Cambridge from the Inside #47: State & Private School Applications | University of Cambridge

Stay tuned to hear Marcus, our Director of Admissions, discuss whether Cambridge has a bias towards school types.

Our 'How will we assess your application?' podcast where Marcus and Siam go through lots of hypothetical situations, can be found in the link below:

   • Cambridge from the Inside #19: How will we...  

A list of topic discussions can be found below:

00:00 Introductions
01:30 Does the University of Cambridge have a preference between state school and private school applications?
02:00 What are state/maintained schools and independent/private schools?
05:10 How we don’t generalise applicants based on the school they’ve attended
09:40 What are the different types of state/maintained schools?
10:30 What are grammar schools?
13:45 What are sixth form colleges, and how are they different from grammar schools and comprehensive schools?
15:00 How has the number of applications from independent vs. maintained sector schools to Cambridge changed over time?
18:10 Where to find the Cambridge Admissions Statistics Reports for each academic year
23:00 Some people think that Cambridge is an elitist institution — is that true? Where does that idea come from?
29:00 Why has there been an increase in the proportion of students admitted to Cambridge from state/maintained schools?
37:20 If 94% of students in the UK attend state/maintained schools, why is the proportion of state/maintained students at Cambridge below 94%?
49:00 Marcus on students he’s taught and their backgrounds
53:30 Could an applicant make a strong application to Cambridge solely using the podcast as their research?
56:30 Why does the ratio of maintained vs. independent school acceptances differ between colleges?
01:01:30 Why does the ratio of maintained vs. independent school acceptances differ between subjects?
01:07:30 On cultural capital
01:12:30 Do all students who come from maintained schools come from comprehensive schools?
01:19:30 In an ideal world, would there be a correlation between school type and acceptance rate?
01:22:00 What advice do you have for students who feel discouraged when looking at the admissions data?
01:25:50 What Marcus’ school was like and his application to Cambridge

Find the relevant webpages for the University of Cambridge and University of Oxford admissions statistics below:

https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.a....

https://www.ox.ac.uk/about/facts-and-...