Harrow v eton

Don’t know why the E website only has destination of leavers up to 2015. H has already posted its projected destinations for 2019/20 cohort. In line with other public schools & not overly impressive.

I never went to Eton or Harrow. It's bogus and its importance over-inflated. I went to a Comprehensive in Cardiff. I got average to good A-levels. Got my BSc, got my PhD and now have an international reputation with national and international leadership and advisory influence. Public schools are bunk. If you've got it intellectually, your credentials, personality, acumen, knowledge, skills, abilities and reputation will do the talking for you. Don't sweat it. I know many that have attended both Eton and Harrow and they're washed up failures and drunkards.

Oxfordboy-You really are gilding the lilly,the drama is far better at Eton,house productions are at a different level,let alone school productions.
Dont think boys at either school are mollycoddled,you have to put your marker down very quick at both dont think giving boys their own room straightaway is mollycoddling,pretty sure some would prefer to start in a dorm,, one complaint weve had from parents of Etonians is that its sink or swim from the moment you arrive,not set prep times,full responsibility for getting work done on time from the day you arrive,that is not mollycoddling,but we have found excellent pastoral care at H,likewise havent heard many complaints about pastoral at E.
Harrow does indeed have more applicants than E,but does that make it harder to get into?Not in my opinion,Eton has already had first dibs,as have a couple of London day schools,add in the fact many boys apply to more than one school and the harder to get into arguement doesnt really stand up,E and H are both great schools,among the best in the world,no need to try and measure one against the other,if you do then sadly E will come out top,cant see that changing.
H is not the obvious choice for a sportsman,however it does offer sports scholarships which certainly help results.

Oxbridge:

Eton: 33/220 15%

Harrow: 22/150 33%

If people think 22 out of 150 is 33%, then they really need to go to Harrow.

"Over the past thirty years some 60-100 boys have made successful applications to Oxbridge each year."

Eton vs Harrow

Eton: More academically selective and superior societies.

Harrow: Better at sport, still very good academically especially under the new headmaster.

Eton: Boys are monicoddled more than those at Harrow and are only mildly arrogant.

Harrow: Boys are left to fend for themselves and develop great character, many are very arrogant.

Oxbridge:

Eton: 33/220 15%

Harrow: 22/150 33%

Alumni:

Eton: David Cameron, Eddie Redmayne, The princes, 19 Prime ministers, Archbishop of Canterbury.

Harrow: Winston Churchill, Benedict Cumberbatch, 9 Prime ministers, Lord Byron, Shafestbury.

Music: Equal.

Drama: Very close although Eton has a slight edge.

Admissions: Harrow is harder to get into but Eton is more academically selective.

In my opinion, these are Britain's best 2 schools, many super-selectives like St. Pauls and Westminster can drive students to drug abuse due to immense pressure. The better option here is very hard, for scholarly boys Eton is better however for all-rounders Harrow is the better and for sporty boys Harrow is the obvious option. Harrow is becoming very good academically and in a few years it will be better academically than Eton due to the headmaster's new policies.

Top 10 Boarding schools:

(1.) Eton + Harrow (premier league)

(2.) Winchester (premier league)

(3.) Westminster (Day + Boarding) (premier league)

(4.) St Pauls (Day + Boarding) (premier league)

(5.) Tonbridge (premier league)

(6.) Radley College (championship)

(7.) Charterhouse (championship)

(8.) Wellington college (championship)

(9.) Marlborough college (championship)

(10.) Rugby (championship)

I've decided, from this day forward , never to discuss the mundane subject of Eton, Harrow or any other school, except Winchester, on a public forum ever again.

I'm now off to have a life!

I doubt there are few sane people left in the 21 st century who believe that every word a journalist writes even if they are a "reputable international journalist of 40 years standing" in fact I would have thought that having spent "most of the 1990s ...... as a feature writer for the Daily Mail." means that she is incapable of writing a single word of truth!

All boys successfully entering Eton, KS and Oppidans alike, would have taken the ?cannot be coached for? Eton computerised IQ test at some stage in their admissions process.

? a certain small number of schools do not have the monopoly on the most able children and yet they can often get four scholarships per year to Eton and multiple scholarships . . .?

