Best school Oxbridge statistics

[cookies222]

Hi - I just wondered where I could find up to date Oxbridge statistics. Is there one website? Thanks!

Both Oxford and Cambridge publish lists of offers by school admissions centres on their websites. It does mean however that you have to trawl through lots of schools to find the ones you are looking for.

The Tatler Good Schools Guide publishes a % to Oxbridge statistic for each school featured. It doesn’t include state schools though, nor the increasing number heading to US Ivy League Universities.

Plus be mindful that some people believe that negative selection is starting to appear for students coming from these top schools. I know of a Harrow boy predicted four A stars and a good all rounder (on sports teams, choir singer) who didn’t get a place this year. Sure, he could have just had a rubbish interview, but the school was amazed he didn’t get an offer.

I know of a Harrow boy predicted four A stars and a good all rounder (on sports teams, choir singer) who didn’t get a place this year. Sure, he could have just had a rubbish interview, but the school was amazed he didn’t get an offer

There’ll be lots of students predicted 4 A* who don’t get an offer.

Beware statistics though. As Zodle says, year on year the balance is changing. Also, to some extent, it is a numbers game. If 100 apply to Oxbridge and 20% get in, that looks good, in that they send 20 to Oxbridge each year, but that in percentage terms is only in line with total applicants v. acceptances. If 5 apply and 5 get in, that is a much better hit rate! Statistics never tell the whole story.

Look no further than LEH in Richmond (girls) or Westminster (boys).

Few co-eds can compete with the single sex indes when it comes to Oxbridge success rate.

LEH? Why LEH? They seem to have sent less than 10% to Oxbridge last year. There are other girls' schools with much better hit rates. Though I think it is probably a bit of an odd way to pick a school.

OP, you need to read some of the threads on the Higher Education section of MN, attending a comprehensive in certain parts of the UK is a good route to Oxbridge.

That’s great thank you. I’ll check out Tatler and Oxbridge websites. Any way of easily finding out state school stats?

How do you find out the hit rate? How many apply and then get in!?!

Brampton Manor in East London

1. Oxford & Cambridge are not remotely interested I whether someone plays netball for England, has gold DofE or was head boy. They only care about how interested you are in your subject.

2. Are you seriously considering applying for schools based on their Oxbridge success rate? What if they're not a straight grade 8/9 or A* student or want to study sociology or graphic design?

Thanks I’ll check out Brampton Manor. Is this a state school? Are they really only interested in your subject knowledge?? Yes I’m interested in this as my children are very academic.

You need to read the threads, not only do you need to be passionate about your subject and mega bright but the offers are contextual meaning you are more likely to get in if you go to a comprehensive with an Oxbridge outreach programme that has never sent a child to Oxbridge than being 4x A* at St Paul's for Girls in London.

Very academic children do not need to go to Oxbridge to thrive and prosper. If those universities do not offer the degree they want to do and/or the course doesn't focus on their interests, they are better off going elsewhere. One example: Engineering is a general course. If child already set on a particular type of Engineering, better to choose that course. And as Herculepoirot states, 4 A* grades do not guarantee an offer. I don't know how young your DC are, it would seem you are looking out for secondary schools, but however brilliantly academic they are, please don't plan their life out for them in this way. They may not want the trajectory you appear to want.

Are you able to say roughly where you live, @cookies222? And do you have boys or girls or both? Because I suspect people could probably help you better if there was a rough area of interest.

If you are not opposed to private education, many of the most selective private secondaries are delighted to offer good bursaries to children who they feel will thrive at the school which basically means children who are extremely academic. If you are in London, the cut off for a bursary can be quite high. DD's school has the cut off after which you receive no help at £110K per year and some are higher than that.

However, having been through this process myself with an academically inclined child who needed a lot more than was provided in her state primary, I would suggest that you look at the curriculum and what is actually offered because for me that made more difference than percentages getting to Oxbridge. It was really important to me to see what the language provision was at schools as I could already tell that DD would be good in that area and enjoy it so the first thing I was looking for was all children getting at least the opportunity to study two MFLs. There were other things too. But if you know where your children's interests lie, you can try to pick a school that will encourage those interests and has the ability and curriculum content to do so.

I don't think Oxbridge success rates are the thing you should be looking at, in short, even though DD is at a school with really high numbers of children going on to Oxbridge.

Brampton Manor - a comp in East London.

www.theguardian.com/education/2019/jan/15/london-state-school-brampton-manor-41-students-offered-oxbridge-place

Sorry... missed the post above

Hi - I just wondered where I could find up to date Oxbridge statistics. Is there one website? Thanks!

It's not one place, you know...

All the Cambridge data are here:

www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/apply/statistics

Applications, Offers & Acceptances by UCAS Apply Centre links give data for individual schools.

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(And if your kids are bright and engaged with their subject then I expect they'll figure out for themselves what subject they want to do where in due course...)

The schools data is numbers of applicants, offers and acceptances but doesn't give the number of pupils in the year so you would need to get that from elsewhere for properly meaningful comparisons - large numbers can mean massive 6th form college.
And I think they can be quite variable year on year.

“the offers are contextual meaning you are more likely to get in if you go to a comprehensive with an Oxbridge outreach programme that has never sent a child to Oxbridge than being 4x A* at St Paul's for Girls in London.”

This is a very under nuanced understanding / explanation of contextual offers.

The self same schools that leak Maths A level papers 😱
If your kid is bright enough for oxbridge it really doesn’t matter if the school send a third of their cohort or a dozen a year ( obviously they need to be somewhere with reasonable experience of the process.

obviously they need to be somewhere with reasonable experience of the process.

I wouldn't say 'needs' - all the information you need is readily available online - but it may be helpful, at least in encouraging pupils to apply.

the offers are contextual

I'm pretty sure that's untrue for Oxbridge (it does apply elsewhere eg Bristol), in the usual sense of the offer being for lower grades.

There's a contextual element in who gets an interview, and Cambridge has this year introduced a contextual element to the 'summer pool'.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/education-46470838
Here is a story that you may find interesting.