University of Edinburgh
Anti-English bias at Edinburgh University
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barefootfiona
I understand why they don't; I just wish they did. Or at least, phone interviews.
Certainly some people would benefit from that, but hassle aside, it would cost lots of money that Edinburgh doesn't have to do it. Part of the application to Edinburgh is therefore a demonstration that you can put together a piece of writing "just so" so that it engages their interest and answers all their questions and presents you, along with your reference, in the best light possible.
University of Edinburgh
Well I know two students from the south who were offered places at Edinburgh, by some strange coincidence they have both got Scottish sounding names!
One of them is going to Oxford anyway, she has never been north of the border)
sigh ..........
One of them is going to Oxford anyway, she has never been north of the border)
sigh ..........
Anon Person
Scottish sounding surnames. Define that please.
McDonaldwallacerobertsonmackenziestewart.
Duh.
I joke. I can understand being a bit apprehensive about applying to a scottish school as a non-scot (particularly as a henley-accented, soft-headed, weak-tea-drinking southern LOVIE). I was before, for the bracketed reasons, but if visiting Edinburgh has taught me anything it is that the city itself has learned to deal with us, in no small part due to the enormous openness and friendliness of the average Scot and Ed student.
Honestly, to all english folks, dont get worrying about anti-english prejudice.
Wednesday Bass
But what do you have to do to get into Edinburgh?
My best mate - the schools head boy and local rugby captain - is predicted A*AA and was rejected. Has a strong pass in a language at GCSE, and has work experience and community service to his name. Another of my friends - predicted AAA, was told that she needed better grades. How good do they want the grades to be? Out of the 12 or so people I know that applied to Edinburgh, I know that none of them have an offer. And it's not just the south as I'm half an hour away from being in Scotland.
My best mate - the schools head boy and local rugby captain - is predicted A*AA and was rejected. Has a strong pass in a language at GCSE, and has work experience and community service to his name. Another of my friends - predicted AAA, was told that she needed better grades. How good do they want the grades to be? Out of the 12 or so people I know that applied to Edinburgh, I know that none of them have an offer. And it's not just the south as I'm half an hour away from being in Scotland.
We all know people get surprising rejections, But if you go to an english private London school it is almost impossible to get an offer for a popular subject at Edinburgh,
I've got an offer for History and I live in London, no Scottish connections whatsoever, neither am I the first in my family to got uni (another booster). However I have got 11 A*s and 4 A*s in strong subjects predicted, so that might be something to do with it. Statement wasn't bad either, nor reference, although I'm not head boy or anything like that.
[Quote]We all know people get surprising rejections, But if you go to an english private London school it is almost impossible to get an offer for a popular subject at Edinburgh,[/Quote]
Rubbish. Of my group of friends, I can think of at least ten who are from English public schools who got offers and are now here. That includes some from Harrow and Eton.
There isn't a bias. It's just an excuse for not getting in. Much easier to blame it on a bias, rather than accepting that there are 15 applicants for every place, and it's not easy to get accepted.
Rubbish. Of my group of friends, I can think of at least ten who are from English public schools who got offers and are now here. That includes some from Harrow and Eton.
There isn't a bias. It's just an excuse for not getting in. Much easier to blame it on a bias, rather than accepting that there are 15 applicants for every place, and it's not easy to get accepted.
absolutely. i live with a harovian, and know 2 others, and a few etonians too. there isn't a bias. it comes down to the perceived quality of applicants.
my 2 cents, is that elitist parents who send their children to public school are all for equality as long as they can cheat their way into top universities, as soon as poor people start to achieve they are very quick to slam them down. consider grade inflation. now, you tell me, how you can put millions into education, improve teaching and opportunity, then complain when more people get As. it's a completely elitist attitude, and it stems from the arrogant belief of english public schoolers that on the basis of their privelege they deserve entry to a prestigious uni.
they don't interview (and i know because i only got in on special appeal) because it doesn't differentiate candidates very well. i didn't get in to edinburgh, and i'm never far from the top of the class, others who got in with ease struggle, there's very little correlation between quality of applicant and quality of student, which is exactly why they have BBB as they believe this is an adequate standard depending on circumstances.
I took "easy" subjects at a level - religion, english lit, music tech, and yet i outperform swathes of public school students who took hard subjects and got straight into edinburgh.
getting in to anywhere is a lottery, if you don't make the cut it's not a reflection on the quality of you, that's just the way it is!
my 2 cents, is that elitist parents who send their children to public school are all for equality as long as they can cheat their way into top universities, as soon as poor people start to achieve they are very quick to slam them down. consider grade inflation. now, you tell me, how you can put millions into education, improve teaching and opportunity, then complain when more people get As. it's a completely elitist attitude, and it stems from the arrogant belief of english public schoolers that on the basis of their privelege they deserve entry to a prestigious uni.
they don't interview (and i know because i only got in on special appeal) because it doesn't differentiate candidates very well. i didn't get in to edinburgh, and i'm never far from the top of the class, others who got in with ease struggle, there's very little correlation between quality of applicant and quality of student, which is exactly why they have BBB as they believe this is an adequate standard depending on circumstances.
