Harrow/Eton/Winchester Entry 2027

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Hi all,

Just thought I would start a thread for Entry 2027 for the above.

My DS has had the invite for the Harrow Test in Jan 2025, has anyone heard back for Eton or Winchester?

i appreciate its just a waiting game, but am asking out of curiosity.

Happy news here!

Us too!

Now you have a tough choice to make!

Us too!

FYI DS was waitlisted for Eton, but he was not massively disappointed, which we were a little curious about.

DS was extremely pleased with Harrow offer and does not want to consider any other school…phew.

So his first choice has come in, we can hopefully move on to getting him ready (somehow).

Best of luck everyone still waiting for results and for those who have received their offers!

Great to hear of DS success despite the numerous challenges faced. Congratulations!!!

How much of a difference do you think the VAT has made to how academically selective these schools can now be? Do you think it’s moving to selection by wallet size instead of IQ? My son in y8 recently had a few friends suddenly contacted by Harrow, Eton and Brighton all saying (after being told no) that they wanted him to resit the tests. Both the Harrow and Brighton boy were then subsequently offered for this September start.

A boy in y6 I know was interviewed for Winchester and I was surprised. I didn’t think he was ‘that’ academic and in wondered if standards were changing.

Positive news from Harrow!
I don’t think that in particular it’s very difficult to get into these boarding schools. Not sure if they are still considering based on academics. Everyone I know from our schools who applied to these three are being accepted or waitlisted.

@Birmingbacon , the London day schools think the unexpected lift in applications for the last cycle was partly due to central London families dropping the boarding school option due to cost and only considering day schools.

Having spoken to a few folks in the schools, it seems the IQ quotient for getting in has not massively changed, rather the pool from which they select high quality applicants has shrunk.

No doubt it is a delicate dance, but being called after rejected, I have not heard about this (but why would I have?), but certainly more students making it through after waitlisting would make sense, in some cases, 60%+.

Regarding Year 8 applicants etc, maybe the performance of the endowments was below expectations and therefore support boys had to be withdrawn, or vice versa. I have no direct information to suggest the above, just random conversations. The VAT imposition on fees could release back-dated funds, so some schools, especially those building extensively, could have a windfall.

Eton, Harrow, WinColl and many others are attracting very talented pupils, VAT will just squeeze who can make it in, rather than reduce the quality of applicants, in my opinion.

My DS has an offer from Harrow and one from Radley.

Could anyone give me some advice on which one to choose?

My DS isn’t a sporty person. Which school’s sport programme would be less demanding?

As per diversity, is Harrow more ‘international’ while Radley is mainly white British?
Would race be an issue in these public boarding school among teenage boys?

What do British locals think about the two schools generally?
Does Harrow has a higher reputation or it’s now seen as ‘degrading’ since it’s now more ‘international’ and not as traditional as it used to be in the past.

I value every comment. Thank you in advance.

Not based on facts but what i’ve heard is that the application to boardings were significantly up this year. Mainly because of the families moving due to Non-Dom status. Some families prefer to keep kids continue the system of education they are used to. I may be completely wrong.
Only someone working at admissions can share the stats to answer this☺️
At harrow, we were third group and told that there are nine groups in total to interview. Our group had quite a lot of boys and the ones before us also share the similar information.
Winchester is hard to guess as they do one family slot interview so it’s hard to see how many are interviewing.
Eton were also alot of boys so I doubt that it’s the strength they are worried about.

We have an identical dilemma here, also holding offers for both these schools. We would also like to hear everyone's thoughts. My sense is that whilst sports at Harrow are extensive and it can certainly be considered a sporty school, in fact elite in certain year groups, Radley has a stronger fixture list across all sports and age groups (and across all levels of teams - A, B , C teams etc) and are highly successful across most of these. Perhaps more so than Harrow, and sport could perhaps hold higher status at Radley. Both schools have fabulous breadth across sport, music, drama and other co curricular though, so I think a less sporty boy could thrive at either. Harrow definitely has a larger international contingent than Radley, Harrow at around 20/25% of pupils and Radley around 15%. Pastorally Radley feels a little more nurturing than Harrow, which has a sense that there is more emphasis on a character education. That can be a good or bad thing of course, depending on what one is looking for.

Hi Natsume,

My DS has also had an offer from Radley and he/we have chosen Harrow.

For DS, he wanted somewhere that would support his cricketing ambitions. It didn't help that on the Radley Open Day, Harrow thrashed Radley at cricket!

Academically, I am uncertain if there is any material difference, but the alumnus connection with Old Harrovians appears to be quite strong. I have not heard the same for Radley. Again, entirely subjective on our part and of no interest to DS.

In terms of race, I saw plenty of diversity among mingling of groups at Harrow. For Radley, we were approached by asian students, unprompted, saying how welcoming Radley are and how supported they feel. It left us as parents very confident about the pastoral element at Radley.

On balance, the HM and support Harrow gave throughout the process, including cricket tryouts, being a centre for ISEB (DS prep is not one) and private tours made it an easy choice for DS.

As mentioned before, DS is waitlisted at Eton, but despite our encouragement, wants to stay with Harrow.

Hope that helps.

From what I hear Radley is the more British of the schools in terms of the student body. I haven’t visited myself. Harrow more international

Hello there, wondering if we know what date Winchester comes out?

Hi, regarding Winchest college, we are not sure about the exact date but they said roughly End of May.

Today, Wincol announced to merge Pilgrims School by 1 September 2025.

Initially Winchester had said end of May but I recently heard from some mothers that we will hear back on the 1st of May. Good luck everyone 🤞🏻

Winchester offers are in!!!

just a quick question - does anyone know if they offer both conditional and unconditional offers at Winchester?

I think only conditional. The boys have to pass the Winchester College exams called election or entrance before entry, although it is unusual for a boy to fail. They are a bit like the CE scholarship exams, I suspect designed to keep the boys working for the next few years rather than totally sitting back.

We've got a GP offer. Best luck to everyone!

Hi, what is a GP offer?

Fab! Congrats. Where has DS made it?

General Place Offer. That means it's not decided yet which house to go. But email says the original house we applied for will probably accept him in the end.