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Getting into Oxbridge through family connections

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Well I don't know what the general rule is, but a friend of my Mum's thought her daughter could get in because her and her husband, and her husbands parents, had all gone to cambridge. But she ended up getting 3 As and still not getting in (because she got a B in one of her German modules, and a B at AS).. but her parents thought she was a dead cert!

Reply 61

Tyrotoxism

yeah. you can get into oxbridge through family connections, god exists, etc..

Reply 62

ooh_harry

Here's the golden rule, nepotism will always have a considerable impact on career choices, schooling amongst other things. As you have probably heard, it doesnt harm you to know someone

As much as I detest watching an 'idiot' in a elite business school or seeing a lemon in an investment bank, there WILL always be a room for connections and crony business, perversely on the basis of efficiency and cost savings.

(i.e. application forms: do you know anyone currently at [INSERT FIRM/SCHOOL]?)

Not only do questions like these flaunt nepotism outrageously, admissions dept and HR could often find it optimal just to speak to a connection and take words rather than invest the time and fully assess and interview the candidates

Perhaps I have been alittle unfair as there are still a significant proportion of people who work hard and are rewarded for this, however as i said, there WILL those willing and having access to this so called 'back door'

Reply 63

dannylfc_1

family connections do help

Reply 64

B6ENH

Not sure if anyone's already said this in the 4 pages of replies, but I thought Cambridge has some scheme whereby if you had relatives that had been to Cambridge it could help your application as they said that "intellect goes down the blood line" or something like that... Sounds a bit outdated to be honest.

Reply 65

lola1993

I expect it was even 40/50 years ago, but no longer I'm afraid.

Yeah, I agree. But if you go to a school where there have been many pupils going to the specified college at Oxford or Cambridge and they have all achieved quite well, then they might be more inclined to take you

Reply 66

TerryTerry

It happens, but it's the exception not the rule. Many tutors would never stand for something like that, but many would. I know of someone who managed to wrangle lunch with an interviewing tutor before his interview through his dad. Patently unfair. Oh...and he got a place. Having met him only on a few occasions, I can't vouch for his stupidity but he didn't strike me as a strong candidate like, oh I don't know, Prince Edward. For virtually everyone though applying nepotism is not a factor.

Reply 67

Scipio90

jammythedodger

I know the odd person at schools like Eton, Harrow etc and they really do come from families which are well known in certain circles and the family background intself carries clout.

I really doubt many academics mix in "certain circles".

Reply 68

Francis Y

Blazor

It seems to me that he's taking information for truth from an Oxford graduate who graduated over 30 years ago ...

Therefore surely a large proportion of his admissions advice is irrelevant?

Yep.

Reply 69

Melz0r

I think that, as other people have said, if you have a long family history of Oxbridge, your parents are likely to be wealthy and likely to have provided you with an exemplary education in an academically-competitive environment. If A-levels were a test of raw intellect then this wouldn't make a difference, but we all know they're not - it's about how well you're trained in the technique. Luckily, there's the interview process, which helps them to spot people and, I think, guards quite well against people being "trained".

People like me - single-parent low-income family, completely unremarkable mediocre comprehensive school with no Oxbridge tradition, Cambridge offer - are proof that the system, if not quite perfect, is definitely changing for the better.

Reply 70

Unperfect

Considering my granddad (like 60/70 years) got into Cambridge only because his dad was a professor(he told me he had o.k. grades) there but that my cousin got rejected last year(even though he has an aunt who's a professor at Cambridge) I would think that simply having family links no longer helps as much as it used to. Though I have to say that you will find a lot of people at Oxbridge who happen to have parents that also went to Oxbridge for the simple fact that they thought they had a better chance so did not get put-off applying(I hope you get me) and got in(less stressed during interview etc...).

Reply 71

HEJ92

t3h_y0u553f

The bits in bold have no relevance to the application, only academic criteria have a role in admissions.

My friend told me that grade 5 is like getting a GCSE.. so I felt it was relevant lol :smile:

Reply 72

HEJ92

Innately_Hedonistic

Based on your immense authority you know what would happen.. sorry how could you possibly know that?

I was just saying what my friend (her uncle is an admissions guy) told me when she said she would be going to Oxford.

