The overall number of undergraduate applications to Cambridge fell this year, despite a rise in applications to the most popular Colleges.

Application statistics for the 2015 cycle have revealed that the University as a whole is still hugely over-subscribed, with 16,416 applicants vying for 4,250 offered places. In 2014, 16,725 applications were received, over three hundred more than this year, with 3,558 offers eventually accepted.

Statistically, though, it was almost just as difficult to earn a place in 2015 as in the previous year: last year’s success rate of 25% increased by just one percentage point.

The most popular Colleges bucked the downward trend, however, with King’s, the most over-subscribed, receiving even more applications than last year. The College turned away nearly 1,000 applicants, after 1,156 fought it out for just 165 offered places.

Trinity was also in high demand, offering just 239 of its 995 applicants a place.

St. John’s, Clare and Christ’s received 885, 849 and 807 applications respectively, making them the next most popular College choices.

Incoming first-year students Leo Paillard, Jess Plumbridge and Yuchen Caroline Zhu told Varsity why they were among those choosing to study at King’s, citing its “grandiose”, “beautiful” and “magnificent” architecture and appearance as reasons for applying.

Plumbridge even commented that “whenever I picture Cambridge, I think of King’s”, summarising the aesthetic aspect of the unrivalled popularity of the College for many.

Three of those drawn to Trinity this year also told Varsity why they chose their College in particular: Agustin Ferrari Braun was attracted by its academic excellence, Maciek Kwasigroch liked the larger size of the College, and Rebecca Hughes was “impressed with the approachable nature of both the students and the fellows”.

Subjects such as Natural Sciences held their own, in spite of the overall decline in numbers: 3,038 applied and 719 were made offers, equating to over three rejections per successful application, the same success rate as in 2014. Engineering was also a popular choice, with 2,085 applications and just 377 offers. Mathematics, Medicine and Economics were also in high demand this year.

The top five subjects remain unchanged from the 2014 cycle.

Although the reason for the fall in applicant numbers is unclear, subjects such as Education, Veterinary Medicine and Philosophy have been hit the hardest, seeing steep declines of 29%, 28% and 14% respectively in the number of applicants.

A University spokesman gave the Cambridge News his viewpoint on the figures.

“There are fluctuations in the number of people that apply which can be for any number of reasons”, he indicated.

“The key thing for us is we are getting the right people applying, not the sheer quantity.”

The spokesman also pointed out that the number of applicants last year was the exception rather than the norm.

“You only have to go back to the 2013 cycle to see despite this small drop this year, applications are still higher than they were two years ago,” he said.

Time will tell whether acceptance rates fell; the figures are released next month.