Shrewsbury School – another successful year for Oxbridge
01 Feb 2016
Shrewsbury has enjoyed another successful year for Oxford and Cambridge applications as Salopians received a total of 13 offers (nine from Oxford and four from Cambridge).
English Literature and Biological and Human Sciences both celebrated vintage years with three offers each. Evidently, the inspiration of Sir Philip Sidney and Charles Darwin continues to flourish at Shrewsbury.
It has been a good year for P.P.E. with two positive applications for Oxford, and we are delighted to have our first successful candidate to read Law at Cambridge for a number of years. Salopians also received offers to study Physics at Oxford and Mathematics, Psychological and Behavioural Sciences and Land Economy at Cambridge.
We are delighted with the range of different disciplines and with the balance between traditional academic subjects such as Mathematics and English Literature and more specialised courses such as Psychological and Behavioural Sciences, Law and Land Economy. This shows that our strongest pupils can not only prove their expertise in the subjects they study here at Shrewsbury, but that they can also demonstrate their aptitude for new academic courses.
It is also interesting to see the link between ‘supercurricular’ activities and Oxbridge applications. This year’s successful applicants have been stalwarts of Shrewsbury societies, such as Creative Writing, Darwin, Heseltine and Model United Nations, and have taken part in competitions such as the International Young Physicists’ Tournament and the Senior Maths Team Challenge.
Pre- and post-A level applicants were finely balanced this year. Seven applicants have received offers conditional on achieving high A level grades, while six post A-level applicants have received firm offers of places.
The following pre-A Level candidates have been offered conditional places:
| Sasha Arridge (Rb) | Philosophy, Politics and Economics at St Anne’s College, Oxford |
| Chloe Chen (MSH) | Maths at Jesus College, Cambridge |
| James Chen (I) | Law at St John’s College, Cambridge |
| Joe Davies (M) | Biological Sciences at Magdalen College, Oxford |
| Thomas Dodd (Rb) | Physics at Hertford College, Oxford |
| Ursule Taujanskaite (MSH) | Psychological and Behavioural Sciences at Selwyn College, Cambridge |
| Tiger Vechamamontien (M) | Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford |
The following pupils applied post-A Level and have been given firm offers:
| Alex Bird (S) | Land Economy at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge |
| Olivia Bradley (EDH) | English at Christ Church, Oxford |
| Theodora Briggs (EDH) | English at Somerville College, Oxford |
| Charles Gillow (Ch) | Human Sciences at St Hugh’s College, Oxford |
| Cecy Price (EDH) | Biological Sciences at Pembroke College, Oxford |
| Theo Simmons (Ch) | English at St John’s College, Oxford |
Photo: Pictured with the Headmaster are six of the successful Pre-A Level Oxbridge applicants. L-R: Sasha Arridge, Tom Dodd, Tiger Vechamamontien, Joe Davies, Ursule Taujanskaite and Chloe Chen