IB Law Applicants

The request was refused by King's College, Cambridge.

Dear King’s College, Cambridge,

I am writing to kindly request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 regarding admissions into BA law tripos:

1. The predicted and achieved International Baccalaureate Diploma grades, with their corresponding subjects and bonus points, for each individual given an interview invitation for the Law tripos during the admissions cycles among 2014, 2015, 2016.

2. The final offer status (Offer, No Offer) for each application receiving an interview.

Yours faithfully,
Lydia Harris

King's College, Cambridge

1 Attachment

Dear Lydia Harris,

 

This is in reply to your enquiry received by the College on 5 September
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, we are
careful to interpret grades 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 or any one factor alone. Our advice is to apply
if you look like you can achieve the standard IB offer at the end of sixth
form. For Law, the IB standard offer is 7, 6, 6 in the relevant Higher
Level subjects plus an overall score of 40, including the Theory of
Knowledge and Extended Essay components.

 

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 Law that year.  The standard offer has changed during the three
year period in question.

 

I attach a leaflet outlining the College's FOI Act policies and
procedures.  If you have further questions please ask me in the first
instance. If you are 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.

 

Yours sincerely

Peter Jones

 

Freedom of Information Officer

King’s College, Cambridge

 

Email: [1][King’s College, Cambridge request email]

 

 

 

 

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