Do Oxford & Cambridge interviewers see which school candidates go to?

[TheCreationOfDistance]

I posted this in Chat, but maybe it's better here. I wonder if anyone can anyone help me with this question, please?

During Oxford and Cambridge interviews, would the interviewers be able to see which school a candidate attended?

I would think that yes, it would be on the application, surely?

The colleges definitely would see. I guess it would depend whether the college provides the full application to the interviewer or just a copy of the personal statement and reference or a copy of the full application. I suspect the latter.

I'd be amazed if they couldn't.
They will expect a higher standard of polish/confidence from a candidate from Eton/WA than from St Brutus's Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys.

Yes, it's on the ucas form, all secondary schools attended since 11. Oxford also provide us with two pages of 'contextual data' including school performance at gcse and a level, % kids on free school meals... also data on disadvantage levels in your home post code. admin pool it into an aggregate 'disadvantage' score for the individual student and students with high scores have a lower threshold for interview. And we get annual training on how to read all these data.

The teacher reference on the ucas form also usually includes a short paragraph about the school (type of school/college, selective/not, state/independent; demographics of intake; number of a levels taken by most students etc)

Yes. The school history is listed on the UCAS form so we see all of that. We also have data on school performance etc for each candidate as Mother of Crocodiles explains.

So that answers your question. Can I ask why you asked it?

Yes, definitely and it plays a part in their judgements. They consciously give a wider margin to pupils from state schools with no or low track record of sending to Oxbridge - and rightly so. Pupils from elite private schools or top grammars are expected to perform better at interview as they will have been prepped more thoroughly.