Snooty Unis?

England2004

Hey im currently doing my AS levels at a quite respectable all boys grammar sixith form.
I moved there from my more funnier and more scocial mixed high school, you all know what i mean where all your mates were from familys with mercs etc.
However the school i'm at now is like that and i always felt having something more than the most of them as they would have no clue on 'street' i'm no gangster but you know what i mean when people who have been shielded from people comming into school looking for fights etc and the majority of those ending year 11 just go into work.

Now where this comes into applying to Uni, i got class results for my gcses mainly B's 2 A's 1 A* any who i was curious how Uni's look on me comming from a 'lesser?' background with my old school etc?
Also i can just as easily put the name of my area which is the biggest council estate in Europe and i would feel that prehaps they would look down on it and think of me as some scally? but i'm sure somewhere that Uni's have to accept x number from 'disadvantage' backgrounds any 1 have any help please let me no!

Thanks!

Reply 1

Leekey

9

England2004

Hey im currently doing my AS levels at a quite respectable all boys grammar sixith form.
I moved there from my more funnier and more scocial mixed high school, you all know what i mean where all your mates were from familys with mercs etc.
However the school i'm at now is like that and i always felt having something more than the most of them as they would have no clue on 'street' i'm no gangster but you know what i mean when people who have been shielded from people comming into school looking for fights etc and the majority of those ending year 11 just go into work.

Now where this comes into applying to Uni, i got class results for my gcses mainly B's 2 A's 1 A* any who i was curious how Uni's look on me comming from a 'lesser?' background with my old school etc?
Also i can just as easily put the name of my area which is the biggest council estate in Europe and i would feel that prehaps they would look down on it and think of me as some scally? but i'm sure somewhere that Uni's have to accept x number from 'disadvantage' backgrounds any 1 have any help please let me no!

Thanks!

You are aware that universities will probably love the fact that you are from a "disadvantaged background". It means that when they publish the details of thier various "widening participation" schemes, they can point to some nice figures that will make Mr Blair want to give them a little bit more dough to blow on research (Im not synical in the least :biggrin:

). Seriously though, you should have no problems in getting offers from any universities because of your background. I attended one of the worst high schools in the country and I got offers from all my choices without going to too many extremes (no bribary was invloved)!!! :wink:

Reply 2

llama boy

7

As Leekey says, if anything, it is an advantage.

Reply 3

England2004

OP

Cheers, i mean i'm not no scally its just i was ambivolent about how Uni's would look if i put Wythenshaw down on my application
Thanks alot any e ways :smile:

Can you can any points if i would be the first in my family to go?
another browny point prehaps?

Reply 4

Leekey

9

England2004

Cheers, i mean i'm not no scally its just i was ambivolent about how Uni's would look if i put Wythenshaw down on my application
Thanks alot any e ways :smile:

Can you can any points if i would be the first in my family to go?
another browny point prehaps?

I know that Nottingham, Edinburgh, UCL and Birmingham all offer (or at least did offer) first in the family / disadvantaged background bursaries (sp?) to some applicants. Not certain about the first in the family thing but I wouldnt make a big song and dance about it, just get your grades and write a quality PS and they will be begging you to go!!! :smile:

Reply 5

England2004

OP

DAMN! Anything to get out of learning all this waffle!

Reply 6

lidybetf

I go to a comprehensive but it does have a rep of being a bit posh in this area, then again you are in the Centre of Dudley 15 mins up the road, however it is the only reason I can see for me getting an offer of CCC for mechanical engineering at Bristol. It is in the top five for the subject in all league tables and looking in the book at school that lists the range of offers (i think its by Brian Heap) it suggests they go from aaa-bbb for this yet i got ccc(the actual letter form bristol said CC in maths and physics (no mention of my art). I did get 8 A*'s 2A's n a b at gcse, but it still seems a very low offer. I'm not the first in the fmaily to go to uni though, my dad did medicine at oxford and my grandad did the same as I want to do but at Nottingham not imperial (i do have my bristol offer as insurance)

Reply 7

Mysticmin

10

lidybetf

I go to a comprehensive but it does have a rep of being a bit posh in this area, then again you are in the Centre of Dudley 15 mins up the road, however it is the only reason I can see for me getting an offer of CCC for mechanical engineering at Bristol. It is in the top five for the subject in all league tables and looking in the book at school that lists the range of offers (i think its by Brian Heap) it suggests they go from aaa-bbb for this yet i got ccc(the actual letter form bristol said CC in maths and physics (no mention of my art). I did get 8 A*'s 2A's n a b at gcse, but it still seems a very low offer. I'm not the first in the fmaily to go to uni though, my dad did medicine at oxford and my grandad did the same as I want to do but at Nottingham not imperial (i do have my bristol offer as insurance)

Clever Dad :smile:

Reply 8

babyballerina

lidybetf

I go to a comprehensive but it does have a rep of being a bit posh in this area, then again you are in the Centre of Dudley 15 mins up the road, however it is the only reason I can see for me getting an offer of CCC for mechanical engineering at Bristol. It is in the top five for the subject in all league tables and looking in the book at school that lists the range of offers (i think its by Brian Heap) it suggests they go from aaa-bbb for this yet i got ccc(the actual letter form bristol said CC in maths and physics (no mention of my art). I did get 8 A*'s 2A's n a b at gcse, but it still seems a very low offer. I'm not the first in the fmaily to go to uni though, my dad did medicine at oxford and my grandad did the same as I want to do but at Nottingham not imperial (i do have my bristol offer as insurance)

In my experience unis often give lower offers to those who will easily get the grades (with 8A*s at GCSE you will easily do better than CCC at A2 and you should aim for the best you can because A-levels can come back to haunt you when you apply for graduate jobs.) to persuade you to choose them. I mean, Bristol may assume you have applied to Oxbridge and they are trying to bribe you to choose them instead because you can easily get the grades they ask. I got exactly the same GCSE grades as you and I got EE offers from Warwick and Durham (But went to Cambridge anyway.)

Reply 9

KR2004

I got a CCC offer for Mechanical Engineering from Bristol as well.
The poor area that I live in might have helped and I also got quite good GCSE grades (not as good as you though, I got 6A's and 2B's) and have predicted AAA at A level.

As babyballerina said, it COULD also possibly have something to do with applying to Oxbridge. I applied to Oxford (and didn't even get an interview*) but it would have been quite obvious to the other universities that I applied to Oxford because they will have received my application right at the Oxbridge deadline.

*I'm not TOO annoyed about the Oxford rejection...well, not really...not much anyway. OK, maybe a bit.
But really I think I might be just as well off studying Mechanical Engineering at Bristol as I would have been studying Engineering Science at Oxford.

Snooty Unis?

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