to not understand why young girls are told to aspire to be like michelle obama

[HRHShoesytwoesy]

have I missed something? if so what?

What's not to admire? MB is a highly educated, successful, ambitious and principled woman. I think she is fabulous and would be delighted if my DD grows up looking to women like her as role models rather than glamour models and bloody WAGs

I also admire Cherie Blair and think there was a sinister campaign to discredit her that started long before any of her eventual misguided shenanigans began...

I agree that I am an exception. I also agree that it is tough as hell for graduates out there just now. So many people feel that the degree is everything and it isn't. Just like trying to get in to Oxford or Cambridge you now need to bring so many extras to the recruitment processes for decent graduate jobs. The bar goes up constantly.

But I think if the right support or a good role model helps even a few young woman to escape from the life they'd have otherwise then it's worth it.

However on the flip side of that I think the policy of trying to send so many people to university has backfired spectacularly and really reduced the value a degree has. We needed to try to improve inclusion so that it wasn't just the richer kids who were going, but I'm not sure that such a rapid increase in graduate numbers was the right solution.

I don't know what the answer is - the degree definitely isn't the magic key any more, but I can't give up on girls like me just because they might not succeed. Because they just MIGHT and that chance matters.

Yes. It's different - I lived in their neighbourhood before and during the campaign so perhaps see things (and MB) differently. Now I see what the British media cares to share, not what the local community sees.

Hardly anyone gets handed opportunities. You have to work hard and reach out and take them.

To say that it is all too hard and that you can't succeed is just sad and it will be a self fulfilling prophecy, not all success is counted by how much money you have, how much influence you have.

But if you just roll over and whine then you will be trodden on.

michelle obama speaking at top girl's school

happy I totally disagree. For one thing, Oxbridge isn't everything, and one can go on to be extremely successful in business (and indeed in life) without an Oxbridge degree. It's about motivation, and not feeling entitled. A successful career begins with good exam results, sure, but it certainly doesn't end there. In fact, of my friendship group from university it is a couple of the privately schooled people who are finding the working world hardest as they seem to believe that they are above starting at the bottom of their industry and working their way up. They just can't stick anything out, and sometimes I wonder if that's because they have a sense of entitlement that just doesn't hack it in business today.

I went to Cambridge from a state school. But when I applied for my course, there were 30 applicants for every place at my college. Nearly all of those applicants would have been predicted the right grades - I took five A-levels too. I don't know the stats for interview, but since I had two interviews, an exam, and a written submission on top of my exam results and UCAS application, and the interview process for the college went on for several days I'd expect that they interview at least 5 people for every place, if not more. So having all the right grades is only enough to get you as far as the interview, nothing further. Your educational background has very little to do with getting in - except I suspect that they assume that private school applicants are coached better and give state school applicants the benefit of the doubt, a little.

I'm sorry to rant about this, but it really matters to me. People who make assertions that Oxbridge hates state school kids are precisely the reason that state school applications are so low at good universities, and why a disproportionate number of privately educated applicants are accepted, as wordfactory described. My college even has a programme that links them to state schools in deprived areas throughout the country which sends current students to the state schools to explain what it's like to study at Cambridge in the hope of increasing applications.

ghosteditor, you are spot on. Oxbridge are gagging for more state school applications and to make more offers to the applicants. In my experience it is parents ("we are not Oxbridge people") and teachers (irrationally afraid of Oxbridge because they did not go there) who tend to suppress demand from bright kids in the state sector.

There's always the danger that some bosses are suspicious of Oxbridge-educated applicants. Because they think such applicants will be cleverer than them, snobs, or have a sense of entitlement. Deeply unfair, of course, unless you've met the person or can see that on their CV. But it does exist.

' fact, of my friendship group from university it is a couple of the privately schooled people who are finding the working world hardest as they seem to believe that they are above starting at the bottom of their industry and working their way up. They just can't stick anything out, and sometimes I wonder if that's because they have a sense of entitlement that just doesn't hack it in business today.'

How odd. None of my privately-educated friends have any problems finding work and sticking at. That's decades on from leaving school and going to Oxbridge. Of my nephews and nieces, the privately- and state-educated seem to find working life equally challenging.

abra it's not like it's all of the people I know who were educated privately - just a couple of the ones whom I would consider to be the most privileged. Who knows, though, it could be a whole host of reasons that make them appear that way.

Well if they want to be a politicians wife...maybe...but most girls have no such ambition