Academic scholarship and university applications

[Swalwey]

A question for university admissions tutors (and anyone else with experience of this point): is being an academic scholar something that universities place any weight on in the admissions process?

For background: DD needs to decide where to do her 6th form. She is very able and is predicted all 9s at GCSEs. Her current school is in the top 20 in the country in the Times league table that has just come out today. She found out this week that she has been awarded an academic scholarship if she stays to do A levels. There are very few of these awarded by the school.

She also has an offer from another school where she could do the IB. The other school is in the top 3 in the country for IB.

Clearly both schools are excellent. Their pros and cons are very evenly matched, so it boils down somewhat to the issue of which school will give DD the best chance of gaining admission to the uni of her choice. She wants to study classics. In an ideal world I think she’d be looking at St Andrew’s, Durham, Cambridge.

If she does A levels she would do Latin, class civ, philosophy and maths. If she does IB she would do Latin, English and RP as highers, and maths, economics and chemistry as standards.

I would be very grateful for any advice. TIA

Not really, the predicted grades are paramount and for Oxbridge entry tests and interview.

I would do A levels. The IB offers tend to be tougher to achieve, and the unrelated subjects won't give her much benefit for classics. (Although chemistry could be handy if she switched her interest to archaeology...)

If you can, check out the teachers who will actually be teaching her. How experienced are they and what is their recent track record in admissions for classics.
As part of the reference, the school can mention where she sits in her cohort so “top of the year and an academic scholar” would stand out if she’s eg applying from SPGS. Oxford do take a holistic approach to admissions once you get to the interview stage, but you have to get there first which will depend on entrance tests or submitted work, and achieved and predicted grades more than the PS and references or scholarship.

This will be something the school mentions in their reference. The predicted grades will be what the Uni looks for then (possibly) the contents of the personal statement. Nothing else

Hmm, would this be a move from somewhere like Putney High to Godolphin and Latymer, or Kings Wimbledon?

Does the academic scholarship mean a slight fee reduction?

I have had kids in these London schools OP, and places like Putney or Wimbledon High etc etc, know that each year, they will lose a handful of their top students to the more 'big name' London Day Schools - SPGS, Kings, G&L, CLGS, LU. So they offer academic, sports, music, drama scholarships to prevent this drift.

You might know the school LU - they give the title of 'academic scholar' to any student gaining all 9s moving up into their sixth form. But no fee discount.

In practice, it will make no difference to uni applications. Classics had a high acceptance rate anyway - even at Cambridge it's over 40%. From any of these schools though, do bear in mind that she will need to do a LOT over and above the curriculum and a string of 9s and A stars because everything is contextualised.

In case it's G&L she is thinking of moving to for IB, it's an amazing school and I would highly recommend. But they don't really do subject prizes and stuff like that - everyone does very well but it's all quite low-key and not really an 'awards culture' there.

She might be better staying where she is and aiming to get the Year 12 Classics Prize in her school (if they have one) because Cambridge like clear evidence that student are 'top' within their specific cohorts.

3 A-levels are less work than IB for sure - but if she's moving to Kings or G&L, they generally do 4 A-levels plus EPQ. Also a lot of work!

What does she want to do?

We don’t look at scholarships per se, OP. However depending on the final shape of the UCAS application form when DD’s time comes, one hopes she would be able to list this. Again, we would not care explicitly - as @LIZS says, it is all about the PGs.

However as @north51 says I would expect the letter of reference to discuss a scholarship. Letters can matter, particularly at the universities you cite.

OTOH I think the IB programme is fantastic. I am in maths-heavy STEM and we had some concern that because there is somewhat less explicit maths in IB, our IB students might struggle. We did an internal study a while back. Not a bit of it! They were thriving.

IB is respected on your CV worldwide long after high school.

I think DD cannot lose, and to the extent that finances permit, I would seek her input. Best wishes to her.

Thank you all for your advice. It genuinely looks like there is no wrong answer - both schools are great and I think DD would do well at either of them.