<p>Actually British public school educated actors seem to be making a come back, or so I remember reading in the Times a while ago. But anyway, basically the main reasons the attend a school like Eton, rather than say Westminster, are all pretty snobby (no offense) as it is all about the people and the money rather than the education and results. The sports are pretty exceptional, and the debating (I’ve come up against a few of their teams)
I think someone would have to be pretty misguided to think Eton would be like Hogwarts, which is as far off it as any normal secondary school here (we still have uniforms and houses at my school, and a lot of people get there by train) Although some weird s*** goes on there… [BBC</a> News | Education | Eton boy’s fatal strangling game](<a href=“http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/297656.stm]BBC”>BBC News | Education | Eton boy's fatal strangling game)</p>
<p>xD @ first poster.</p>
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<p>I think you may be confusing Britain with Germany, dear sir. And even then, *** even in Germany, with its developed apprenticeship system and grammar school curriculum, most people would give an arm and a leg before they give up university for ‘an apprenticeship or other job’!</p>
<p>tl;dr: BS. YOU CAN TOTALLY APPLY.</p>
<p>My friend’s brother goes to Eton (Keystage 3, but nonetheless). He’s also an international, not a legacy by any means, and as far as I understand, not particularly brilliant. There was an article on the Guardian about this middle class boy that got into Eton - but that was only remarkable because he got an organ scholarship.</p>
<p>I went to a selective public school myself and it’s not that hard to get into if you have two braincells connected by a neuron in your skull, and the academics, whilst quite on-par, are nothing to crap oneself about. There’s no guarantee for admission to Oxbridge (I’d say it’s a disadvantage, because literally 80% of the school apply, so you’re compared to a lot of very good students, whereas if you were some inner city kid, the Oxbridge people would be comparatively more impressed) although 20% of my classmates ended up going there. I’d say the biggest difference between a selective public and anything else is the competitiveness among the students, but that’s a double-edged sword. I didn’t thrive in that environment.</p>
<p>Going to Eton is not the same as going to Harvard. 2/3 of your ‘achievement’ is your parents’ ability to pay the sticker price. Also, be warned about the uniforms: they still wear the funny Hogwarts-type gowns and hats. </p>
<p>@jsanche23 D’Overbroeck’s?</p>
<p>No, vienneselights, I had confused modern Britain with the Britain of my youth. I am 42, and when I sat O-levels (yes that’s how old I am) most British students left school after taking O-levels or GCE’s, before the new exams, the GCSEs were introduced. UKgirl corrected my mistake immediately, and I am grateful for her for doing so.</p>
<p>I agree with you, that if the original poster has enough money, and a minimal number of brain cells, he will indeed be able to get into Eton. My concern was that getting into Eton might not actually help him achieve the things he was trying to achieve, and there might be a different plan that fits his goals better.</p>
<p>KEVP</p>
<p>When the Headman have the Leavers’ Address just to the boys he pointed out there regardless what you had accomplish or not in your life that the first line of your obituary would be that you attended Eton. No other school-- for ill or good has that iconic quality–not even Oxbridge or HYP. Agreed theta Eton has a higher level of swats and that is deliberate on Eton’s part a they want a mixture of academically clever, artistically clever, leadership skills and athletic skills–that all of these strengths lead to the best mix of boys not just clever clogs. Yoiu will be as challendenged as you wish at Eton as any place in the aUK. </p>
<p>As a son who entered from the US as an F Blocker, it is a much greater transition shift than one would expect-- as Churchill (an OH) pointed out the the US and th UK were two countries separated by a common leaguage…</p>
<p>That being said it was the best–the best-- decision to send him to Eton before he returned to Harvard (btw, check out where the British students at Harvard attended school)…</p>
<p>Also you can go to Eton and be accepted as a “real Etonian” if one goes just for c and B blocks , but you miss out on the flu ZEton sense that only a boy who has been there since F block can have…and you need to have registered and taken the exam by the time you are around ten years old (exp for music and king’s and new foundation scholarship boys–write the school for details…)</p>