Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Original poster

To think universities should state separate entry criteria for Indies?

999 replies

Wacamole · 01/04/2021 10:13

DD who is on track for 3A*s at A’level, thought she’d give Oxbridge a go after being encouraged by her teachers. All very excited, doing super curriculars etc. Only just been told she doesn’t meet minimum entry criteria that would be expected from an Indy, which is straight 9s. She doesn’t have straight 9s, she has straight 8s (couple of nines), not only that, the course she wanted to apply for at Cambridge doesn’t require Maths at all, but school has advised they won’t even look at her if she doesn’t do Maths AND Further Maths. She is doing neither. Apparently an EPQ is also mandatory even though none of this is mentioned on Cambridge website.

All this second guessing, reading between the lines has been really confusing.
I have no issue with universities asking for higher entry criteria for students from indies for obvious reasons but wish they would be more transparent and state this on their ‘Entry requirements’ same way they state contextual offers?

OP posts:
ClarasZoo · 02/04/2021 19:02

And Oxford do do the same - and actually helpfully break down the % chance from each UCAS centre/school/sixth form. It's worth a look!

NiamCinnOir · 02/04/2021 19:57

Thank you, @chopc! Just the small matter of meeting the grades now ..,

@ClarasZoo - do you have links for the Oxbridge admissions pages by school/sixth form please?

Curioushorse · 02/04/2021 20:15

@Frequentflier Hullo! My information is 8 years out of date, but it’s worth a shot. We sent students from our international school to study PPE and Economics. They had excellent UCAS applications and had done some really interesting work for local charities. Both were asked about it. It was actually useful work (not GAP year stuff), but things like designing a website/raising huge quantities of money for a famine. Both had the international perspective on economic issues which, I think, made their applications really stand out. They both spoke several languages too. Interestingly their grades were significantly below the grades being talked about in this thread. They were exceptional candidates, though (and.....I’m going to say it.....I suspect probably had more ‘real world’ experience and were better than some of the students mentioned on this thread). Yeah, it’s definitely worth a shot!

ClarasZoo · 02/04/2021 20:19

@NiamCinnOir

Thank you, *@chopc*! Just the small matter of meeting the grades now ..,

@ClarasZoo - do you have links for the Oxbridge admissions pages by school/sixth form please?

If you google Cambridge admission statistics it’s on the first page if you scroll down. It’s hard to link from phone but if you still need it tomorrow tag me and I can do it from computer...
ClarasZoo · 02/04/2021 20:20

Sorry I mean application statistics...

daisypond · 02/04/2021 20:28

A young person who lives with me didn’t apply to Oxford/Cambridge but has had offers from all unis - St Andrews, Durham, UCL, Bristol, Nottingham- and hasn’t got anything like the grades mentioned on here. Has good grades, but not all these exceptional ones.

OnandOnforHoursandHours · 02/04/2021 20:32

@ofteninaspin

Our local state sixth form one of the largest in the country. It recruits from local secondary schools and increasingly from indies including a well known public school. It is selective in that you need a minimum grade at GCSE in the subject you want to study at A Level. Poor performers at A Level are weeded out after one year. It identifies Oxbridge hopefuls early on in its cohort of 1500 and around 60 are successful - nearer 70 I think this year. A lot of advice and resources are available for Oxbridge applicants - far more than anecdotally in the local fee paying day schools.
70 successful applicants across about 7000 intake for Oxbridge, so about 1% from one sixth form?

That’s quite striking. (And I think I know which one you mean.)

daisypond · 02/04/2021 20:36

Where do you get 7000 from? Poster said cohort is 1500, of which 70 get Oxbridge offers.

sandybayley · 02/04/2021 20:42

I think there are 7,000 Oxbridge freshers each year @daisypond

daisypond · 02/04/2021 20:42

Oh, I see! @sandybayley

chopc · 02/04/2021 20:52

@ClarasZoo I stand corrected!

ClarasZoo · 03/04/2021 08:29

The cynic in me wonders if some schools try and restrict the Oxbridge attempters so that they can quote “50% of our Oxbridge applicants are successful” or similar? But to answer the OP original question I attended three admissions talks pre covid at Cambridge. Science subject. Extra curricular? Not interested- less time for Science. GCSEs- interesting- how good are you at science now though? Should I take further maths-er obviously, because you love science! Interview- no mention of personal statement- straight into -can you do these science questions? Head girl?- don’t care- how much do you like science? Keen to row? -oh dear- less time for Science....

