As another Admissions process draws to a close, Admissions Tutor (Arts and Social Sciences) Dr Mike Sewell writes about what happened at Selwyn in 2014-15:
On the October 15th 2014 deadline for applications we had 425 students seeking admission to Selwyn. To these were shortly added 66 further applicants from the group who had made Open Applications to the University in general rather than to a specific College. These are then allocated to Colleges by an algorithm that takes into consideration historic patterns of applications and acceptances to a College by subject, and the particular year's spread of applicants around the Colleges.
392 of our 491 applicants were interviewed in Cambridge, or 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 139 offers - of which 33 were to students who hadn't been accepted by their first-choice College and had been placed in the University-wide 'pool'. 24 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 90.5% UMS across their best three subjects. Those to whom we made offers averaged 94.5%. Those whom we had not interviewed averaged just below 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 that determines an outcome.
Daily life in the Admissions Office becomes less busy from January to July but does not completely stop. We lost 1 offer-holder who decided not to take up their Cambridge offer. 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.
Results Day is one of the most hectic of our year. Phone, fax and email communication is exchanged with the small number of applicants who have missed offers and with their schools. 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 STEP is a far better predictor even than numerous A* grades of how a student is likely to fare in the Mathematical Tripos.
After A Level Thursday comes the 'Summer Pool'. Here we can compare our students who have narrowly missed offers with those who have done so at other Colleges. Through this process in 2015 we gained 9 students and 3 of ours were taken by other Colleges.
Of our 116 incoming students, 69% of those from the UK hail from state schools with the remainder from independent schools. That is almost identical to the respective proportions of 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.
Some of the news stories about our applicants' successes also suggest the high esteem in which they are held by those who have taught them.
You can read about some of our new students on these newspaper or school websites:
http://www.windsorobserver.co.uk/news/13594338.A_level_results__Furze_Platt_Senior_School/ http://www.sandwellacademy.com/news/612/sandwell-academy-star-student-road-cambridge.aspx http://www.bucksherald.co.uk/news/more-news/twins-both-land-cambridge-place-studying-same-subject-1-6912809
We'll look forward to welcoming all of them in October.
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