Outcome of your application and what to do next

You’ll find out the outcome of your application in the UCAS hub and in an email or letter from Cambridge in January. If you applied by the mature student application deadline in January, you will be told the outcome in April. This will be after you've had your Cambridge interview.

Applicants for 2026 entry (deferred entry in 2027)

If you applied to Cambridge by the UCAS deadline in October 2025, you will find out the outcome of your application in January. 

If you've received an offer, you'll see this in the UCAS hub and you'll also get an email or letter from the College making you an offer. 

UCAS hub will include a campus code for the College that has made you an offer. This may be different to the College you originally applied to. You can check the list of UCAS College campus codes on this page. The list is at the bottom of the page (if you are using a mobile device) or on the right of the page (if you are using a desktop computer or laptop).

Whatever the outcome of your application, you will get an email with further information from the College you applied to or the College that has made you an offer. Please read this email carefully.

If you get an offer of a place

There are 2 types of offer you could get. You could get:

• an unconditional offer of a place from the College that you applied to, a College we’ve allocated you to (if you submitted an open application), or a College that you didn’t originally apply to or weren't originally allocated to. If your application is successful, we will only give you an unconditional offer if you have already completed your qualifications and achieved the grades needed for your course. This means that you will definitely have a place on the course, so you just need to decide whether to accept
• a conditional offer of a place from the College that you applied to, a College we’ve allocated you to (if you submitted an open application), or a College that you didn’t originally apply to or weren't originally allocated to. This means you’ve been offered a place, but that you must meet entry requirements - usually exam grades that you’ll get in the summer

Find out how Cambridge makes decisions about who gets a place and why you might get an offer from a College that you didn't originally apply to.

What you need to do next

You need to reply to both UCAS and the College with your decision. Make sure you reply by the deadline set by UCAS.

You can accept Cambridge as your:

• firm choice, which is your first choice
• insurance choice, which is the back up to your first choice

By accepting your offer you agree to our Terms of Admission.

You can also choose to decline your offer from Cambridge.

Find out more about how to reply to an offer in UCAS.

If you accept your Cambridge offer and then decide not to take up your place at a later date, please let your Cambridge College know by 1 August.

If you don’t get an offer of a place

Try not to worry. Around 6 people apply for every one place at Cambridge. This means that we can't offer a place to everyone we'd like to, even if you did really well in your interview and are predicted to get excellent grades.

There are 2 possible outcomes. You could get told that:

• you didn’t get an offer of a place at Cambridge, but that we’d like to invite you to apply for reconsideration later in the year. Find out what happens if we invite you to apply for reconsideration in August
• you didn’t get an offer of a place from any College at Cambridge

Find out how Cambridge makes decisions about who gets a place.

What you need to do next

If we invited you to apply for reconsideration, you don’t need to do anything until August (after you’ve received your exam results).

If you didn’t get an offer of a place you could:

• ask the Cambridge College to provide you with some feedback
• consider other options, like accepting another university offer or applying to another university through UCAS Clearing
• apply to Cambridge again next year. We recommend that you don't apply more than 3 times, unless there have been significant changes to your academic profile or circumstances.

What happens if your exams are marked again

We confirm conditional offers based on your exam results. Sometimes applicants ask for some of their exams to be re-marked. For example if they are only a few marks away from the grade above, an applicant may ask their exam board to re-mark their exam. If your overall grade changes after a re-mark, then this means that your results have been ‘re-graded’.

To confirm places for October 2026 (or deferred entry in 2027) we need to have received your exam results by 31 August.

Your Cambridge College will discuss options with you, if:

• your conditional offer is not confirmed and your re-marks come through after 31 August

and

• you are then able to meet all of the conditions of the offer.

When you get your new exam marks your College will consider if accommodation is available and how close we are to the start of the academic year. If the College can't offer you a place in that year, they may confirm an offer for deferred entry. This means you can start your course next year, in October.

How to request feedback on your application

Undergraduate admissions decisions are made by the Cambridge Colleges. All Colleges provide feedback, on request, about unsuccessful applicants who were shortlisted for interview.

Requests are dealt with on an individual basis between the applicant (or their school or college) and the Cambridge College that assessed the application.

Feedback is usually provided to your UCAS referee or to you if you have left school or college at the time of applying.

We won’t typically release your interview scores, but we may include an indication of your performance as part of our feedback. You will usually only see your assessment scores if you took an admission assessment before interview. Feedback arrangements may differ from College to College.

Your parent or guardian may only request feedback or begin a complaint if the request or complaint is accompanied by a signed statement from you authorising your parent or guardian to act on your behalf.

Reviewing a Cambridge admissions decision

An admissions decision taken by a Cambridge College will not normally be reviewed unless it appears, after investigation, that a serious procedural error has occurred.

How to make a complaint about an admissions decision

If you are considering making a complaint about the management of your application or you think that you may be eligible to appeal the decision you received, you need to read our guidance and policy around this process.

Find out how to make an appeal or complaint about how your application was managed or appeal a decision.