Admission statistics

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

Please bear in mind that the number of offers include a certain number made through the intercollegiate Pool and that the figure for applications includes some placed through the Pool at other Colleges.

The key is not to play statistical games that extrapolate from these numbers to reach a conclusion that we are either "easy" or "hard" to get into for certain subjects.  The standard remains the same as a result of the Subject Moderation and the Pool process.

Each year a significant number of students receive offers from Selwyn having been pooled by other Colleges. Similarly, a significant number of candidates placed in the Pool by us are made offers by other Colleges.

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 subject 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.

The Winter Pool, held just in the New Year following the December interviews, is the process by which candidates are passed from one college to another.  Admissions Teams put a large amount of effort into the Pool process to ensure this outcome.  As a result,  around 20% of offers are received from a college that was not the original application college. 

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the numbers in our PDF file and the university website due to different conventions for counting applications/offers withdrawn, made through the pool, or deferred from/to a later year.)