If you’ve applied to study at the University of Oxford or the University of Cambridge, you’ll be waiting for the day that you receive your offer. It’s a difficult wait, but it’s certainly worth it when the news finally arrives!
You will have put a lot of effort into ensuring you get into Oxbridge, but when exactly will you find out if you’ve got your offer? Plus, what should you expect to get on that day and what will you have to do next? In this guide, we cover everything you need to know about receiving your offer to study at Oxford or Cambridge. If you’re ready, let’s get started!
When Do Oxbridge Offers Come Out?
Firstly, we need to establish when you should expect to hear from Oxford or Cambridge about your offer:
When Do Oxford Offers Come Out?
For 2025 Entry, Oxford will release its decisions to successful applicants on 14th January 2025. Unsuccessful applicants will be contacted automatically, though they will also be able to view the outcome of their outcome on UCAS.
When Do Cambridge Offers Come Out?
For 2025 Entry, Cambridge will release its decisions to applicants on 30th January 2025. Cambridge will inform applicants, regardless of the outcome, via an email from the college that they were considered for.
Bear in mind that this only applies to applicants who had previously attended interviews. Those who were not invited to interviews in December 2024 will not receive further communications from the universities.
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What’s Included In Oxbridge Offers?
Your offer to study at Oxford and Cambridge will be made available in multiple forms and will have different components to read and confirm. Let’s run through what each university includes in its offers.
UCAS Offers
Firstly, it’s important to note that both universities will confirm your offer via UCAS, which will be displayed on your UCAS account on the morning of the offer release date for each university. This is a vital aspect of your application and is usually the first place you will be able to find your application outcome, so it’s important to check here first.
Oxford Offers
If you receive an offer to study at Oxford, you’ll actually be getting two separate offers: one from the Department of the course you’ve applied for and one from the college you’ve been admitted to. It’s important to read both of these as there are steps you’ll need to take for both. Each of the offers you will get includes the following:
Oxford Department Offer
This will be your initial offer and will be sent via email. In some cases, applicants will also be sent a physical letter, though this will arrive up to a week later. In the offer email, you will find:
- University Terms and Conditions: This document explains all of the items you will agree to upon accepting your offer to study at Oxford. It is referred to as a contract, which will need to be adhered to for the entirety of your study.
- Course Information Sheet: This will outline the key information for your course, including course content, fees and living costs at Oxford.
- Student Handbook: Oxford releases a new Student Handbook for each year of entry, which outlines important information about life at Oxford. This includes all of the available services for students and details on various rules and terms that must be adhered to.
Oxford College Offer
Your college offer will arrive roughly eight to ten weeks after the initial offer, so don’t expect to receive this at the same time as your Department Offer. This offer is also sent by email. Be aware that you may not receive an offer from the college you initially applied for. You will need to speak to Oxford’s customer service if you are unhappy with the college offer you receive, although be aware that rejecting your college offer will also result in the cancellation of your department offer.
Financial Declaration
As well as confirming your place at the college and providing information about the terms you will be agreeing to, your offer will include a Financial Declaration Form. This is essential to complete and requires you to provide evidence of sufficient funds to cover the first year of your studies (this can include evidence of receiving a student loan). You will also need to confirm that you will be able to fund the remainder of your time at the college.
Types of Oxford Offer
Oxford will generally give out two kinds of offers. These are:
Conditional Offer
These are the standard offers that most applicants will receive. These state that the applicant will need to meet any terms set out in the offer, usually achieving the set A-Level/equivalent grades. Your placement at the university is not guaranteed until these terms are met. Be aware that you will be given an unconditional offer if you have already met the terms of your offer before the offer release date.
Open Offer
These are also conditional offers, but you do not yet have a confirmed college. Your college will not be chosen until you have met any terms required by those considering you, but you will be assigned a college either way (provided you meet the terms of your conditional offer). You may receive an offer like this if you submit an open application, learn more about the admissions rates for open applicants in our Oxford Colleges Acceptance Rates Guide.
Cambridge Offers
Offers from Cambridge are structured in a similar manner to Oxford’s, with a general university offer and a college offer released to successful applicants.
