university of cambridge admissions

The complete admissions process from deciding upon a course to the final outcome of your application.
hoosing a course Choosing a College (or open application) Deferred entry Mature and affiliated students Students at other UK universities Application deadlines How to apply What happens next? Invitation to interview After the interview The final stage
Choosing a course: If think you would like to apply to Cambridge, the first thing to do is to choose the course you want to study. Details of what’s involved in each course can be found in our courses section. You’ll need to check that you are studying the right subjects and have, or are likely to achieve, the right grades for your chosen subject.
See entrance requirements for general guidance and details of course specific requirements.
Choosing a College: Once you've decided we offer a course that you would like to study, you need to consider College choice. You can choose a College yourself or you can make an 'open' application and accept the allocation made by a computer. In either case, your UCAS application will be sent to a College, and that College will assess it.
See choosing a College in the Colleges section for further advice on choosing a College or making an open application.
Deferred entry: About one in five students coming to Cambridge take a gap year before starting their studies. This year out proves a very useful time in which to improve skills, earn money, travel and generally gain maturity and self-reliance.
You should state on your UCAS application if you wish to defer entry. You’ll probably be asked about your plans at interview, so be prepared to talk about your year out.
If you are applying for Mathematics the Colleges have a preference for immediate entry. However, if you are applying for Engineering, many Colleges generally prefer applicants to take a year out, to gain some industrial experience. Please note that it is not possible to defer entry for the Graduate Course in Medicine.
Mature and affiliated students: If you will be 21 or over by 1 October in the year in which you hope to come to Cambridge, and have not previously completed a course of higher education, then your application will be treated as that of a mature student. If you are a graduate with an approved degree from another university, you can apply to take a undergraduate course at Cambridge as an affiliated student.
See the mature and affiliated students section for
Students at other UK universities: Please note that the Cambridge Colleges will not normally, as a matter of principle, consider applications from students attending other UK universities applying to study the same or a very similar subject at Cambridge.
If you wish to make such an application it will have to be strongly supported by your tutor at your current university. A reference or letter of recommendation from him/her to the Cambridge College will be required, and only then can a Cambridge College consider it.
If you wish to apply to Cambridge to read a different subject from the one you are currently studying at a UK university, we would assume that you had had a change of heart and no longer wish to study the subject you are currently pursuing. In this case your application would be considered, but would still need strong support from your current university tutor.
If you are in the final year of a Bachelors degree at another UK university you are, of course, welcome to apply for admission as an affiliated student (see above).
Application deadlines: The application process for Cambridge (as at Oxford) starts earlier than other universities. Your UCAS application must be submitted by 15 October 2009 for entry in 2010 (or for deferred entry in 2011) so that we have time to arrange the interview process. UCAS will accept applications from 1 September 2009.
Applications for Organ Scholarships must be received by 1 September 2009, and for some Choral Awards by 5 September 2009, although your UCAS application does not need to be submitted until 15 October.
International students wishing to be interviewed outside the UK must apply by 20 September 2009.
For more information see dates and deadlines.
How to apply: To apply to Cambridge, you will need to submit an application to the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS). Once received, your application will be forwarded to a Cambridge College for consideration.
Application forms: Applicants from the UK and EU for 2010 entry (or deferred entry in 2011) need to submit a UCAS application in order to apply to Cambridge.
If you are applying from outside the EU, you will need to submit a Cambridge Overseas Application Form (COAF) in addition to your UCAS application. The COAF together with comprehensive instructions is available from any Cambridge College, the Cambridge Admissions Office, and as a PDF download (above).
Please remember that the deadline for the UCAS application (and the Cambridge Overseas Application Form where appropriate) is the 15 October 2009. There is an earlier deadline for applicants wishing to be interviewed overseas (see applying from overseas).
Applying to UCAS:Applications to UCAS are made online using their web-based application package, 'Apply' (www.ucas.ac.uk/apply/). On your UCAS application you need to include the institution code for the university to which you wish to apply. The institution code for the University of Cambridge is CAM C05. You must also enter a ‘campus’ code in the ‘choices’ section of your application. For an open application you should enter ‘9’. For College UCAS campus codes, look at the factfile of the College in which you are interested, in the Colleges section.
