Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) — James Uffindell, wearing a pinstriped
suit and walkie-talkie headset, races along the corridors of an
18th-century manor outside Oxford, England, as he presides over
an October weekend retreat for 175 ambitious teenagers.
Hes selling an alluring possibility: that each student can
win admission to either the University of Oxford or the
University of Cambridge, the twin pillars of the U.K.
educational establishment, known collectively as Oxbridge.
Parents are buying in; the weekend price tag is 850 pounds
($1,750).
Once the check writers have departed, Uffindell, 28,
founder of the London-based advisory firm Oxbridge Applications,
changes into jeans and turns up the music before telling his
young clients how to shine in their interviews. Among the tips:
Visualize yourself responding confidently and creatively.
Hes blazing a trail already firmly in place in the U.S. To
the dismay of some U.K. admissions officials, for-profit
university entrance coaching has arrived in Britain. More
students are achieving top scores on national tests, and theyre
applying in record numbers to Cambridge and Oxford. At the same
time, the universities are under pressure from the Labour
government to shake off their reputation as a club for privately
educated teenagers with rich parents.
The jockeying for admission is intense now that a quarter
of teens are scoring at least one top grade on their so-called
A-levels, the U.K.s national exams taken mostly by university-
bound students. A decade ago, the figure was about 16 percent.
That means more students are within shooting distance of Oxford
and Cambridge. Applications to Oxford alone have jumped 33
percent during the past 10 years.
Notable Alumni
“Its very difficult for top applicants to mark themselves
out, says Uffindell, a lanky marathon runner. “With all these
applicants with straight As, how do they work it out?
Students hunger for an Oxbridge degree because of the
prestige, the top-notch teaching and the chance to count
themselves among distinguished alumni who dominate government,
media, law and business in the U.K. Cambridge, Oxford and Yale
University in New Haven, Connecticut, tied for second, after
Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the 2007
rankings of the worlds best universities by the Times of London
Higher Education Supplement.
Graduates are courted by big banks and law firms, and
Cambridge boasts more Nobel Prize winners (82) than any other
institution.
Almost half of those admitted come from private schools.
Over the past five years, a third came from 100 elite schools
that make up less than 3 percent of the institutions educating
16- to 18-year-olds, according to the London-based Sutton Trust,
which funds educational programs for disadvantaged youth.
Cambridge says it wants to be admitting 60 to 63 percent of its
students from state-funded schools by 2011, up from 56 percent
in 2006.
500 Part-Timers
Uffindell opened up shop in 1999 and now has a 500-person
network of part-time tutors — most of whom are recent Oxford or
Cambridge graduates. In 2006, his company advised almost 10
percent of all applicants to Oxbridge. Uffindell puts his
success rate at 46 percent. If his numbers are correct, he
helped almost a sixth of all students admitted to Oxford and
Cambridge in 2007.
Amid nervous chatter at the English manor, called the
Heythrop Park Hotel, Uffindell asks the students to guess why he
has just flashed a picture of a robot on a giant screen.
“Something to do with technological innovation? asks a
boy in the back.
“Ah, no, Uffindell says.
“Because this is not about turning us into robots? asks
another boy. Go to the head of the class.
`Clearly Rubbish
The aim of the weekend is to help students hone their
interview skills. Uffindell lays out the challenge: “The idea
that you can program someone to go in, give a firm handshake,
make 80 percent eye contact, smile a lot, polish their shoes and
say the right things that will get you in is clearly rubbish.
Instead, he says, you need to know what Oxbridge is looking
for: motivation and passion for your chosen field of study. The
weekend will be full. It includes workshops, videos, seminars
and multiple mock interviews.
“Youre being made aware of the impression that you make
as a potential candidate, says Nick de Taranto, an 18-year-old
from Germany. As a so-called premier client, hell pay Oxbridge
Applications 3,800 pounds to guide him through the application
process to Oxford — more than the annual tuition of 3,070
pounds hed be charged as an undergrad. Successful premier
clients pay the firm an additional 2,000 pound “success fee.
Uffindell says his companys annual revenue totals about 700,000
pounds.
Free Resources
Its all a waste of money, says Geoff Parks, a nuclear
engineer who serves as admissions director for Cambridges 31
separate colleges.
`You dont need vast amounts of preparation, he says.
“You just need to look at the freely available resources.
Parks, 46, who screens engineering applicants, says he often
sees overly coached candidates who fall back on prepared answers
and fail to answer the question put to them in the admissions
interview. “Its obvious from a mile off, he says.
