is this e-mail formal enough for the university of cambrudge?

You'll never know nor care how nice a person I can be because you'd never get close enough to my trust to find out.

Is it REALLY mean of me to point out the errors in a Cambridge hopeful's post? No. There are 7 billion people in this world and only a small percentage end up studying at the University of Cambridge. In an ideal world, law applicants in particular should be stunning examples of verbal dexterity. I realise that it's not an ideal world and that plodding dullhards who don't have a great grasp of English end up at the University of Cambridge as well. But it's not my business to encourage them and I would hope it wouldn't be the University of Cambridge's.

If you think that it is somehow more fair to encourage people who admit that they don't even have a good grasp of grammar to study law at Cambridge then I suggest that you are more likely to be one of the following:

1) an ex , current or prospective student who got in a similarly highly regarded course at university and who also doesn't have full confidence in their grammar.

2) someone who has nothing in common with top universities and 'hard to get in to' subjects.

Why do you propose that I should be particularly soft on international students who take up places that could rightly go to top scoring British or American students who might have a far greater grasp of the intrinsic tool that a law course in the UK relies upon- command of the English language?

Effective and accurate critique is now "mean". ?????

Oh well then I don't care for the University of Cambridge these days (although its architecture is very fine).

But I argue that a student can't argue to the fullness that logic COULD allow if they don't understand the logic of the English language. if they ever end up representing someone in court, they could partly be relying on the cuddliness of their accent to get them by!

I can see others are pitching in with corrections. On a separate note, you should probably include the degree you are considering. Are you asking about their undergraduate degree in law? This is called a 'BA in Jurisprudence'.

Also, you should be aware that a law degree at an English university will require very good English, especially Cambridge. If you feel your grammar could be better, it might be worth putting some time in now to improve your writing.

Camb-Cambrudge

No but really, you need to fix the English in that letter, it's awfully written. You need proper sentences and to sort out your spelling.

You can't even spell 'Cambridge' correctly in your topic post. You said 'you entrance requirement' instead of 'your entrance requirements'. You accidentally dissed them by not capitalising. (you should have said University of Cambridge, not 'university of Cambridge' - you could be talking about any university in Cambridge e.g. Anglia Ruskin with the latter).

'baccaulaureate' is a slight misspelling - it should be 'Baccalaureate'.

You put 'british univerisity' instead of 'British university'.

'algerian' should have been capitalised as 'Algerian'.

It's not 'the Cambridge university', it's 'Cambridge University' (or more usually for the last 20 years or so, the University of Cambridge').

'thank you' should be capitalised as 'Thank you' instead.

'sincerly' should be 'sincerely'.

Your spelling is a shambles. If you get in Cambridge partly thanks to our help then it proves that there is no God.

okay as I was always taught to see the positive side of everything I will just thank you for all those corrections, they were very useful
and I want to add that I am aiming to undertake a preparation year to improve my english
Good evening = )

I am tempted to say if a candidate can not compose a forum post in coherent English they may struggle studying Law at Cambrudge (sic).

Here's my best shot, OP :



Subject: Undergraduate application to Law at Cambridge

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am currently an Algerian student in the process of taking my final Baccalaureate exams in my last year of high school. I am considering making an application to the University of Cambridge's faculty of Law for a BA degree and I would be very grateful if you could inform me what grades I will need to attain in these examinations in order to make my application competitive.
Thank you in advance for the time taken to answer this query.

Yours Sincerely,

{name}

you're probably right but I've already booked for a preparation year (english only)
I just want to say that english is my forth laguage after arabic french and spanish,
I hope you guys can understand the difficulty of learning a foreign language,
thanks for your advice though

Haha I know, I wasn't being all that serious. He might still want to look out for it though, I can't imagine anything worse than spelling the name of the uni I want to go to wrong

Don't let the negative comments get you down. With hard work you can definitely get your English up to par for the course you want to do.

Good luck!

I didn't check the post before publishing it, don't worry I do know how to spell Cambridge correcty

Not at Cambridge - it's a "BA Law". I suspect you're thinking of Oxford.

this seems perfect, thanks a lot

Oh well then I don't care for the University of Cambridge these days (although its architecture is very fine).

But I argue that a student can't argue to the fullness that logic COULD allow if they don't understand the logic of the English language. if they ever end up representing someone in court, they could partly be relying on the cuddliness of their accent to get them by!

Algeria: School leaving qualifications would not be sufficient for candidates to make a competitive application (see note).