timeladyaerynjenkins reblogged
Stop writing all British characters as having gone to Oxford or Cambridge in fanfic 2k15.
Some things to consider if you’re writing a character who attends or has attended Oxbridge;
- Only 1 in 100 state school (more commonly known as ‘public school’ in the USA) educated students attend Oxford or Cambridge (source: BBC)
- Private school educated students are five times more likely to get into Oxford or Cambridge than state school educated students (source: The Telegraph)
- Oxford only accepted about 18% of their applicants for undergraduate study in 2014 (source: Oxford University)
- The easiest course to get onto at Oxford is modern languages and linguistics (with a 44% acceptance rate), whereas the hardest is economics with but a 7% acceptance rate (source: publictableu.com)
- Russell Group Universities (AKA: Ivy League for England) are much more likely to consider you if you’ve studied a language at some point, so bare that in mind if your character is monolingual.
- It also helps if your character plays an instrument well.
- It’s not enough to just have great grades either; your character will also have to do a lot of extracurricular activities to have a fighting chance at being accepted (ergo; school paper, head boy/head girl, debating society, member of a school sports team, etc).
Of course, you could take artistic license and ignore the above; fanfiction doesn’t have to be a documentary, after all. You could have five friends all miraculously get into Cambridge on the same course if that’s what you enjoy writing. but if you want to write a more realistic fanfiction, then the above should be a good starting point.
#ref#academia#education#university#my dream has FOR YEARS been to attend oxford or cambridge#mostly because many of my absolute idols (=esteemed british actresses) have#it still remains an ambition#like i don't care what course#i don't care what i do#it would likely not improve my employment perspectives#i just wanna have a piece of paper saying that i've done it#a couple of photos#and a hoodie to mark the experience#i wouldn't have the undergrad experience which makes me a lot sad#it was new and fresh and confusing and awesome#but what can you do#i'd go for it only i missed my opportunity and tuition is now sky high (the way it wasn't right after i graduated)#maybe one day if i happen to have time and more money than brains#but my alma mater being a member of the russell group is just the pick-me-up i needed today