Cambridge make out that college choice is no big deal and doesn't matter that much. In this post I give my views on whether college choice matters when applying.
When you're filling out the UCAS application forms to apply to Cambridge, you'll need to choose which Cambridge college you want to apply to. If you do get in, your college will be where you live, eat, socialise, have supervisions (small teaching groups) and much more. It is a huge part of your life at Cambridge.
When I was applying, I found choosing a college quite difficult since the information Cambridge provide officially is very generic and not that helpful in differentiating colleges. You can read the official line on selecting a college. It's a good starting point but by no means the best advice on how to choose.
The problem is that the university has to remain impartial with regards to colleges. They cannot say one college is better than another for a subject, even though there are vast differences between colleges.
If you read the offical advice, you'll see:
Don’t agonise too long over choosing a College. They have many more similarities than differences and most students quickly settle in and really enjoy their College, wherever they end up!
This is not completely true. Colleges are HUGELY different and make an enormous difference to your time at Cambridge. If you do get into Cambridge, most of your friends will be in your college, you'll eat, sleep and live there and spend the majority of your time there. Although this does not help with choosing a college, you need to be aware that it is a much bigger decision than the university like to let on.
Since the university has to remain impartial to all colleges, it can be very difficult to tell the difference from the website and prospectus. If you go to a school that sends a lot of people to Cambridge, you'll be able to get the scoop on different colleges but if you don't you might not be able to tell the differences.
On the official advice site you'll see:
How NOT to choose a College
Based on application statistics
* Many applicants think, or are advised, that choosing a College that attracts fewer applications or making an open application will increase their chance of getting an offer. In fact, careful analysis of our admissions statistics shows that, for equally well qualified applicants, College or open application choice does not affect the chance of being offered a place at Cambridge. This is because we have rigorous procedures in place to compare all applicants for each subject before selection decisions are finalised.
* Also, Colleges would rather admit a strong applicant from the pool than a weaker applicant who applied directly to them. Through the pool, strong applicants who’ve been squeezed out by the competition at their original College can be made an offer by another College.
That is they say you shouldn't choose a college based on how many people applied there in previous years for your subject. This advice is not that helpful and the statements below are not completely accurate. They mention "careful analysis" of admission statistics showing that college choice does not make a difference, but give no explanation of the analysis carried out. It also doesn't explain what the "rigorous procedures" are. In fact this is not true because before pooled applicants are made offers, other people already get offers so all applicants are not compared before selection decisions are made.
On the second point, whilst it may be true that colleges prefer to take stronger candidates from the pool than weaker direct applicants, the fact is that colleges must make decisions on their direct applicants before they can see the pool. They do not turn down direct applicants, look at the pool and then go back and make offers to rejected people because the pool was worse than they expected.
So in summary, yes, college choice matters a lot if you care about getting in and your Cambridge experience if you do get in. The main points to remember are that college choice is an EXTREMELY important part of your application. It greatly affects your chances of admission and will determine your complete university experience if you do get in.
In future posts I'll explore the differences between colleges, admission statistics and how to go about choosing a college.
This is littered with inaccuracy, I'm sorry. "They do not turn down direct applicants, look at the pool and then go back and make offers to rejected people because the pool was worse than they expected."
ReplyDeleteNo, they may pool somebody and "fish" them back out again after comparing them across the standard of the university. This happens.
College choice determines your experience - of course, to the extent you wish it to. If you hate your college - it sucks. But to be honest you'd probably get over it and make friends outside of college from any societies you get into, or whatever. Cambridge is a very diverse place - usually you can find whatever you're looking for if you take the time to look beyond your college.
IT DOES NOT GREATLY AFFECT YOUR CHANCE OF ADMISSION. I literally can't stress this enough. The pooling system exists for a reason- to equilibrate standards across colleges.
I agree with the comment about. I was someone who was pooled for 24 hours and then fished out of the pool into the college I applied to. It's a practise that the DoS for my subject at my college always engages in.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments, I appreciate getting feedback.
