Cambridge Human, Social and Political Sciences (HSPS) Students and Applicants

Hello, I'm planning to apply to Cambridge this year and was hoping to apply to do PPS with a focus on psychology. Does anyone know if the new HSPS course is accredited by the British Psychological Society? If anyone knows I'd really appreciate your help!

Hello, I'm planning to apply to Cambridge this year and was hoping to apply to do PPS with a focus on psychology. Does anyone know if the new HSPS course is accredited by the British Psychological Society? If anyone knows I'd really appreciate your help!

I have studied AS levels in Biology, Chemistry and Physics and have taken my A2 Mathematics, I was thinking of reading Biology at university but I have become very interested in this HSPS course, primarily the Anthropology aspects, and also Psychology and Sociology. Do you think I am at a dissadvantage applying having not done an essay subject at A level?

Do you mean in the application process or generally in the course?

You'll probably be fine throughout the year if you think you can write essays- its not something which doing, say, history A Level will make you THAT much better, and you can hone this skill in the first term. If you didn't take an essay subject because you do not like writing essays or are not good at it- this is a different matter. They may look more closely at your GCSEs in english for this?

When i spoke to the arch and anth DoS (director or studies) about taking a bio anth paper, he was pretty adament that they do not require specific a levels such as biology or english because the course is too broad for any specific a levels to be usefull (here he was talking about Arch and Anth tripos... which is pretty similar in style to HSPS).

You would have to do the PBS (Psychology and behavioural sciences tripos) to do psychology in your fourth year.

http://www.hsps.cam.ac.uk/undergraduate/prospective/structure.html (HSPS course structure).

HSPS is pretty similar to PPS anyway, (lest that person keeps complaining that i don't think the triposes are different enough), apart from you take two non-psychology optional papers in your first year (instead of three)- however you take two more non-psychology optional papers in your second year. It looks like its built on PPS and improved it a lot for the psychology people.

Just made a thread for the PBS tripos.
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2061549

Thanks for your advice, I got A*s in my English and English lit GCSEs so am okay on that front. I was meaning the application process because on the website it states that most colleges want you to submit a school essay, I haven't had to write an essay doing the subjects I am doing so don't know what I'll be able to submit!

Hey guys,


To all those focusing mostly on the Politics & International Relations area of the course, what other courses are you looking to apply to? I was looking at similar politics courses at universities like Warwick, but with only AAB entry requirements is it perhaps not a sought-after course?

Well, I'll be applying for sure to LSE and Edinburgh for government/politics. It's hard to find such a degree like HSPC in other uni, so I'd look for ordinary politics courses, if not, it could be quite complicated to write a decent PS

I was thinking of applying to Government at LSE too, then maybe Politics at Warwick and Durham?


The thing I'm really worried about though is whether or not Politics is a strong enough degree for Management Consultancy at M/B/B or a BB Asset/Wealth Management grad scheme
Ideally, that's what I want to be doing when I graduate...so if Politics isn't strong enough I'll have to apply for PPE/Pol&Econ or even straight Economics...

Anyone have any idea about that?!

Hi guys,
I'm also applying! But, unfortunately, I'm having too much trouble choosing a college. First I thought Kings or Trinity due to their reputation, but now that I've researched Girton I totally like it!. The thing is that I currently on a "gap year" taking some international law courses while doing individual research, and the Girton website stated that they don't consider applicants already at university, so this let me down. Any help? thanks!

You do realise that Girton isn't in cambridge (well the city boundries of cambridge). It looks nice though :P

yeah, I know. I like the thing of doing some exercise, then I realize I won't have extra time for that when at Cambridge . Anyway, although King's adimission test is scary, I think I'll apply there. (Still undecided Trinity vs. King's)

Trinity is top in the league of best performing colleges, and it also has the most money (and cheapest rooms). You should have plenty of time, i'd say the main problem is that if you like to sleep in then you may find it more difficult, and most of all if you do intend to go clubbing then you have to get taxis back with friends (or try cycling drunk... bring a helmet).

about cycling drunk... isn't it sound exciting?

Hello! Depending on my results in two weeks time, I may apply for HSPS, however I'm a little confused about what to write about in my personal statement. I am interested in studying Egyptology/Assyriology a a first year subject, alongside Politics, IR and Sociology, but every other course I want to apply to is Politics/IR with european languages. Would I have to mention Egypotlogy/Assyrology by name in my personal statement an would it put me at a disadvantage if I spoke about European languages instead? Thank you in advance.


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I think, they can't expect us to write a personal statement about the whole HSPS subjects, because no other university offers something like that