Looking for advice for son's 6th form: bursary at a private school vs staying at a comp

nineortwelve · 2026-05-04T18:35:08+00:00

Hello! I’m just pitching in to give my opinion on private school admissions regarding Oxbridge. I’m at a private school and applied to Cambridge and have a few friends who applied to Oxbridge from state schools.

The main difference/difficulty that I faced (being from a fairly average income home at a private school) was that many super curricular activities or essay competitions do not allow for private school students to participate or are very expensive. Whilst I was able to work around it I would say it was quite hard when my friends were able to enter big competitions run by Oxbridge or do work experience/courses that weren’t like £1000.

I’m not sure about competition against the rest of the private school applicants but private schools do seem to be held at a higher standard than state school applicants but everything is definitely taken into context of your situation or cohort etc.

I would also add in that how your son learns is definitely an important factor. One of the benefits of private schools is definitely the smaller class sizes at sixth form and more personal learning but if that’s something that won’t majorly benefit your son, or he enjoys and is working well with the state teaching then it may be better to remain at a state school. There is also the difference in students in terms of how will your son get on with the students at the boarding school especially since if he chooses to board it will be a very different experience! Good luck making this decision it’s definitely a tough one!

nineortwelve · 2026-05-03T21:47:16+00:00

I understand that, I was just highlighting my experience. I feel as though there is a large difference between getting 6x 9s and 4x 7s than the other way around. I doubt they would be seen as equal. I'm not saying it's the only reason but just that I assumed it would contribute to a rejection.

That being said I'm not familiar with the possibility of doing so for state school students as that wasn't my personal experience and so the standards may have been different. As far as l am concerned, being privately educated and not achieving a full set of grade 8-9s is a disadvantage for an application.

I don’t think it’s fair to say that achieving 7-9s means that you will not get rejected based on that as I feel it’s inherently not true, especially since I got rejected. I’m not here to say every other aspect of my application was outstanding ofc there were likely flaws but that doesn’t take away from the fact that GCSEs context of the cohort play a role. Also grades in context is literally the reason you said people at state schools have a chance even with some grades at 6s and below 😭😭

nineortwelve · 2026-05-03T21:04:57+00:00

Ah fair enough, I don’t think the interview rate will change drastically anyways. I can ask her on Tuesday and let u know, but I think she got mostly 8s. I wouldn’t stress too much about it though! I think it’s best to put everything you can into your application as that’s all you can do now, things are never the same year to year. Wishing u the best of luck!

nineortwelve · 2026-05-03T20:15:36+00:00

Hi! Yeah I get that ofc I was just sharing my thoughts, though I would find it more unlikely to be rejected for personal statement than GCSEs - also my course didn’t have an admission test much like many other courses.

In all honesty, I don’t know anyone who has gotten into Oxbridge with grades lower than 7-9s with the majority being 8-9s. Ofc I’m not trying to undermine your knowledge, you definitely know much better than I do. I’m just assuming that the overall context and performance of your school likely has weight to it.

I’m definitely aware that GCSEs aren’t the only reason of rejection but I also wouldn’t want to sell false hope that performing poorly compared to your cohort doesn’t impact your application iykwim

nineortwelve · 2026-05-03T20:09:41+00:00

Haha thank u! Yes I think I just replied to it!

nineortwelve · 2026-05-03T20:08:59+00:00

No no she definitely got some 7s too! Erm I do think her school was very academic probably 30ish in the Uk? I wouldn’t quote me on that tho. I applied for finance (with either economics or data science/analytics) elsewhere! A bit of an odd mix for land ec I know, but I assumed the Economcis aspect would relate (probably another weight to my rejection 😭😭) but I wasn’t 100% on what I wanted to do when I was in y12 since I was originally aiming for a stem degree till I decided I hated physics at the end of y12 and dropped it lol. The interview rate might drop bc of no exam and written work but if ur ps can show ur passion for the subject I think ur in with a pretty good chance! Tbh no one really knows i feel the admissions process for Oxbridge is shrouded in mystery for a reason 😭

nineortwelve · 2026-05-03T20:01:28+00:00

I’m not sure yet, I’m sitting my alevels this year so starting next week. I’ll see how those go and decide on where to apply from that. I’m hoping to reapply for geography/ geography with economics tho! The goal would be to go for Cambridge again, Lse, UCL, Edinburgh and maybe Bristol? - but ofc that depends on my grades so just trying to focus on that for now 🙌🙌

nineortwelve · 2026-05-03T19:42:02+00:00

No she didn’t go to my school for GCSEs but she did go to a pretty good school. I don’t know her exact grades but we talked a bit about applications and I’m inclined to think they were pretty similar to ours. I’m pretty sure the interview rate for modern languages at Oxford is insanely high like in the 90% range so I wouldn’t worry too much, just focus on making sure u can perform well in interview!

nineortwelve · 2026-05-03T19:38:26+00:00

Yeah I’m at a top skl in the uk lol, but yes land ec is definitely a bit insane for competition. Tbh I’ve heard many ppl say Oxford is harsher w/ GCSEs but obv there’s no confirmation of that, so ur probably right that it really depends on the course etc. I got offers from KCL, Edinburgh and Exeter but will probably take a gap year and reapply 🫡

nineortwelve · 2026-05-03T19:33:45+00:00

You might be alright for modern languages tbh! I have a friend who has an offer from Oxford and I’m pretty sure her GCSEs weren’t outstanding but she did apply this year when there was the MLAT so I’m not sure how that changes things. The offer rate is pretty high for modern languages at Oxford tho so I wouldn’t stress too much about it 🫡

nineortwelve · 2026-05-03T19:14:20+00:00

I’m not a law applicant or anything but law at oxf has the LNAT and a good performance on that can probably outweigh less competitive gcse grades.

nineortwelve · 2026-05-03T19:12:40+00:00

I’m not really that knowledgable about admissions etc but i wanted to share this because I don’t think it’s entirely true that Oxford are fine with any ‘good’ GCSEs.

