Cambridge reject gets five As

Candice Clarke, from Essex, was rejected by Cambridge University

A schoolgirl rejected by Cambridge University has vowed to win the Nobel prize for peace after achieving five As in her A-levels.

Candice Clarke, 17, a pupil at Colchester County High School for Girls in Essex, grew up on a council estate and studied for her GCSEs while looking after her ill grandmother on her own.

Despite success in her exams, she was "devastated" when she was rejected from Trinity College, as it had always been her dream to study at Cambridge.

"I was angry," she said. "I deserved to go there and worked really hard."

She was also turned down by Nottingham and Bristol but Newcastle University has given her a three-year bursary to help with the costs of her degree.

Candice, who lives in Walton on the Naze, Essex, had already got eight A*s and one A-grade at GCSE.

Helen McAteer and Candice Clarke celebrate A-level results

Both of her parents are disabled and no one from her family has ever been to university.

"I always wanted to be a doctor," she said.

"The whole profession is very middle class and I think it needs a variety of people to communicate to patients on all levels.

"It has been emotionally draining, but it's a way of life - if you come from a dysfunctional family, you put up with it."

She continued: "Oxbridge should take more working class people from state schools, they should have a bigger range of people."

However, the rejection has not thwarted her determination.

The University of Cambridge is committed to admitting students of the highest intellectual potential, irrespective of social, racial, religious and financial considerations Cambridge University spokeswoman

She pledged to become the second woman in history to win the Nobel peace prize.

"I don't want to be a normal doctor, I want to do something great," she said.

A spokeswoman for Cambridge Univesity said: "The University of Cambridge is committed to admitting students of the highest intellectual potential, irrespective of social, racial, religious and financial considerations.

"We can not comment on individual cases, but would like to wish Ms Clarke every success in her future."