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Admission statistics

Student in LibraryThe Statistics PDF file shows the number of applications received and offers made for each course in recent years.

One shouldn't attempt to extrapolate from the data to reach a conclusion that it will be either ‘easy’ or ‘hard’ to get an offer for a particular course at Selwyn. The standard remains the same as a result of subject moderation and pool processes. The number of offers includes those made to applicants in the intercollege pool.

Subject moderation and the pool

Initially each applicant is assessed by the college to which they apply, but the decision of whether or not to make an offer is guided by the strength of the applicants to all of the colleges.  Each course has a university-wide moderation process for comparison of all candidates to ensure that the best receive offers, regardless of which college received their application.

Admissions tutors and directors of studies participate in the winter pool that runs every January once the interviews in December are complete. It's the process by which candidates are redistributed from one college to another with the result that around 20% of offers are received from a college that was not the original application college. Each year a significant number of students receive offers from Selwyn having been pooled by other colleges; similarly, a significant number of candidates we place in the pool receive offers from other colleges.

University-wide statistics: https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/apply/statistics. (There are small variations between the numbers in our PDF file and the university website due to different conventions for counting applications/offers withdrawn, made through the pool, or deferred from/to a later year.)