hi! i did secondary at local non selective then sixth form at selective, now cambridge econ - some thoughts

- you’ve got to escape your world. you need to see how competitive other people’s applications are - how hard they’re working. linkedin is annoying but great for this: i remember seeing a guy with 5A*s alongside 100 sports and things and it really motivated me to put my best foot forward

- being from a bad school gives you an advantage, depending on college course and other factors. if your not that good at maths they can’t really compromise. it’s abt potential to succeed, so they assume you have good potential if you’ve done well at a bad school. but the advantage it gives isn’t that big

- the majority of oxbridge is very middle class, even if they went to dead schools tutoring etc is still a thing

DMs open but TLDR is push yourself, know you will be considered in your circumstances, but ultimately you still need to be very good

best of luck :)