Thread by @FinancialTimes

Years ago, families paying up to £44k a year for elite private schools in the UK such as Eton could comfortably assume their kids had a very good chance of getting into world-class Oxford and Cambridge universities. That is no longer true ft.com/content/bbb7fe…

A 2018 study showed that just eight institutions accounted for more Oxbridge places than nearly 3,000 other UK schools combined. But Oxford and Cambridge are increasingly giving more credit to kids who have overcome barriers to get top grades ft.com/content/bbb7fe…

State schools are producing students with high scores, strong essays and interview training. International applicants are also on the rise ft.com/content/bbb7fe…

Cambridge director of admissions Sam Lucy has been asked so often why smart students are being turned down that she carries a chart that shows what has changed. Since 1981, annual applications to Cambridge have risen fourfold ft.com/content/bbb7fe…

At Eton, attended by 20 UK prime ministers including Boris Johnson, Oxbridge offers dropped by nearly half in recent years. An Oxford alumnus, whose Eton-educated son was rejected, claims ‘[Etonians] are at a disadvantage unless they are truly brilliant’ ft.com/content/bbb7fe…

‘The anger of wealthy, mostly white parents about losing the advantages they expected to be able to buy their children is part of a broader pattern of status anxiety among some sections of the British and American upper classes,’ says @brookeamasters ft.com/content/bbb7fe…

In the US, the 2019 ‘Varsity Blues’ admissions scandal exposed actors and private equity giants trying to buy their kids into Yale and Stanford, with faked test results and counterfeit athletic skills ft.com/content/bbb7fe…

‘[Parents] may be committed to broad notions of social justice,’ says former St Paul’s high master Mark Bailey. ‘Here is a situation where that aspiration cuts against them.’ Tap here to read more about UK private schools losing their grip on Oxbridge 👉 ft.com/content/bbb7fe…