Rejected from Trinity pre-interview, cannot figure out why

Olympiad experience? I know there is this whole culture of Olympiads at Trinity, but surely that would be unfair because not everyone actually does have the opportunity to do them?

I think BMO participation/ medals are one of the few things that would get people interviews despite lower GCSEs. I don't think it's necessary, but if its not there then it does seem like you need very solid GCSEs

Check to see if your grades and forms were submitted correctly. And I would say it’s worth asking now, as opposed to waiting until January.
The other week, someone was rejected pre-interview but then they were told there was an (administrative I think was said) error.

I’m really sorry that this happened to you but If you haven’t already, definitely contact trinity to ask exactly why you got rejected. Unfortunately trinity maths is the hardest uni course to get into, i think? It’s extremely competitive and there will be applicants who have ‘perfect’ qualifications. Of course your gcses and A levels are great but maybe they have viewed your 7s as not that great? There is an element of luck with applying to oxbridge, there are a stupid amount of applicants every year so i feel like they made the decision that your application wasn’t as good, compared to other applications. This 100% doesn’t mean you’re not ‘good enough’ because your A levels predictions say otherwise and your dedication towards being the best at mock exams and maths extracurriculars makes you a very able student. Don’t let this affect you too much, do an incredible job on you A levels, get A*s, maybe take a gap year to reapply or go to another uni that is just as good for maths

I am curious why you applied to Trinity and not one of the other colleges knowing it's reputation. All colleges offer the same experience and applying to Trinity was always going to be a gamble. As others have said you need to be interviewed in order to be pooled and they only have so many spaces for interview. Good luck with your application -My daughter's friend didn't meet her STEP offer for Emmanuel and went to Warwick instead. She now has an an amazing career in a field she hadn't imagined entering.

I really like the fact that there are lots of people in the year doing maths/sciences.

Trinity is notoriously competitive. I would have gone for another college myself.

Well if you do decide to reapply next year, Churchill, St John's and Queens' are usually the next largest for maths students (about 14 per year, so about 8-10% of overall college intake each year).

Have you seen this thread:https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5057160 ?

Thanks, very informative. I hope that they will update us with the outcome at some point.

I contacted UCAS for a copy of my application. Fortunately it did turn out to be as it was expected.

They did do an update...on page 11

I'm sorry to hear that (meaning it would be good if there was an error that could be rectified). Your stats are amazing...it literally must be that too many good people apply to Trinity. So the thing about college choice not mattering can't be true. Read the update on page 11 of the thread I linked to.

Firstly we do not know how many applicants have applied to Trinity this year, secondly what is the overall calibre of this year applicants, thirdly how many applicants Trinity is planning to interview (bearing in mind that it will be online and more time consuming) and finally if no pre-interview assessment is running this year for certain subjects the college probably might limit the number of applicants to offer an interview.

Assuming that there was not clerical or administrative errors and the college has reviewed every applicants holistically they will eventually have a final ranking list for offering an interview. So not matter how good or outstanding an applicant might appears on paper is irrelevant as the competition is within the cohort of applicants. If you made the cut you will get an interview and vice versa.

As for whether applying to less competitive college is difficult to say. It will probably depends on how strong are the cohort of applicants and the total number applied. A applicant might get an interview from a less competitive college but if the winter pool is particular strong and they will still get squeeze out and not getting an offer come January 2021.