Cambridge 2016 Postgraduate Entry

Hello everyone. I am also one of applicants and I am also in the "under consideration by degree committee" stage. If you wouldn't mind, there were 3 questions that I am really curious about the process:

1) Are the lucky applicants who receive their offer in February necessarily those applicants who submitted their application earliest?

2) Does "under consideration by BoGS" mean that the applicant will "most probably" be accepted? (Of course I know that there is no 100% certainty). Excuse me if this question is already answered.

3) I see that some people received offers at the beginnig of February in my field. From this information, can we surmise that my department has started the evaluation & offer process and that in a few days/weeks I am likely to receive an offer?

Thank you very much in advance.

1. No
2. Yes
3. Maybe, maybe not

1 & 3 - it's possible your department is one of the ones that gives offers to outstanding applicants earlier but leaves most of the decisions until they have examined all completed applications. This means that a Feb offer may be a later but excellent applicant and that earlier/other applicants may need to wait till march or April or possibly even later for a decision.

So today's big day for history applicants, but apparently only from overseas:
http://www.hist.cam.ac.uk/directory/meetings/lent-term-2016

3 February (Wed): CISS/Cambridge Trusts/Gates (ROW) Ranking Committee (starts 2.15),14:00, Boardroom

Then, the second round on 17 February, for UK-EU students:

17 February (Wed): AHRC/CHESS/AMR Ranking Committee (starts 2.15), 14:00, Boardroom

omg

Received MPhil Economics offer a week ago

I believe that they also changed the grading system, to give a bit more definition in the 2:1/low 1st range. For my MSt, they're still using the old scale since the course handbook was published about 15 minutes before the faculty adopted the new regime. So 67 still counts as Leave to Continue, 70 = High Pass, etc.

I've just checked the handbook of the MPhil course that I took, and it's been updated with the new grading scale, with 70 as the Leave to Continue mark. I suppose since they set the pass mark at 60, they obviously felt that 67 was too low... Interesting though.

Very interesting indeed. Do current students (leave to continue) have an advantage over external applicants?

Just checked account and it states that I'm accepted at Fitzwilliam

However I still need to fulfill conditions

Most likely. Congrds and see you at Cambridge in October, THIS YEAR.

Do you require funding from Cam Trust?

I don't know what they set as the standard for external applicants, since most universities wouldn't have 75 as the mark required for a distinction. On the website it just says 'good marks' in a recognised master's degree is expected, so my feeling is that they probably ask for a high merit at minimum - which is effectively what 70 is on a Cambridge MPhil. So I don't know if it's an advantage actually... It's all a bit unnecessarily confusing imo!

EEK exciting! Nope I didn't apply for funding. Anyone knows how long it take for it to change from BoGS to an approved offer??

So today's big day for history applicants, but apparently only from overseas:
http://www.hist.cam.ac.uk/directory/meetings/lent-term-2016

3 February (Wed): CISS/Cambridge Trusts/Gates (ROW) Ranking Committee (starts 2.15),14:00, Boardroom

Then, the second round on 17 February, for UK-EU students:

17 February (Wed): AHRC/CHESS/AMR Ranking Committee (starts 2.15), 14:00, Boardroom

omg

I've just checked the handbook of the MPhil course that I took, and it's been updated with the new grading scale, with 70 as the Leave to Continue mark. I suppose since they set the pass mark at 60, they obviously felt that 67 was too low... Interesting though.

Nope. Most people don't put their degrees on a business card at all, and those who put "Oxon" or "Cantab" afterwards when they do, just look desperate to impress.

The BoGS has a list on the admissions statistics: http://www.graduate.study.cam.ac.uk/admissions-statistics

I don't know what would be the way to find it on their website but googling, e.g. 'graduate admissions statistics cambridge' gives you what you're looking for. It's worth checking some of the older statistics (e.g. 2013/14) as well because they have a more detailed breakdown regarding first choice/second choice, offered/confirmed places or what's their position in the pooling algorithm

I'd often thought it would be fun to put that when signing into a hotel-- especially in Germany, where they take all that stuff much more seriously.