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19 Aug

2022
Pooling System
<p><strong>Introduction</strong></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Some applicants who have cleared the interview and met all the admission requirements might not be able to receive admission offers because their college does not have enough vacancies.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Pooling is a system which seeks to ensure that these applicants can nonetheless be given a place at another college.<br>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>How does Pooling Work?</strong></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Here’s an illustration. Suppose there are two colleges X and Y. Both colleges only accept 6 mathematics candidates each year.&nbsp;</p><p>Now imagine we have an applicant, John.&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;</p><p>John interviews at College X. Based on his performance it is agreed that he would have been accepted. However, College Y is really popular and there are at least 6 other candidates who have applied. All of them performed better than John.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Without the pooling system, John gets rejected and the story ends here. What the pooling system does is as follows.<br>&nbsp;</p><p>For the colleges and courses (e.g Mathematics) which take part in pooling, candidates will be graded by the colleges that they interview at and these grades are then sent to the relevant department (e.g Mathematics) where the candidates are ranked.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Suppose the annual intake for Mathematics is 200. This means that the top 200 ranked applicants will be given offers.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>John’s performance is above average and he ranks within the top 200. This means that even though College X will not make John an offer because it has no more vacancies, John can be pooled to another college, College Y.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>John will then asked to interview at College Y and if all goes well, he will be made an offer.&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;</p><figure class="image"><img src="https://oxbridge-blogs.s3.ap-northeast-2.amazonaws.com/gqxgnyf0B3mvgNfSDRpK.png"></figure><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Open Offer vs Pooling</strong></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>In addition to pooling, there is also the open offer scheme. Every year some candidates do not meet their conditional offer. This means that there will be colleges with vacancies. The open offer scheme is meant to fill this gap.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Here’s an example:</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>College X and College Y both have open offer schemes for their Physics courses. College X makes 6 conditional offers. In addition, College X makes 1 open offer to a candidate, James who was not interviewed at College X.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>If any of the 6 College X candidates do not meet their conditional offer requirements, and James meets the conditions of his open offer, James will be accepted by College X as the sixth student on its Physics course.<br>&nbsp;</p><p>If all 6 candidates meet their conditional offer requirements, James is allocated to another college (e.g College Y) where one or more of their offer holders didn't meet their conditional offer requirements. In this way, open offer holders still have a chance of securing a place at the university.&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Which Colleges Participate in Pooling and the Open Offer Scheme?</strong><br>&nbsp;</p><p>This depends on the subject as well as the year of your application.<br>&nbsp;</p><p><i>Cambridge Winter Pooling</i></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Cambridge admits around 3,400 students every year. 3,000 to 4,000 applicants are pooled, out of which around 1000 applicants are made offers.<br>&nbsp;</p><p>Winter Pooling takes place over a three-day period in early January. A rough timetable (the dates vary from year to year) is shown below:</p><p><br>7 January onwards&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><ul><li>Colleges which still have vacancies for their courses will begin looking at the pooled candidates’ applications</li><li>Selected candidates are invited via telephone or email, to return to Cambridge for a second round of interviews&nbsp;</li></ul><p>09 January onwards</p><ul><li>Pool interviews are held in Cambridge&nbsp;</li></ul><p>&nbsp;</p><p>12 January onwards&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><ul><li>Decisions on pool interviews are communicated to applicants</li><li>Pooled applicants who are not called for further interviews will hear about the final outcome of their Cambridge application from the college that they originally applied to</li><li>Offers may be made to some pooled applicants without any further interview&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;</li></ul><p>For more information, have a look at:</p><p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/applying-to-oxford/decisions">www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/applying-to-oxford/decisions</a></p><p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/files/publications/guide_to_the_winter_pool_for_applicants.pdf">www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.u/files/publications/guide_to_the_winter_pool_for_applicants.pdf</a>&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;</p>