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Higher education

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

Original poster

Don’t necessarily aim high with uni choices!

156 replies

Operafanatic · 20/12/2025 03:22

My DC had four RG offers and got Astar AA at A-level. They knew they didn’t want to go into law (where uni status still matters) so chose their uni based purely on the course and lifestyle they liked the most. We supported that - despite their prestigious private school's objections (they advocated RG unis only - mainly, I think, because that was/is a performance measure for schools). DC graduated from Swansea last year with a First and is now working in civil service fast stream. If they had gone to another uni, I am not at all convinced they would have got a first - being top of the pack (rather than middling as at school) gave them confidence. More importantly, had the time of their life at Swansea - such a super uni with very high student satisfaction! So question the advice to aim high - sometimes it is better to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond! Am mentioning this because my DD in year 13 (predicted all A stars) is about to do the same - Exeter rather than Imperial or Warwick in her case. Eldest DC found that every grad scheme he applied to was university blind anyway!

OP posts:
BrokenSunflowers · 30/12/2025 23:38

OhDear111 · 30/12/2025 23:20

@BrokenSunflowers And what universities have the 20% attended? Mostly the high ranked ones.
@Ritasueandbobtoo9 Which state school? Maybe they have many exceptional students? Is this a London comp? The playing field is level enough but maybe London pupils want it more and some immigrant families definitely do. Maybe more than former pit village residents?

Maybe private school pupils want it more?

Ritasueandbobtoo9 · 31/12/2025 05:13

There are thousands of villages in UK and very few pits.

converseandjeans · 31/12/2025 05:44

@Operafanatic

Yes. 100%. I repeat again - my son got A star AA at A-level. His cousin got 3 A stars at A-level. My son got 10 GCES - two grade 9s but otherwise 6s and 7s. His cousin got 10 grade 9s and 1 grade 8. Both read the same degree (Modern Languages) - at the same time - but at different unis (graduating 5 months ago). My son got a First from Swansea. His cleverer cousin (there is no debate in our family about that) got a 2.1 from Cambridge.

I don’t know that the cousin is cleverer. It sounds like DS made a lot of progress from GCSE to A level. Someone who got mostly 6s 7s at GCSE would not usually get such good A level grades. So well done to him & it’s hard to get A or A* in MFL if you’re not a native speaker.

It’s interesting to hear they don’t consider the uni when employing graduates.

We liked the look of Swansea on open day. It was way better than RG open days we went on.

Sandyoldshoes · 31/12/2025 08:12

converseandjeans · 31/12/2025 05:44

@Operafanatic

Yes. 100%. I repeat again - my son got A star AA at A-level. His cousin got 3 A stars at A-level. My son got 10 GCES - two grade 9s but otherwise 6s and 7s. His cousin got 10 grade 9s and 1 grade 8. Both read the same degree (Modern Languages) - at the same time - but at different unis (graduating 5 months ago). My son got a First from Swansea. His cleverer cousin (there is no debate in our family about that) got a 2.1 from Cambridge.

I don’t know that the cousin is cleverer. It sounds like DS made a lot of progress from GCSE to A level. Someone who got mostly 6s 7s at GCSE would not usually get such good A level grades. So well done to him & it’s hard to get A or A* in MFL if you’re not a native speaker.

It’s interesting to hear they don’t consider the uni when employing graduates.

We liked the look of Swansea on open day. It was way better than RG open days we went on.

Don’t set too much store by ‘they don’t consider uni when employing graduates’ - ‘they’ certainly do for lots of jobs!

HPFA · 31/12/2025 14:30

BrokenSunflowers · 30/12/2025 20:03

The majority of Oxbridge state school students attended selective state schools.

Only 20% of law graduates work as lawyers (solicitors or barristers) - it is pretty much at the bottom of the list for going on to work in a related field, alongside computing.

Edited

That's not true.

https://public.tableau.com/views/UniversityofOxford-AdmissionsStatistics2024SchoolType/SchoolType?:embed=y&:display_count=yes&:showTabs=y&:showVizHome=no.

https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/sites/default/files/publications/ug_admissions_statistics_2024_cycle.pdf

Tableau

https://public.tableau.com/views/UniversityofOxford-AdmissionsStatistics2024SchoolType/SchoolType?%3Adisplay_count=yes&%3Aembed=y&%3AshowTabs=y&%3AshowVizHome=no.

OhDear111 · 31/12/2025 17:48

@BrokenSunflowers If you can afford private school fees, you earn well! That quite possibly means these parents have good jobs and are bright. They are high achievers and you would expect their dc to be. They might choose a private school because they can afford to and it suits them. The numbers of very bright dc appearing from poorly educated parents who don’t earn much is now fairly unusual. Mostly bright people come from bright families. Mostly.

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