Your Guide to Oxford and Cambridge Offers

What will be included in my offer?

Types of Offer

When receiving an offer from Oxford or Cambridge, you will get either a conditional or unconditional offer from the department to which you have applied and a college. Note that this could be the college to which you applied or another college (at which you may or may not have interviewed in December). A Conditional Offer means that you have certain terms to meet (usually achieving certain A-level or equivalent grades in the summer), whereas an Unconditional Offer means that the university is ready to confirm your place based on the information with which you applied. Unconditional offers are only given to applicants who have already satisfied the terms of the usual offer before the offer release date (i.e. they have already sat their exams and received their grades).

If you applied to Oxford, you could receive an open offer, in which your college has not yet been confirmed. This means that, should you meet the conditions of your departmental offer, you will be assigned an appropriate college later down the line. You may receive this kind of offer if you made an open application to the university, in which you did not specify a particular college. Just remember that an open offer does not reflect your quality as a candidate, but simply indicates that the university still has some shuffling around to do.

Department and College Offers

Department Offer

The department offer is the first, and main, offer you will receive. This is the offer that is released on the main results day. You will receive this offer by email, and may also receive a physical copy in the post, but this will arrive a little later. This offer will include several pieces of information: the university terms and conditions, a student handbook for your year of entry, and a course information sheet. You should read through these documents and keep them safe so that you may refer back to them throughout the remainder of your preparation and study at the university.

College Offer

This offer will likely come a little later than the initial department offer. This will reiterate the terms of your offer, as well as including the Financial Declaration to which you must agree (including proving that you have sufficient funds to cover the first year of your studies either via private funds or a government student loan). It may also include some other information, which can differ based on College or university. Please note that the College offer you receive could be from a college other than the one to which you applied. You can get in touch with the university if you’re unhappy about the college you’ve been assigned, but do note that rejecting the college offer outright will result in your forfeiting the department offer, and your place at the University, also.

How do I Accept My Offer?

The firsts step in accepting you Oxford or Cambridge offer is to read all of the documentation you have been sent by the department and college, and ensure that you are happy to accept the offer. If you wish to accept, you must then do so via the UCAS online system. When you log on, you will be presented with three options:

• Accept as Firm Choice
• Accept as Insurance Choice
• Reject Offer

Accepting the offer as your Firm Choice means that you are indicating this as the main course and university at which you want to study. Accepting it as your Insurance Choice means that you will attend the university if, and only if, you do not make the conditions for your first-choice course. Given that Oxford and Cambridge offers are likely to be the highest of a given application, in the majority of cases applicants will pick Oxford or Cambridge as their Firm Choice.

We recommend responding to your offer as soon as you have decided to do so, and certainly before the deadline specified in communication from the college. Many colleges have a very short turn-around for offer responses before they dismiss applicants.

Then ensure that you have returned any additional forms from the College (such as Financial Declarations etc.) so that you are ready to begin preparations for your exams ahead!

What do I do After Accepting the Offer?

Once you have accepted your offer, there is nothing left to do in terms of administration with the university. Your only job is to ensure that you study hard and make the grades that your offer specifies. Since Oxford and Cambridge are very competitive, it is highly unlikely that applicants who miss their offer grades will be accepted, so you really do need to try your hardest to get the right grades first time!

Should you achieve the grades stated in your offer, then you will have your place confirmed on results day. Be sure to check back in with UCAS and your email when you receive your results to establish that the process has all gone smoothly, and to see if there is any more correspondence from the university regarding preparation to begin your course.

What if I Change My Mind?

If you change your mind after accepting your offer, you can get in touch with the university to withdraw your application and cancel your offer.

At Oxford, you have fourteen days after accepting your offer to cancel it without incurring any fees. At Cambridge, you have until the 1^st of August to do so.

You may cancel your offer at either Oxford or Cambridge after this date, however doing so may mean you are penalised or barred from applying to the university again in the future.