Winter Pool
Encyclopedia
The Winter Pool or inter-College Pool is an important part of the undergraduate application process for Cambridge University
in England
, intended to ensure that the best applicants are offered places if they are not selected by the college to which they applied. Just under 20% of undergraduate places are awarded through the Pool.
and 90% or more in each of their three best subjects at AS level will be automatically pooled even if they did not perform well at interview.
Applicants in the Pool are graded according to four criteria:
The Pool takes place over two days in early January. Pooled applicants who are "fished" by a college may be offered a place immediately or they may be invited for interview.
Statistics released by the University show that some of the stronger and more popular colleges such as Clare College
, King's College
and Trinity College
rarely take applicants from the Pool while others such as Girton College
, Murray Edwards College (New Hall) and Newnham College
draw a substantial proportion of their undergraduate intake from the Pool. The Pool thus provides a means of transferring strong applicants from oversubscribed colleges to undersubscribed ones.
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, intended to ensure that the best applicants are offered places if they are not selected by the college to which they applied. Just under 20% of undergraduate places are awarded through the Pool.
Criteria
Any strong applicant who cannot be offered a place by their first choice college will be placed in the Pool and other colleges will be recommended to consider them. All applicants who meet a minimum academic standard of 7 A* grades at GCSE levelGeneral Certificate of Secondary Education
The General Certificate of Secondary Education is an academic qualification awarded in a specified subject, generally taken in a number of subjects by students aged 14–16 in secondary education in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and is equivalent to a Level 2 and Level 1 in Key Skills...
and 90% or more in each of their three best subjects at AS level will be automatically pooled even if they did not perform well at interview.
Applicants in the Pool are graded according to four criteria:
- A — strongly recommended
- B — probably worth an offer
- P — very good on paper but less impressive at interview (this is the default for automatically pooled applicants)
- S — in special need of reassessment
The Pool takes place over two days in early January. Pooled applicants who are "fished" by a college may be offered a place immediately or they may be invited for interview.
Statistics
Each year about 3,000 applicants receive offers from their preference college and a further 600 to 700 applicants are made an offer by another college through the Pool. On average one in five applicants is pooled and around one in four pooled applicants receives an offer of a place.Statistics released by the University show that some of the stronger and more popular colleges such as Clare College
Clare College, Cambridge
Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1326, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. Clare is famous for its chapel choir and for its gardens on "the Backs"...
, King's College
King's College, Cambridge
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college's full name is "The King's College of our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge", but it is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the University....
and Trinity College
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
rarely take applicants from the Pool while others such as Girton College
Girton College, Cambridge
Girton College is one of the 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. It was England's first residential women's college, established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon. The full college status was only received in 1948 and marked the official admittance of women to the...
, Murray Edwards College (New Hall) and Newnham College
Newnham College, Cambridge
Newnham College is a women-only constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1871 by Henry Sidgwick, and was the second Cambridge college to admit women after Girton College...
draw a substantial proportion of their undergraduate intake from the Pool. The Pool thus provides a means of transferring strong applicants from oversubscribed colleges to undersubscribed ones.