Guardian who is good enough cambridge

She just needs a little more fluency in maths to cope at university. On the table are white china cups of tea and coffee, two barely touched water jugs and a single slightly blackened banana. The academics leaf through coloured spreadsheets with the candidates' names, their exam performance to date, predicted grades, interview scores, contextual flags and ranking — based on exam performance — compared with all of the university's applicants this year.

The pace is swift, despite the meeting lasting five hours. It is occasionally leavened with a touch of humour, or avuncular kindness. One of the academics, looking at a file photo, sighs: "Oh he's young — he looks like one of the Bash Street kids.

Although a candidate's ethnicity is generally evident from his or her name and the photograph in their file, there is never any overt discussion of race. This seems surprising when both Oxford and Cambridge have been accused of being racially as well as socially exclusive. Geoff Parks, director of admissions at Cambridge, says later: "Race doesn't come up in its own right. It's inseparable from socio-economic factors. Cambridge admits a proportion of BME [ethnic minority] students that is above the proportion of the teenage population, [but] with 'low-participation' neighbourhoods we feel we're not meeting a relatively low target.

Many people who are first-generation British might also be living in low-participation neighbourhoods. At times, the procedure seems brusque; a life-changing decision made in a second. In fact, it is the end point of a long, intensive process of evaluating candidates. Most of those who apply are interviewed.

And the interviews are designed to probe their knowledge deeply. For natural sciences, the interview has a practical bent, with candidates tackling problems under the gaze of the tutor.

Confidence is appreciated. Of one candidate, a boy from an academy school in Norfolk, a tutor says: "He managed to strike a balance between not being fazed by what's going on, and not being cocky either. The sort of person …". Great emphasis is placed on exam performance, and the academics are keen to drill down into performance in individual modules.

One notes approvingly of a candidate who has "done some hard units". There is far less interest than is popularly thought in extra-curricular activity.

An academic remarks with bafflement that a candidate has "got his violin grades on there". It is not just poor teaching — or a lack of teaching — that can wreck a candidate's chances. Their combination of subjects is also crucial. There is consternation about a candidate who is applying to read natural sciences without having either maths or biology; he is taking physics and chemistry but his third A-level is an arts subject. The lack of maths rules him out for the study of physics.

The absence of biology means he will struggle to be accepted as a biologist. The school is a "really ropey" one. One of the academics, a man in a grey fleece, comments: "I feel sorry for him, but I don't think we can fix the problem. The consensus is that they will "stick him in the pool". The "winter pool" is a third option — neither a straightforward offer nor an outright rejection.

It means the application is forwarded for consideration by other colleges. Strong candidates who are at risk of being squeezed out because they have applied to an over-subscribed college also get a second chance this way.

The pool takes place in early January, around three weeks after the college decision meetings. Admissions tutors from all the Cambridge colleges gather in two rooms at Newnham College, and examine the pooled candidates' folders again.

The main room in which the pool takes place is Clough Hall, an elegant banqueting room with a minstrels' gallery and a ceiling decorated with plaster mouldings of flowers and heraldic beasts.

There is very little conversation. Tutors go through bundles of files making lists of candidates they would like to pull out for their college. Anglepoise lamps spill yellow light on to the desks.

Outside, it is overcast. Andy Bell, admissions tutor at Gonville and Caius College, has spotted three potential candidates for places in an arts subject at his college. One of the files that has caught his eye is a boy whose educational background is not that of a "straightforward, standard Cambridge applicant". Published: 31 Aug Brief letters I rely on the Met Office to bring me sunshine.

Published: 19 Aug Cambridge to end teacher training if government enacts overhaul. Published: 18 Aug Other lives John Darrah obituary. Published: 16 Aug Published: 2 Aug Are northern English accents dying out? Are they eck as like Stuart Maconie. Published: 1 Aug Lisa French obituary. Published: 22 Jul Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly.

These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.

The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". It does not store any personal data. Functional Functional. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.

Performance Performance. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. Analytics Analytics. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website.

These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. Advertisement Advertisement. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns.

These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. Others Others. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. Added to cart View Cart.