Oxford 2023 ‘open offers’ - how are students chosen?

Why do some applicants to Oxford get ‘open offers’ - is it so Oxford has a ready made bench of substitutes for students who don’t get their grades? And are the holders of ‘open offers’ students who the College didn’t think were quite good enough for them, but decided to give them a place anyway? My son, who has a hidden disability, was given an open offer today, and while we were naturally delighted and grateful to the college he applied to that they didn’t simply reject him, we did wonder, if he was good enough for the university, why the college he applied to didn’t just offer him a place?

This will only answer part of your questions, but one reason for open offers is because of a lack of college space. It's unlikely that any applicant will go to the college that they applied to, and some colleges get way more applications than others (for various reasons such as being well-located). When an applicant is good enough for Oxford but the college runs out of space, the applicant is put into an open pool with a note attached to them that they have a lot of potential, and this can cause other colleges to take an interest in them.

So if a college with 50 places gets 100 good applications, and a college with 100 places gets 100 bad applications, the latter applicants won't be given places over the best applicants just because the former lost the college lottery. I hope that makes sense. Basically, what I suspect is that the college ran out of space and I guess that your son has been put back into the pool. (It IS just a guess.) I don't think it's likely that he will go to the college that he applied to, but this is a totally normal occurrence. Most people get given a different college than what they applied for.

Thanks for this. It would still be nice to know why he went in ‘the pool’ rather than other offer holders. I suppose also because he has a hidden disability, which the College was made aware of, I am slightly wary of him being treated differently from others. If the process for picking open offer holders was more transparent than I wouldn’t have these questions.

All of this makes me sound very ungrateful when I am hugely grateful he got a place at all, but my ‘possible discrimination radar’ is a bit over sensitive sometimes.

It's unlikely that any applicant will go to the college that they applied to

Most people get given a different college than what they applied for.

Why do some applicants to Oxford get ‘open offers’ - is it so Oxford has a ready made bench of substitutes for students who don’t get their grades? And are the holders of ‘open offers’ students who the College didn’t think were quite good enough for them, but decided to give them a place anyway? My son, who has a hidden disability, was given an open offer today, and while we were naturally delighted and grateful to the college he applied to that they didn’t simply reject him, we did wonder, if he was good enough for the university, why the college he applied to didn’t just offer him a place?

Why do some applicants to Oxford get ‘open offers’ - is it so Oxford has a ready made bench of substitutes for students who don’t get their grades? And are the holders of ‘open offers’ students who the College didn’t think were quite good enough for them, but decided to give them a place anyway? My son, who has a hidden disability, was given an open offer today, and while we were naturally delighted and grateful to the college he applied to that they didn’t simply reject him, we did wonder, if he was good enough for the university, why the college he applied to didn’t just offer him a place?

Why do some applicants to Oxford get ‘open offers’ - is it so Oxford has a ready made bench of substitutes for students who don’t get their grades? And are the holders of ‘open offers’ students who the College didn’t think were quite good enough for them, but decided to give them a place anyway? My son, who has a hidden disability, was given an open offer today, and while we were naturally delighted and grateful to the college he applied to that they didn’t simply reject him, we did wonder, if he was good enough for the university, why the college he applied to didn’t just offer him a place?

Artew has posted the Oxford Official description on the back end of yesterday's responses on main thread.I will paraphrase.Your chosen college got too many good applicants.Not all students with offers will meet their grades.Therefore your son is in a pool of applicants to fill those spaces that become available.The applicants chosen are NOT the weaker applicants from the first college, they are from the stronger group.This makes sense if you think of what there purpose is.If you feel he would struggle elsewhere because of his disability perhaps email his college admissions outline your concerns and ask their advice.How does your son feel?

