Giving feedback to Cambridge

Yeah, I feel there should be a special kind of flag for this. People assume I'm a rich and dandy spoilt brat who's been spoon fed from the age of like 3. When in reality it was just a scholarship for sixth form.

Yeah, I feel there should be a special kind of flag for this. People assume I'm a rich and dandy spoilt brat who's been spoon fed from the age of like 3. When in reality it was just a scholarship for sixth form.

The target was worked out with the Office for Fair Access (OFFA) in exchange for raising the tuition fee when our standard offer was A*AA. When our agreement with OFFA is renewed I expect that we will look at it again.

The Sciences is pretty state heavy at Cambridge and it is in the Arts & Humanities where many successful private school applicants are to be found so I am not sure how much of a difference changing the offer level in Sciences will make to such calculations.

Should admissions be purely meritocratic? Ideally yes but one person's idea of 'fair' very quickly clashes with someone else's. Should we purely use UMS without context or, if we do use context, how much should it be and how do we judge the difference in two candidates' educational contexts? Once you get into the details a clear picture fades away very fast. We do our best to make our processes as fair as we can but, as is clear from a cursory glance at the newspapers, Oxbridge admissions is a political football which all sides feel is weighted against them.

Yeah, I feel there should be a special kind of flag for this. People assume I'm a rich and dandy spoilt brat who's been spoon fed from the age of like 3. When in reality it was just a scholarship for sixth form.

those factors don't merit a flag really. My issue is that any positive discrimination present has a negative effect on people who wanted to take advantage of the best education available to them. It's in some ways akin to discriminating against Oxbridge graduates when applying for a job. Where do you draw the line between the academic success of the individual and their educational establishment

Is it not also true that Cambridge's own research show that for the same UMS school background does not make much difference to degree success? As I understand it the variation at GCSE is much greater, possibly because many state comprehensive pupils do not take GCSEs that seriously and are more likely to be in classes with a lot of disruption and a wide ability range.In this case strong GCSEs are good predictors.
https://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/admissions/research/docs/prefective_effectiveness_of_metrics_in_admission.pdf
https://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/admissions/research/docs/school_performance.pdf

those factors don't merit a flag really. My issue is that any positive discrimination present has a negative effect on people who wanted to take advantage of the best education available to them. It's in some ways akin to discriminating against Oxbridge graduates when applying for a job. Where do you draw the line between the academic success of the individual and their educational establishment

Yes, it is true that school background makes little difference to success at Cambridge, unlike (iirc) the general picture in the UK where state school students tend to do a bit better than private school students with the same grades. This, hopefully, suuggests that we are doing ok on this measure.

I think this is an important indicator of the efficacy and fairness of Cambridge's selection process and I would like to see the university be a bit more vocal about this - in particular as a strong response to political and media footballing, and indeed the insinuation of many in this thread of bias against state/private/international/home/etc students.

OK. So in the end I found out I was rejected. It came on UCAS today, even though the decision that I would not be considered for an open offer in medicine was probably made on Wednesday (if I remember correctly). Also, I have not received any email from my college confirming this as of yet.
I know this is really up to every college, but they could have let me know last week, as they had previously said they would be in touch as soon as they knew something. Having received no information, I had the false impression I was being considered for an open offer. The more disappointing it was today to find out about the rejection.

Anyway, having come so close (getting into the pool), I am now considering reapplying next year. The only thing that troubles me, however, is that I am not sure taking a gap year would be worthwhile. In my country it is not usual to do so and at the moment (while I admit I haven't researched it yet) I don't know if I could fill the whole year up with an useful activity so tha that I would be really busy. Also, if I indeed decided to have a year off, I would not get a lot of support. Even though my parents would like me to get into Cambridge, they see a gap year as a waste of time and don't want me to do that (points at how foreign the concept of gap year is in my country, I suppose). Not that I couldn't decide on my own but there is this sort of pressure present.
Would it be still possible for me to get into Cambridge if I started studying at an university at home, applied again and then started at Cambridge from the year one? How would that be looked at by the admission tutors? Would it be a reason not to give me an offer or a serious disadvantage?
Thanks for an answer.

OK. So in the end I found out I was rejected. It came on UCAS today, even though the decision that I would not be considered for an open offer in medicine was probably made on Wednesday (if I remember correctly). Also, I have not received any email from my college confirming this as of yet.
I know this is really up to every college, but they could have let me know last week, as they had previously said they would be in touch as soon as they knew something. Having received no information, I had the false impression I was being considered for an open offer. The more disappointing it was today to find out about the rejection.

Anyway, having come so close (getting into the pool), I am now considering reapplying next year. The only thing that troubles me, however, is that I am not sure taking a gap year would be worthwhile. In my country it is not usual to do so and at the moment (while I admit I haven't researched it yet) I don't know if I could fill the whole year up with an useful activity so tha that I would be really busy. Also, if I indeed decided to have a year off, I would not get a lot of support. Even though my parents would like me to get into Cambridge, they see a gap year as a waste of time and don't want me to do that (points at how foreign the concept of gap year is in my country, I suppose). Not that I couldn't decide on my own but there is this sort of pressure present.
Would it be still possible for me to get into Cambridge if I started studying at an university at home, applied again and then started at Cambridge from the year one? How would that be looked at by the admission tutors? Would it be a reason not to give me an offer or a serious disadvantage?
Thanks for an answer.

Do you have any other offers to study medicine yet?

I do have a sure entrance into a couple of universities here in the Czech Republic. But Cambridge was obviously the first choice.

I do have a sure entrance into a couple of universities here in the Czech Republic. But Cambridge was obviously the first choice.

To be fair, if you go back and re-read your first post in this discussion, it does come across as a potential troll post - it's barely understandable as it's written!

Venting your disappointment is one thing, but if you think there is a flaw in the Cambridge admissions system then at least try to articulate what it is so people can investigate whether you have a genuine grievance or not.

I'm not trying to get at you - I was the first person in my family to get ANY qualifications, and the first person from my state school to get into Cambridge, but I'm struggling to make out from your posts exactly what it is that you're complaining about

I do have a sure entrance into a couple of universities here in the Czech Republic. But Cambridge was obviously the first choice.

Which college did you apply to? I'm sorry to hear that.

Does choice of uni really matter for medicine? Aren't all courses roughly equivalent and you'll get a good job no matter where you graduate from (to an extent)?