How Cambridge undergraduate admissions really work
A decade later, elite institutions such as Oxford and Cambridge retain the accusation that they are biased toward students from a state school background, routinely missing admissions percentages for students from this sector. Further to that, there remains the accusation of bias against students in economic poverty and those from diverse ethnic backgrounds.
This year, Churchill College of Cambridge University have given The Guardian unprecedented access to their admissions discussions and have found some interesting insights into the rationale of their selection policy.
Aside from the academic track record (A-levels), mix of subjects (students applying for sciences are encouraged to avoid arts subjects), and performance at the interview, other criteria are taken into account.
These criteria include the kind of school that the candidate came from, but not quite in the way one might typically assume; students from 'good schools' are "cut little slack", whereas a poorer school might be one of six 'flags' - used to indicate a potential problem area, such as difficulties within school, or even time spent in care.
Medical students at Cambridge are given an even more rigorous examination: "looking at the personal statement for medicine, it's important that they have a range of activities and, particularly, that they have done a serious level of volunteering."
