Rejected from Trinity pre-interview, cannot figure out why

The 8 in Maths is a point of weakness and they may just not have liked your personal statement as much as you did. It's probably best not to dwell on it, Trinity is the most competitive college for Maths anyway.

Speaking to others, the 8 in maths gcse seems to be a very valid reason for them having rejected you pre-interview. If you got 9s in other subjects but not maths then it will seem as if you are better at other subjects.

^ as they said. Cambridge is arguably the best university in the world, so they have the luxury of deciding if someone got an 8, they can choose from the other 1000s of students who got 9s. If they weren't so selective, they wouldn't have so many applicants, its self perpetuating.

I would be surprised if the January feedback is bespoke to each applicant or all that enlightening. A competitive course could have a 100 or less places and receive 2000-3000 applications per cycle. That's potentially a lot of feedback to give.

Most likely it's going to be some version of "we consider all aspects of your application, on this occasion there were other candidates who scored better overall. We do/do not encourage you to reapply in the future."

There might be templates for applicants whose academic profile or PS were the weakest aspect of their application though.

I'm not sure, from what I have heard Cambridge put a much bigger emphasis on A level grades as opposed to GCSE.

I have not heard of many people requesting feedback. I would really like to be fully informed before I decide to reapply.

I have not heard of many people requesting feedback. I would really like to be fully informed before I decide to reapply.

I appreciate it would be helpful to know where to focus your efforts, or even if a re-application was not encouraged for any reason.

If most applicants accept the decision then it's entirely possible you will get something very specific to you. I can only compare this to one of our own very competitive programmes where the vast majority of applicants are very well qualified. Invariably this causes a large number of them to request further feedback after our initial guidance.

Clearly, you're smart to even be applying in the first place. What do you think is more likely, there has been some kind of error with your application which is practically unheard of out of the 20,000 they receive a year, or you didn't get an interview at the best university in the world.

I will be asking in January for feedback so that I can improve my application based off what they suggest should I apply again next year.

If your plan is to reapply next year you have to make sure you get all your predicted A level grades, STEP 2

I am aiming for S,S in STEP and this will put me in a good position to reapply.

Sorry my previous post was incomplete when I try to edit it.
You see I would suggest you apply to another college next year even if you get A*A*A*A* & SS. The reason is although there is a minimum requirement for the course, different colleges will definitely have their own way or criteria to select the candidates they want to accept. You will never know the exact reason even if you do get a feedback in January. If like previous post had suggested that it was your Grade 8 in maths then no matter what your A level & STEP 2 & 3 are you will still no get selected.
Of course the decision will be yours and also aim is only Trinity and not Cambridge. Good luck!

I'm afraid that an 8 in Maths GCSE is your answer. You chose to apply to the "top" college for Maths - it's incredibly over-subscribed and there are limited numbers of interview places. You will have been competing against candidates who have competed in IMO, come top in BMO, gold medals etc etc. from all over the world. Every candidate is ranked and while your grades are good, they are not going to put you at the top of the pile. I would expect every single candidate applying for Maths at Trinity to have 3-4 A star predictions, so then it becomes a question of what distinguishes them from each other.
Maths GCSE is taken by every school pupil in the UK - many of those people have no interest or talent in Maths and therefore achieving a 9 is not *that* hard if Maths is your "thing" ie the grade boundary is relatively low. Many of the applicants to Trinity will have near perfect scores from their GCSE. Basically you've given them a reason to rank you lower than a large majority of candidates. It's unfortunate that you weren't advised better - for instance by applying to Oxford where you could prove that your ability in Maths now is far better than it was at GCSE by doing outstandingly well on the MAT or at least by applying to a less competitive college.
If you do get S, S in STEP then go for it again, but otherwise I would take some time to reflect on your options and look at the many other great universities out there that offer outstanding Maths degrees.

Yes but the priority is getting into Cambridge. Whichever College you end up in really doesn’t matter in terms of future prospects. I am just saying I would’ve strategise differently.

This information is readily and easily available on Cambridge website. See attached screenshot for an example... comparing Trinity with Churchill for Mathematics.

The link is: https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/apply/statistics

The application process at Cambridge is holistic, they take all aspects of the application into account and not just one can let you down.

The application process at Cambridge is holistic, they take all aspects of the application into account and not just one can let you down.