That’s all good advice, I will definitely think it over and probably contact the college as you suggest. My son is very pleased to have been offered a place, but he hates uncertainty. His mind is very agile, and he’s impulsive and unpredictable, but he has very low tolerance of unpredictability himself. He chose to apply to this college after working out all the ‘angles’, the reasons it would suit him and, equally important, why he would suit the college. After that, in his mind it was ‘rejected/ offered place at this college’ he didn’t consider an ‘open offer’ as probable. Now he has to think about it from scratch and there is a multitude of possible outcomes to his application, all of which were previously discounted by him on what I can best describe as his mental spreadsheet. He may come to terms with ‘something he hasn’t chosen’ - or he may not, and while this wouldn’t look catastrophic it wouldn’t be ideal. I probably sound as if I’m underestimating his resilience, and I may be, but I’ve learnt that it’s much better for him to get things right first time if possible.

The only saving grace is he will know on the 17th of August giving him 7-8 weeks to get used to the idea and in reality until we get A level results no one knows where they are going really.All the best and do update us.

Thanks for the kind response. You’re quite right about waiting, and having a guaranteed place at Oxford (results permitting) is obviously a very nice problem to have - though I think Oxford will be lucky to have him too! Knowing him as well as I do I just don’t want him to keep returning to it in his mind. Open offers are strangely opaque - there’s no explanation of how they’re picked, or how the process will work in August. From a disability point of view any lack of transparency is always concerning. Thanks again.

Interesting thread. There is a facebook page for parents of autistic/neurodiverse UK students which may be useful. I have 3 children one with a diagnosis who is already at uni. The second hasn’t got a diagnosis but has asked but currently not even on waiting list. She got an open offer from Oxford under written by a college she would really like to go to, infact it made her interested to go to Oxford whereas previously preferred other unis. The uncertainty is stressful

Thanks for posting this. It is stressful for them and anything which causes stress at this time - less than a hundred days to A-levels - is unhelpful to say the least. The trouble is, because it’s Oxford you feel ungrateful expressing any dissent with their arrangements. I wonder why open offers are given to students who have expressed a preference for a college - surely they should be given to students who have made an open application. Was the College made aware that your daughter had a possible disability when she applied?

No she hasn’t got an official diagnosis so they wouldn’t be aware. In terms of you worrying about the college discriminating with regard to ND candidates I think it’s doubtful. From Fb fair few Autistic kids go to Oxbridge seems almost the norm.
I know what you mean re seeming ungrateful. I wanted to say she only wants to come here (well I kind of did) but it seems that certainty isn’t available with or without a diagnosis. I suppose it might be worth an email to DAS oxford’s disability office.
I am wondering about if mine makes the grades & gets a college she really doesn’t think would be the right fit, how likely would she get into insurance choice. I haven’t heard of people transferring college.

No she hasn’t got an official diagnosis so they wouldn’t be aware. In terms of you worrying about the college discriminating with regard to ND candidates I think it’s doubtful. From Fb fair few Autistic kids go to Oxbridge seems almost the norm.
I know what you mean re seeming ungrateful. I wanted to say she only wants to come here (well I kind of did) but it seems that certainty isn’t available with or without a diagnosis. I suppose it might be worth an email to DAS oxford’s disability office.
I am wondering about if mine makes the grades & gets a college she really doesn’t think would be the right fit, how likely would she get into insurance choice. I haven’t heard of people transferring college.

It is rarely done.Occaisonally it happens but there have to be very ,very exceptional circumstances.

Let me know how you get on if you contact DAS. I tried contacting both the disability service and the main admissions department (I didn’t want to get my son a bad name with the college so didn’t speak to them) but they barely responded and just asked me to contact the college.

I was at Cambridge many years ago and if a college didn’t want to do something then it damn well wouldn’t do it! I’m sure many things have changed since then but however welcoming Oxbridge colleges might be now I expect there is still a kind of institutional steeliness in them which means they won’t do anything they don’t want or need to do; and I imagine you’ll meet this steel if you get too uppity.


It’s a shame then that the Colleges/University haven’t considered the issue of neurodivergent students being given open offers when neurotypical students who make open applications can be assigned to a college when the offers go out.

I agree it should be given more consideration.It might be worth trying the college if you keep it very polite if only to start creating that awareness.As you say there is certainly a steeliness esp at Cambridge but I would say there might be more bend in certain colleges in Oxford.Without a diagnosis though I would say there is no chance as so many students are redirected.