Admissions Office staff receive UCAS forms, including the one from our sample applicant. All applicants are asked to complete an online supplementary questionnaire, which our applicant does.

The staff have been informed of the required academic qualifications of applicants to be referred to the School, in terms of both the subjects and type of qualification required, and the acceptable grades. These details can change from year-to-year and form a basic filter to reduce the numbers that are referred for further assessment.

Our applicant's college has predicted that she will obtain 4 A grades at A-level, and she holds 10 high grade GCSEs, with 7 A* grades, including sciences, mathematics and English language. She has clearly achieved well above the minimum standard for referal to the School as a potentially acceptable candidate.

Applicants that clearly do not meet the required standard of qualifications are filtered out. These applicants are reviewed by the School against Widening Participation criteria prior to rejection, so may be passed as suitable.

Applications that are acceptable are passed through to the School.