The Official Cambridge Winter Pool 2013 Thread (includes FAQ and Status Reports)

It isn't, unfortunately.

Correct.

I'm not sure I entirely follow the logic of what your teacher is saying. The decisions about almost all direct offers have been made by the end of the Pool - the issue is how long colleges take to convey the news, and as we have seen this varies a great deal. As we have also seen, some colleges are quick off the mark (well done King's and Trinity Hall) in letting people know they've been unsuccessful, while others take their own sweet time. So while there is always hope until the fat lady has sung, waiting a long time to hear is not an indicator of either good news or bad news being on its way eventually.

Colleges will negotiate for those applicants who have been called for more than one interview. As I have also said, a (very) small number of people who haven't been called for interview may get offers from their original college, after their re-interviews have been completed. It is also true that another (very) small number of people will get direct offers from other colleges than the one they applied to, if it turns out that the people called for re-interview do not live up to expectation.

There is something I don't understand.
There are two documents about the Pool thing and they have different information, very little but quite important
In this http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/admissions/handbook/appendices/winterpooltutors2013.pdf at the final stage section, they say all files will be returned to the preference college on the 7TH OF JANUARY
but in this http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/admissions/handbook/appendices/winterpoolofficers2013.pdf it's said it's the 9TH OF JANUARY
So what's the exact date? Judging by the fact that some colleges (King, Trinity) have already given out rejections so it should be the 7th of January but I emailed St John yesterday to ask about my file and she said today that she had no information suggesting it'd be 9th of Jan.
What the hell?

I suspect that's a failure to amend the date when the documents were updated for this year. 9th January for the return of the files seems more likely.

Perfect, well done! Ha, I would love to meet you there, after visiting Cambridge I think it is actually now my favourite college.

What I would do to see the pooling process from the dons point of view......

I suspect that's a failure to amend the date when the documents were updated for this year. 9th January for the return of the files seems more likely.

However, as interview and offer lists were circulated to all colleges on Saturday, the admissions officers would be able to tell who of the people they pooled had been picked up by another college, and therefore determine that everyone else was unsuccessful, since clearly they would know about anyone they were keeping 'on ice'.

Well, according to what you post, is it true that for an international student who has not heard anything from Cambridge, his status could either be 'under active consideration from one college' or 'rejected' but not 'under consideration from more than one college'?

Is it still possible to be given an offer from the college you originally applied to at this stage?

Do all colleges get a look at your file before decisions are made, or are they sorted through in a different way? Sorry if theres an obvious answer, I was curious about how they do it for a while.

I really hope you're right!! Thanks for calming me down a bit!

Minerva, do you think this could be true? It sounds completely plausible?

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Should the people they intend to interview have been contacted by now? Is it more likely to be direct offers/rejections from this point on?

Well, according to what you post, is it true that for an international student who has not heard anything from Cambridge, his status could either be 'under active consideration from one college' or 'rejected' but not 'under consideration from more than one college'?

MESSAGE FOR MINERVA

Thankfully, my son was fished early on, but we have spent a long time following this thread and dipped into last year's. I wanted to thank you for the incredible work you do for these young people, it is a real labour of love, and gives support during what is an indescribably stressful time. Here at home we obsessively discuss who or what Minerva can be, but whoever you are, you are wonderfu, especially as you also help people at the other end of the process and of the scale on other threads who are strugggling to get a PS together or fathom the UCAS form for a chance at any university at alll. Thank you again.

can anyone explain this? if i am an EU applicant so I do not have any UMS, what is the criteria for getting pooled? Interview performance? I applied for medicine

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Well I second the kind words said by toomanycats - you do an amazing job

I've been in this airport since 5am. If they don't give me an offer after this interview I may well cry :L.