whose dc has got into Cambridge from state school?

[brimfull]

dd thinks she has no chance.

I went. Lots of my friends did too. From state schools.

My neighbours son has just started at Oxford from a S London state school.

Isn't is the case that the same proportion of state school applicants get into Oxbridge as private school applicants? But many of the good state school applicants don't apply.

I went from a bog standard state school (not a grammar). Lots of people did and still do.

But your dd really needs to know exactly what she wants to study, and why. And if she wants to go to Cambridge, why? It's not necessarily the best place for someone who wants something applied and business-oriented.

DH went to Cambridge from a good state school. Good advice from BoffinMum. My question would be why does she want to go there?

wow this thread still cropping up?

the problem is she is still undecided in what she wants to stduy.

doing maths,french,physics and music Alevels

I was really interested in asking because she scoffed and laughed it off when I suggested she look at oxford and cambridge.

She's currently too undecided .

She is now thinking about music ffs!

So atm she is concentrating on what direction to take

do what she loves-music and ? french
or something more career orientated like accounting or economics etc

thanks for the positive stories though,it's good for her to know anything is a possibility if you work hard enough and have the dedication

Just as well she still has a year to decide really. A year's a long time at 16 too.

I changed my mind loads in the couple of years before applying, from Medicine age 16 to a brief and unwise flirtation with Engineering (Yuk, what was I thinking? I blame all that emphasis on Women into Engineering/business/science at school) to PPE to Philosophy and Psychology.

hiya, I did maths at cambridge (from a state school). Haven't really got much to add on the state/private debate, but I don't know if it's the same now as when I applied, but the interviews for maths are really difficult and I think your daughter would be struggling to get in without Further Maths (I did this and I think when I applied it was pretty much a pre-requisite). Perhaps if her school does not offer further maths they may consider her application, but if it does, I think they would ask "Why do you want to study Maths if you don't like it enough to have done Further Maths". They also made me do extra exam papers (called STEP then) to get in. These were pretty hard and would also be difficult to pass without Further Maths.
So not trying to put off her applying, but do some investigating on what they generally look for for Maths applicants. I'd also advise as well, that if she's not sure on Maths then it may not be the course for her. I was a maths geek at school, could not do enough maths (oh dear) etc etc, but even I found studying mind-hurty maths for 6 hours a day for 3 years a bit much!! HOWEVER, it was really easy to change courses at Cambridge, so if she did get in for Maths, and didn't like it it would probably be easy to change to economics, etc, if it's the same as when I was there.

Oh another thing I did as well, was get a little booklet from Cambridge and look at the stats of how many people get in to each college per applicant, and how many state school applicants each college takes. I then applied to a college (Robinson) that took quite a high proportion of state school applicants. I am not sure of the admissions procedures these days (i.e. whether you still apply to a college, I expect you do) but I imagine all these stats are available online these days.

Unsure about Oxbridge, but I think my 9 year old has an outstanding chance of getting in here

Summerlightening, the thing about the booklet is good advice. Also good is to see which subject is relatively unfashionable and which colleges as well. This improves your odds.

The state school my DCs attend/attended, albeit a grammar school, gets quite a few into Cambridge every year. BoffinMums advice is more or less what the school recommends for our pupils too. Go for it, nothing to lose!