Economics Admissions Stats

The request was partially successful.

Peter Hanley-Walsh

Dear King’s College, Cambridge,

I am making a request regarding the statistics for Economics
applicants to King's in the 2012/13, 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16 cycles.

For those applicants offering A-Levels as their highest
qualification please provide for each applicant the following data
in a single table with one row per applicant, and columns contain
the following data
* the application cycle (i.e 2012/13, 2013/14, 2014/15 or 2015/16)
* the average UMS achieved in the most relevant 3 AS-Levels offered
* a yes/no to indicate if applicant was called for interview
* the interviewee's overall interview grade (1-10, with NA to
indicate if no interview)
* a yes/no to indicate if offer was made (please include pool offers as well but differentiate them from direct offers)
* a yes/no to indicate if applicant was accepted
* a yes/no to indicate if entry was deferred by the applicant

Please do not hesitate to contact me if any part of this request
requires clarification

Yours faithfully,

Peter Hanley-Walsh

King's College, Cambridge

1 Attachment

Dear Peter Hanley-Walsh,

This is in reply to your enquiry received by the College on 21 October and made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). I can confirm that the College does hold some information related to your enquiry, but it is exempt under section 40, personal data. Disclosure would require the processing of personal data for reasons other than those for which it was collected. Therefore, the information is exempt under section 40 of the FOI Act.

We hope the following information will be helpful to you:

HOW DO WE ASSESS APPLICATIONS?

At King's, we are looking for promise and potential. So although existing and predicted grades form a central criterion for admission, as do interview scores, we are careful to interpret grades and interview results in light of your personal and educational background. We assess each application individually. We are interested to learn about your existing knowledge and skills, but we endeavour also to find out how you would deal with the new materials and ideas you would encounter at Cambridge. All candidates are considered strictly on the basis of their academic promise.

During the application process, we look at:
* your academic record, including GCSE and AS (or equivalent) grades and marks and A level (or equivalent, e.g. IB) grades or predictions, this record being considered in the context of the quality (but not type) of schools/colleges at which it was achieved;
* your school/college reference;
* your personal statement;
* your admissions assessment (taken at interview)
* your performance at interview(s)

With this holistic view you can understand that it is not possible to predict your chances of success based on predicted grades and/or interview scores. Our advice is to apply if you look like you can achieve the standard offer of A*A*A for Economics at the end of sixth form.

UMS scores are being phased out with the A level reforms, so not all A level applicants this year will have UMS scores for each subject. In recent admissions rounds, the average Cambridge applicant scored about 90 per cent on this measure, while the average successful Cambridge applicant scored nearer 95 per cent. But please note that both these figures are only averages - applicants don't need to have achieved a certain score in every module and aren't required to achieve 90 per cent or above in all modules. There were successful Cambridge applicants who had UMS averages in their best/most relevant three subjects below 90 per cent.

We read the whole of each application and take all parts of it into account before deciding which students to invite for interview. As we only invite students for interview who could potentially be made an offer, it would be unusual to invite a student predicted less than our standard offer for Economics that year. The standard offer has changed over the past four years.

If you have further questions please ask me in the first instance. I attach a leaflet outlining the College's FOI Act policies and procedures. If, after following those procedures you are still not satisfied with the way in which your request has been dealt with you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the Commissioner will not entertain your complaint unless you have exhausted any relevant internal review procedures.

-----------------------------------
Patricia McGuire (Dr)
Archivist
King's College
Cambridge CB2 1ST

Tel: 01223 331444
FAX: 01223 331891

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