Coming to uni from a state school doesn’t make me inferior

We’re just as worthy as you, and you know it

Bristol school.

I may not have an “Old…” prefix to my school name, or a former prime minister as an alumni, but I don’t care. And neither should you.

Arriving at my hall of residence in September, the plethora of lacrosse sticks, cricket bats and Range Rovers were the first clue I wasn’t rubbing shoulders with the great unwashed. I had entered a world of privilege: I had entered the car park of Wills Hall.

Stop acting like we’re at Oxbridge guys

Us freshers were eager to get to know one other, and so began the repetitive Q&A of “Where are you from?”, “What do you study?” and, inevitably, “Where did you go to school?”. The million dollar question. A loaded question – are you in, or are you out? The answer shouldn’t matter, but to some it matters a great deal, telling them all they need to know about that person.

[Insert public school name here] – Wealthy, well educated, well connected, probably knows your friend Phoebe or Hugo who went to the same school, going to be in the Cabinet one day.

[Insert the name of any other school] – “Poor”, poorly educated, probably crap at sports, destined for serfdom flipping burgers at Maccy Ds.

Coming to a fast food emporium near you, apparently

The people who seriously care where you went to school believe an expensive education makes you a person worth knowing. It puts you in their club.

Being able to go to a private school would have been fantastic, had my family been wealthy enough to afford it, but that’s not to say I’m inferior because my schooling was paid for by taxes.

I may never be a member of their club, but frankly I wouldn’t want to be. Judging someone on their education doesn’t make you superior, it just makes you a nob.

In my school, the richest boy in the year had the luxury of an indoor swimming pool. That doesn’t mean I’m poor, it means I’m normal.

Normal people, normal school

Students like me didn’t have the comfort of riding through UCAS applications on the back of our school’s reputation. We had to try and get similar grades with fewer resources and a much larger teacher to pupil ratio.

Despite these setbacks, state school students are no less intelligent, no less worthy of acceptance, and will probably make better-rounded members of society than the average public school boy or girl.

This lot are probably better people than anyone from a private school

I’m done with being embarrassed because no one’s ever heard of my school. I had a great education. I got good grades, I’m now at one of the best universities in the country and on top of that, it was free.

Where you went to school should not be a factor in the measure of your character. There are twats in every school across the country, and whether your parents pay for boarding or the state pays for your lunches doesn’t make you any less or more of a person.

At least some people here are as normal as me

We don’t want patronising admiration for succeeding in a state school, we just want to be treated equally. University is the great leveler: when you really think about it, we all ended up in the same place, only my family didn’t pay £30,000 a year to get me there.