For students and parents · Year 12 summer to October
Choosing an Oxford or Cambridge college
At Oxford and Cambridge you apply to a college as well as a course, but the choice matters less than people fear: you can make an open application instead of naming one, and both universities move strong applicants between colleges. Pick on things that affect daily life, such as size, location and accommodation, and whether the college takes your course.
What is a college?
A college is where you live, eat and have much of your small-group teaching, and the university sets the courses, the lectures and the exams. Oxford has 39 colleges and four permanent private halls, and Cambridge has 31 colleges, 29 of which take undergraduates.
Not every college takes every course, so check the list for your subject first. At Cambridge three colleges, Hughes Hall, St Edmund’s and Wolfson, take only mature students, and two, Murray Edwards and Newnham, are for women.
How much does the choice matter?
Less than it seems from the outside. At Oxford you can name a college or make an open application, and Oxford says around a third of successful applicants receive an offer from a college they did not specify, because applications are shared out so that strong applicants are not lost to a busy college.
At Cambridge an open application is allocated to a college for you. Cambridge also has the winter pool: a college that is impressed by an application but has no place for it can pool it so that other colleges can consider it.
The winter pool is a second chance rather than a promise. Cambridge says around 18% of applications made in October 2025 were pooled, and in January 2026 about 1 in 4 of the pooled applicants received an offer from a different college, so most pooled applicants were not made one.
How do you choose one?
Start with the colleges that take your course, then look at the things you will notice every day: how big it is, how far it is from your department and the centre, what the accommodation is like and for how many years it is offered, and whether it has anything particular you care about, from a library to a sport.
If nothing stands out after that, an open application is a reasonable choice. It does not count against you, and it saves time for the parts of the application that matter more, the personal statement, the admissions test and the interview.
Where to check
- Oxford: what are the colleges
- Cambridge: choosing a college
- Cambridge explained
- Cambridge: application decisions and the winter pool
Checked against these on . The rules change from year to year, so the pages above are the ones to trust if anything here disagrees with them. cookie is not connected to the University of Oxford or the University of Cambridge.
Common questions
Does your college choice affect your chances at Oxford or Cambridge?
Not much. Oxford says around a third of successful applicants get an offer from a college they did not name, and Cambridge’s winter pool lets other colleges consider applicants their first college had no room for.
What is an open application?
An application that does not name a college. Cambridge allocates it to a college for you. Oxford accepts open applications too, and says around a third of successful applicants get an offer from a college they did not name.
What is the Cambridge winter pool?
A way for a college that likes an application but has no place for it to let other colleges consider it. In January 2026 about 1 in 4 pooled applicants received an offer from a different college.
How many colleges do Oxford and Cambridge have?
Oxford has 39 colleges and four permanent private halls. Cambridge has 31 colleges, 29 of which take undergraduates.