Uffindell brushes aside such criticism as laughable. “So
theyre saying they dont let anyone in from Eton? he asks,
referring to the elite boys boarding school. “The whole school
is basically an Oxford preparation interview.
Prepping for Oxford, where teaching began in the 11th
century, and Cambridge, which dates its founding to 1209, is a
British tradition. Most students apply directly to a college.
(Oxford has 39.) The colleges review exam grades, sample essays
from schoolwork and personal statements and sometimes require
special tests, depending on the subject an applicant chooses to
study. Then the colleges decide whom to admit.
History as `Performance
Alan Bennett captured the pressures in his Tony Award-
winning 2004 play “The History Boys, about a group of ragtag
students being groomed for entry to Oxford and Cambridge. It
mocks the whole process. An ambitious headmaster hires an Oxford
grad named Irwin to teach the boys how to spin irreverent
arguments to impress bored Oxbridge history professors.
“History nowadays is not a matter of conviction, Irwin
tells his students. “Its a performance. Its entertainment.
And if it isnt, make it so. Irwin later admits that Oxford
rejected him and he actually attended Bristol University.
Until the mid-1990s, all Oxbridge applicants had to pass a
special entrance exam. U.K. private schools would often keep
students for an extra few months to prepare. The universities
abandoned the exam after tax-funded state schools complained
they couldnt afford to offer such preparation.
No Application Hedging
Still, making the grade isnt simple. In 2006, Oxford
accepted about 25 percent of 12,614 applicants. Cambridge took
in 24 percent of the 14,094 who applied. By comparison, Harvard
admitted 8.9 percent of 22,955 students seeking to join the
class of 2011. Oxbridge admission is tougher than it may appear:
Students cant apply to both Oxford and Cambridge to hedge their
bets. The universities make that stipulation to hold down
application volume and avoid having admission offers turned
down.
For many, an Oxbridge degree can be gold. Though numbers
have been declining, Oxbridge still produces 78 percent of U.K.
judges, 42 percent of politicians and 39 percent of the chief
executives of companies listed on the FTSE 100 Index, according
to the Sutton Trust. Oxbridge alumni include former U.K. Prime
Minister Tony Blair (St. Johns College, Oxford); Margaret
Thatcher, who held the same job in the 1980s (Somerville
College, Oxford); economist John Maynard Keynes (Kings College,
Cambridge); former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto (Lady
Margaret Hall, Oxford); writers J.R.R. Tolkien (Exeter College,
Oxford) and E.M. Forster (Kings College, Cambridge); and comic
actors Hugh Grant (New College, Oxford) and Sacha Baron Cohen,
aka Borat (Christs College, Cambridge).
Reading List
To improve their odds of joining this select club,
thousands of students are turning almost exclusively to
Uffindells Oxbridge Applications. About two-thirds of his
clients come from state schools. The companys tutors and
consultants will do everything from helping students decide what
they want to study to editing personal statements and suggesting
books to read. About 60 students signed up in 2007 for
Uffindells premier service, up from about 40 last year; he
turns away those whose grades arent strong enough.
De Taranto, the applicant from Germany, started with an
hours chat with Uffindell at Oxbridge Applications office on
New Bond Street. They debated whether he would aim for Oxford or
Cambridge and batted around ideas about a course of study:
History? Law? English? The choice is crucial because Oxbridge
students focus on a chosen field exclusively during their three
years.
`Build My Confidence
When de Taranto decided on a combined history and English
course at Oxford, Uffindell matched him with an Oxford grad who
had finished the same course in 2006. Oxbridge Applications
guided de Taranto over several months and suggested books he
might read to impress interviewers, such as Yevgeny Zamyatins
1921 classic novel “We, about a society called One State in
which the collective good overtakes individual freedoms. De
Taranto says he needed the advice because counselors at his
school in Düsseldorf didnt know the ins and outs of applying.
“It has helped me build my confidence, he says. De
Taranto found out just before Christmas that hed been offered a
place.
The final hurdle — one that has struck fear into
generations of Oxbridge hopefuls — is the interview. Its
typically conducted in December by a professor, also known as a
fellow or don, who teaches the students selected subject.
“You can be as bright as a button and fantastic on paper,
but going to an interview is a different form of
communication, Uffindell says.
Christ and Tony Blair
The questions are mostly academic — and hard to predict.
Students might be given a math problem to solve on the spot or a
history text to analyze. According to Oxbridge Applications,
which debriefs clients, one Oxford don asked a prospective
English student in 2006, “Do we have the right to interpret the
story of the birth of Christ as a comment on Tony Blairs
current political situation?
A Cambridge professor of medicine asked an applicant, “How
would you describe a human to a person from Mars?