ReplyDeleteI understand that colleges may pool applicants and then subsequently make an offer to them however this is not very common. However for the pooling system to be more effective, colleges would need to pool everyone who they interviewed because they do not know what the rest of the pool looks like. If they make any rejections, they cannot go back on these and make offers. Hence when colleges make rejections before they see the pool, they are gambling on the people they reject being worse than those in the pool. This is an example of where the pool system fails to be foolproof.
I think that college choice greatly affects your experience of Cambridge. If you look in any lectures or classes, you'll find that it is extremely common for people to stick with others from their own college. Also you will still have to live in college and the Cambridge system is set up such that for most people, the main people they interact with are within their own college.
It is a fact that college choice does affect your chance of admission. Interviews are not standardised across colleges, colleges take differing proportions of applicants and the pooling system is imperfect. I would advise people applying to take note of this when they are choosing which college to apply to.
All of the information on this blog is based on assumption and badly presented statistics. If we're gonna just assume things I know a lot of people who've been pooled and people tell me other colleges have more pooled people, so most people are pooled. And so I'm going to guess that that means the system is fair. Bomb proof argument.
ReplyDeleteOr you could actually talk to an admissions tutor whose job it is to sort this whole process. Every college has to justify every choice on every applicant on a university level. The justification is as specific as including the UMS marks from AS levels as well as GCSE grades, details of interview performance etc. The whole process is standardised. The chance of a stronger applicant being turned away while while a weaker one is picked (by pools or not) is going to be no different than at any other university in the country.
If someone gets turned away who deserved a place this is just bad luck, like at any university. Checking college statistics would not have given them some secret knowledge that they could of used to their advantage especially when what hasn't been pointed out yet is that each college's entry statistics vary a lot each year because applicants believe the rubbish some people post online.
College choice will affect which college you apply to. That's about it. The only people who complain about their college are the people who would complain about anything. Unless there is something really specific you want my advice is throw a dart at a map, once you're there you really won't care.
I would agree that speaking to people in charge of admissions at colleges is a good way for potential applicants to find out more about the application process. However they will not always give the full story on things such as which colleges have reputations for different subjects.
ReplyDeleteI have seen absolutely no evidence to suggest that “every college has to justify every choice on every applicant on a university level” and do not believe this to be the case. The whole process is not standardised. A trivial example of this is that different colleges have different numbers and styles of interview and ask different interview questions. Some use the Thinking Skills Assessment and some don’t. Colleges also have different entrance requirements for the same subject (for example see: http://www.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/courses/maths/requirements.html ). So it is not true that the whole process is completely standardised.
It is unhelpful to say that it is just “bad luck” if someone is rejected who could have got in. There are always ways that applicants can improve their chances of admission. College statistics do not give you “secret knowledge” but they do actually expose the truth as to how many people apply and are admitted to colleges each year. This information is useful when choosing which college to apply to in order to maximise an applicant’s chances of admission. Entry statistics do vary with year but not to the extent that they are totally random meaning they do provide useful information.
Finally I think that it’s misleading to try to say that there’s no difference between colleges. There are big differences between them and trying to deny this is misleading to potential applicants who should at least be aware of the differences and can then make up their own mind as to where to apply.
Your argument about college choice affecting admissions chances rests on the notion that "colleges must make decisions on their direct applicants before they can see the pool." From what I gather, this is untrue. Official Cambridge admissions tutors have divulged on TSR that admissions tutors from every college get to see the ENTIRE applicant field ACROSS colleges before even sending out interview offers.
ReplyDeleteYour argument about college choice affecting admissions chances rests on the notion that "colleges must make decisions on their direct applicants before they can see the pool." From what I gather, this is untrue. Official Cambridge admissions tutors have divulged on TSR that admissions tutors from every college get to see the ENTIRE applicant field ACROSS colleges before even sending out interview offers.
ReplyDeleteHi if this blog is still live and ongoing, can you provide any advice for the best Cambridge colleges for Natural Sciences undergrads? Thanks, Jacqui
ReplyDelete