Universities and careers

In their final GCSE year, students take a careers test to establish their areas of strength and possible future careers. Each student is assigned an adviser who will encourage them to research these careers and also discuss their choice of AS levels. In this way, we ensure that pupils may make a set of coherent AS choices, consistent with their career aspirations.

In their AS year, students are encouraged to start thinking about their university application. The department runs a short course, explaining the process of the application. There’s then time and opportunity for individual research into universities and the courses on offer. There are five university advisers that specialise in different subject areas and boys are expected to see at least one. In their final year, students will be assigned to a university adviser who will be responsible for writing their UCAS reference.

In a typical year group of approximately 180, some 60–70 receive offers from Oxford and Cambridge. Other popular destinations in the UK include Bristol, Nottingham, Warwick, Durham, UCL, LSE, Imperial and Edinburgh. There are some 20–25  boys each year who are offered places from top universities in the United States, including Harvard, Yale and Princeton.