I would dearly love to know which schools are these that often get ?four scholarships per year to Eton? (presumably with heavy coaching from tutoring companies in London). The last time I looked, the 14 King?s Scholarships went to boys from 10 different schools spread right across the South East and as far a field as West Sussex, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire. I?m quite confident than none of these boys came down to London for heavy coaching. Only 3 boys come from London proper - 2 from Westminster Under School and 1 from SW19. Even so, it is highly unlikely they attended the London tuition companies for ?heavy coaching?.

A major surprise I?d say, is that not a single boy from Summer Fields, Oxford was successful this year. Traditionally, this school sends three or four KS?s to Eton almost every year without fail. No further proof needed that you cannot coach a boy for a King?s Scholarship.

"I look at these threads because I'm fascinated by the weird reactions these schools provoke in some people, not because I'm jealous."

I know you are not jealous, singersgirl and all your comments are absolutely fair. My posts are not directed at you, I've told you before.

But this IS an Eton thread; Harrow v Eton, to be precise. And yes, I'm equally fascinated by the weird reactions these schools provoke in some people. I therefore, don't know why people who have no connections with either of these two schools coming round here blowing hot and cold air. But of course there'll be those who will claim they have forefathers who attended these schools since medieval times! If you believe that, you'll believe anything.

? Must admit Monica Porter was not someone Id ever heard of ,now I realise after checking why,shes a hack jounalist,so who cares what she thinks or says . .?

Yes, that more or less sums you up neatly - don?t like the message, so . . . Shoot the Messenger.

It?s low, very, very low to slag off a reputable international journalist of 40 years standing in order to defend something which is indefensible.

Tell me about class again . . .

Quote:
Monica Porter

In the early 1970s she also broadcast regularly for the Hungarian section of Radio Free Europe. Much later, in the early 1990s, she made a series of Personal View broadcasts for the English-language BBC World Service.

Throughout most of the 1990s Porter worked full time as a feature writer for the Daily Mail. For the past decade she has been a freelance journalist, contributing to a large number of British newspapers, including The Times, Sunday Times, Financial Times, The Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Daily Express, Evening Standard, Jewish Chronicle and Press Gazette, as well as magazines such as Good Housekeeping, Eve, Saga Magazine and Reader?s Digest. Her weekly Daily Mail column, Missing and Found, has been running since 1999.

There are some really odd posts about Eton and other well-known schools on here. Most people on this forum and indeed in the country don't think at all about any of these schools. They're not jealous or misguided; it just doesn't even cross their mind for many, many reasons.

I look at these threads because I'm fascinated by the weird reactions these schools provoke in some people, not because I'm jealous.

"but what I?m shocked is to see the envies and jealousies of some members who are constantly looking over their shoulders who is doing better than them."
Has any sane member of MN got the faintest ides what peteneras is going on about?

"You arent actually in the employ of Harrow or Winchester are you,posting to put Eton in as bad a light as possible?"
Propatria I too have sometimes wondered this or whether peteneras is just some kind of Walter Mitty character!!

peteneras my DS is very excited about starting in September. Thank you for your good wishes!

Greythorne, you are you and I'm not you. You may not have enjoyed your kid's education/school but you cannot assume I'm exactly like you nor can you put words in my mouth or make me say things you'll like to hear. I've said what I wanted to say and what's more, I mean every word of it. My DP would go one big step further by saying, ' . . . wish it would never end!'. Jokingly, of course.

Propatria, why am I not an OE you asked, and it?s not the first time you posed that question to me either. Well, the simple answer is that I wasn?t born yesterday and I was well past my schooling age when I first arrived in Britain with £60 in my pocket from a country where even going to a primary school was a problem in those days let alone going to Eton.

But unlike most of you, I don?t come with a chip on my shoulder bearing me down feeling like a defeatist and blaming the world that life?s dealt me a bad hand. What that was not made available to me due to circumstances or otherwise, I made sure I had them available to my kids.

No, I?m not shocked you?re female as most Mumnetters are as the name would imply, but what I?m shocked is to see the envies and jealousies of some members who are constantly looking over their shoulders who is doing better than them. To me, Eton is just another excellent school, my background and culture do not dictate me to look further and deeper than that in a school. Like you said, it?s just a school. At the risk of repeating myself, I?ve said I don?t give a monkey?s who goes or don?t go to Eton. So, your apparent claim that the dozen generations of your forefathers who went there don?t mean a bean to me.

