I READ with interest Chris Titley's column, "Snobs amid the spires" (August 21), and as a very recent graduate from Oxford (I completed my degree in French this summer), I am moved to comment on it.

The first opinion which puzzled me was that Oxford dons are removed from the modern world.

Last year most of my tutorials were arranged via email, and I sent several essays in using the same method.

Lecture notes, exam timetables and old exam papers are available online. Oxford is very much connected to modern technology.

Mr Titley also makes the common mistake of believing that six As at A-level should be an automatic passport to Oxford.

In my year at college (some 100 students), two had six As at A-level. Both finished with 2:2s.

My college is currently fifth in the league table of colleges, and 2:2s are comparatively rare.

The column does rightly point out that Oxford looks for more than grades, and details the character traits of Anastasia Fedotova. The chances are that every student applying to Oxford has bags of character, plays a musical instrument, or competes at a high level in a sport, or acts, or draws, in addition to being predicted to achieve at least three As at A-level.

So naturally, Mr Titley concludes that Anastasia was rejected because she was from a state school. It is prejudices like these, and the comment which closes the column, that help perpetuate the ridiculous myths.

People thought that I, a state-educated northern female, had little chance of success in applying to Oxford. I stuck to my guns. Now, after four wonderful years amongst a diverse, friendly, and perfectly normal group of people, I'm glad I did.

Joanne Harris,

Moor Lane,

Haxby,

York.

...REGARDING Chris Titley's commentary on Oxbridge admissions, he states and totally misses the number one reason why school leavers don't apply to Oxbridge.

He quotes a York sixth-former who stated that her reason for not applying to Oxford was that "my background is working class and I have an accent... I think that's all there is to it".

At best the "can't apply, won't apply" attitude is misinformed; at worst it's just lazy and posturing.

It's easily fuelled by any politician wishing to score a few cheap points, or hack about to miss his copy deadline.

Ms Sedotova, as Laura Spence before her, was rejected for the simple reason that her subject (Maths, Laura Spence applied for English) is vastly oversubscribed at Oxbridge and for every student accepted (for whom straight As are a pre-requisite), at least ten must be turned away.

The admissions process is transparent to anyone who's interested in writing about it fairly: just ask one of the hundreds of students who go through it every Christmas to tell you about it.

Since 2001, state school applicants make up about 50 per cent of British UK applications to Cambridge each year (the same proportion as apply from independent schools), and take up as many places. Where's the snobbery there?

By drawing a line in the sand, the working class versus the toffs, State versus private, and proclaiming that the system is set against the majority, Gordon Brown's remarks in the summer of 2000 precluded the first drop in state school applications that Oxford and Cambridge had seen in 12 years.

To say that a student "is better off away from the institutionalised snobbery and prejudices of Oxford" is a comment that will only serve to discourage another year of York sixth-formers from applying.

Matthew Bloch,

Montague Street,

York.

Updated: 10:40 Saturday, August 24, 2002