Eight years ago when Laura Spencer was 18, she found herself at the centre of a row after being refused a place at Magdalen College Oxford, despite getting 5 top grades in her A-levels.
Gordon Brown who was Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time got very upset and called Oxford’s decision a ‘scandal’ which started a debate about elitism.
But yesterday Laura, now 26, graduated from Wolfson College, Cambridge with distinction, eight years after being turned down by Oxford, the highest grade possible.
She was offered a £35,000 scholarship to study at Harvard and completed a degree in Biological Sciences and graduated with honours. She returned home four years ago to begin a graduate course in medicine.
Eight years ago she said: 'To be honest, I never disputed my Oxford rejection. I simply got on with life. My position at the centre of the row was difficult.'
And yesterday she said ‘I’m starting work as a doctor now but I don’t want to say anything more than that’.
Clever girl.
