Student says elitism cost him a place at college
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Your support makes all the difference.A school leaver, believed to be among the most highly qualified in Scotland, blamed elitism at the heart of Britain's grandest universities for depriving him of a place at Cambridge.
Gary Sinclair, 18, from Cromarty, in Ross, applied to study natural sciences at Cambridge's Magdalene College after achieving five straight A grades in his A-level equivalent Sixth Year Studies and Advanced Higher exams. Only three other students in Scotland achieved five such passes in the examinations but the teenager believes he missed out on a Cambridge education because his alma mater, Fortrose Academy, was a comprehensive rather than an English public school.
Mr Sinclair, who has now accepted a place to study physics at St Andrews University, has no doubts that elitism was at the root of Magdalene's decision. "One of the first questions that I was asked was: 'Do you come from a comprehensive school and have they prepared you for this interview?'," he said.
Magdalene College denied there had been any bias against Mr Sinclair because he was a state school pupil.
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