CAN YOU BEAT THE BAD NEWS?

September was a tough month for state school students planning to apply for Oxbridge. According to a study by the Sutton Trust, a major education charity, one hundred schools, four-fifth of them from the private sector, account for nearly a third of all undergraduates starting at Oxford or Cambridge each year. Moreover, differences in the quality of teaching or in students’ academic aspirations alone could not explain this. After all, the proportion of Oxbridge entrants from the top 30 fee-paying schools was nearly twice as high as that for the best 30 state grammars, despite similar A-level scores.

So, what can you do to beat those statistics? The answer, clearly does not lie in school work alone, though this must be of top quality. The skills, interests and knowledge level Oxbridge (somewhat unrealistically) seeks in all its applicants can be acquired in other, independent ways. Some are subject-specific, and both universities have become better at spelling out what they are looking for on the course website. Knowledge needs to be broad and come from reputable sources (look at the “Read all around it” chapter in OXBRIDGE ENTRANCE: THE REAL RULES). Interests need to be pursued with some vigour. What successful Oxbridge applicants have in common is that they have followed this path.