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Getting into Oxbridge in the early days

Checkmate121

was it as hard ? like Tony Blair and other politicians (Barack obama at Harvard), was it just as hard to get in ?

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Reply 1

Gamer99

Nah it used to be like TVU - as long as you find the entrance you're in.

Reply 2

moody28028

Prince Charles got in with DD.

Reply 3

_lynx_

They just handed out invites- honest!

Reply 4

necessarily benevolent

It depended on daddy's paycheck.

Reply 5

Willis123

moody28028

Prince Charles got in with DD.

Wat?

Reply 6

oldrafiki

You just had to be able to hit a six, sing the school song very loudly and take a hot crumpet from behind without blubbing.

Reply 7

jy9626

no. surely, competition for oxbridge entrance wasn't as severe. in the very very early days, i suppose not as many people knew about oxbridge either.

Reply 8

AWZC

"The early days" of Oxbridge certainly weren't the days of Blair and Prince Charles...

Reply 9

soffeee

Of course it was still hard- but the grades you needed to get in used to be much much lower. My dad had a friend who got an offer of EE (back in the 80s)

Reply 10

grace_

My parents both went to Oxford; my mother apparently had to sit two three hour entrance exams in the November of year 13 and then had three interviews at her first choice college and two interviews at another college before getting an EE offer to read maths. I think my father had a similar experience, except that he did physics.

Reply 11

River85

Bless, "early days". You do realise they (Oxford and Cambridge) are the best part of 1,000 years old and Blair went to Oxford only 30 years ago?

Reply 12

BJack

soffeee

Of course it was still hard- but the grades you needed to get in used to be much much lower. My dad had a friend who got an offer of EE (back in the 80s)

Christ's, Cambridge still makes about a third of its offers EE (so-called 'matriculation offers').

Reply 13

Checkmate121

soffeee

Of course it was still hard- but the grades you needed to get in used to be much much lower. My dad had a friend who got an offer of EE (back in the 80s)

exacly so it wasn't hard

Reply 14

sta0612

soffeee

Of course it was still hard- but the grades you needed to get in used to be much much lower. My dad had a friend who got an offer of EE (back in the 80s)

That was quite likely one of the 'low' offers though. I think they're less common now, but I know some colleges still do give out EE offers to exceptionally strong candidates.

EDIT: BJack beat me to it.

Reply 15

Checkmate121

River85

Bless, "early days". You do realise they (Oxford and Cambridge) are the best part of 1,000 years old and Blair went to Oxford only 30 years ago?

jeeze yes i know, just a way of saying it....

Reply 16

SimonM

Checkmate121

exacly so it wasn't hard

People are still getting those offers these days

Reply 17

soffeee

Checkmate121

exacly so it wasn't hard

Just because the offer was low doesn't mean that they didn't go through a rigorous testing process with gruelling interviews and that Oxford did not select only the best of the best to offer places too.

Apparently despite the low offers nearly everybody got AAA anyway

Reply 18

Mithra

soffeee

Of course it was still hard- but the grades you needed to get in used to be much much lower. My dad had a friend who got an offer of EE (back in the 80s)

Thats because they used to have their own entrance exams and interviews and based all of their offers off those, thus gave lots of EE offers because they didn't base admissions off A-level results.

Reply 19

A Level grades from 30 years ago aren't exactly equivalent to those of today. Much fewer people got A grades.

And, in answer to the original question, god knows. I don't think there is anyone on this forum with a living personal knowledge of admissions at Oxbridge in the 'early' days, so the majority will have no idea.

That said, King's College, Cambridge was set up by Henry VI in the fifteenth century in order to provide university education for all of the students at Eton. So in that case, they were almost guaranteed entry.