Obligatory 'what are my chances'. Brutal honesty required.

Admissions tutors are not flicking through grades and deciding after a minute of reading.

So -- last year I started Year 12 at a grammar school having come from a comprehensive, & have now started Year 13 with a view to applying to Cambridge to do History. As far as the technicalities are concerned, all systems are go - I am registered for the HAA, have finalised my personal statement, and have written work in the making.

Little niggle though. My GCSEs are subpar by Oxbridge standards. I am completely aware that questions like this are impossible to answer and do not expect anybody to look into a crystal ball and predict my future -- but how far will they negate my chances of receiving an offer?

They are: 9, 9, 6, A*, A*, A, B, B, B, C.
And an important thing to note is that the second A* is not a GCSE, but a GCSE-equivalent qualification - not sure if these are counted?

And as to A-levels, I'm predicted A*A*A*A.

My head of sixth has assured me that the GCSEs can be 'explained away' in my reference due to my coming from a comprehensive, but looking at Cambridge's admissions statistics via Freedom of Information requests doesn't exactly fill me with confidence. It does seem they have a tendency (understandably) to go for those with mega A* collections. It's not like I'd be crushed if my chances are indeed slim, but I'd rather know beforehand. Don't hold back!

Thanks.

So -- last year I started Year 12 at a grammar school having come from a comprehensive, & have now started Year 13 with a view to applying to Cambridge to do History. As far as the technicalities are concerned, all systems are go - I am registered for the HAA, have finalised my personal statement, and have written work in the making.

Little niggle though. My GCSEs are subpar by Oxbridge standards. I am completely aware that questions like this are impossible to answer and do not expect anybody to look into a crystal ball and predict my future -- but how far will they negate my chances of receiving an offer?

They are: 9, 9, 6, A*, A*, A, B, B, B, C.
And an important thing to note is that the second A* is not a GCSE, but a GCSE-equivalent qualification - not sure if these are counted?

And as to A-levels, I'm predicted A*A*A*A.

My head of sixth has assured me that the GCSEs can be 'explained away' in my reference due to my coming from a comprehensive, but looking at Cambridge's admissions statistics via Freedom of Information requests doesn't exactly fill me with confidence. It does seem they have a tendency (understandably) to go for those with mega A* collections. It's not like I'd be crushed if my chances are indeed slim, but I'd rather know beforehand. Don't hold back!

Thanks.

^^^this.

And I seem to remember the average time spent assessing and reviewing each applicant was 10 hours.

iirc it was @Murray Edwards Admissions who did a little study on it.

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Is this study public? If so, could you possibly link me to it? Thanks!

No. He mentioned he did a tally in one of his threads when he was Christ's AT. You might find it if you search through the Christ's threads. Good luck...

Found it! Thanks for telling me where to look.

If anyone else's interested, Christ's Admissions replied to this thread: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5155060&page=5 (post 82) with the estimate of around 16 hours per applicant. The thread also goes more into detail on the factors they considered in this estimate.

This is really interesting, especially to an international student applying to the US. Allegedly, admissions officers spend around 20-30 minutes reading applications (of course, there may be additional deliberation) but certainly not 16 hours.