#newnham

First of all, I want to remind you that college choices in an application aren't the end-all aspect of it. You seem to be putting a lot of weight into your college decision, which is understandable for strategic applicants, but ultimately, it'll be your performance at interview, personal statement, etc etc that will carry you, and not your choice of college. This is why the pooling system exists in the first place. Please don't beat yourself up too much if you're worrying! That being said, I imagine the choice in your situation depends on what you want to prioritise. Both Fitz and Newnham are fine choices, and Law is an incredibly competitive course, no matter what college you apply to, and so even if you went with an 'easier' college, you would still be taking big chances - such is an Oxbridge application, unfortunately. It's for this reason that I always tell people to prioritise the place they *want* to be, instead of the place where they *might*, *maybe* get to go just for that Cambridge name. It's also worth noting that you do still have a chance at being pooled to a different college no matter if you apply to Fitz or Newnham (and then the summer pool after that, too). Ultimately, if you want to apply to a college just to have better chances, then maybe Fitz is a good call - being a private school applicant is unlikely to matter, especially since you're not a home student, and I imagine that's a different demographic, too. If you want to apply to a college you feel you'll belong at, then I'd recommend you stick with Newnham. I can't tell you what to prioritise, but I do want to tell you that, no matter where you apply, the possibility of a pooling remains, and plenty of pooled students (or students who didn't go to their favourite college) still have a great time at the one they end up attending! Sorry I can't give you a more decisive answer on this front. As for grades, I wouldn't worry too much about not having GCSEs or AS grades if you do have your equivalent transcript - this is just how different educational systems work, and any university would/should be sympathetic to this. I'm not sure the transcripts you're submitting are more predicted grades or more an average grade report (as in, taken from smaller tests and homework instead of a standardised exam), but they'll be indicative of your performance at the time anyways, so that should be perfectly fine. As for the grades themselves - don't worry too much! If you had/have extenuating circumstances, please do make sure a tutor can include this in their reference. If you get invited for interview, they'll gauge your aptitude and knowledge anyway (I imagine they place heavy emphasis on this for subjects as broad as Law). Furthermore, you might have the chance to contextualise these grades yourself if interviewers ask about them - like you, I had some pre-A Level grades that weren't ideal, and one of my interviewers asked me about this. Considering I got the offer, I imagine they were satisfied with our discussion about it, haha. Again, don't overthink it too much, especially since there's nothing to be done about them now. This too has turned into a very long post, so I'll stop it here, but I hope this was at least a bit helpful and/or reassuring. Never apologise for long asks/tangents, that's what I'm here for!

Even though I don’t know if that picture was actually taken in fall. ;)

The ASNAC department is found on the Sidgwick Site (within the Faculty of English) so the closest colleges are Selwyn, Newnham or Robinson. However, a lot of the central colleges are also pretty close (such as Queens, St Catharine’s and Kings)

Ok well your grades mean that you could apply wherever you fancied. I don’t think there are any colleges that are known for Philosophy in particular, so it really depends on what sort of college you would like to be at - size, age, vibe etc. The department is on the Sidgewick site, so your closest colleges will be Selwyn, Newnham, Clare and Robinson, but the vast majority of colleges are in easy walking distance - Caius has very close first year accommodation. If you have any other criteria, let us know and we might be able to suggest other colleges.

I think the Tier 3s are fairly constant across all subjects, and we say they’re tier 3 mainly because they tend to get fewer direct applicants and take more from the pool. This isn’t to say anything about the standard of teaching at each college - lectures are organised centrally, and, while supervisors are often organised by the college, I’ve never experienced a correlation between colleges with more pooled people and poor supervisors, I think it’s the luck of the draw for that. That being said, the colleges that tend to get fewer applicants would probably be Newnham, Murray Edwards, Homerton, Girton, Robinson and Fitzwilliam.