

[Cariie]

Standard rural comp, there really are more people from Comps and grammar schools here than the media and TSR would have you believe

[nulli tertius]

(Original post by la-dauphine)
There was an article in either the Cherwell or the Oxford Student about it a few weeks ago but frustratingly I couldn't find it in the archive (then again, I didn't do a very thorough search). I also have a friend at Oxford who originally told me the statistic. I'll PM you his name and you can ask him more about it. He did mention something to me about going to a strategy meeting, which was about those statistics. They are reliable figures.

Thank you. I have found the Cherwell article.

http://www.cherwell.org/news/academi...oach-to-access

The university looks a little worried that platitudes are not enough and that it must do something that changes the game.

I think the university could manage a summer school without difficulty. That would involve hiring a single college for the long vac and there wouldn't be any problem in roping in enough impecunious academics to staff it.

A foundation year would be another matter entirely. One would be setting up something the size of one of the major honour schools. Do you house them together (St Judes maybe) or add them to their intended colleges or do you phone up the good folk at Brookes and ask if they would run the course for the university?

And of course the students would be poachable. There might be a gentlemen's' agreement with the Tabs, but how do you stop Imperial and Harvard making them a better offer?

[la-dauphine]

(Original post by nulli tertius)
Thank you. I have found the Cherwell article.

http://www.cherwell.org/news/academi...oach-to-access

The university looks a little worried that platitudes are not enough and that it must do something that changes the game.

I think the university could manage a summer school without difficulty. That would involve hiring a single college for the long vac and there wouldn't be any problem in roping in enough impecunious academics to staff it.

A foundation year would be another matter entirely. One would be setting up something the size of one of the major honour schools. Do you house them together (St Judes maybe) or add them to their intended colleges or do you phone up the good folk at Brookes and ask if they would run the course for the university?

And of course the students would be poachable. There might be a gentlemen's' agreement with the Tabs, but how do you stop Imperial and Harvard making them a better offer?

Ah brilliant! I must be just useless at searching I definitely think there should be more university intervention for these students between December and summer to try and alleviate the problem of so many of them missing their offers, and some kind of summer (winter?) school for those who aren't sure about whether to accept. I suspect that a lot of them are students who have applied to mostly average/good universities and put Oxford as a wild-card, but who lack confidence and don't get a lot of support or encouragement from home. A foundation year could be interesting because I remember in the Guardian article about Cambridge admissions a tutor basically said about one girl "She has a lot of potential but she's not going to be about to cope with being thrown into Cambridge straight away".

[cpdavis]

Really bad state comp

[nulli tertius]

(Original post by la-dauphine)
Ah brilliant! I must be just useless at searching I definitely think there should be more university intervention for these students between December and summer to try and alleviate the problem of so many of them missing their offers, and some kind of summer (winter?) school for those who aren't sure about whether to accept. I suspect that a lot of them are students who have applied to mostly average/good universities and put Oxford as a wild-card, but who lack confidence and don't get a lot of support or encouragement from home. A foundation year could be interesting because I remember in the Guardian article about Cambridge admissions a tutor basically said about one girl "She has a lot of potential but she's not going to be about to cope with being thrown into Cambridge straight away".

I agree.

The logistics would probably have the most significant effect on Oxford since the entrance exam was abolished.

[superfoggy]

During one of my supervisions for a math course my supervisor (who also interviewed me) was complaining about my "maths grammar" (wasnt putting lines under all my vectors ). He asked me if i'd gone to a private school. When i said id been to a state he said 'ah ok il let you off then' .

[Narutopolaris]

Grammar schools ftw!