As another Admissions process draws to a close, Admissions Tutor (Humanities) Dr Mike Sewell writes about what happened at Selwyn in 2013-14:
On the October 15th 2013 deadline we had 485 new applicants. To these were added 80 further applicants from the group who had made Open Applications to the University in general rather than to a specific College. 442 of our 565 applicants were interviewed either in Cambridge, via Skype or by one of the groups of interviewers the Colleges send overseas.
By the end of last winter’s application process we had made 138 offers – of which 31 were to students who hadn't been accepted by their first-choice College and had been placed in the University-wide 'pool'. 20 students who'd made Selwyn their first choice but lost out in competitive fields were able to secure other Cambridge places by the same route. Amongst students taking A Levels, the gathered field averaged just over 90% UMS across their best three subjects. Those to whom we made offers averaged 94%. Those whom we had not interviewed averaged 84%. Those taken through the pool averaged almost exactly the same as those first-preference applicants receiving offers. It is, of course, important to note that these averages are just that, and that there is no benchmark score that determines an outcome.
Daily life in the Admissions Office becomes less busy from January to July but does not completely stop. We lost 7 offer-holders who, for varying reasons, decided not to take up their Cambridge offer. Of these, three were UK students and four from overseas. Other correspondence included early warning of students experiencing disruption to their studies around exam time (usually not to the detriment of their final grades as it turned out), and also our annual request that anyone who just missed an offer should send us their detailed results as quickly as possible on the Thursday when A Level results are published.
The Selwyn admissions team pictured this month. From left to right – Dr James Keeler, Stephanie Pym and Dr Mike Sewell
Results Day is one of the most hectic of our year. Phone and fax lines are busy with communication with the small number of applicants who have missed offers. The majority of those missing offers are for Maths, a subject where, like all Colleges, we use STEP to help us differentiate amongst students all of whom achieve very highly in their mainstream examinations. One of our key messages is that extensive research shows us that numerous A* grades are nowhere near as good a predictor of likelihood of success or struggle in the Maths Tripos as the separate STEP examinations.
Of our 121 incoming students, 70% of those from the UK hail from state schools with the remaining 30% from independent schools. That is very close indeed to the 69:31 balance of the applications. Of those taking A Levels the average number of A* grades per head was around 2.75, confirming, if proof were needed, what a talented group the incoming first years are.
As one round draws to an end, so we are already in the middle of the pre-application phase of the next admissions round. Even before we completed the very last stages of confirming the few remaining places for 2014, we were responding to enquiries based on students wondering whether or not their AS results will make them competitive applicants. And we will look forward to the first applications arriving in September.
Selwyn will be holding another Open Day on Saturday September 20th and anyone interested in applying to the College in future will be warmly welcomed. You can find more details at http://www.sel.cam.ac.uk/prospective-students/undergraduate/open-days/
.jpg)