I took "easy" subjects at a level - religion, english lit, music tech, and yet i outperform swathes of public school students who took hard subjects and got straight into edinburgh.
getting in to anywhere is a lottery, if you don't make the cut it's not a reflection on the quality of you, that's just the way it is!
The university of Edinburgh does not have to demonstrate a coterminous approach towards its applicant selection process. The university should continue to rationalize its framework parameters by ensuring Scots (predictors of beaconicity) are facilitated in a comprehensive manner regarding the applicant selection procedure. Current English students studying at Scottish universities should be made to kneel down in the field of Culloden and then be burned at the stake.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article7100827.ece
THE admissions policy of a leading university might breach race relations laws because it favours Scottish applicants over those from England, according to one of the country’s most senior education lawyers.
The policy at Edinburgh, where 41% of the intake is English, was introduced in 2004 to give local applicants a greater chance of winning places.
Edinburgh’s weighting applies to candidates for some humanities and social science courses from the area close to the university and in a second tier of regions including the rest of Scotland, Cumbria, Tyne and Wear and other parts of northern England.
Hyams believes a court could see Edinburgh’s inclusion of a few English regions as “a thinly disguised cloak for discrimination in favour of persons resident in Scotland”.
Edinburgh said the impact of the policy was only “minimal”, adding: “Without some way of acknowledging local applicants in selection, we would risk running some degree courses with barely any local, or Scottish, students on them.”
The university’s policy has angered English head teachers. Richard Cairns, of Brighton college, East Sussex, said one of his pupils, Jo Saxby, had been rejected by Edinburgh without an interview despite being predicted to achieve three A*s and an A in his A-levels. He has been offered a place at Oxford.
Andrew Halls, of King’s college school in Wimbledon, southwest London, called the university’s policy “perverse, xenophobic and anti-English”. He added that only six out of 42 of his pupils who applied there had been offered places, a far lower success rate than at Bristol, Durham or Imperial College London.
Halls said: “It just so happens that all the boys offered places have Scottish surnames or ones that are very obviously foreign and not English. I’m sure it’s a coincidence.”
THE admissions policy of a leading university might breach race relations laws because it favours Scottish applicants over those from England, according to one of the country’s most senior education lawyers.
The policy at Edinburgh, where 41% of the intake is English, was introduced in 2004 to give local applicants a greater chance of winning places.
Edinburgh’s weighting applies to candidates for some humanities and social science courses from the area close to the university and in a second tier of regions including the rest of Scotland, Cumbria, Tyne and Wear and other parts of northern England.
Hyams believes a court could see Edinburgh’s inclusion of a few English regions as “a thinly disguised cloak for discrimination in favour of persons resident in Scotland”.
Edinburgh said the impact of the policy was only “minimal”, adding: “Without some way of acknowledging local applicants in selection, we would risk running some degree courses with barely any local, or Scottish, students on them.”
The university’s policy has angered English head teachers. Richard Cairns, of Brighton college, East Sussex, said one of his pupils, Jo Saxby, had been rejected by Edinburgh without an interview despite being predicted to achieve three A*s and an A in his A-levels. He has been offered a place at Oxford.
Andrew Halls, of King’s college school in Wimbledon, southwest London, called the university’s policy “perverse, xenophobic and anti-English”. He added that only six out of 42 of his pupils who applied there had been offered places, a far lower success rate than at Bristol, Durham or Imperial College London.
Halls said: “It just so happens that all the boys offered places have Scottish surnames or ones that are very obviously foreign and not English. I’m sure it’s a coincidence.”
Good gracious the Times have got it in for Edinburgh - can only assume that Murdoch and News Corp have some sort of grudge against us.
This campaign against Edinburgh is ridiculous. Surely it's not that difficult to understand that a Scottish university would like a significant proportion of its student body to be Scottish - and even with this selection policy in place 49% of students are English.
Colmans
Andrew Halls, of King’s college school in Wimbledon, southwest London, called the university’s policy “perverse, xenophobic and anti-English”. He added that only six out of 42 of his pupils who applied there had been offered places, a far lower success rate than at Bristol, Durham or Imperial College London.
Andrew Halls, of King’s college school in Wimbledon, southwest London, called the university’s policy “perverse, xenophobic and anti-English”. He added that only six out of 42 of his pupils who applied there had been offered places, a far lower success rate than at Bristol, Durham or Imperial College London.
6 of 42 isn't too shabby when the uni's success rate is like 1 in 10 for all applicants.
