If by "reject a student" you mean pool them, then it's because they've already filled their amount of spaces for that subject or want to see if there is someone else in the pool they'd rather have

Reply 7

JDieMstr

Original post by leechapman

so why would they move a student to a different college then if they were "2 dumb"

Buddy, you clearly stated "reject a student" in your title, which definitely, in no way translates to "move a student to a different college". I may not have answered your question in the most appropriate manner but I've answered it considering what the title stated. :smile:

Reply 8

leechapman

Original post by JDieMstr

sorry what i meant by a rejected student id when they pool them :smile:

Reply 9

Indigo&Violet

Original post by leechapman

Why would a college at uni (oxbridge for example) reject a student

There are plenty of people who know more about Oxbridge than I do here, but if you're being reallocated at this stage it's probably just to even out the spread of applications across colleges.

Some colleges always get generally more applications than others because they're famous or very central for example. Other colleges always get more applications for particular subjects because they're right next to the department. In order to make it easier for colleges to handle numbers and to give applicants a more even chance of success some get reallocated away from their original college choice.

This happens most in the very oversubscribed subjects. Assuming you have to do a test for your subject the fact that it's happening pre-test I would guess that no-one has looked at your application too closely yet - it's not personal, just a numbers game.

People also get reallocated (or pooled) later in the process. In this case it's normally because the college you applied to thinks you're good enough but they don't have space for you so they're trying to find you a spot at another college. It can also be just that they want a second opinion, or that you're being passed around as a "moderation" candidate though. Some subjects at Oxford automatically send you to a second interview at another college regardless of how good/bad you are. At Oxford the pooling happens when you're there, which is why you might need to stay for a few days. At Cambridge you go up for a day and then if you're pooled you might be invited back for another interview in January or just be taken by another college based on their say so. Cambridge also operate a summer pool where if you've just missed your grades you might be picked up by another college who has space if your original college can't take you. Oxford doesn't normally do a summer pool as they make a small number of "open offers" where the college isn't specified until after results.

Reply 10

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Bear in mind, not all colleges can accept the same number of students. due to finance and size (e.g. Kings College, Peterhouse, Trinity Hall are smaller for various reasons and take on fewer students on average) and some get far more application than the number of students they can take, even if they're very big (e.g. Trinity College, St Johns, Churchill all take on a fairly good number of students but they're also very popular either for a few subjects or overall).

This necessarily means some students can't be accepted by their first choice college - which is why the pooling systems exist, so that students who are "Oxbridge material" should get an offer from some college - although they are highly subscribed oversubscribed overall, and particularly for some courses (STEM courses and Economics typically being the most popular, with a few exceptions. Of course there are also some years where the "gathered field" is much stronger overall and so students who would have been accepted in another year are turned away because they have so many strong applicants.