The interview is designed to see how students construct
arguments and analyze new information, says Parks, the Cambridge
colleges admissions director.
“Theyre not measuring polish and competence, he says.
“Theyre measuring the ability to think.
Applicants say its daunting. Greg van den Bergh, an 18-
year-old Belgian, applied in 2006 to study philosophy, politics
and economics at St. Johns College, Oxford, and was rejected.
In his interview, one Oxford don asked, “What is politics?
Van den Bergh replied, “Its a way to structure power on
different levels. The don retorted, “But thats a normative
approach. What about a realistic approach?
`Big Gamble
After 20 minutes of struggling, van den Bergh emerged to
compare his experiences with other students who had been
grilled. “I realized they were trained for it and I wasnt,
he explains.
Van den Bergh didnt give up. He found a selective state
school (known as a grammar school) that had a track record of
sending students to Oxbridge. He transferred in early 2007 from
his Catholic school outside Antwerp to the new school, in Kent,
southeast of London. Hes now living with a host family and re-
applying to Oxford, this time to study philosophy and modern
languages at Oriel College.
Van den Bergh says he thinks more interview practice will
help him. “I call it my big gamble, he says, wearing thick,
black-framed glasses and a black sweater. “I tried once and
failed. All my friends are now at university. If youre bright
and you really try hard, I think you can make it.
Baudelaires Meaning
At Heythrop Park, two Oxford grads are putting van den
Bergh through a mock interview in a crowded ballroom. They ask
him to take a few minutes to read, in French, the Baudelaire
poem “LEnnemi. Then they ask him to explain it. “Probably
its life itself, van den Bergh responds in English.
“Baudelaire said every beat of our heart is a step toward
death. He wanted to kill himself several times.
The questioning continues for 20 minutes. Tutor Anna Doyle,
a recent Oxford grad, tells him hed be better off if he stuck
to analyzing the text instead of bringing in Baudelaires
biography. Van den Bergh nods appreciatively.
In December, van den Bergh went to Oxford for tests and
four separate interviews. He interviewed at Oriel, and St
Hildas, an all-womens college that has just started accepting
men, invited him to interview. Just before Christmas, he
received an offer from St Hildas.
Among the Oxbridge Applications recruits helping de Taranto
is Gwyn Day, a former Smith Barney Inc. bond trader trained in
neurolinguistic programming, a field of psychology that purports
to teach communication skills. “So much emphasis has been put
on the Treaty of Versailles, Day begins. “Was that the most
important trigger to World War II?
`Freestyling It
“I believe it was the most traceable and direct trigger,
de Taranto responds as he starts to elaborate on the centuries-
long debate over borders known as “the German Question.
Afterward, de Taranto says Days work, which includes
discussion of body language and eye contact, helped him focus.
“Lots of us are used to freestyling it in school, he says.
“Ive learned its perfectly fine to pause and think intensely
for a moment and give an eloquent and well-phrased answer rather
than just rambling on.
With more candidates getting top grades, the Oxbridge
interview has emerged as one of the keys to spotting the
brightest applicants. The universities are using the Internet to
produce free training. Cambridge offers videos of mock
interviews on its Web site. Oxford has podcasts detailing what
to expect.
`How to Fake It
Companies such as Oxbridge Applications run the risk of
polishing candidates who arent up to scratch, says Alan Ryan,
the warden, or head, of New College, Oxford, which was founded
in 1379. “What we are trying to do when we interview people
here is pick up a real enthusiasm for the subject, Ryan says.
“If what people are being taught is how to fake it, then its
going to do nobody any good once they get here.
Misguided or not, Uffindells approach is breaking new
ground in the U.K., where the notion of admissions consulting is
in its infancy. In the U.S., more than 4,000 independent college
counselors peddle advice. High-priced coaches, such as Michele
Hernandez, a former Dartmouth College admissions officer, charge
as much as $40,000 to help get kids into Ivy League schools such
as Harvard.
Uffindell isnt an admissions expert. He was raised just
north of Oxford by his mother after his parents divorced when he
was 3; neither parent attended university. He went to Warwick
School, a private school in southwest England, and didnt feel
he was clever enough to get into Oxford until an Oxford-educated
history teacher joined his school when he was 16. The teacher
advised him on picking a college and suggested extra reading.
Meeting Demand
Uffindell set out to replicate his own experience. He
started Oxbridge Applications during his final year studying
philosophy, politics and economics at Mansfield College, Oxford.
He says taking economics made him realize that where demand
exceeds supply, theres always a business opportunity.
