Cambridge Interview/Durham & Warwick rejection

It's often fairly easy to tell if an application is an Oxbridge application. I sent mine before the deadline, my predicted grades are very strong, my personal statement was strong and I also mentioned the Oxford and Cambridge summer schools that I went on. What you're saying should be right in theory but I've lost count of the number of people who were rejected from universities like UCL, Warwick and Durham almost immediately and then got Oxbridge offers - too many to be coincidental. Why would UCL give offers to hundreds of probable Oxbridge candidates if they have a strong chance of getting into Oxbridge? They'd just put UCL as their insurance choice.

The truth is that we don't know exactly what goes on behind the scenes, but it would be naive to say for definite that there aren't any tactics being employed. You can't just automatically assume that I or other applicants "weren't what UCL is looking for" - a lot of people display all of the qualities that UCL looks for (strong grades/predicted grades, love of the subject, independent and wide reading, getting involved in social activities, managing time) and are still rejected without interview. We're not saying for definite that it's true - like I said, we only have anecdotes - but you don't really have any evidence for your theory either, apart from the official stance taken by UCL (they couldn't even give me individual feedback as to why I was rejected).

And as for the idea that we make up rumours to make ourselves feel better - I have an offer from Oxford. I really don't need to 'soften the blow' of getting rejected from UCL

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And? People who have strong grades, a good personal statement and mention Oxford or Cambridge summer schools also apply before the deadline and also don't apply to these universities. Regardless, this is not the actual point. The fact that people you know were rejected from other universities then got an Oxbridge offer is nothing more than coincidental. Regardless of what you may think, UCL or other universities did not think "oh wow, these people are far too good for us, lets not make them an offer as its guaranteed they're going to Oxbridge" - it is nothing more than a coincidence.

As I said to you before, Oxford and Cambridge have the benefit of doing their pre interview tests and requesting written work before they even decide who to interview. At interview they then get to see you for several days in depth and different people see you. This can compensate for low UMS grades or a weaker personal statement or reference and other universities just don't have this privilege so subsequently have to make some tough decisions given they have even more applicants to deal with than Oxford or Cambridge do.

Well that's good, and I'm happy for you. I hope that it is your preferred course/university and come the summer you meet the offer.

I agree with what you've said about "universities reject Oxbridge applicants because they don't like being second best" being a myth, but I think that occasionally they may act strategically.

In my case, I completed a few A Levels early and had three A grades before applying, whilst undertaking further A Levels at sixth form. I applied to Cambridge, Durham and three other AAA universities. Those three gave me unconditional offers.

As far as Cambridge went, I got an interview and was made an offer. When I applied to Durham, I chose Castle (against the advice of my careers adviser due to it being so competitive) and received a conditional AAA offer but clearly I'd been pooled since the offer was from Cuth's. Whilst I appreciate that it's extremely difficult to second-guess admissions decisions, the only reason I've come up with for this so far is that Castle thought I was likely to go to Oxbridge and therefore wanted to free up my place to take someone whose firm was probably going to be Durham.

I think that was actually pretty logical. In the end, I contacted Cuth's and asked them to make my offer unconditional because it wasn't that helpful to either of us in its original form. Either I'd make my Cambridge offer and end up there, or I'd miss it and go to my insurance. But when other AAA universities had made me unconditional offers, there was no incentive for me to make Durham my insurance!

The Durham college system doesn't work like that though. It's not like Oxbridge where the colleges make their own decisions on admissions and 'pool' you to someone else if they like you but haven't got room for you. When you first submit an application, the department looks at all applications regardless of college and makes a decision on them. If you get accepted, then they send the application to the college of your choice and if they have space for another student in that subject, then they HAVE to accept you- they can't just pick and choose. If not, then they will send the application to other colleges until they find one that has room for a student in that subject.

So all that happened in your case was that the department liked your application and accepted you, but Castle didn't have room for another student in your subject (as is quite common as it's a very popular college) so sent your application to Cuth's who did have room for you.

Stuff

Did you get into Cambridge or St. Andrews?
Any useful feedback?
(Sorry for being nosy )

Unsuccessful at Cambridge and still waiting to hear from St Andrews

I'm not holding out much hope of an offer, I feel disheartened and let down by the whole application experience. I know I am lucky to have an offer at a Uni I liked, but wish I had a choice!