Student 'rejects' University of Oxford
LONDON: Receiving a rejection letter from the University of Oxford is common, but one applicant has turned the tables by sending a 'rejection letter' to the prestigious varsity on the ground that it is not up to the mark. Interviews for admission to the ancient seat of learning are considered the most challenging.
Very few of those who apply make it, while thousands are sent politely worded rejection letters around December every year. But Elly Nowell, 19, who went to a state-funded school rather than an elite private school in Winchester, Hampshire, parodied the admission process and sent her own letter of rejection to the university, which has been widely read
She hopes to enrol at the University College London, instead. Nowell, who was put off by the admission interview that is seen by many as daunting and intimidating, wrote in her letter: "I have now considered your establishment as a place to read Law (Jurisprudence). I very much regret to inform you that I will be withdrawing my application".
"I realise you may be disappointed by this decision, but you were in competition with many fantastic universities and following your interview I am afraid you do not quite meet the standard of the universities I will be considering." Nowell "warned" the university not to "reapply". "While you may believe your decision to hold interviews in grand formal settings is inspiring, it allows public-school applicants to flourish... and intimidates state-school applicants, distorting the academic potential of both," she said, criticising the College's "traditions and rituals" and a perceived gulf between "minorities and white middle-class students". A university spokesman dismissed the claims, and said it received only a few complaints from applicants.
He added: "Of the 10,000 interviews that we conduct over the course of the admissions period it is a very low number."
Nowell said: "It was while I was at interview that I finally noticed that subjecting myself to the judgement of an institution which I fundamentally disagreed with was bizarre. I spent my entire time there laughing at how seriously everything was being taken." Admitting that her email was not meant to be taken 100 per cent seriously, she said: "Oxbridge is a fairly ridiculous and prominent elitist institution, yet unlike the monarchy or investment bankers it is rarely mocked. Even comedians tend to avoid Oxbridge as a subject". "Being a successful student should depend on the student, not on whether or not a couple of academics have deemed you to shine in a 20-minute interview," Nowell said.
The universities of Oxford and Cambridge are often criticised for admitting students from elite, private school rather than state-funded schools, a claim the universities reject.
Among the students who were not accepted at Oxford but went to achieve prominence is celebrated author, J K Rowling.
----------------------------------
The Cloister, Magdalen College.
Girl ‘rejects’ Magdalen College, Oxford; University shrugs
A law student has “rejected” an ancient Oxford College, on the grounds of its ridiculousness. What a silly-billy – or does she have a point?
Oxford University may be one of the best universities in the world, but it often comes under fire for its admissions: It takes too few black people; too many public school students; there was the Laura Spence “scandal”, in which the student, who’d attended a comprehensive, was rejected despite gaining 5 As at A Level. Whatever the dons of the dreaming spires do, they can’t seem to get it right (in some peoples’ eyes).
Now the university has come under fire in a rather more extraordinary way. Elly Nowell, 19, applied to read Law at Magdalen College, Oxford – but withdrew her application after attending her interview, even before she found out whether she’d been accepted or not. She sent off, according to The Telegraph, a “rejection” letter in which she roundly castigated the college for being ridiculously pompous.
In her rejection letter, the “trainee barista at Starbucks”, notes that the college’s “traditions and rituals”, whilst being “impressive”, “reflect badly on your university”; also that the “grand formal settings” of the colleges allow “public school applicants to flourish”, whilst state school applicants were intimidated. She finished by saying that she thought Oxford bizarre; and, somewhat strangely, that she’d spent her “entire time there laughing at how seriously everything was being taken.”
The letter has engendered no small amount of harrumphing and some might say that the last laugh went to Magdalen: A university spokesman said that out of seven pupils who were offered places for Law at the college, only one had been to public school. So there? Maybe not: According to Nowell’s Facebook page, she’s received a “cheeky offer” from the London School of Economics.
---------------------------------
Not everybody is 'bright at Oxford'
If you thought that everybody studying at Oxford was bright, think again! Some students from the esteemed university are unable to spell 'erupt' or 'across' correctly, according to examiners' reports.
Some Oxford University students show a "distressing" grasp of their subjects and the answers to their final exams are often little better than A-level standard, the Daily Telegraph quoted their tutors as saying.
Some are unable to spell words such as 'erupt' or 'across' correctly and give answers that show a "worrying degree of inaccuracy," according to examiners' reports seen by the newspaper.
Academics said a culture of box-ticking at A-level had left students with poor general knowledge and unable to think for themselves.
"We encountered a distinct sense of undeveloped critical thought, first year level work, or at the lower end of the run, A-level-style responses: information dumped but not tackled," an English examiner wrote.
Examiners were delighted by some candidates, whose work was good enough to be published in academic journals. But they were scathing about large numbers whose answers were "dull" – or worse.
Tutors in many subjects complained that students had failed to revise properly, and instead memorised old class essays and regurgitated them regardless of the question asked.
It was students' "startling" abuse of English that shocked dons the most.
Some could not spell 'illuminate', 'bizarre', 'blur' 'buries' or 'possess' correctly, with tutors blaming a dependence on computer spellcheckers.
Handwriting was so poor that "scripts from dyslexic candidates proved a welcome relief because they were typed," an examiner added.
"Any Oxford tutor will tell you that the standards nowadays forthcoming from schools are appallingly low, and certainly much lower than a generation ago," Professor Peter Oppenheimer, an emeritus professor at Christ Church college, said.
कोई टिप्पणी नहीं:
एक टिप्पणी भेजें