Over the last few months, the Independent has had full and open access to all stages of the admissions process at Clare College, Cambridge. Everything, from the application forms, the internal meetings to the interviews themselves, has come under scrutiny as the College has shown the time and care needed to make the right decisions about its future students.

Over the last few months, the Independent has had full and open access to all stages of the admissions process at Clare College, Cambridge. Everything, from the application forms, the internal meetings to the interviews themselves, has come under scrutiny as the College has shown the time and care needed to make the right decisions about its future students.

Dr William Foster explains, "So many of the people who apply here are predicted excellent A level grades and have a very good set of GCSEs. The interview process allows us to get a better understanding of our candidates, what their strengths are and helps us decide which of them have the potential to succeed."

Dr William Foster interviews a candidate at Clare College.

This week's article (27th January 2000) explains that some colleges have a higher number of applications per place than others. It looks at the 'Pool' - the system designed to make sure that good candidates don't miss out on a place because they have applied to an oversubscribed college.

Mrs Sue Stobbs, Director of the Admissions for the Cambridge colleges, explains, "We are aware that some people find it hard to choose a college and so we do publish information that can help. In the prospectus each year we publish a table of which colleges and which subjects get the most applications."

"The Pool allows us to look at candidates who have just missed a place. It's an important part of our admissions procedure."

A candidate prepares for interview at Clare.

In fact the figures for applicants to Clare College this year have shown how well it can work. Although the College had a high number of applications per place, the chances of its candidates getting accepted to Cambridge were the same as the average across all the colleges, because so many got places through the Pool.

Nevertheless Sue Stobbs point out, "We do have to keep looking at our procedures. We are currently looking at how we can encourage open applications, where candidates are passed on to colleges with a lower than average number of applicants."

The college system is what makes a Cambridge education so different from that at other universities. But in general the advice given in the Cambridge prospectus is, "Don't agonise too long over the choice of college - the experience of studying in Cambridge is more significant than the particular college in which you do it."

Further information about admissions to Cambridge:


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