The Official Cambridge Offer Holders Thread 2017 Entry

If anyone could offer any advice or thoughts about my situation I would greatly appreciate it. I applied for Psychology and got offered a place at Selwyn ( A*A*A). On results day I got AAA in Biology, Maths and English but wasn't outright rejected. Instead, they said that they were still 'considering' my application. I applied for an emergency remark for English (1 mark away) and my grade moved up to an A*, meaning that overall I got A*AA. However, before I could tell the college about my remark they sent an email saying that I would be notified about whether or not I got a place. I emailed the college on Friday telling them about my situation but have yet to hear back from them (I'm assuming its because of the weekend). Later that day, I found out on Ucas that i had been rejected.

My question is, should I tell the college about my remark? Could it make a difference or is it too late? I feel conflicted about emailing them again as the remark has not made my results actually reach the offer. To provide some context, the typical offer for psychology is A*AA (apparently) and they want you to have studied either Maths, Biology, Chemistry or Psychology at A level.

Any responses would be appreciated

If they are complementary subjects and you are prepared to work hard, I don't see why not. I do think it's not a decision to be taken lightly, many people are successful into getting into stuff like medicine or Oxbridge with 3 and the 4th adds pressure which isn't always worth it.
@Wired_1800

Did you get 3A*'s in your a level, which compensated for your step? What did you get in step?

He did them altogether this year. The A result needed to be A*.

I "think" I get you. So the A needed to be an A* in a subject relevant to his degree. I am assuming he only needed A grades in less relevant subjects, but did amazingly well to achieve A *. Please feel free to correct me here if I am wrong.

It's annoying, I know. Where's he going to?

Just to reassure him. I was rejected last year post interview and went on to achieve A*A*A*A*. I have just finished my first year at Durham and have thoroughly enjoyed it. There are very many people with grades like your sons at other unis ( I have met many many people far cleverer than I). He won't be getting a second rate experience just because he isn't at Cambridge. There are actually advantages to not going, I discovered in my case.

He may be disappointed at the minute, I understand, but I am certain he will be fine. Best wishes 😀

I'm a bit late to this but can you clarify please: he had an A*A*A*A* offer and achieved A*A*A*A but was rejected?

Which course (and college)?

How close was the A to an A*? It might be worth getting a remark?

I "think" it's one those horrible situations a student can find themselves in. I'll use an engineering hypothesis. Imagine an applicant taking A2 as follows:

Maths
Physic
Chemistry
German

Now the offer is A*A*AA. The A* would probably need to be in Maths and Physics as these are requirements for engineering.

Imagine the results are:

Maths A*
Physics A
Chemistry A*
German A*.
The offer has actually been missed. As I say this is a hypothesis and not what the OP has said. However, it can happen and is a horrid outcome for any student.

Which is why future applicants should take note and be a little "strategic" in how many subjects to take to A2. Not something I would have ever realised at 17 making my choices.

If you are rejected, and then a re-mark means that you have made your offer, are the college obliged to un-reject you? Is there a time limit on this?

This is exactly what happened. 🙁

Doonesbury/Vincrows etc... can correct me if I am wrong but If you notified the college of the remark results and if you make the offer after the remark, as long as the offer was made before August 31st, it is still possible that the college will unreject the candidate.

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I always wondered what the process is to submit extenuating circumstances for a specific exam or set of exams you didn't feel well on. Do you just send an email to your college saying you were ill or something? Do you do it right after you sat the exam? Or do you do it on results day?

How does the college know you're telling the truth? I mean wouldn't just everyone send in extenuating circumstances after a bad exam to get through in case of a mess up? Not doubting anyone specific, just wondering.

Okay, we get it, Cambridge mathmos have to be above and beyond A level requirements to get in. Do you both need to keep arguing?

@thewinelake


If your remark comes back successfully and meet the offer before 31st August, yes, yoir original college has obligation to 'unreject' you and can take you back from your insurance.

However, (this is what I've always wondered.....). by that time it's possible all freshers rooms have been allocated at the original college, so not quite sure what happens with accommodation......
. Most colleges have a few extra rooms, like special guest rooms, or sometimes vacant room/s in other part of college (for older/postgrad students) , so maybe you'll be allocated to there (but probably only charged standard freshers accommodation rent) ??? I've never met anyone in this situation, so this always has been my mystery.

If you were in a summer pool and fished by another college, but your remark comes back successfully before the deadline but your original college doesn't have any room left, there will seem to be some 'discussion' between all parties concerned.
Basically, you'll be persuaded to accept the offer from the fishing college, I suppose......

He needed 2A*s ( in specific subjects)and 2As to meet offer but did not get the A* in one of the specific subjects. May still consider a remark.

Read OP. It says your extenuating circumstances reasoning for unsatisfactory result on/after result day is not accepted.

Read what? Okay even if it isn't accepted after results day, how would they know someone didn't just make up their extwnuating circumstances and in reality they just had a bad exam day? Also how do you submit this stuff? Do you just email
THe college?

I recall back in my day, some places were only offered literally the week before term started, so it's possible that colleges will keep a few spaces open to allow for successful re-markees without having to bust their room allocations. I've yet to hear the fate of Cambridge offer-holder-missers from DD's school, but there were a lot of them (about 25%). Oxford seem to be a lot more lenient - I've heard of ABC being accepted for a notional AAA offer.