h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1604710,00.html

I'm really sick of people from private schools complaining about being 'discriminated against' for university places when in fact everything is stacked in their favour. They've had educational advantages *bought* for them - smaller class sizes, better equipment/library, more extra curricular activities, and an all-round better education since the age of 11 or even from 5.

"I received no feedback, so my teachers and I could only guess at the possible reasons for these rejections. The rejected applicants all had one thing in common: we all attended a private school."

Well guess what? No-one gets any feedback, and most people (certainly eleven years ago when I was applying) got plenty of rejections, particularly if all of your choices are the top universities. I have no idea why certain universities rejected me, but you didn't see me whinging about it in the Times.

And there's no *evidence* that this student was rejected because of being at a private school. Actually more people are applying to go to university that ever before (or at least nearly) and places at the universities that are perceived to be "top" are much harder to come by.

And the article rather pathetically claims that the student in question was "forced" to take a gap year, while at the same time stating that she had an offer from Nottingham - a very good university.

"It just didn’t seem very fair, I know there is positive discrimination in other areas but this should just be about academic ability, no matter what type of school you have come from. I support state school pupils getting every opportunity to apply to top universities, and if they are the most able, they should be given places. But they should not be given preferential treatment."

This from someone who's had nothing but preferential treatment for years......

Nothing like the annual university admissions whinge to bring out the class warrior in me......

sounds familiar! the same in the US, where you regularly hear complaints of the same nature.

there, even the differences between state schools of rich and poor neighborhoods is astounding. the school district budgets are barely sufficient for operating the schools; still, my kids' classes had new computers, great playground equipment etc. etc.. all bought by the "educational foundation": the parents. in the farm workers' districts, they just do without.

but if you read the papers, you get the idea that the state lavishes tax dollars on these schools.

I wonder if the girl complaining to the Times has considered the fact that she may have been turned down for a place because of her pompous, arrogant attitude? If she had an interview for the University, i can't imagine she'd come across well if she's the kind to go whinging to the papers if she doesn't get a place.

whinging is a class prerogative.

my boy plays for a club that bears the name of a posh area of town, but draws from a bigger area that included mixed neighborhoods. i think it's great; his teams are like juvenile versions of the 1998 "bleus"!

but there's always some mom with gucci sunglasses and a vuitton clutch complaining either that her son never plays or is on a team that never wins... to which the president never hesitates to respond, "madame, it's because your son plays like crap!"

Does my head in too. Certain departments at my old University used to give easier offers to public/private school people - usually one or two A-Level grades lower - which meant that there were far too many of those kind of t****s at Royal Holloway.

in the states at least there's no more pretense of equal opportunity at university. the best schools have become so expensive that most parents can't even borrow that kind of money!

Maybe I'm just bitter because of a bad experience ten years ago when visiting D*rh*m *n*v*rs*ty.

On enquiring about open days with my prospective department, I was rather loftily told that they 'didn't have open days' but that some people were coming to visit on day x at time y and could I make that too?

Time y was early-mid morning - which meant a very early departure from London to D*rh*m with little margin for error in getting there on time. I was *slightly* late due to getting a bit lost in Durham. When I did arrive, I saw three public schoolboys already talking to the school administrator/admissions person. They were impeccably turned out in school uniforms replete with prefect and sports badges and looked at me (scruffy, tired, disheveled, late, and from Lahndahn) as if I'd just crawled out of a swamp.

To cut a long story short, it turned out that they had stayed overnight free of charge in one of D*rh*m's colleges and had travelled up the day before from a location far closer to D*rh*m than London. How had they managed this? Their 'hicemaster' was at Oxford with the College Bursar. Before they left, the young gentlemen asked the admissions person to pass on their headteacher's regards to Prof Soandso - at Cambridge together or something.

So the meeting was arranged for their benefit and a time convenient to them. They got to travel up the day before and sample the atmosphere and talk to current students in a college, and had the meeting timed to allow them to get started for home in good time for somethingorother. Me? I just had to fit in around the toffs and wander round Durham with a map trying to find people to talk to.

My first valuable university lesson:

101: How Britain really works 101