20th January 2012 9:00
By Blue Tutors
Oxbridge interviews are in the spotlight this week, as Cambridge University allows a journalist full access to their decision making process, and Oxford University receives rejection letter from an applicant. Elly Nowell interviewed for a place to study jurisprudence at Magdalen college Oxford, wrote to the university before it had offered her a place or rejected her, to inform them that she wished to withdraw her application due to the stuffy, private school orientated environment that she encountered there.
Imitating the style of the university’s rejection letters, she wrote that she understood the admissions tutors may be disappointed by the decision, but that they were in competition with many fantastic universities. Criticising the formality with which she was met, the sixth form student said that the college environment allowed public school students to flourish and intimidates state school applicants.
Meanwhile, Cambridge University for the first time has allowed journalists access to their admissions processes, including the famously clandestine meetings during which the potential of each applicant is discussed. The process was revealed to be highly subjective, with the decision often coming down to who the supervisor would like to teach.