Questions · Eton · Westminster
What do Eton and Westminster’s admissions counts show?
Same number of Oxbridge applications, 28 more offers for Westminster: what the 2025 figures show, and what they can’t.
Covers: Applications, offers and acceptances at Oxford and Cambridge in the 2025 admissions round, counted by application from each school. The linked comparison looks at Oxford offer rates only.
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The answer
In the 2025 admissions round, Eton and Westminster each had 166 applications to Oxford and Cambridge. Westminster received 80 offers to Eton’s 52, and 73 acceptances to Eton’s 44: 28 more offers and 29 more acceptances from the same number of applications.
The figures
Each figure keeps its own year and group, and doesn’t change with your shortlist.
2025 · Oxford and Cambridge admissions round
Eton · Oxford and Cambridge, 2025 round
Accepted / admitted outcomes: 44; Applications: 166; Applications Complete: Yes; Offers: 52
Counts of applications and outcomes, not a head-count of pupils or a list of where leavers went.
- Population
- Applications from the school, 2025 round
- Denominator
- Not recorded
2025 · Oxford and Cambridge admissions round
Westminster · Oxford and Cambridge, 2025 round
Accepted / admitted outcomes: 73; Applications: 166; Applications Complete: Yes; Offers: 80
Counts of applications and outcomes, not a head-count of pupils or a list of where leavers went.
- Population
- Applications from the school, 2025 round
- Denominator
- Not recorded
The gap opens at the offer stage
With the same number of applications, Westminster already had more offers. So more applications don’t explain its larger offer count this year. Why it had more is a separate question, below.
Accepted outcomes are a later university-admissions stage. They are not independently verified enrolments, and the difference between offers and accepted outcomes does not identify how many people missed conditions. The combined count also isn’t a count of individual pupils.
Same number of applications, not the same applicants
The two schools may differ in subject choices, prior attainment, the people encouraged to apply, previous leavers, tests and interviews. Equal application totals control none of those differences. A comparison of recorded outcomes is therefore not a controlled experiment on the schools or their university preparation.
A school encouraging a broader range of applications could record a lower rate without providing weaker support. A more selective application process could increase the rate without changing teaching. These are rival explanations to investigate, not conclusions the totals can settle.
The next useful comparison is narrower
Open the Oxford offer-rate comparison to see offers divided by applications on the same university and cycle basis. It uses the existing reviewed calculation model. It is not a combined Oxbridge rate or a probability for a pupil considering either school.
One admissions round can’t show a lasting lead. An earlier version of this answer gave multi-year averages and offer-to-acceptance percentages; they were removed, because a longer-run comparison needs its own checked list of years.
What would help explain the pattern?
Subject-level application and outcome counts, the composition of the applicant pool and documented advice about applying would help distinguish the possible mechanisms. Destination choices alone cannot show who decided against an application or whether an overseas option displaced it.
For a school visit, ask how the school supports applicants across subjects and how it describes outcomes for current pupils versus previous leavers. Keep that question alongside the count comparison, rather than translating a school-level ratio into a prediction about an individual.
Try the comparison
Eton and Westminster: Oxford offers / applications, 2025
Oxford offers divided by applications from the same apply centre and named entry cycle.
Eton’s recorded result was 17.9 percentage points lower than Westminster’s in 2025.
Not charted: fewer than 3 comparable years for any of these schools, too few to draw a line. The figures: Eton (2025: 28.07%); Westminster (2025: 45.95%).
Exact values, and years left out
| School and year | Figure | What it counts | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eton College 2025 | 28.07% Derived: offers / applications × 100Oxford admissions round · Offers | Oxford applications from the schoolOut of 114 | Source and full figures: Eton College, 2025 |
| Westminster School 2025 | 45.95% Derived: offers / applications × 100Oxford admissions round · Offers | Oxford applications from the schoolOut of 111 | Source and full figures: Westminster School, 2025 |
Record details
Each figure’s status as recorded, the precision it was printed to, and its record code.
- Eton College, 2025: Primary · Derived from stored counts; no input rounding ·
fig:oxford_strict_eton_college:19 - Westminster School, 2025: Primary · Derived from stored counts; no input rounding ·
fig:oxford_strict_westminster_school:19
Where these figures come from
Each record gives the full definition, the documents it came from and what we checked.
Eton College · 2025 · Cambridge and combined Oxbridge cycles · 2025
Counts of applications and outcomes, not a head-count of pupils or a list of where leavers went.
We don’t yet have a usable description of this figure’s source, or a check against the original. Its reference codes are kept for further research.
Westminster School · 2025 · Cambridge and combined Oxbridge cycles · 2025
Counts of applications and outcomes, not a head-count of pupils or a list of where leavers went.
We don’t yet have a usable description of this figure’s source, or a check against the original. Its reference codes are kept for further research.
- The combined counts do not identify unique pupils, subject mix or causation.
- This article tests one recorded cycle. An earlier version of this analysis made a pooled multi-year claim; it is not carried forward.
About this answer
Editorial interpretation by The Schools Record. The research material below informed the questions; source passages consulted for this explanation are identified above. Displayed numerical examples come from this publication’s current evidence records; earlier research editions do not override them.
- The Schools Record · article archive · September 2026 · pages 3–5
Reviewed for this edition on . This is an interpretation of the cited evidence, not a new check of every original historical publication.
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