Giving feedback to Cambridge

I can't deal with that typo

I can't deal with that typo

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I have been hugely impressed with the King's applicant page which has been regularly updated throughout the process, even to the extent of them giving an update half way through the day they were emailing everyone to give reassurance that they were still on track to get all emails out on the day they said they would. This page has been so helpful: my son knew exactly when to expect communication from the college, what to bring with on interview day etc- a very reassuring reference point. I would suspect it will also have reduced the admissions team workload, in reducing the number of phone calls and emails to the office, as the information was there for all to see.

Also interviews calibrate differently, so one person's 7 might be another's 8.5. Interview scores are for internal use and should remain so imho.

I very much agree on this. It clearly needs to be co-ordinated and advertised better. The problem is that some of those who are unsuccessful after re-interview are also considered for Open offers which may mean that it is impossible for us to have the meeting before the official posting date.

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This is a very impressive effort at direct feedback.

I have noticed that acceptance rates for EU and overseas students is about half that for UK students. I am curious why this is the case. In addition, I wonder how much research you do to understand the system from which EU and overseas students apply (which is probably related to my first question).

My daughter applied from France, she was in a state Lycee, nothing international or private. We felt that the admissions officers understood the French system very well and that the entire process was attuned to her as an individual, but I wonder what you do for other systems, such as those in the US, where there is an extremely wide variation from school to school.

She applied 2 years ago and is currently at Girton, so I am asking on behalf of my son, who will also apply from France (as well as to give advice to American friends).

I understand that you have done a lot to reduce the roller-coaster and I fully appreciate that. However, I believe you could rephrase the letters. Words to the effect of 'you have an offer at another college' are not confusing at all. I don't see why you would suggest they are. Having said that, this is just my opinion.

Also, I am wondering why my school has to request feedback and I can't directly. I don't want my school to see it really. It's MY feedback; it's personal. I don't want to share details. I believe it should be solely up to me what I share. (I appreciate that this policy may differ between colleges. I applied to Emma.)


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I'm a parent of a female Maths applicant (unsuccessful). I know the statistics for successful Scottish applicants is usually low (2%) but this year anecdotal evidence points to it being abnormally so; when does Cambridge publish statistics on this? Are Scottish Highers fully understood by Admissions staff or does the lack of a UMS score mean that the interviews carry more weight in the final decision? I do know that a fair number of successful Scottish Applicants either do A levels or reapply once they have their Advanced Highers result; however having a gap year is not recommended for Maths students.

Thank you for doing this, I really want to commend Christ's Admissions for taking the time to consistently answer questions. As I am Australian international student with an offer but am still waiting to find out which college has taken me, your presence on the forums has made me feel a lot less anxious!

Apparently not. I applied to magdalene as well and requested mine last Saturday but am still awaiting a response...

I have been following this and the Cambridge Decisions threads since the first post and after the 5th day of waiting for my decision letter from Corpus Christi, I'd like to join in.

I am an international applicant from Europe and I have applyed for medicine at Corpus Christi. As far as a week ago I have emailed my college admissions office to ask whether I would get a copy of my decision letter by email, since it is obvious that it takes a bit longer for it to reach Warsaw in Poland than Bristol or York. I was told all non-UK applicants will be emailed as soon as possible, begenning from the 12th Jan. It is 14th today and I am beginning to think that in the end the traditional letter will arrive first.

I understand that the admissions process is a complicated and absorbing one and that handling additional interviews is a time-consuming task, but there are more international candidates here on TSR and possibly elswhere who are wasting their lives waiting for a reply from Cambridge. Obviously this goes against the "equal treatment" of candidates regardless of the nationality...

I would be glad if I could at least know when to expect a notification of the outcome of my application.

Thank you for your question and I am sorry to hear that your daughter's application was unsuccessful. The statistics for each years admissions round are published by the University in the Spring following the admission of candidates to the University. So the next statistics to be published in a few months will be for the 2013-14 Admissions round. This year's figures will be published Spring 2016.

We are well versed with Scottish Higher and although there isn't UMS there are bands and multiple A1s (over 85%) is clearly a good sign in a candidate. Anecdotally, we have offered to more students doing Scottish Highers this year at Christ's than we have for several years but I do not know what the picture is across the University yet. Best of luck to your daughter in her other applications.

Another parent here.
We found the process reasonably transparent but there could possibly be more support for those interviewing overseas. Our son only had one subject specific interview, and like so many others he felt it went very badly, but there was no second interview. The hard thing with only having one interview is that it did feel like an awful lot hinged on 30 minutes with one interviewer, who wasn't from the college he was applying to. I'm not quite sure what the solution is as obviously there is a limit to how many interviewers Cambridge can send to Sydney.
Despite his fears, he received an offer. Caius was great with their email offer - came around the same time as people were opening their letters, but there didn't seem to be anything on the website outlining their system. We have another friend who has also got an unconditional offer from another college as a mature student but he had to wait for another three days before he finally got an email.
Maybe a system where the emails are sent on the day letters are predicted to arrive would work. I suspect this year was complicated by the post arriving on a Saturday.

I can relate to a lot of the points you make.



In one of my interviews I was made to feel quite uncomfortable by the interviewer because every answer I tried to suggest was immediately shot down, with a stern look. It was as if the interviewer was enjoying sitting there and saying "nooo" in a really patronizing and demeaning tone. Really didn't get it. My other interview was a lot more positive in that the interviewer was very relaxed and friendly, and it was more geared towards me talking about my subject and the readings that we were asked to do prior to the interview. Being from a state school as well I felt that despite (feeling as though I was) doing a lot of preparation for the interviews - reading etc. - I still didn't really know what to expect and that probably reflected in my performance in the interviews.

Then there's the auto-pool malarkey. Come decision day, I was fortunate enough to receive to letters. I say fortunate; one was a rejection letter, the other a pooling letter. At first I thought this seemed logical, but when I read both the letters I realised that this should not have happened.

The college told me that one letter had already been sent when the other was posted, hence they could not retrieve the rejection letter. I could only conclude that I was a last-minute poolee because of the fact that I met the auto-pool requirements.

But if I was going to be rejected in the first place, it begs the question, what is the point in the auto-pool system? It seemed as if the college were just acting in accordance with the univerisity's admission policy, and the reality was that I knew I was just going to be receiving another rejection letter in a week's time. The university really messed up here and they didn't even offer an apology that a mistake had been made, trying to pool the proverbial wool over one's eyes. As it happened I received this notification from track. Considering the effort and expense (almost £200) I had gone to with regards to my application, I felt as if I had just been thrust aside by the university, like they didn't really care because they were rejecting me. This lead me to the conclusion that I would rather no go there anyway, and go to a university where I was actually wanted, which is a shame because I had chased after the Cambridge dream for a long time.

I understand the pooling system has changed slightly, for the better, as students do not have to wait like they did before. But I still think improvements can be made.

Lastly I would like to ask why students cannot request feedback personally, instead of going through their school. I never actually received my feedback because of how useless my school were - I do appreciate this is not the university's problem though!

When you say you had two letters do you mean both said you were rejected but one mentioned you had been pooled but the other one said you had been rejected without being pooled?

Does that not suggest you were pooled but not fished?

Just because they sent the wrong rejection letter surely doesn't mean you wasted £200 going for Interview?