Same here! I don't know what to expect anymore :// 
Why is there such a significant delay? Many accounts already turned to PAO I'm sure over the last week. Don't know what to expect :(

[Edited by PhD Applicant on Feb 22, 2022]

Do we know statuses have changed? I thought it was only reapplicants so far 

Still under review here.
If it's anything like the LLM, no news is good news.

Received my rejection on Thursday, 3 working weeks after my interview. It was pretty disastrous so wasn't surprised. Good luck to everyone else!

It has been 12 weeks now. Should we assume those who haven’t heard back are on a waiting list (as per their website), or are admissions just running behind? 

Just got my rejection for PhD in Law. Wasn't interviewed. 

Just got my rejection for PhD in Law. Wasn't interviewed. 

Just got my rejection for PhD in Law. Wasn't interviewed. 

Did you receive an email or did your status change on the portal? 

It has been 12 weeks now. Should we assume those who haven’t heard back are on a waiting list (as per their website), or are admissions just running behind? 

[Edited by Gobbledygook on Feb 25, 2022]

I had my interview on Jan 17 but still under review. Does it mean I am on the waiting list? Do you guys know how many students' portal have turned to "PAO"?

I had mine the week after and still haven’t heard anything :( 

Update: my portal has just moved to PAO.
Can anyone help me with the next steps please? When will I find out about funding / college admission?  

Grats! Ive already posted about this (please scroll backwards to read), but I’ll provide some details here. 

First, re what happens next: Your application will first be approved by PAO (mainly verification checks) before your application is sent to the colleges once you receive the formal offer from them. If you set a first and second college preference, the first pref college will be forced to consider your application first. If you didn’t put any, they’ll generate a first pref for you by algorithm. It’s not overly transparent how the college review process works, but compared to undergrads, it seems far more based on who goes through first and filling some diversity quotas than the merit-based approach at undergrad (then again, their “top” candidates - whatever are the deciding factors for that -  tend to also get their offer before others, so i guess there is some level of merit to that as well here, in a sense). The first college that gets your application can either accept or reject you (the latter is usually because they’re full within your quota group). Some colleges have a ton more applications than others, so if you e,g. sent to Kings or Trinity, you should expect up to over a month before they get back to you. Others might be fast, but it rarely takes ess than a week. 

Funding is both related and unrelated to colllege, as it is allocated either from the colleges themselves, centrally, or from an external donor. The faculty will nominate their top picks for central funding, and it seems to usually only be whoever get their offers first who also got nominated (mostly because their internal nomination deadline is extremely early). In any case, you can ask the phd administrator whether you were nominated for the trust. the main central (and semi-external) funds that apply to law include the Trust itself, Gates and the DTP. Gates has already made its decisions next stages, so you should already know whether you went to the next round there or not. The DTP should also be calling for interviews, but I can’t remember how late this is - prob mid March, since they are supposed to announce by some time in April (mind you, the DTP has historically not been overly interested in law PhDs, so they seem to usually only give to 0-1 per year).

The last central option is the Trust. Cambridge applicants can keep track on how the Trust funds are allocated here: https://www.cambridgetrust.org/scholars/awards/ 



All Trust funds (i.e. central funding) will be named here in due time, but they only update the name of the awardees every 1-2 weeks or so, meaning people will be informed in-between. 



For the law phd, there are not too many trust scholarships under central funding. First, there is the cambridge international scholarship, which tends to be among the first scholarships that are announced - usually by the first half of march, but it might be a week delayed now due to the strike. 



On average, the cambridge international scholarship seems to award to a number between 4-8 law PhDs/year - many of whom also get other funds. There’s also a trust fund that allocates you to go to sydney sussex college, which should have 2 spots. In practice, it seems to usually go jointly to international scholarship holders, so it does not actually increase the 4-8 number above. Last there are the vice chancellors award for UK students (no idea what the chances are for this one, as I have no idea how many UK students are applying) and some other country-specific ones (especially Aus, NZ and SA - you can check for country-specific scholarships on the trust pages linked to above). Some of these country-specific ones might have independent procedures, in which case they should contact you if you’re eligible. There is also the general Rowan Williams Scholarship that applies to every discipline, which requires you to be from a zone of conflict (i believe they should be able to contact you if you’re eligible for that -  most applicants aren’t).



College-specific scholarships usually have an official date of announcement, so you can find those that apply to you yourself by checking the relevant college pages to get an approx. idea when you should hear from them. A fair few of the college funds require a separate application deadline and commonly also that you put them as your first preference when you applied back in December. Most of the application deadlines are already long gone. Some colleges only open for scholarships for those who have already been allocated to their college, in which case you will get an email from them once you’re in. Some examples include Trinity Hall and Wolfson (I believe the former requires you to have been accepted by the college by a certain date in mid march or so to be eligible)p, hence the emphasis on choosing first pref colleges wisely). The most significant law-specific phd college scholarships that would fully fund you would be from Caius, followed by St Johs and Trinity, i think (but my overview is hazy at this point). Most other college scholarships are more generalist and thus also less likely to choose law over e.g. STEM or history (they really  like funding history PhDs over law it seems

Last, there are the fully external ones: chevening, country scholarships, cambridge law review (and other specific ones typically advertised by the faculty, e.g. Maintland for legal history), etc. I guess they’ll also have some form of information page stating when applicants can expect to hear back from them if you applied to any. The faculty itself does not offer anything from what I know, unlike the case with various LLM bursaries.

[Edited by Gobbledygook on Mar 03, 2022]

I haven’t received any communication from Cambridge since I submitted in December. I am unsure what to make of that. Is anyone on the same boat? Do you know of anyone who faced a similar situation last year? For a bit of context I am an international student and I haven’t applied for funding. Best. 

Thank you so much for the very detailed explanation of funding! I really appreciate it. 

Hey! All those who are still stuck on 'under review', have any of you approached the admissions office? Any idea by when are we likely to hear some news?

Hey! All those who are still stuck on 'under review', have any of you approached the admissions office? Any idea by when are we likely to hear some news?

[Edited by Gobbledygook on Mar 14, 2022]

Hey! All those who are still stuck on 'under review', have any of you approached the admissions office? Any idea by when are we likely to hear some news?

Ah my college membership has just been updated to unsuccessful at Caius, which obviously does not bode well for my WM Tapp application. Chances running high that I'll end up without funding again.

Hey! All those who are still stuck on 'under review', have any of you approached the admissions office? Any idea by when are we likely to hear some news?

Hi, was wondering whether you managed to get some answers from admissions regarding your status?

[Edited by Amanda1025 on Mar 15, 2022]