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Introduction to public schools and Oxbridge (facts, not fic!) 2/3

[anonymous]

So Cameron and Clegg were both highly privileged - both educated at prep and public schools. For a lot of people, university is their first time away from home, but Cameron and Clegg will have been used to being away from their families for long periods of time. They also both had gap years. Gap years are more available these days, but back then (and still to a certain extent now), they were the sign of having money - you basically spend a year doing whatever you want between school and university...a lot of people do a mixture between travel and work, and the more pretentious people might say, “I’m going to find myself”. Wikipedia doesn’t say where Cameron spent his, but apparently Clegg spent the year before university as a skiing instructor in Austria, and even younger than that, at the age of 16, he went to Germany as an exchange student. So they will have both been independent - if you’re writing about them early on in their time at university, be aware of that: they’re unlikely to be homesick or anything like that, although university could feasibly be their first experience of being educated alongside girls.

To get into Oxbridge, you need to be good. For a long time, really you just needed to have enough money and be related to the right people, and whilst that might have applied to Cameron and Clegg, I think we’ve probably got enough evidence to suggest they’d have got in even by today’s stance of valuing ability instead of connections.

First off, you’d need good grades. How the education system worked back then was that you took GCEs - General Certificates of Education, which were awarded as O levels and A levels. At 16, you took O (‘ordinary’) levels, and at 18 you took A (‘advanced’) levels (in the current education system, we still do A levels, but O levels have been replaced by GCSEs - General Certificates of Secondary Education). You’d do O levels in perhaps 10 or 12 subjects, and A levels in perhaps 3 or 4. You studied for your A levels between the ages of 16 and 18, and this time in school was usually called Sixth Form (aged 16-17, it was Lower Sixth, and aged 17-18, it was Upper Sixth). For Oxbridge, you need not just good grades at A level, but good marks (that is, it’s often not just enough to get an A, they’d often be looking at what percentages you got in certain exams etc).

In addition to the grades, you’d also need to do an interview, where you’d have to prove your enthusiasm for your chosen course, as well as your ability to speak and generally act like ‘the right kind of person’. You also need to come across as well-rounded - hobbies, extracurricular achievements (like sport or music), and perhaps some work experience as well. (Recommendation: the 2006 film (or the original play by Alan Bennet) The History Boys, about some working-class boys applying for places at Oxbridge in the 1980s - great film and an interesting outsider’s look at the universities and the whole culture around them.)

If you want to see what Oxford and Cambridge are like today (and learn more about each institution), then you can visit their websites:
Oxford: http://www.ox.ac.uk/
Cambridge: http://www.cam.ac.uk/

Oxford and Cambridge are breeding grounds for talent. There are plenty of intelligent and successful people who went to other universities, but science, literature and politics, to name just three key areas, all contain large numbers of Oxbridge alumni - and that’s before we get on to all the actors and comedians etc. that have come out of things like Cambridge Footlights: http://footlights.org/about.html Basically, if you’re at Oxbridge, you’re expected to succeed - and nobody’s that impressed if you tell them about what you’re planning to do with your life. You have a lot to live up to.

Re: Introduction to public schools and Oxbridge (facts, not fic!) 2/3

[anonymous]

Addendum here, from someone who went to Oxford in the early/mid-90s, about getting into Oxford.

Firstly, applying to Oxbridge, you don't apply to the university, you apply to three colleges at the university, and one of those colleges has to accept you.

Secondly, in my day (creak, groan, I feel so oooooold) and almost certainly in Camerons, there was the Oxford entrance exam--three fiendish 3-hour exam papers of which two were on your subject and one was full of questions such as 'which has killed more people, religion or science?') which are meat and drink to those who read meta, but were apparently designed to separate the book-fed swots from the genuinely intelligent. It was abolished round about '95/'96 (cite), having been in place at least ten years, so probably did cover Cameron's day.

Feel free to ask if OP or anyone has any specific questions. (I'm in the unique position of having attended a state primary school, a prep school, a state high school, a public school, an oxbridge college AND a redbrick university)

Re: Introduction to public schools and Oxbridge (facts, not fic!) 2/3

[anonymous]

Seconded on the recommendation for the History Boys! Great film

Like the OP writer says, it's not the situation Cameron or Clegg would have been in, but it's interesting to think that while they were applying with relative ease, to universities their relatives had gone to - and where many of their friends would be going - with the best advice and instruction that money could buy, there were people all over the country like the guys in the History Boys who were doing something new and weird and confusing, being taught by contradictory teachers and mostly thinking there was very little chance of being accepted. It's a film about people who are different (in the words of one character, "I'm Jewish, I'm small, I'm homosexual, and I live in Sheffield...I'm fucked"), and the strange ideal they're aspiring to is the norm for people from backgrounds like Cameron's and Clegg's.

Re: Introduction to public schools and Oxbridge (facts, not fic!) 2/3

[anonymous]

*sigh* Oh, the History Boys is such a great play/film :)

"Durham was where I had my first pizza. Other firsts too, but it's the pizza that stands out."

Re: Introduction to public schools and Oxbridge (facts, not fic!) 2/3

[anonymous]

I applied to Cambridge three years ago and they still wanted marks then. I'm not sure if this has changed since the introduction of the A* grade - I know we all had to resend our DOS our marks last year so the college could work out if / how they were going to change their admissions offer.

They weren't really interested in extra-curric at interview though, might depend on college / subject though. I've heard some were more keen on hearing about sporting / musical achievements.

Re: Introduction to public schools and Oxbridge (facts, not fic!) 2/3

[anonymous]

I'm really glad they weren't around when I sat mine, it just seems like a lot of extra pressure. I cried my eyes out because one of my As was low - I dread to think what I would have been like if that had meant it was 'just' an A. :/

Lol. I just gushed like an idiot about how much I loved history for twenty minutes. She asked me what else I liked to do that didn't involve history and I was like '...' So, yeah, I am glad it's more academics driven! XD

Re: Introduction to public schools and Oxbridge (facts, not fic!) 2/3

[anonymous]

Oxford may only want grades, but Cambridge certainly want marks, and Cambridge has adjusted its "usual" offer to be A*AA while Oxford's remains AAA I believe.

OP

[anonymous]

Thanks for the annotations. :) I wasn't referring to Bennet as an outsider, more the characters in the film/play, but reading it back that's not clear so thanks for pointing it out. :D

Not entirely sure of the current interview process, but UCAS personal statements need to have evidence of extracurricular activities, and I was always taught that, whilst grades are the most important thing, it's important to be able to prove you have a life outside of your studies.

Re: Introduction to public schools and Oxbridge (facts, not fic!) 2/3

[anonymous]

I believe Alan Bennett actually, unusually, went to both - before Exeter, Oxford he was at Sidney Sussex, Cambridge.

Re: Introduction to public schools and Oxbridge (facts, not fic!) 2/3

[his_gidsship]

For a long time, really you just needed to have enough money and be related to the right people

That was mostly gone by the 1920s at the latest! OK, there might have been a bit of nepotism left at the more unreconstructed colleges, but by the time Clameron were applying (and particularly Clegg since he went to a very moern Cambridge college) you'd be hard-pressed to find it.

French engineers who've gone through classes préparatoires and Grandes Ecoles have been known to describe the Cambridge system as brutal.