yes, this. I actually started at Oxford 2006!
There aren't really "scholarships" to oxbridge (unless perhaps choral but that's never suggested here). Also 'class of' is supposed to be the year you graduate, not the year you start, so even if it was done for a US audience that would have incorrectly signified it was set in 2002 to them. I don't know why EF would choose to do something so obviously wrong and out of place rather than just, for example, having him holding an admittance letter clearly dated 2006/ saying '1st day of term is 20 September 2006' if they wanted to set the scene.
Although actually state school admittances were less than 50% in 2006, (47.1% to be exact https://gazette.web.ox.ac.uk/files/admissions-2006pdf, and that would include the best grammar schools and places like London Oratory, not just your bog standard comp) so technically state school students arriving not knowing anyone (like I was) were a minority, although obviously not to the extent portrayed in the film.
I think what they were going for is the feeling that for the majority of the normal state school students you would very likely be the only person from your school to go to Oxford that year, almost definitely the only one in your college, and while there were of course loads of others in the same position as you, it was weird to wonder why some people seemed to have made such close friends so quickly, before realising it was because they'd been to school together for 7 years! Of course for most people that feeling faded after the first week or two, and you felt like you'd known everyone forever, rather than the 'only' 2 'normal' people having to hang out together as outsiders, despite having nothing in common. Oh and the part where they weren't invited to bops was wrong too, the whole point of them being in the JCR was you didn't need invites and literally couldn't exclude anyone from their own living area!
Saying that I did enjoy most of the film (as everyone else has said RP and REG made it), but the ending ruined it.
Most of these stately piles are legally linked to the title - it's likely this would have gone to the Downton equivalent of a third-cousin (Matthew) removed who would have chucked RP out months before Oliver could even engineer a meeting with her in London. Although it's possible the title could have gone into abeyance, it's still very unlikely the whole estate would have gone to the wife (and therefore be hers to bequeath to Oliver) without anyone else (Farleigh/his mother?) trying to claim it. And yes of course the police would have been involved, and a PM would likely establish exactly how she died! It also wasn't clear what she died OF - did she happen to just develop cancer or something (in which case it was hardly a foolproof plan, she could have lived another 30-40 years!), or, if he had been poisoning her that would also have been discovered in a PM, if not before.
Did have some excellent lines though. My favourite was 'She came from Greece, she had a thirst for knowledge. I've never wanted to know anything!'