MPhil Cambridge - Decision Pending (DP)

Hi, did you get any update? I also applied to the DH MPhil and was moved to DP around 13th Feb (application submitted on 5th Jan). I also wanted to ask if you had any interview since for me it went straight to DP from Submitted, without interview.

Hii! Lots of us at the DH thread were talking about this -- we went straight to DP without any interviews. I think the website stated that interviews are reserved only if the committee needs more information on your proposal. Do check out our conversation in the following thread:
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7650361&page=8

DP - is in fact an offer incoming
And if you recieved this week then informal acceptance will be next week
And official offer would be the last part, basically in late march or April

I sure hope so. I've read in other threads that some still get rejected after hitting DP status. Trying to set my expectations while still sustaining hope

Can you link these threads if possible? I am on DP and have been for a long while and am nervous about it.

DP is a catch-all term for two different stages in the process. I presume Cambridge have merged the two because applicants were working themselves up into a lather about it, making incorrect assumptions and pestering the PAO.
The first step under DP is that offers are assessed by the Degree Committee. The issue here is that the process is not necessarily tied to Degree Committee dates, which applicants obsessed over. At this stage the Degree Committee (or a subset of members) review the quality of applications across all the degree programmes they run. If they are perhaps trying to improve the quality of one programme, or they find the quality of applications to one programme is especially high one year, and another lower, they make the strategic decisions about being tougher on offers or viring numbers between courses. That's when people who have got a DP flag might still get rejected.
The second step is at PAO where a final check of the application is made to make sure the is not error or fraud in the application. Because PAO have to check every single offer in detail (and you can't just hire in temp staff with the level of knowledge and accuracy needed) this process tends to get extremely jammed up from the middle of March and the delays can be several weeks. However, it's very rare to get a rejection from this stage, you basically have to have made a fraudulent application, or come from a new university in a jurisdiction with poor academic standards/monitoring.
So DP can last anywhere between a few days or a few months, depending on where you hit the cycle of those two phases. The chances of a rejection if you get to DP I'd say are less than 10% though.

Hi everyone! I thought I’d make a thread about ‘Decision Pending’ on the Cambridge application portal, I know it’s generally described as when the department has recommended you for an offer but is awaiting approval from PAO. But has anyone been rejected after DP?
If you see this, feel free to use this thread to state your application progress to help us figure out if DP in fact means an offer is coming!
I’ll start:
Course applied to: MPhil in Digital Humanities
Date applied: 6th January 2026
Portal status: DP (I’m not sure when it first appeared though)
Undergrad: first class honours at a non Russell Group uni, high first class dissertation similar to my research proposal. Undertook a few internships but nothing majorly relevant to my prospective course.
Other notes: I’ve not had any communication with admissions or possible supervisors, so I haven’t received any personal updates
Good luck everyone!

Hi!! If it's any help, my status changed from "Under Review by Department" to "Decision Pending" on February 5th and I got an official conditional offer today, the 24th! Best of luck!

just received a rejection from the Gates Cambridge Scholarship before my cambridge decision. have been on DP for about a week and still haven't heard back on the final decision. What does this mean? This is so confusing.

just received a rejection from the Gates Cambridge Scholarship before my cambridge decision. have been on DP for about a week and still haven't heard back on the final decision. What does this mean? This is so confusing.

Multiple LLM applicants going from DP to Unsuccessful. Seems like the DP to Offer pipeline no longer holds true for LLM.