I?ve to admit the bulk of my Eton postings are written deliberately to provoke the green-eyed hypocrites, e.g. people who claim they don?t live their lives through their offspring and their education and yet keep coming on to a forum like this to see what?s happening here. Like I said, I wasn?t born yesterday . . .

peteneras

I do think you might have overplayed your hand a little with your remark that the five years their child is at Eton will be the best five years of the parents' lives. They don't get to attend the school, you know. They probably have very rich, fulfilling inner lives and real life relationships which mean they do not live vicariously through their offspring to the level you do.

Well I am very aware of these companies, much to my dismay. Students can be taught how to apply knowledge. The one thing they cannot be coached for is the computerised IQ test. Statistically, a certain small number of schools do not have the monopoly on the most able children and yet they can often get four scholarships per year to Eton and multiple scholarships to the other selective schools. A scholarship is not just down to brains or IQ. That is a tiny part and the rest is preparation, what prep school they attend and how much tutoring they are being given. Small country preps are getting fewer and fewer scholarships and the schools close to London with the option of day seem to be getting a proportionally higher amount. But at the other end there are still plenty students who are exceeding many of the scholars (I say many, not all) at university and during their time at school.

Pete you are so right,I just like you am not an OE,now my reason for that is a rather obvious one- I"m a female,now you might be in for a shock but you will prob find a lot of people on this forum are actually female,now whats your reason for not being an OE.?
When like me you have a father,grandfather,great grandfather, great great grandfather,two brothers, and two of your own children that are OE ,then by all means come back and tell me I dont know what Im talking about ,by all means scrabble around for tedious little links to magazine articles ,if that gives you pleasure,but please note not one Eton parent has ever come on a thread and backed you up,if you were the first Eton parent Id met I would go nowhere near it.
Must admit Monica Porter was not someone Id ever heard of ,now I realise after checking why,shes a hack jounalist,so who cares what she thinks or says,you obviously do,why it should interest anyone else is beyond me,every time you post and link to some article or other i remember Oscars def of a cynic.
You arent actually in the employ of Harrow or Winchester are you,posting to put Eton in as bad a light as possible?

Of course one must have basic and advanced knowledge of the subjects in the KS papers. Much more than that in fact. One got to know how to apply these knowledge and therefore cannot be ?coached?. Apparently, an Oxford admissions tutor on MN is on record saying the KS papers are about the hardest s(he) had ever seen and is even contemplating of using some of these papers on his/her first year Oxford students.

I?m not aware of any tutoring companies all over London and especially in East Asia preparing students for public schools scholarships. In the Far East it is hard enough to get tutoring to do a CE, let alone Eton/Winchester scholarships. But there again, in London, there are companies selling you everything under the sun, whether they are of much use or not is another question. Incidentally, I was just talking to the owner of a north London grammar school tutoring company last month and it appears that he hadn't the foggiest idea what he's talking about. Little wonder he's now closing the company.

How can the KS sit a paper for which it is impossible to revise? That makes no logical sense. The maths and science require learnt knowledge as does the Latin, French etc. There are tutoring companies all over London and East Asia which specifically coach for the Eton and Winchester scholarship and most children gaining these scholarships are now coming from day schools. Even JS boys haven't got KS's so that proves the "School House" don't know what they are talking about...

"The KS must sit a paper for which it is impossible to revise, designed to gauge originality" [School House Magazine]

? Why should the fact any child is going to Eton or indeed any other school be the best five years in the parents life,how sad and pathetic?

Because you have never been there, that?s why, and you will never know what I?m talking about. I?m being kind by saying the School is most unique; Monica Porter of School House Magazine (who had visited and talked to the boys) would tell you it?s ?the world?s most renowned public school?.

?its a school,nothing more nothing less,it doesnt reflect on the parent at all,what a sad,risible vicarious life..?

It?s indeed very sad and pathetic and risible that parents would spend their precious time throughout the clock, year in and year out hanging on an education (school) forum to discuss their child(ren)?s education. It?s a school, nothing more, nothing less! Now where can I find a bigger hypocrite?

But you?re right on one count, you can?t buy class - you either have it or you don?t. You clearly don?t.

And out from the woodwork, comes the Green-eyed Brigade!

The usual suspects, of course.

The sights and sounds of this great school make them drivel so much that they're now calling for sick bags!