You will be able to keep up-to-date with the progress of your application at anytime by logging on to ‘UCAS Track’ on the UCAS website. Your school or college will be able to advise you about the application process and should have copies of all the materials you will need. If you have left school or college or are a resident abroad you should contact UCAS for more information:
UCASRosehill New Barn Lane Cheltenham GL52 3LZ Telephone: 01242 222444/01242 544942 Email: enquiries@ucas.ac.ukwww.ucas.ac.uk
What happens next?: Shortly after submitting your UCAS application, you will be asked to provide additional information through the online Supplementary Application Questionnaire (SAQ). See the SAQ section for details and guidance on completing the SAQ.
Open applications are allocated to Colleges as soon as possible after the closing date. If you sumbitted an Open application you will shortly hear from the College that you have been allocated to.
You may asked to provide examples of your academic work before interview. If you have taken the BMAT or the LNAT, the results will be available to interviewers. Other applicants may be asked to take the Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA) or a short subject-based test when they come for interview.
See admissions tests and written work for more details.
Invitation to interview: Interviews form an important part of our selection procedure. We will review the gathered field and consider each applicant's individual circumstances before deciding who to invite to interview. We try to interview all applicants with a realistic chance of being offered a place on their chosen course at Cambridge. If you have a good examination record and a favourable reference, you are likely to be asked to attend an interview. Owing to the level of competition for places, there will, however, be applicants each year who will not be interviewed.
Most interviews take place in the first three weeks of December (though some may be earlier) so it's best not to make any unbreakable commitments for this period.
Applicants at schools outside Europe may be considered for interview in their own country or in a neighbouring country if they apply by the appropriate deadline. Where this possibility is not available their application will be carefully reviewed in other ways, sometimes without interview.
See the interviews section for a detailed guide and resources on what to expect at admissions interviews
After the interview
After the interview: there are three possible outcomes (as illustrated):
1:You are made an offer: Applicants who have already gained the qualifications required for entry may be made an unconditional offer, while those applicants who are still studying for qualifications for entry are usually made an offer conditional on achieving certain grades in these qualifications.
2:Your application is ‘pooled’: It may be that your College, although impressed by your application, doesn’t have a place for you, or may wish to look at applicants to other Colleges before confirming its last offers. In such cases your application is ‘pooled’. The winter pool, held in January, is designed to ensure that the best applicants are offered places whichever College they applied to. All Colleges can come to consider pooled applicants. Directors of Studies in each subject have met during the interview period to discuss the overall standard of applications, so that they can see by January how their own College's applicants compareIf your application is pooled, you may be asked to attend a further interview at another College or you may be offered a place without a further interview. If you are asked to come to another interview it will be held in early January. There is some flexibility over the timing of these interviews to allow for AS/A level module assessments also held at this time. Around one in six applicants are pooled, and of these, around one in five receives an offer of a place. If your application is pooled, but no College is able to offer you a place, you will hear from the College you applied to, normally by the end of January. For more information read our Undergraduate Guide to the Winter Pool.
3:Your application is unsuccessful: On average Cambridge receives around four applications for every place, so inevitably many applicants, even with good grade predictions, will be unsuccessful. Disappointing though this is, we hope you’ll have found it a useful experience. All Colleges provide, on request, feedback on unsuccessful applicants to the author of the school/college reference (the referee) or the Head or Principal of the school/college, provided that the applicant has given permission under the Data Protection Act. See feedback on admissions decisions for details
.The final stage The final stage If you are offered a place, you will be informed by the College and through UCAS. You must reply, observing UCAS requirements and deadlines. If you accept Cambridge ‘firmly’ you must meet the conditions of your offer (if your offer had conditions attached) by the deadline set by UCAS. In a few cases, applicants who have not quite met the conditions of their offer may still be offered a place, either at their original College, or at another College as a result of a small ‘summer pool’.
The University of Cambridge does not normally enter Clearing nor will places be available in the August 2009 adjustment period. If your A level results turn out to be much better than you expected and you decide that you wish to try for a place at Cambridge, you’ll need to apply in the following year’s application process.