On the offer release day, you will receive an email from the university confirming your offer (this will typically arrive after your UCAS account is updated). With this email, you will receive all of the information required to accept your offer, including terms and conditions and any required procedures beyond accepting the offer on UCAS.
As part of your offer, you will receive correspondence from your college, which will detail how you should accept your college offer. This process will be different for each college but usually involves filling out a form with essential personal and financial details.
Types of Cambridge Offers
Cambridge will mostly give out Conditional Offers to applicants, indicating that the applicant will need to meet set terms in order to be admitted (usually linked to academic grades/performance). Anyone who receives a conditional offer will not be admitted to their course if they do not meet the minimum required terms.
Cambridge may give out Unconditional Offers, but these will only be for applicants who have already completed their qualifications and met all of the requirements for admission.
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What To Do After Getting Your Offer
Once you’ve received your offer from either university, you will need to act fairly quickly. Let’s look at each university to see what you need to do:
Accepting Your Oxford Offer
If you wish to accept your offer to study at Oxford, you must first do so on your UCAS account via the standard procedure. On UCAS, you can choose one of three options:
- Accept as Firm Choice
- Accept as Insurance Choice
- Reject Offer
In most cases, you will want to accept Oxford as your Firm Choice, which marks Oxford as your main choice for where you want to study. Marking Oxford as your Insurance Choice means you will attend this university if you do not meet the entry requirements of your Firm Choice.
However, considering Oxford entry requirements are so high, this is unlikely to be applicable. Rejecting your offer will dismiss your application from this point forward and is not a decision that should be taken lightly.
You should respond to your offer as soon as possible, as some colleges set a short deadline to hear back from you before dismissing your application. This deadline should be stated in your correspondence from them.
By accepting both of your offers, you will be agreeing to all of the terms and conditions outlined throughout all of the documentation provided, so be sure to read it all carefully to ensure you are comfortable with this.
Accepting your Cambridge Offer
Confirming your offer to Cambridge works in roughly the same way as at Oxford. Your first action should be to read all of the included documentation to ensure you are happy with the terms you’re agreeing to.
From there, you’ll need to accept your offer via your UCAS account. You can select one of three options for the offer you have received:
- Accept as Firm Choice
- Accept as Insurance Choice
- Reject Offer
As with Oxford, it is strongly recommended that you select Cambridge as your Firm Choice, as there are few universities that have higher entry requirements than Cambridge.
You will also need to reply to the college that has admitted you, confirming your offer, for which each college will have a different procedure. For example, Christ’s College will provide a link to an Offer Reply Form within its offer email that must be completed.
Withdrawing Your Acceptance
If, for any reason, you change your mind and wish to reject your offer after accepting, you will need to follow the university procedures for having your application dismissed.
At Oxford, you will only have 14 calendar days from the time of accepting your offer to cancel. If you cancel within this period, you will be entitled to the return of any deposits you may have paid prior.
At Cambridge, you can cancel your application at any time before August 1st 2025. You will need to inform your college of this decision.
You will still be able to cancel your offer to either university after the set date, but the process will be much more complicated and may result in fines or banning from future consideration in future application cycles.
What To Do After Accepting Your Offer
Once you’ve accepted your offer, the only thing left to do now is to ensure you meet the terms of your offer. This means preparing for your final exams/coursework to achieve all required grades. Your offer to study at Oxbridge will not be confirmed until your results day when it will be confirmed if you met the terms or not.
If you’re applying to Mathematics and any joint courses at Cambridge, be aware that you will also need to complete the Sixth Term Examination Papers (STEP) as per the requirements of the course. You can learn more about this in our Mathematics Entry Requirements Guide.
Other than that, you may wish to start preparing for your time at university, and international applicants will typically have additional requirements to fulfil, which you can learn about here. Most importantly, be sure to take a moment to celebrate this achievement. Remember, only 16% of people successfully make it through this process, so you’ve proven yourself to be extremely capable and are now ready for your new life at Oxbridge!
We hope this guide has been helpful to you! If you didn’t get your offer, you can learn more about what to do next in our Oxbridge Rejection Guide. If you didn’t get in and are considering reapplying, discover how UniAdmissions can boost your chances of success through our comprehensive Oxbridge Preparation Programmes here.
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