Reply 73

TerryTerry

Someone mentioned Euan Blair missing his Oxford offer...AAC. Let us note that the vast majority of those made offers at least meet their 3A minimum offers. Screw it, virtually everyone who applies gets 3As. Not only did Euan miss his offer, it wasn't even slight, it was by two whole grades. God I hate that wretched family. But everything has turned out alright for Euan:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3652608/Its-not-how-Euan-got-his-scholarship-but-why.html

Daddy's a professor at Yale now, don't you know?

Reply 74

Dijobla

I'm probably going to get a load of negs or people disagreeing with me, but be realistic guys, this happens. It does. Of course the top unis wouldn't make it public and for the most part, I'm sure they do work on a meritocratic system, but having friends in high places certainly helps- significantly high places of course, having a parent who's an oxbridge professor is hardly jawdropping.

If I'm honest, it only bothers me because i don't have family connections or the funds to do the same- but I would probably do it too if it were my own children. and I'd most likely pay all their fees and their rent too. I know it's not giving them the same independence that I've gained coming from a low-income single parent family, but isn't that the whole point of going to work and making money and connections, to ensure your children have the best opportunities in life? I would totally pull strings, if I could.

The problem would be if a more deserving student misses out on a place because of nepotism, which would be completely unfair. But this is a capitalist society, what you gonna do?

Reply 75

aegilia reghander

Innately_Hedonistic

Based on your immense authority you know what would happen.. sorry how could you possibly know that?

You are a tool. I also go to a public school, one equal in academia and history to almost any other.

The reason they ask about these "connections" is for the utterly opposite reason to which you suggest. They discriminate against those with successful parents and those from privilidged backgrounds in order to give those with less privilidged backgrounds, but perhaps more potential, a chance.

As to why, in an almost patriotic way, you think nepotism "is a great thing", I shall never understand.

Is that true in every circumstance? No. A mere, fallacious generalization that greatly lacks evidence? Indeed.

Reply 76

Innately_Hedonistic

aegilia reghander

Is that true in every circumstance? No. A mere, fallacious generalization that greatly lacks evidence? Indeed.

I beg to differ. In all cases, apart from the very occasional exception, a child from a good school, for example a grammar school or a public school, will require better results than one from a failing comprehensive. This is, in my opinion, utterly fair. However it is definate, unquestionable discrimination.

As for evidence, my school has told us that unless we get 6A*s with the rest As at IGCSE/GCSE we have almost no chance of getting into oxbridge and are discouraged from applying. I have no doubt that those from the state sector do not need such idyllic grades.

Reply 77

Donnchadh

Melz0r

I think this is the key. The sort of applicants who would have 'family connections' are also the sort of applicants who would almost certainly have had the best education possible up to that point - and the fact that they'd have connections to Oxford/Cambridge suggests that they come from families with a pretty decent work ethic; professors' children are hardly going to be stupid. Surely it's only inverse snobbery to suggest that people from wealthy backgrounds with parents who were Oxbridge-educated get in because of that, rather than because of their own merits? (And I'm certainly not one of those people, by the way.)

Obviously it used to happen, and it still does happen for Ivy League admissions, and there may still be very very rare examples of it in this country - e.g. something not very long ago at Pembroke, Oxon, I think? Although that was largely because the college was desperately in need of funds, and a donation looked like a god-send. Arguing that the admissions system has not changed for the better in recent years undermines the efforts of those from affluent backgrounds and at good schools who still have to work ridiculously hard to get a place.

Dijobla

The problem comes because a whole load of deserving kids miss out on places because of nepotism, which is completely unfair.

Somehow I don't think you have evidence to back this up...

Reply 78

Dijobla

Donnchadh

Somehow I don't think you have evidence to back this up...

Well, quite obviously, I don't. Gotta love the internet, when every single thing has to backed up with "evidence" and "sources". I'm not writing an essay :smile:

Anyway, it was meant to read: "... the problem is if a more deserving kid misses out in favour of the other student, which would be completely unfair."
I'll edit it now.

Reply 79

Donnchadh

Dijobla

I'm not writing an essay :smile:

I know, I know, but you can't go making accusations that you simply don't know are true. The edited version is fair enough; it was the suggestion that a 'whole load' of deserving applicants are missing out due to nepotism that I objected to, when interviews and so on (whatever their flaws) in fact seem a deliberate attempt to make the system as meritocratic as possible.

Getting into Oxbridge through family connections

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