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The Careers and Universities department provides our students with the advice they require to make informed A level choices and also guides them through their university application.

In their final GCSE year, students take a careers test to establish their areas of strength and possible future careers. Each student is assigned an adviser who will encourage them to research these careers and also discuss their choice of subjects for Years 12 and 13 (Eighth Form). In this way, we ensure that pupils may make a set of coherent choices, consistent with their career aspirations.

In Year 12 (Lower Eighth), students are encouraged to start thinking about their university application. The department runs a five lesson course, explaining the process of the application. There’s then time and opportunity for individual research into universities and the courses on offer. There are twelve UK university advisers who, in addition to their teaching responsibilities, specialise in providing assistance and guidance to pupils in their specialist subject areas. In their final year, students will be assigned to one of these advisers who will be responsible for writing their UCAS reference.

In a typical year group of approximately 200, between a quarter and a third accept offers from Oxford and Cambridge. In 2020, 126 pupils gained places at other Russell Group universities including UCL and Imperial College which are within the top 10 in the 2020 QS World University Rankings.

We have our own dedicated team of ten US counsellors and support staff for US University Applications. Each year leavers and gap year students head for leading US universities in the top QS World University Rankings both overall and by subject. Popular choices among Paulines include Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, Stanford,  UCLA and the University of Chicago. In 2021 thirty Paulines accepted places at US universities. The full list of 2021 offers and acceptances is on the US Universities Applications page.