| SHORTLIST | Names of the most promising applicants for a job, selected for further consideration (9) |
| SCREEN | Interview applicants for a job to test for illness, etc (6) |
| CANDIDATE | Applicant for a job (9) |
| PICKMEUPS | Cry from an eager applicant for a delivery job? |
| CONTENDER | Applicant (for a post) (9) |
| SCREENING | Checking on applicants for the film showing? (9) |
| RETHOUGHT | Gave further consideration to how badly he got hurt (9) |
| CLAIMANTS | Applicants (for state benefits, eg) (9) |
| BRIGHTEST | Principal accommodating claim that's most promising (9) |
| GUESTLIST | Written-down names of the people invited to an event: 2 wds. |
| JOBSEEKER | Applicant for role of jester around British court? |
| ECONMAJOR | Many a Wharton applicant, for short |
| ROCKSTARS | Original tracks covered by most promising musicians (4,5) |
| THERAPOD | The name of the most diverse group of saurischian ("lizard-hipped") dinosaurs, ranging from the crow-sized Microraptor to the huge Tyrannosaurus rex. |
| EVELYN | One of the first names of the author of Decline and Fall, A Handful of Dust and Brideshead Revisited |
| INNS | From "dwellings, lodgings", an old word for students' halls that is preserved in the names of the buildings of four legal societies with exclusive right of calling people to the English bar; or, pubs |
| NYLON | Name, thought by some to derive from the combined names of the Big Apple and Square Mile, of a synthetic polymer; or, a sheer stocking made of this (5) |
| APOGEE | Name of the most distant point of an orbit from the earth (6) |
| PSYCHOMETRIC | Kind of tests used in assessing job applicants, for example (12) |
| YES | Reply to roughly 3.6% of Harvard applicants for the 2028 class |
