Can someone give an honest answer?

Why is my school posting on social media and bragging about certain students who got into Oxbridge but they don’t do the same for other prestigious universities like UCL or LSE or even Manchester?

Reply 1

melancollege

Original post by m_040106

Why is my school posting on social media and bragging about certain students who got into Oxbridge but they don’t do the same for other prestigious universities like UCL or LSE or even Manchester?

Historically, Oxbridge admissions were nebulous and one's chances seemed to be improved greatly by the school you went to. For many parents and those of an older generation, Oxford and Cambridge when they grew up were universities dominated by students from private and top grammar schools. Occasionally, other students could get in if their school helped them a lot and / or they were particularly excellent but it wasn't so common. Many believed that whilst you could be smart and get excellent grades at A-Level (and thus get in to other top universities), if you weren't helped with Oxbridge in particular then your chances for them were slim.

Obviously that's not the case today (at least not to anywhere near the same extent; realistically a student at any school doing the right subjects has a shot and the university does a lot of outreach to help this) but these ideas about how Oxbridge admissions work die hard. It's not so much a reflection on reality but more on people, especially parents', perceptions.