whats the cambridge medicine winter pool waiting list (not august pool)

I got rejected from my original Cambridge college for medicine today however in the email they said they liked my application and recommended me to the Winter pool and that the 'outcome is that they would like to offer me the opportunity to join the waiting list of applicants who may be offered a place if an existing offer holder chooses to withdraw'. Apparently I'll hear by the 16th May if I've been made an offer (by any college that may have a place available) so I don't think it's the same as the summer pool where you might get an offer on results day if you achieve the grades.

I feel like I've never heard of this before and it's not a listed possible outcome of the application on their website. While I'm not expecting to get an offer from the waiting list (who rejects cambridge!?) I'm still curious and I was wondering if anyone knows anything about this - eg does everyone who isn't picked up from the winter pool go into it?

Thanks!

I got rejected from my original Cambridge college for medicine today however in the email they said they liked my application and recommended me to the Winter pool and that the 'outcome is that they would like to offer me the opportunity to join the waiting list of applicants who may be offered a place if an existing offer holder chooses to withdraw'. Apparently I'll hear by the 16th May if I've been made an offer (by any college that may have a place available) so I don't think it's the same as the summer pool where you might get an offer on results day if you achieve the grades.

I feel like I've never heard of this before and it's not a listed possible outcome of the application on their website. While I'm not expecting to get an offer from the waiting list (who rejects cambridge!?) I'm still curious and I was wondering if anyone knows anything about this - eg does everyone who isn't picked up from the winter pool go into it?

Thanks!

i got the same. look familiar?
Thank you for your application to study for a BA Honours degree in Medicine for entry in October 2026.We have now had time to study all our applications in detail. I regret to tell you that, after carefully considering your application and all the information available to us, we are unable to offer you a place.However, we have sufficient confidence in your abilities and potential to recommend you to the intercollegiate Winter Pool and the outcome is that we would like to offer you the opportunity to join the waiting list of applicants who may be offered a place if an existing offer holder chooses to withdraw. Please note that this offer would be made by the College where the vacancy arises. If you wish to be placed on our waiting list, you must provide your consent by completing this form: Medicine Waiting List Response Form. There is no guarantee that it will be possible to offer you a place. If you choose to join our waiting list, it will not prevent you from pursuing applications and accepting offers at other universities. Your consent to be on the waiting list will be taken as a request for us to contact you in the event that a place becomes available, even if you are holding a place elsewhere. Any offers made to applicants on our waiting list will be made by 12 May 2026 at the latest. If you receive an offer of a place at Cambridge, you will be free to choose whether to accept it or to continue to pursue opportunities elsewhere.If you would like to receive feedback on your application and have given permission for this to be provided to your UCAS referee, please ask your referee to contact the College Admissions Office. Otherwise, please contact the College Admissions Office yourself.I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for applying and express the hope that it may be possible for XXXX or another College to offer you a place to study at Cambridge.Yours sincerely,

Is this something completely new that has been introduced this year only?? And only for medicine??

Does the waiting list mention on the email just for the people who has been rejected after winter pool and not eligible for ARP?

this is a copy of what they sent me:
Thank you for your application to study for a BA Honours degree in Medicine for entry in October 2026.We have now had time to study all our applications in detail. I regret to tell you that, after carefully considering your application and all the information available to us, we are unable to offer you a place.However, we have sufficient confidence in your abilities and potential to recommend you to the intercollegiate Winter Pool and the outcome is that we would like to offer you the opportunity to join the waiting list of applicants who may be offered a place if an existing offer holder chooses to withdraw. Please note that this offer would be made by the College where the vacancy arises. If you wish to be placed on our waiting list, you must provide your consent by completing this form: Medicine Waiting List Response Form. There is no guarantee that it will be possible to offer you a place. If you choose to join our waiting list, it will not prevent you from pursuing applications and accepting offers at other universities. Your consent to be on the waiting list will be taken as a request for us to contact you in the event that a place becomes available, even if you are holding a place elsewhere. Any offers made to applicants on our waiting list will be made by 12 May 2026 at the latest. If you receive an offer of a place at Cambridge, you will be free to choose whether to accept it or to continue to pursue opportunities elsewhere.If you would like to receive feedback on your application and have given permission for this to be provided to your UCAS referee, please ask your referee to contact the College Admissions Office. Otherwise, please contact the College Admissions Office yourself.I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for applying and express the hope that it may be possible for XXXX or another College to offer you a place to study at Cambridge.Yours sincerely,

this is a copy of what they sent me:

Thank you for your application to study for a BA Honours degree in Medicine for entry in October 2026.We have now had time to study all our applications in detail. I regret to tell you that, after carefully considering your application and all the information available to us, we are unable to offer you a place.However, we have sufficient confidence in your abilities and potential to recommend you to the intercollegiate Winter Pool and the outcome is that we would like to offer you the opportunity to join the waiting list of applicants who may be offered a place if an existing offer holder chooses to withdraw. Please note that this offer would be made by the College where the vacancy arises. If you wish to be placed on our waiting list, you must provide your consent by completing this form: Medicine Waiting List Response Form. There is no guarantee that it will be possible to offer you a place. If you choose to join our waiting list, it will not prevent you from pursuing applications and accepting offers at other universities. Your consent to be on the waiting list will be taken as a request for us to contact you in the event that a place becomes available, even if you are holding a place elsewhere. Any offers made to applicants on our waiting list will be made by 12 May 2026 at the latest. If you receive an offer of a place at Cambridge, you will be free to choose whether to accept it or to continue to pursue opportunities elsewhere.If you would like to receive feedback on your application and have given permission for this to be provided to your UCAS referee, please ask your referee to contact the College Admissions Office. Otherwise, please contact the College Admissions Office yourself.I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for applying and express the hope that it may be possible for XXXX or another College to offer you a place to study at Cambridge.Yours sincerely,

Never heard of this before and tbh Cambridge poaching medicine candidates from other institutions is not a great move imo.Also reduces chances of ARP and Summer Pool candidates.Exactly how ethical is it to keep so many people dangling!

It doesn't work like this though.
Poaching - Cam has much tighter 'over-offer' limits than other universities. There is clearly some increased volatility in students taking up offers for medicine (going overseas, taking gap years, deciding against medicine maybe?) and the margins at Cam are a fraction of those at say Bristol, Edinburgh etc. So Cam isn't poaching, these offer holders haven't started, Cam are just tightening the margins in other places.
It doesn't necessarily reduce the chances of ARP and Summer Pool candidates, we don't know how they 'rank' these three different categories of 'second chance'. It has become clear over the first few years of ARP that grades being equal, ARP candidates get priority having achieved the same grades under more challenging circumstances and probably with less opportunity. But also - why would it matter if it did? Cambridge and Oxford are unequivocal about their pursuit of academic excellence. If you just miss out on an offer against another candidate, but on results day against an offer of A*A*A, they get A*AA and miss the offer, meanwhile you get A*A*A*, why don't you deserve the place?
The question about keeping people dangling conflates emotion with fairness. How you as an individual react to an offer, a rejection, or a second chance is an emotional response entirely in your control. There's absolutely no need to catastrophise everything, or view the world through a black and white lens of opportunity and failure, or to be irrationally bound to hope or possibility. Ethics are emotionally neutral, the ethical question is is it fair to make an exception that allows someone who missed their offer to take up a place, when previously rejected candidates, rejected on a hairsbreadth of uncertainty, come results day have exceeded the offer standard?
What this new scheme seems to be doing is trying to resolve the past history of candidates getting rejected and then receiving A*A*A*A* on results day and wondering what might have been if only they'd answered that one interview question slightly more smoothly.

just one flaw in your response the wait list letter states we will be informed in May if we get an offer well before we know what result we get so

just one flaw in your response the wait list letter states we will be informed in May if we get an offer well before we know what result we get so

@MedMama what do you think?

It reduces chances for ARP and summer pool by filling gaps due to non acceptance before A levels are taken.So stands to reason less places.
The reason I do not like ARP as it is the applicants from deprived backgrounds who are made to jump through extra hoops because Cambridge cannot get over it's bias towards privileges pupils earlier in the process like Oxford does.
Have heard from ARP students it makes them feel lesser and suffer imposter syndrome.Also the you get 4A* and you are in is not true.It is all Cambridge gains but at what cost.Mental Health should be valued in young people
Even financially a lot of students have already paid deposits on accommodation which again hits poorer students much harder than privileged ones.
ARP no longer gets preference over summer pool,they are run concurrently.
ARP absolutely is poaching