3 ms·

I did my undergrad at Cambridge University and I was surprised at how normal people were. Of course, there were a couple of utter geniuses, but they were the e

I did my undergrad at Cambridge University and I was surprised at how normal people were. Of course, there were a couple of utter geniuses, but they were the exception. I think an undergrad friend of mine put it best: "Cambridge doesn't take the top 1%, it takes a certain type of person from the top 10%"

tonyedgecombe 8y ago
When my son interviewed there one of the tutors told me he thought they should abandon the interviewing and select at random from a pool of the top 10%.
icc97 8y ago
How many of your friends had anything less than 3 A's (A* since 2010) at A-level? There's 424,000 students got into university [0] and Cambridge enrols 3,480 out of 17,000 applicants [1]. So they don't take even 1% and only the top 4% of students even bother applying. Edit: I suspect that 3,480 includes overseas students which makes the the percentage of UK enrolments is even less. Further [1]: > In 2006, 5,228 students who were rejected went on to get 3 A levels or more at grade A Perhaps being surrounded by the top 1% makes you feel very normal/average, but there's certainly nothing normal about the Cambridge applicants and your figure of 10% definitely isn't correct. I got accepted at Imperial with predictions of ABC (+ no extra curricular) to do Maths and Computer Science there's no way Oxford or Cambridge would have looked at me without 4 A's + a significant amount of extra curricular activities. [0]: https://www.theguardian.com/education/live/2016/aug/18/a-level-results-day-2016-uk-students-get-their-grades-live https://www.theguardian.com/education/live/2016/aug/18/a-lev... [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Cambridge#Admissions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Cambridge#Admiss...
- laurieg 8y ago
  > So they don't take even 1% and only the top 4% of students even bother applying. I went to the college with the highest number of state school students. After participating in outreach events to get more people from a variety of backgrounds to apply to Cambridge I honestly think the biggest bottleneck is people from state schools not applying. They hear all the stories about strange interviews or being surrounding by posh people they have nothing in common with and just don't bother. I was the only person in my (rather large) school year to get into Cambridge, and only a couple of people applied. I was told all sorts of strange things about the application process which turned out not to be true. I imagine it must be far easier to apply if you go to a school where almost everyone does and the staff are well versed in what to get ready.

tonyedgecombe 8y ago

When my son interviewed there one of the tutors told me he thought they should abandon the interviewing and select at random from a pool of the top 10%.

icc97 8y ago

How many of your friends had anything less than 3 A's (A* since 2010) at A-level? There's 424,000 students got into university [0] and Cambridge enrols 3,480 out of 17,000 applicants [1]. So they don't take even 1% and only the top 4% of students even bother applying. Edit: I suspect that 3,480 includes overseas students which makes the the percentage of UK enrolments is even less. Further [1]: > In 2006, 5,228 students who were rejected went on to get 3 A levels or more at grade A Perhaps being surrounded by the top 1% makes you feel very normal/average, but there's certainly nothing normal about the Cambridge applicants and your figure of 10% definitely isn't correct. I got accepted at Imperial with predictions of ABC (+ no extra curricular) to do Maths and Computer Science there's no way Oxford or Cambridge would have looked at me without 4 A's + a significant amount of extra curricular activities. [0]: https://www.theguardian.com/education/live/2016/aug/18/a-level-results-day-2016-uk-students-get-their-grades-live https://www.theguardian.com/education/live/2016/aug/18/a-lev... [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Cambridge#Admissions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Cambridge#Admiss...

laurieg 8y ago
> So they don't take even 1% and only the top 4% of students even bother applying. I went to the college with the highest number of state school students. After participating in outreach events to get more people from a variety of backgrounds to apply to Cambridge I honestly think the biggest bottleneck is people from state schools not applying. They hear all the stories about strange interviews or being surrounding by posh people they have nothing in common with and just don't bother. I was the only person in my (rather large) school year to get into Cambridge, and only a couple of people applied. I was told all sorts of strange things about the application process which turned out not to be true. I imagine it must be far easier to apply if you go to a school where almost everyone does and the staff are well versed in what to get ready.