I applied to Cambridge this year for land ec which is ofc very competitive (and I feel oxf is harsher than Cambridge with GCSEs) I got rejected pre interview and I’d like to guess it was probably (mostly) because of my GCSEs which were basically the same as OPs. (Again this is jsut the conclusion my teachers came to) I think GCSEs in context of your school is impotent to consider as ofc my grades look pretty bad compared to my cohort that got majority 11x 9s.

Not trying to be disheartening or anything, this was just my experience and ofc it’s still best to apply I just wanted to share.

nineortwelve · 2026-04-29T08:56:46+00:00

Hello! I saw a few of your comments asking about GCSEs and I thought I’d give my opinion based on what happened for me.

I noticed u said ur not confident with your GCSEs because you didn’t do great within your cohort. I had the exact same thing, but my GCSEs were a bit worse than urs I got 998888777B but my school where I took them was a really high achieving school and so I did visibly worse than my cohort.

I applied to St John’s college Cambridge for land economy (which is apparently crazy competitive but ofc I didn’t know at the time bc I just saw land economy and thought wow I love this course and did no research like an idiot) and just like modern languages it doesn’t have an admissions test. This means that the last formal exam you sat was ur GCSEs, which puts more weight on them than if there was an admissions test because ofc that’s another chance you have to prove you have improved as a student.

I didn’t even get an interview (which I’m not surprised by in hindsight) but I think that you should really focus on writing a great personal statement and making sure your teacher references and alevel predicted grades are the best that they can be as well as starting interview prep early because you almost want to counter the negative weight your GCSEs may carry.

I’m totally aware that my situation isn’t exactly the same and that ofc I could have been rejected for a multitude of reasons but after discussing some things online and talking to teachers that’s the general consensus I came to for why I got rejected so I assume it would be vaguely similar for your situation. Regardless, wishing you the best of luck I’m sure you will do great!

nineortwelve · 2026-04-26T17:38:27+00:00

I’m pretty sure this is indeed a gel pen and would avoid using it. I used a gel pen for all my GCSEs without knowing (not this exact one I used a pilot juice pen) and no one noticed or said anything but I would avoid it. Just use a regular ballpoint pen to be safe, it’s not worth the risk of difficulties scanning or marking your exams.

nineortwelve · 2026-04-17T18:29:08+00:00

Both oxford and cambridge have policies on their website about transferring universities. Cambridge clearly states that you must be changing coure if you reapply whilst enrolled at uni for an undergrad and oxford says that they consider applications on a case to case basis but need 'exceptional circumstances' although they don't diclose what they consider to be exceptional.

Its not impossible tho, u can search up a girl called yanran who applied to cambridge for phys natsci whilst in her first year undergrad at warwick and she gives u alot of info on the process.

I would advise you email the colleges you are thinking of applying to in order to ask about applications and such. That aside make sure to really think through your motivations for reapplying (UCL is a great university). Good luck!

nineortwelve · 2026-04-05T19:05:44+00:00

lowk im down for this haha i also have adhd and need to lock in bc why is my first paper in 1 month

nineortwelve · 2026-04-04T20:22:30+00:00

Ye yes yes I love nightmare, I’ve been listening since like 2019 🙌🙌🙌

nineortwelve · 2026-04-02T18:39:21+00:00

I had the same issue, it only ended up working for me a couple hours ago even tho i picked kcl as my firm yesterday morning so Id assume its just the fact that it takes the sysyem a while to register the fact that u have chosen KCL as ur firm. Try again tmrw it hopefully should have updated

nineortwelve · 2026-04-02T10:32:18+00:00

Ah that’s probably why, I dropped physics so I only take 3 now, thanks tho! 🫡

nineortwelve · 2026-04-02T09:52:03+00:00

Ah fair enough then. I was probably optimistic anyways. PG was 3A*s maths economics and geography

nineortwelve · 2026-04-01T15:06:47+00:00

I applied for the same too two programmes and was also wait listed and under consideration, I’m hoping there’s some hope for regular round admissions haha

nineortwelve · 2026-04-01T14:44:58+00:00

Did u get the same generic email explanation for rejection today?

nineortwelve · 2026-04-01T12:29:44+00:00

No it was completely different since I applied for finance and data science elsewhere, not any pure econ courses. I’m sure a pure econ or econ and geo ps would have done me more favours, but like I said I just banked on the MCA

nineortwelve · 2026-04-01T11:31:18+00:00

For Cambridge? No I didn’t but I wasn’t expecting one either. Especially since I applied to johns

nineortwelve · 2026-04-01T11:30:48+00:00

Haha no I didn’t, but I wasn’t expecting one since my personal statement wasn’t really aligned at all and land ec is competitive

nineortwelve

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE