Ask an Admissions Tutor IX, 4th August - 2nd September

Does whether or not you've sent photocopies of your certificates yet (deadline 31st August) affect whether or not you're accepted if you miss your offer?

If we do particularly well in our AS exams in reformed subjects without UMS, is there a way to communicate our raw marks in our application? Only one of my subjects is unreformed, and it would be a shame to only be able to put the results of that one subject in the SAQ. Has the SAQ been modified to allow you to put your raw marks for reformed subjects without UMS?


Posted from TSR Mobile

If you applied to Christ's then yes. If not, I can't imagine that you wouldn't be but I'm not in other colleges admissions offices.

Hello and thanks for your questions. First of all, best of luck for your results.

If you achieve A*A*AA and your college decides not to take you then your file would be placed in the Summer Pool for other colleges to look at and maybe make an offer. With A*A*AA you would certainly be a strong candidate there.

If you were unsuccessful in the Summer Pool and decided to reapply, we do usually suggest that students apply to another college. If you feel that your chose college is absolutely the one for you, then the best thing to do is to email the Admissions Tutor and asked him/her about whether this is a good idea. Normally, they would suggest you apply to another college but there may be specific reasons why reapplying to the same college might be best for your chances (I had a case like this this year, where someone missed our offer and reapplied and has been successful second time around) though this is rare.

While it's natural to develop an affinity with your chosen college, do remember that colleges have many more similarities than differences and that there's no such thing as a perfect fit between applicant and college.

I don't know the number of people who miss their offers but are still taken. It's not something I've tracked (though I probably should). Generally, those we take are what I call 'technical' misses, i.e. where the candidate has made or exceeded the standard offer but missed a higher tariff that we set. In my four years as an Admissions Tutor, I've only accepted one A Level candidate who got AAA (and a couple who got A*A*B).

Now that is interesting.. Guess I'll be sad about not applying to Christ's

For reference, I applied to Trinity to read maths and got placed into the Winter pool, but ultimately got rejected. I sat my A-levels and I, II, and III regardless. Even though I didn't apply to Christ's, is there any chance of being Summer pooled if I managed to obtain 11 come Thursday?

Well, good luck! I'm afraid I can't say whether we will be looking in the summer pool as that would break the embargo on results.

Thanks for the reply.

Actually my college's admissions tutor has just been changed, like a week ago. This is worrying since he did not interview me and the leniency to the missed offer holders could be much tougher.. how would this change affect the chances of acceptance?

Also, there were 3 people during my interview; AT, DoS and Senior tutor. If I miss the condition, do AT consult with th DoS and Senior tutor for the reconsideration?

I appreciate your quick and kind response!

Sorry for this, but just to clarify. You're saying that even if a candidate who applied to Christ's was rejected in January, i.e: not given an offer but sat STEP anyway and got 1, 1 - you would put them in the summer pool?

No, can't do that. I assumed the question meant a candidate who kissed their offer. Candidates rejected in January cannot be offered in August. We get a lot of requests every yet from students in this situation and there's nothing we can do.

Alright, that makes a lot more sense. That's why Number Nine and I were confused, since he got rejected pre-offer, so was wondering why you were saying that he could be summer pooled. Thank you for the clarification!

Sorry about that, didn't read it closely enough. I blame my increased heart rate from watching Liverpool hold on against Arsenal! Apologies though for giving false hope to those rejected in January.

Sorry for this, but just to clarify. You're saying that even if a candidate who applied to Christ's was rejected in January, i.e: not given an offer but sat STEP anyway and got 1, 1 - you would put them in the summer pool?

I actually think this should be thing - stops people *losing* a whole year of their life to reapply. I guess the workload of keeping on top of the grades of those who were rejected would be too high to warrent this though.

Maybe let people send a quick email on results day (only those who were rejected) if they got over a pre-set grade requirement (for example a grade above the standard grade requirement for that subject) and then they could get summer pooled. Would definitely reduce people taking gap years.

I actually think this should be thing - stops people *losing* a whole year of their life to reapply. I guess the workload of keeping on top of the grades of those who were rejected would be too high to warrent this though.

Maybe let people send a quick email on results day (only those who were rejected) if they got over a pre-set grade requirement (for example a grade above the standard grade requirement for that subject) and then they could get summer pooled. Would definitely reduce people taking gap years.

No, can't do that. I misread it and ssumed the question meant a candidate who kissed their offer. Candidates rejected in January cannot be offered in August. We get a lot of requests every yet from students in this situation and there's nothing we can do.

But i think the grades aint the issue to interviews are.
But good people slip through the pool all the time with 99averages and good interviews its not a perfect process and I don't think any process can be.
Personally I think the pool should be revised so that every application is considered not just the applications that are 'cherry picked'



Posted from TSR Mobile

Agh, that match. My girlfriend supports Liverpool. I'm not going to hear the end of it tonight.

I actually think this should be thing - stops people *losing* a whole year of their life to reapply. I guess the workload of keeping on top of the grades of those who were rejected would be too high to warrent this though.

Maybe let people send a quick email on results day (only those who were rejected) if they got over a pre-set grade requirement (for example a grade above the standard grade requirement for that subject) and then they could get summer pooled. Would definitely reduce people taking gap years.

In what way 'considered'? All applications in the Winter Pool have already had 4 hours of scrutiny so it would be wrong to say that they haven't been considered already. All files in the pool are available for anyone to read, there isn't 'cherry picking'. We have just considered how we might track files that are accessed in the Pool but this is impossible. What the Pool does is offer candidates another chance - it's not perfect as you recognise but we do our best to improve it every year.