Cambridge University Offer Statistics

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Reply 20

kpatb

Original post by comrade_jon

T so... DON'T PLAY THE STATISTICS GAME :biggrin:

Agreed

The only thing that makes these statistics misleading is that they don't take into account the number of students that get offers through the pool - and let's face it, some colleges the percentage of applicants who get offers in the pool from another college is higher than others.

I may be wrong.
Anyway, thanks for this interesting thread :smile:

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 21

Loonylottie

Does anyone know where you can find the ratios/percentages for each subject (like it shows on this thread) but for individual colleges? xx

EDIT:Why was I negged?

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 22

ElMoro

Original post by Dirac Delta Function

STEP used to be required for some other subjects as well, don't know if it still is.

Yeah, STEP wasn't just maths they had all these subjects:
* Biology
* Chemistry
* Economics
* English Literature
* French
* General Studies
* German
* History
* Physics

But these were discontinued in 2001/2003 I believe.

Reply 23

W.H.T

WOW! architecture are the top, and thats considering they aren't even the best for that particular course (I think the general view is that the likes of UCL and Bath are better).

Reply 24

Planar

What subject have I chosen? Classics - and not because of the statistics, by the way

Reply 25

Vae

Original post by Loonylottie

Does anyone know where you can find the ratios/percentages for each subject (like it shows on this thread) but for individual colleges? xx

This should do.

I'm a bit confused about the definition of "applicants" in these statistics? Do they include everyone who applied through UCAS, even if they didn't send their SAQ or gave up pre-interview? This would make the statistics a little less frightening.

Also, how are pooled offers included or listed? I don't really get it. I figure the statistics have one main purpose, namely to depress and demotivate us :s-smilie:

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 26

Loonylottie

Original post by qua

Thank you that;s exactly what I wanted *rep lovin'* xx

Reply 27

kashiya

Original post by kpatb

Agreed

Take Wolfson Economics:
they have around 10~12 applicants and admit 7~8 people (rough approximation based on the stats from the past years).
Seems to look good, right?
well, not really... there were years where all applicants, except for one, were from the pool. :wink:

Reply 28

kpatb

Original post by qua

I second that. The statistics on the Cambridge website show how many offers were from the pool, and for some colleges it looks like this: 18 applications, 6 offers (including 5 pool offers). Quite frustrating.
(Still, I don't really get what they mean by "applications". Are pooled applicants counted as applicants to their original college or to the pool college?)

Edit: Doesn't really matter how I read it, I see my chances rapidly diminishing anyway.

No, pooled applicants are separate...
Pooled applications come under the "Offers made to toehrs in pool" or something.

"Applications" means the ones just to the college :smile:

But if you're a good enough candidate, you should get in, regardless of the statistics or not. Don't read into them too much.

Reply 29

kpatb

Original post by qua

I think applicants must mean complete applications - I don't see why they would take into account people who did NOT send in their SAQ, because it isn't a complete application, and thus in theory, they haven't applied.

Reply 30

username247300

Original post by W.H.T

WOW! architecture are the top, and thats considering they aren't even the best for that particular course (I think the general view is that the likes of UCL and Bath are better).

UCL yes (especially if you have a preference for an arty approach rather than an academic one), Bath? No, I don't quite think so some how.

Reply 31

maths134

I'm sure many a prospective student has had this idea at some point and I know the website itself denies it being possible. However, it implies the pooling system is unflawed, which it can't really be because each college has different admin people. SO, question being, do you think you can play it so that you choose the college that has the most likely chance of success ? I ask because I can get my list of colleges down to about 10 after visiting them and Im thinking of ways to get it down more etc ( applying for maths btw.... so I think I may forget Trinity now...)

Any opinions would be most useful =D x

Reply 32

nibbler12

Well pooling system was fair for me, because I got into a really nice and pretty prestigious college in the end. I think it's definitely harder to get in if you apply to emmanuel than if you apply to st edmunds, but I think that on the whole the system is pretty fair.

Reply 33

maths134

Original post by nibbler12

Sorry I didn't mean to the critisise the pooling system as such, merely state its not perfect. I wanted to know about the difficulty of colleges in comparison, thank you for your st edmunds/emmanual comparison.

Reply 34

Craghyrax

Original post by maths134

Any opinions would be most useful =D x

See the discussion in the thread I've merged yours to.

Reply 35

maths134

Original post by Craghyrax

See the discussion in the thread I've merged yours to.

Thank you, I didnt see this. On the topic I raised, surely if you look at the stats of the people who get an offer from there first choice, then those who go on to be pooled and then get an offer etc then you can clearly see a divide in colleges and success rates.

Reply 36

Craghyrax

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1552846&page=2

Reply 37

maths134

So does no one think that you can tactically pick a college ?

Reply 38

comrade_jon

Original post by maths134

So does no one think that you can tactically pick a college ?

I would say it would be pretty damn difficult. You might be able to pick some things that could work in very minor ways in your favour, but these would be so circumstantial and minor that really there is no tangible reward for picking particular colleges.

Reply 39

Zoedotdot

Original post by maths134

So does no one think that you can tactically pick a college ?

At the end of the day, Cambridge is Cambridge, and no kind of tactics will get around the fact that it's very hard to get into, and no matter where you apply you will face stiff competition. If you're not cut out for it you won't get a place, even if you apply to the least popular college or on a less popular course or to a college with a a high applicant to offer ratio. Colleges don't necessarily work to strict quotas, and can reject all their direct applicants and just take from the pool if they want to. Your best bet is to just apply to a college that you like. It's what I did and I'm very glad that I chose that over trying to build up some statistics to help me choose.