What do they do with unfilled places?

During my interview at Oxford last winter, I've met two people who said they were applying because of pressure from parents/school and would certainly turn down an offer because they wanted to go somewhere else. While it seems foolish to me (as getting into oxford is my dream), there must be a number of people who are offered places and turn them down, or fail exams, or get run over by a truck and die (in the worst possible scenario), thus leaving unfilled places. Oxford doesn't seem to go through clearing, so i wonder: what do they do with those places, and how do they assign them? And finally, how do they contact people who might be repicked due to unfilled places?

Sincerely,

Salvatore

Reply 1

RichE

15

They over-offer slightly and also have open offers schemes to fill places.

Reply 2

Greldon

OP

Well, while slight over-offering may or may not fix the issue (but then again it may bring them a problem if for a fluke, all people who receive an offer accepted) open offer schemes don't really mean anything in my understanding. If Oxford has 135 places for medics, some of them offered through open offers, and 120 offers are ultimately taken, it still leaves 15 places unfilled regardless of how they juggle the open offers between colleges...

Reply 3

RichE

15

The percentage of people withdrawing is miniscule. They over-offer, some people miss conditional offers and they are rejected. If quite a few miss those who missed marginally or in less important subjects are still allowed in.

Reply 4

Greldon

OP

oh, that makes sense. I heard of someone who got called after A-level results were in and asked, "Do you still want a place at Oxford?" May just be a myth...

Reply 5

Esquire

1

Universities are legally bound to give offers through UCAS. If you got rejected then thats it until the next UCAS cycle ( that just sounded creepily biological).

Reply 6

Nutter

16

Since Oxford over-offers, if every single person who receives a conditional offer fulfills their condition, they would be legally bound to acccept all students and would therefore have to create new vacancies within the colleges to cater to the studens. As long as you meet your conditions, it's a home run for you.

Reply 7

eleri

5

Some places go unfilled every year too. If there's no one good enough to fill the place, they don't accept someone who's a weaker candidate just to fill it.

Reply 8

Traum

Greldon

oh, that makes sense. I heard of someone who got called after A-level results were in and asked, "Do you still want a place at Oxford?" May just be a myth...

i think that's almost def a myth, since the applications from unsuccessful candidates will probably be filed or simply thrown away...either way it's unlikely that they will be revaluated again after the realise of the results.

I've heard that straight after getting your results (if you got 5A at 100% or something) you can phone them up and say "this is what i got, do you have anymore places?"... dunno how true this is though... too many myth regarding the ox selection process...

Reply 9

F1 fanatic

16

I was given an open offer. Its a guarenteed slot. You meet the grades you are in. Unfortunately it meant I took the place of someone who failed to get the grades. They very rarely let you in if you miss the offer, except in exceptional circumstances.

Reply 10

F1 fanatic

16

Very very unlikely. Oxford (and Cambridge) have most of the weight of their selection through interview. If you didn't go to interview they aren't going to give you a place. Oxford is never short of people to accept. If you already have an offer and miss it by a small amount then definitely ring up, otherwise there is not much point.

Reply 11

Lisa15

My offer asked me to reply by a certain date, which was before the date by which they say they will reply (if that makes any sense) so that if I turned down my place someone else could take it. So they actually asked me to reply before I was required to by UCAS.

Lisa :wink:

Reply 12

kizer

15

Lisa15

My offer asked me to reply by a certain date, which was before the date by which they say they will reply (if that makes any sense) so that if I turned down my place someone else could take it. So they actually asked me to reply before I was required to by UCAS.

Lisa :wink:

Yes I think that is what most colleges do. I had to send off a form like that as well. Which would explain everything! Mystery solved :smile:

Reply 13

Hoofbeat

14

F1 fanatic

I was given an open offer. Its a guarenteed slot. You meet the grades you are in. Unfortunately it meant I took the place of someone who failed to get the grades. They very rarely let you in if you miss the offer, except in exceptional circumstances.

I was in the same situation as Stu. Held an open offer for the exact same year and exact same course....and when you think of how small a percentage of future Oxford students actually use TSR and that two of us on here both got Open Offers for same subject, then it kind of hints that there are quite a large number of Open Offers made just to take all these "unfilled" spaces

(I know statistically, this isn't a large enough sample etc, I'm just saying....)

Reply 14

F1 fanatic

16

Hoofbeat

I was in the same situation as Stu. Held an open offer for the exact same year and exact same course....and when you think of how small a percentage of future Oxford students actually use TSR and that two of us on here both got Open Offers for same subject, then it kind of hints that there are quite a large number of Open Offers made just to take all these "unfilled" spaces

(I know statistically, this isn't a large enough sample etc, I'm just saying....)

Though you would have to say that a subject like Physics gives out a disproportionately large number of open offers compared to other subjects. It seems to be very much a science thing.

kizer

Yes I think that is what most colleges do. I had to send off a form like that as well. Which would explain everything! Mystery solved

Not as such, as that is just whether people accept the offer is it not? It does not guarentee that they will make the grades to take up the offer or people who for whatever reason drop out of the UCAS system. Hence the open offers etc. They know statistically from years of experience roughly how many people fail to make the grade and can award places judged on that.

Reply 15

Ancient Monument

Oxford has the open offer. Cambridge has the summer pool.
Neither will take candidates who they feel are sub-par (and the year to year variation in admission statistics illustrates this).
Neither go through clearing to fill spaces.
That said - both universities reject quality candidates during the winter admissions process because there are more Oxbridge quality candidates than places - I guess if you got marvellous results and just missed out at interview - it might be worth ringing around - it can hardly do any harm - just don't get your hopes up.....

Reply 16

ThePants999

14

Traum

i think that's almost def a myth, since the applications from unsuccessful candidates will probably be filed or simply thrown away...either way it's unlikely that they will be revaluated again after the realise of the results.

Not necessarily. I can believe it's true. They don't need to re-evaluate everyone - they'll have ranked everyone at the time they were doing the first evaluations. If they had five excellent candidates for four places, and someone missed their offer, it's perfectly conceivable they'd ring up number five.

What do they do with unfilled places?

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