Eton College Universities Summer School, anyone?

I went on the Politics and Economics course last year (with Lottie) and it was really the final step along the road to "YES I AM GOING TO DO PPE AND IT IS GOING TO BE AMAAAZING!". It was all good fun, too. I don't have 10 A* GCSEs, and we were told that we were selected for potential, but the departments do their own selection from what I could tell so you'll just have to wait and see.

It's awesome if you get in though, so good luck!

Back in early 2006, I was doing some of my own research about these Summer Schools, because I felt that I needed to break out of the tedium of my state school A-Level course and meet some people who were a bit more committed than your average sixth former. I wanted to go to the Eton Summer School, filled out the application, and then found to my amusement that my school wasn't in favour of me missing term time. It ended up in a talk with the headmaster, concluding in my backing out of the application in the face of red tape and a lack of support. I thought the whole situation was faintly ridiculous, to say the least, and the reluctance on the part of the school to support anybody who wanted to exercise just a bit of independence was extremely disappointing.
Nonetheless, I applied to Oxford this year and got in to Christ Church to read History. I found the whole experience to be rather enjoyable. So I didn't really miss out on a life changing experience by not going to the summer school.
But imagine what I felt two days ago, walking past the sixth form notice board and seeing an Eton Summer Schools application for the lower sixth pinned up with the words 'If interested, see head of sixth form...'.
Bastards.

I've appled for the Politics+Economics one too

Aj_deity (hi!) and I went last year. We both did Politics & Economics. And I second her request to say hello to the Thackerays if you do go; they were really interesting people and good teachers!

I've got some history homework to do for the time being but if you have any questions, let me know and I'll do my best to explain everything!

Ah thanks, that's great!

My main concern is that i won't be of quite the same standard as the other applicants, leaving room for me to look like an idiot !! What sort of people were there with you (in terms of GCSE results?), and were less knowledgeable people made to look like fools in the lessons?

I didn't ask people what they had in their GCSEs as I didn't feel it was important. I was there to learn about two subjects I had an interest in and, above everything else, make friends with people from other parts of the country. I wasn't looking to "size up the competition", so to speak. However, everyone I met seemed bright, friendly and interesting. I really have no idea what their GCSE results were.

It was a challenging but supportive environment and, while it was exhausting at times, there was always someone to talk to in the library or in your house from your class to talk to if you were a bit stuck (or just wanted a bit of a chat). You are expected to work independently but it's comforting to see others struggling over writing their personal statement or ploughing their way through the latest essay or Powerpoint presentation too!

Hope this was of some help.

exhausting...? That didn't sound good! Lol what are the facilities like?

Oh cool. Do you know anyone else who's applied, and what sort of calibre they are (in terms of GCSE results)? I've heard the majority of the people on the course in previous years have had straight A*s, so i'm just wondering what i'm up against - i got 3A*s and 7As.

Alrite I applied to do maths, sounds like a great course! I hope i get on to, but it depends whether or not my application gets there in time, only found out about it at 9 o clock last nite!! application deadline is 2moro lol. Come on the Royal Mail!

With regards to your GCSE results theyre good! I suppose it depends on what school you go to and how good your reference + statement was. It's like going through a university application