Six students from the Class of 2018 and Class of 2019 are a step closer to embarking upon the next step of their educational journey at Oxbridge after receiving offers from University of Cambridge or University of Oxford.
Of 21 applicants currently studying in CHS’s Sixth Form, 14 were invited for interview, 4 of which secured offers from their Oxbridge choice. 2 students from the Class of 2018 received offers after deferring a year following their A Levels.
In the first year CHS has offered a Sixth Form Pathway in Modern Languages, the department has seen another successful Oxbridge year with 2 of the 6 successful applicants receiving offers to study Spanish, German and Linguistics.
Head Boy, Raphael McMahon and Head Girl, Lily Danson, who have been in the same Form since Year 7, have both been offered places at the University of Cambridge’s Gonville & Caius College.
Raphael who intends to read Modern Languages (Spanish and German) after deferring a year to spend time travelling, said: “Going to the same College will be really nice, it’s comforting that there will be a friendly face when I get there.”
He said: “The process was really intense. You have to be really committed. Being confident in yourself is one of the most important things; if you aren’t, the interviewers will see that straight away. If you want to study a language, visiting the countries you are studying gives you first-hand knowledge and is great to talk about in the interview. I would advise reading about what you’re interested in and make sure you have read it!
Lily, recipient of CHS’s recently launched Economics Essay Prize, has been offered a place to pursue her passion for Economics. She said: “As I’ll be there a year before Raff, I’m looking forward showing him around when he arrives. Every stage of the application process was really hard work but you just have to believe you can do it. My teachers really helped me a lot and their advice was so useful.
Hoping to join Raphael and Lily at University of Cambridge, Jason Brown has been offered a place to read Engineering at Trinity College and Adam Wolowczyk, who has been following CHS’s Medical Sciences Sixth Form Pathway, has been offered a place to read Medicine at Homerton College.
Jason said he is excited about what will come next: “I’ve been at CHS since Reception so it’s going to be a really big change. I will obviously miss my family and friends but I am looking forward to the next chapter. I think work experience was key to the success of my application – taking the initiative to Google companies and get in touch with them. That really helped.”
Adam said: “I’m looking forward to being surrounded by likeminded people and teachers, as well as the quality of the course! If I could offer one piece of advice to future applicants I’d say take every opportunity, even with things that aren’t related to the course you want to do, it all helps.”
All current Upper Sixth students who received offers completed the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ), which Lily said, was a valuable process: “Doing an EPQ was really worth it… it’s great to add to your application and is something you can talk about in your interview that you know a lot about.”
For the second consecutive year, all of CHS’s post-A Level applicants received offers with two successful Old Waconians from the Class of 2018; Grace Carr-Deed has been offered a place to study Veterinary Science at Queens’ College Cambridge and Eddie Michael will read Spanish and Linguistics at St Hugh’s College Oxford.
CHS Oxbridge Co-ordinator, Mrs Lisa Barfoot commented; “I am delighted for each of the students for whom this is the culmination of many years’ sustained academic work.”
She continued: “It is especially pleasing to have students receiving offers for medicine and veterinary science. These are enormously competitive courses at Oxbridge so it’s wonderful for them to have achieved success in these areas.”
