I feel so working class at uni :(

I'm not sure. Is it different for women than men? Perhaps you can only change the class of your children from your own really. I mean, if you are working class and then make a lot of money, I suppose you are still basically working class? However, your children could be sent to private school and a good university and become middle class.

Yeah you are more middle class than I am...

Sorry to break it to you but in a 7 bedroom house plus other properties and your dad owning a business you are more likely to be upper middle class than upper working class.
You aren't working class, sorry if that is what you aspire to
There is nothing wrong with being middle class, as I said to the OP embrace your background! You have nothing to be embarrassed of!!

I know the OP said they go to Exeter, but Durham has been mentioned loads too by other posters. I'm really worried to go there next year now (grades permitting)... I was really looking forward to it but everyone seems to really hate Durham and especially Durham students. Oh
I am actually an Oxford reject but I'm really not bitter about it in the slightest - I clearly wasn't right/good enough for Oxford and I totally appreciate that, they will have made the right decision.

Durham is a class uni. In all aspects sport/socially/academically and most importantly with helping you to secure the job you want afterwards. Ignore all the crap that people write on TSR about Durham.

Equally, it's clear that it's not easy being in your position. I think it highlights the fundamental class inequalities within the education system. It's rather disgusting that a University should be so heavily geared towards the upper-echelons of society, when education is supposed to be standardised and meritocratic.

The worst of it coming home to family or friends, they accuse you of being a snob, turning "posh" or "hoity toity" and all though they're joking for the most part, it really does hurt, because it adds to the idea that you don't fit in anywhere.

Anon, thank god for a post like this. I can't even tell you how much I relate to it.

At my school (your average comprehensive in a rough area) we were taught that if we excelled academically, we could fit in anywhere in universities - if that's so then why do we working class students feel so isolated at times?

I love my flatmates, I really, really do. They're like brothers and sisters to me. But in the back of my mind there's always the issue of not really fitting in with them. Out of my flat of ten last year I was the only working class one, the only one with divorced parents, the only one to have lived in a council house. Two went to two of the best private schools in the country, one went to a known pretentious, prestigious all boys grammar school, and three went to the best colleges in their county. This fact alone made me feel desperately different.

It's the little things that affect me. We all have the same academic ability, most of us have the same political views, we like each other and we all work well together. But going on google maps to look at our houses turns into "who has the best conservatory/jacuzzi/father's office?!" and I have to opt out because we don't have any of that. It sounds silly and trivial but it screams out so much more. The worst of it coming home to family or friends, they accuse you of being a snob, turning "posh" or "hoity toity" and all though they're joking for the most part, it really does hurt, because it adds to the idea that you don't fit in anywhere. I go to uni, I feel as rough as dirt, I go home, I feel like a snob because of certain conversations, or because some members of my family don't even see the point in university. It's hard. But you just have to push through it. I understand that my flatmates and friends at university don't see me for my class, they never bring it up and if they did why is it a bad thing? Being working class and going to a good university just shows how far we've come it's easier (not easy, granted) to get into a good university with personal tutor's and private schools and daddy's promise of a decent car if you get good grades, but without that, we are left with something much more promising - personal motivation. It would have been SO much easier for me to have got a job, student loans are ridiculously tight for students whose parents cannot afford to pay their way at university, the work is tough and EVERYBODY seems much more educated than you - but you're here, you survived the tough life of a working class child in 21st century (and it is tough, for anyone annoying enough to start bleating "NOT IN THIS DAY AND AGE IT ISN'T". The very fact you're living the university dream shows you've got somewhere, you've worked hard with few resources and only yourself to motivate you - it screams strong, so be proud and I'll be proud too.

embarrassed? i want to be upper class lol

i just think because i go public school, live in a average/ under average area plus have a bit of a cockney accent i cant be middle class

One of the few good things I do have to say about the way Oxford and Cambridge dominate our educational system is that they at least do offer very good financial support to poorer students arriving there, enabling them to be less socially isolated than at many of the other upper universities.

see i live in a 7 bedroom house (work was done to the house) dad owns a business and is in the buy to let market along with owning 3 other houses in a relatively decent if not under average area, everyone except me in the family went university and i will be going next year but i don't see my self as middle class more upper working class. Ive always seen middleclass as people who have gone private school and live in a nice area plus they would survive pretty easily if they never had an education as their parents would have them sorted.