The Student Room Group

State school vs private school intake

Hello, I am hoping to apply to Cambridge for maths, and was initially thinking Trinity, but my teacher warned me that, because it typically attracts more private school kids, there is a risk that because most of them will be getting a lot more resources and help from their school, I will be reducing my chances of getting in simply because of how competitive the applicants are. I was wondering if there was any way I could figure out which colleges tend to get more state schools offers. For example, I was looking at Caius, Peterhouse, Robinson or Trinity Hall (My current favourite is T. Hall), but I was wondering if these ones would have similar problems, and also if there is anyway where I can see the number of state school vs private school applicants for any given college. I know pooling is there to help with that, but I would like to make an informed decision, as I would ultimately prefer to make the choice on my own, of course if I were pooled, that is fine, but I would like to pick one I am actually likely to get into.
The stats for the last 3 years are at https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/875360/response/2092353/attach/3/FOI%202022%20481%20Woods%20data.pdf?cookie_passthrough=1

Shows how many applied and how many were given offers
(edited 9 months ago)
Reply 2
Original post by Anonymous
Hello, I am hoping to apply to Cambridge for maths, and was initially thinking Trinity, but my teacher warned me that, because it typically attracts more private school kids, there is a risk that because most of them will be getting a lot more resources and help from their school, I will be reducing my chances of getting in simply because of how competitive the applicants are. I was wondering if there was any way I could figure out which colleges tend to get more state schools offers. For example, I was looking at Caius, Peterhouse, Robinson or Trinity Hall (My current favourite is T. Hall), but I was wondering if these ones would have similar problems, and also if there is anyway where I can see the number of state school vs private school applicants for any given college. I know pooling is there to help with that, but I would like to make an informed decision, as I would ultimately prefer to make the choice on my own, of course if I were pooled, that is fine, but I would like to pick one I am actually likely to get into.

The older city centre colleges like Trinity attract more applicants, so might be a bit more difficult to get into, but I don’t believe going to a state school would put you at a disadvantage. They get a higher proportion of private school applicants compared to say Lucy Cavendish, but the proportion of private school offers are roughly in line with the proportion of private school applicants, so they don’t appear to get an advantage. Whether you want to be in a college with a higher/lower portion of private school student is a different question.

Quick Reply

Latest

Trending

Trending