Disparity between private and state school students?

I was just wondering whether anyone knew of any information concerning the final degree classifications of state school students over and above private school students? Is there any disparity?
For example, what proportion of the people who got first-class degrees were from state schools, compared to what proportion of the students in general are from state schools.
Thanks a lot for your help!

Reply 1

Chief Wiggum

20

Original post by Merk that Sike of a Mike

I was just wondering whether anyone knew of any information concerning the final degree classifications of state school students over and above private school students? Is there any disparity?
For example, what proportion of the people who got first-class degrees were from state schools, compared to what proportion of the students in general are from state schools.
Thanks a lot for your help!

http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/admissions/research/docs/school_performance.pdf

"This analysis shows that there is no significant difference between the academic performance of
students at Cambridge from different school/college backgrounds. This confirms the findings of the
HEFCE (2003) study, which found that, at the highest levels of ability (i.e. among those students
achieving grades AAA at A Level), there was no difference in the degree performance of
undergraduates from the state and independent sectors."

Reply 2

Merk that Sike of a Mike

OP

Original post by Chief Wiggum

http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/admissions/research/docs/school_performance.pdf

"This analysis shows that there is no significant difference between the academic performance of
students at Cambridge from different school/college backgrounds. This confirms the findings of the
HEFCE (2003) study, which found that, at the highest levels of ability (i.e. among those students
achieving grades AAA at A Level), there was no difference in the degree performance of
undergraduates from the state and independent sectors."

Thanks a lot!

Reply 3

HemalLeFail

Personally, I think children educated in a state school must be slightly more intellectual than those who are privately educated! They have to learn in bigger class sizes and they aren't always equipped with the latest tools. Personally, I think it's more impressive if someone comes out with 11A*'s at GCSE from a state school rather than a private one.

Reply 4

Mellete

7

Original post by HemalLeFail

Personally, I think children educated in a state school must be slightly more intellectual than those who are privately educated!

Of those gaining the same grades, I'd definitely have assumed this, given the poorer quality of tuition in most states schools, that those who succeed to the same level would do better as they've had to adopt independent learning at a much earlier age.

That these views reflect natural thinking are, of course, most likely Cambridge's motivation for this study, and it is reassuring to learn that this is actually not the case.

The report makes a good case against resorting to the patronage of positive discrimination.

Reply 5

shoshin

10

Original post by Mellete

Of those gaining the same grades, I'd definitely have assumed this, given the poorer quality of tuition in most states schools...That these views reflect natural thinking are, of course, most likely Cambridge's motivation for this study, and it is reassuring to learn that this is actually not the case. The report makes a good case against resorting to the patronage of positive discrimination.

There are several respected studies which appear to support your original assumption, like Sutton Trust 2010:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/dec/03/state-school-pupils-university

My guess would be that the apparent contradiction is due to the fact that Cambridge (and Oxford) 'go the extra mile' during the selection process to eliminate students whose grades marginally flatter their potential. Just a guess though.

Regarding motivation, the report's author is Cambridge's Director of Admissions. Cambridge places somewhat more faith in AS/A2 than Oxford, which uses aptitude tests more extensively. So I think that it would be important to Cambridge to seek to demonstrate that A2 results do not inherently benefit its private school applicants.

Reply 6

TheMagicMan

15

Original post by shoshin

There are several respected studies which appear to support your original assumption, like Sutton Trust 2010:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/dec/03/state-school-pupils-university

My guess would be that the apparent contradiction is due to the fact that Cambridge (and Oxford) 'go the extra mile' during the selection process to eliminate students whose grades marginally flatter their potential. Just a guess though.

Regarding motivation, the report's author is Cambridge's Director of Admissions. Cambridge places somewhat more faith in AS/A2 than Oxford, which uses aptitude tests more extensively. So I think that it would be important to Cambridge to seek to demonstrate that A2 results do not inherently benefit its private school applicants.

To do well at cambridge , you need to be able to motivate youirself to work independently (for example, I really should be doing some differential equations right now :tongue:

) . Thus, a person with inadequate teaching, who has the capability to do well at cambridge, should be able to teach themselves the a level stuff, which is a lot simpler than what you have to learn here...

I've been at cambridge for a couple of weeks now and I genuinely couldn't tell you what kind of schools my friends went to...regardless of what level of teaching people had, they all have some kind of basic level of knowledge.

I do however think that it is in some sense harder to do well at a levels for those who go to a bad state school, but a motivated and clever student should be able to easily brush away those difficulties, except in truly exceptional circumstances (for example when a student grows up somewhere where to be clever is to be an outcast)...

That ended up being way longer than I intended :tongue:

Disparity between private and state school students?

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