MidLifeCrisis007 · 03/04/2021 08:44

@ClarasZoo

It's a shame that Cambridge admissions take such a blinkered approach as employers don't.

ArseInTheCoOpWindow · 03/04/2021 08:49

It will be interesting to see what happens next year when things should hopefully go back to normal at least as far as exams

My dd in Year 10 has missed 10 months of her GCSE course. I hope they don’t go back to ‘normal’

chopc · 03/04/2021 08:51

The whole of my DS's second interview at Cambridge was based on his personal statement and submitted written work.

Bluebris · 03/04/2021 09:01

@MidLifeCrisis007 Is it just Cambridge though? In my DS's school the students were explicitly told, many many times , that all the highest ranking UK universities do not care at all about irrelevant extracurricular activities and achievements unless you can show how they relate directly to what you are applying to study (at least for STEM subjects, maybe for humanities is different?). One or two lines in the PS at most.

Bluebris · 03/04/2021 09:04

@chopc Was it for a humanities subject? My son was not asked a single thing from his statement and neither were his friends who applied to different colleges (all for Economics)

ClarasZoo · 03/04/2021 09:05

@chopc

The whole of my DS's second interview at Cambridge was based on his personal statement and submitted written work.
I suppose for a non science subject they want a bit more personal roundedness. And the personal statement would be relevant for medicine...but for science they told us they really didn’t care. Having said that I sat in on a medicine talk and they told us all they really cared about was their own admission test and the interview, as they recognised some kids get loads of help with PS and some none.. a common theme was that ideally they want the school to just send them the ranking. Eg- I have 100 kids doing History, and this kid is number 1. But the schools don’t do that of course!
daisypond · 03/04/2021 09:08

I know people who were offered places and were asked extensively about their personal statement. It probably made a lot of difference.

ClarasZoo · 03/04/2021 09:26

Perhaps it depends how well you do on the admissions test. If they do really well they are going to be let in anyway, and they can have a chat about the PS!

chopc · 03/04/2021 09:29

It was for a humanities subject (History) and the personal statement was academic and about different aspects of History. So they asked questions about that. In addition for his college he submitted some written work and they talked about that. The last short paragraph was on extracurriculars as we were told Durham would be interested.

bumblingbovine49 · 03/04/2021 09:30

@Wacamole

To be fair, it’s usually been said on MN that universities look for higher grades etc if coming from an Indy. A 9 from an Indy being equivalent to an 8 in a state school etc etc. So I’m inclined to think there is some truth in what the school has said. But there’s also the doubt, ‘what if they talking bollocks?’ Perhaps there is some truth in there but not all of it?

I’d really keen to know if there is anyone here whose dc is applying to Cambridge from an Indy and what their grades are?

Talk to the admissions department or tutor at the university . Emily them or ask questions on their website or call them up do not accept what the school says

.

MarshaBradyo · 03/04/2021 09:34

@Fifthtimelucky

One of my daughters went to Oxford. Advice from her school (selective independent) was that Oxbridge expected students to outperform the average at their school.

They would be expecting more from applicants applying from a school where the average child achieved all grade 8/9s than they would from those applying from a school where the average was grade 07.

It's not as simple as independent vs state.

The advice about maths sounds like nonsense to me.

But doesn’t the selective part make that harder?

So if very smart go to a school where it’s not as selective it’s easier to get in?

I admit I have little knowledge as studied o/s with very straightforward points system

bumblingbovine49 · 03/04/2021 09:43

@GrumpyTerrier

Go straight to the uni admissions team. Only listen to them.

Also, admissions require the stated and published grades. Nothing more, nothing less. There are no secret rules where they say they ask for an 8 but really want a 9. I work in Admissions and I'm always intrigued by the rumours that go round about this stuff.

I completely agree. Most parents on here seem to feel that universitie admissions have some sort of hidden agenda . They dont , they will do their best to give you transparent accurate information about their entry criteria if you ask. Of course they can't tell you if you will.be accepted ( which is often the underlying question from the applicant ) but they will tell you how the decisions are made