Cambridge Reapplication Intricacies

Hello,

First of all I hope this thread is in the correct forum as I am new to TSR. Anyway, I was wondering about the legitimacy of a plot of sorts I've been concocting. I applied to Trinity Hall in September 2013 to study Law and was subsequently rejected. Shortly afterwards, I received an offer from King's College London for the same subject and I was also awarded a scholarship.

However, I've been playing with the idea of deferring my entry to King's, should I meet my offer, and reapplying to Cambridge among other universities in the meantime. I realise that to some this may seem arbitrary but I've been struck by the 'Cambridge Curse'- as I call it.

My question is, would such a concoction actually work? I believe that if I achieve my aspirational grades of A*A*A*a I would be in an excellent position to perhaps earn a place at Cambridge or at UCL or LSE. Although, I am ignorant of the actual workings of the UCAS application service, namely:



King's is an outstanding institution however I would regret not taking a second shot a Cambridge. What do you guys think? Thanks for your help.

I would be classed as a mature student in technical terms when reapplying if such information is at all relevant and/or useful. Thanks

Although, while I have you here, do you think King's would be likely to extend another offer if I did decide to reject their current one and reapply? A part of me believes they might considering they have already but another part believes they won't for the same reason. Decisions, decisions...

As long as the strength of the other applicants doesn't change much and your exam grades this year are of the necessary standard then I don't see why you shouldn't get an offer again. They'll still just want the best of the applicants and it's perfectly reasonable that you could have decided late that you wanted a gap year. (that said keep in mind another offer isn't guaranteed, but not extremely unlikely either)

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should i leave my college choice as open or select a particular one?
if i choose college X on the ucas form, and college X rejects me, is that the end of my cambridge dream?

should i leave my college choice as open or select a particular one?
if i choose college X on the ucas form, and college X rejects me, is that the end of my cambridge dream?

Whether your application is unsuccessful depends entirely on when you are rejected. If you are rejected without being given an interview, then your application is finished. However, from my understanding, if you are given an interview and are then unsuccessful, you will likely be pooled. At this point, another college may pick you up or your initial college may decide it wishes to give you an offer or, of course, you will be unsuccessful.

At Cambridge around 80-85% of applicants get an interview of whom maybe a quarter get a direct offer. It is not true that the majority of the rest get pooled. About a quarter of total offers come from the pool, I'm sure someone will remember how many are in the winter pool but I doubt it is more than 10% of applicants.