I can't believe people are naive enough to believe that other uni's don't do the same thing. The university is competitive and people just want someone to blame other than themselves.
I was rather surprised when I got an offer from Edinburgh when I am definitely not a straight A student, but my friend, who got all A*s at GCSE and was predicted all As at A Level, was rejected. I'm not sure if it has anything to do with the fact that she is from London, went to a private school and has wealthy parents, whereas I am from a less privileged background (but still English)! Or it might have something to do with the fact I had applied to do maths with computer science (I swear, in lectures, about 95% of students were male), so maybe they are more likely to accept females for courses like that. Whereas my friend applied to do history.
this is all paranoid bull crap. The university wouldnt reject a good prospective english student over a less able scottish student.
They get in on the quality of their application, same with English unis
They get in on the quality of their application, same with English unis
I'm from the South of England and as English as they come, was rejected last year but having got A*A*AA in A2, I was accepted this year to read French and Spanish, it's a brilliant university and I can't wait to start in September!
Edit: And I went to private school just outside London so that's not a viable reason for rejection. Edinburgh receives some of the highest numbers of applicants every year in the UK and there's something like 12 applicants for every place. Undoubtedly a high proportion of them are going to be English, just as a high proportion of those rejected from Cambridge might be Scottish.
Edit: And I went to private school just outside London so that's not a viable reason for rejection. Edinburgh receives some of the highest numbers of applicants every year in the UK and there's something like 12 applicants for every place. Undoubtedly a high proportion of them are going to be English, just as a high proportion of those rejected from Cambridge might be Scottish.
(edited 12 years ago)
I go to a private school in Edinburgh and a lot of people I know who applied to Edinburgh last year told me applicants from state schools are given preferential treatment. Admission rules introduced eight years ago 'discriminate against high-achievers from private schools in favour of deprived pupils with lower grades.'
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article1111197.ece
There is also something called Lothian Equal Access Programme for Schools which Edinburgh University is bound by whose pledge is to 'make offers if at all possible to students who are identified as LEAPS eligible.'
http://www.leapsonline.org/admissions-pledge.html
This doesn't seem fair to me and I would like to know why it is the case and also how much of an effect it will have on whether my application is successful (I am applying for History and received four As and a B in my Highers).
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article1111197.ece
There is also something called Lothian Equal Access Programme for Schools which Edinburgh University is bound by whose pledge is to 'make offers if at all possible to students who are identified as LEAPS eligible.'
http://www.leapsonline.org/admissions-pledge.html
This doesn't seem fair to me and I would like to know why it is the case and also how much of an effect it will have on whether my application is successful (I am applying for History and received four As and a B in my Highers).
(edited 12 years ago)
If you don't get offered a place it will simply be because someone else was better/made a better impression than you. Plenty of intelligent people get rejected from Edinburgh simply because the number of applicants is so high. There was indeed a bias in previous years, but that has been abolished and from what I understand it was never really that influential anyway. I can assure you that there is a healthy population of privately school students to compliment the equally healthy population of Southerners who are also supposedly discriminated against. To be honest, what you've been told is complete rubbish and I wouldn't base any of your decisions on it 
.
.Original post by bananas02
This doesn't seem fair to me
Then why did you bother applying? The reality is there is no bias against privately educated candidates. Leaps is intended for a very small minimal proportion of applicants and in reality has more or less no effect on other applications. If you're rejected then it's because you applied to a course at a university that last year only made offers to 13% of its applicants without checking your facts beforehand. This subject has been discussed to death and I'm requesting it be merged with existing (and also very tedious) thread about the subject.
Original post by nearlyheadlessian
Then why did you bother applying? The reality is there is no bias against privately educated candidates. Leaps is intended for a very small minimal proportion of applicants and in reality has more or less no effect on other applications. If you're rejected then it's because you applied to a course at a university that last year only made offers to 13% of its applicants without checking your facts beforehand. This subject has been discussed to death and I'm requesting it be merged with existing (and also very tedious) thread about the subject.
This is clearly not the same thing so I don't know why you have moved my post to this thread. Discrimination against those from private schools is different from discrimination against English students. I thought that was obvious.
As for 'then why did you bother applying' there is no reason for me not to apply to Edinburgh despite its policy since hopefully with my grades I have a good chance of receiving a place anyway. But the fact remains that LEAPS does have an effect on other applications since underperforming pupils from state schools are using up places that could go to able students from private schools.
For some reason you harbour animosity towards those whose parents have paid for their children's education. Good luck to you, but I myself would feel somewhat guilty if I was awarded a place at university based not on academic merit but on the quality (or lack of it) of the school I attended.
(edited 12 years ago)
Original post by bananas02
blahblhablhablahslhablhablhabab
this thread is now about trains
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