“I was on a train from Rome to Vienna, and I couldnt get
the idea out of my mind, he says. “I was convinced if I
didnt do it, someone else would.
The only competitor geared exclusively to grooming students
for Britains top two universities is London-based Oxbridge
Mentoring Scheme, set up in 2005 by Oxford grad Joyce Connell.
London-based Gabbitas Educational Consultants Ltd. advises
students on Oxbridge admission as part of its broader services.
Cambridge spends 3 million pounds a year on education
projects and programs designed to encourage students from
disadvantaged backgrounds to apply, including running summer
schools and linking each of Cambridges colleges with regional
educational authorities. Oxford also runs summer schools.
Etons Prep Classes
As the U.K. government pushes Oxbridge to admit a higher
percentage of students from state schools, it has some leverage.
Oxford says the government provided at least 40 percent of its
603 million pound budget for teaching and research in the 2005-
06 school year.
English private school students have built-in advantages,
often getting targeted help. Eton offers admissions-prep classes
organized by individual departments. “Ones not pumping new
blood in here, says Tony Little, Etons headmaster. “You
cant do it at that late stage. Youre simply honing and shaping
and getting boys to think for themselves.
According to the Sutton Trust, Eton has sent more than a
third of its graduates to either Oxford or Cambridge during the
past five years, and Westminster, a London private school that
dates to the 12th century, has sent almost half. Parks says
Westminsters success at sending students to Cambridge and
Oxford comes down to its top-notch education, not Oxbridge
prepping.
`A Lot of Guidance
“Its a training ground for Oxbridge because of the
education they provide, not because of the interview training
they provide, he says.
Its not clear that Oxbridge Applications gives candidates
a competitive edge, says Mike Nicholson, who heads Oxfords
central admissions office. “Many of the kids who are able to
afford Oxbridge Applications are probably already from an
environment where theyre getting a lot of guidance,
Nicholson, 38, says.
Even students at top private schools decide they need more
help. Natasha Sharma attended St Pauls Girls School in London,
which costs 13,600 pounds a year. The redheaded 18-year-old
turned to Oxbridge Applications in 2006 when she applied to
study medicine at Queens College, Cambridge.
Sharmas father, a banker, went to Oxford, and her mother,
a lawyer, studied at Cambridge. Her brother, a graduate of St
Pauls School for boys, had used Oxbridge Applications a year
earlier and was admitted to study classics at Oxford. So she
signed up for Uffindells Interview Preparation Day “gold
package at a cost of about 230 pounds.
Stopping to Think
“You got to see it from the interviewers perspective,
she says. “I spoke way too fast and didnt think about what I
was going to say.
Oxbridge Applications suggested she trim the part of her
personal statement where she talked about playing the flute and
encouraged building on her interest in genetics by reading Matt
Ridleys “Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23
Chapters (Fourth Estate, 1999). Sharma started at Cambridge in
October.
Uffindell says he offers free help to about 100 students a
year who cant afford his services. In addition, schools
sometimes use government funding for disadvantaged youth to send
students on Oxbridge Applications interview prep days. That
irks Oxfords Nicholson and Ryan, who say state funds shouldnt
be going to private advisory services.
Reading Machiavelli
Preeti Dhillon was one who got a free ride from Oxbridge
Applications. She went to Dormers Wells, an inner-city school in
West London, where most of her fellow students were from ethnic-
minority backgrounds and didnt speak English, says Dhillon, 19,
whose parents are Indian. She did well and transferred to Bishop
Ramsey, a nearby Church of England-run school. In April 2005,
Oxbridge Applications selected her for what it calls its access
scheme.
Uffindells firm got a former Oxford admissions tutor to go
through her personal statement. The tutor suggested she write
less about drama and beef up the section about her love of
history. Her mentor also suggested she read Machiavellis “The
Prince. “I never would have read that myself, Dhillon says.
After taking a year off to travel, Dhillon started in
October at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, studying history and
politics. “Id like to think I could have done it on my own,
she says. “But probably not.
Oxbridge Applications pro bono work is made possible by
the flow of paying customers. Shayna Chotai, a 17-year-old
aspiring medical student from southeast England whos aiming for
Oxford, persuaded her parents to foot the 850 pound bill for the
weekend at Heythrop Park. “Its not cheap, says her father,
Sunil. “We want to get something out of it.
Students like Chotai will do whatever they think is
necessary to get in. She says Oxbridge Applications boosted her
confidence. Uffindells confidence is rising, too. After putting
his Oxbridge degree to use showing teens how to be admitted,
hes decided to expand into advising them on what to do with the
prized degree. Case study No. 1 might be his own.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Stephanie Baker-Said in London at
