Cambridge University - german and Italian (ab initio)

Hey!

I have never known what I've wanted to do in terms of uni or even if uni was for me at all! But in the past few months I really think I've worked out what I want to do in life and I know that I want to take german as far as I can and my dream is to now go to Cambridge University.

So now I'm in the process of doing extra reading and writing my personal statement and I've read examples of personal statements for german and I've seen that a lot of people have been able to say that they've done exchanges and done the uniq programme for german and lots of things they've been involved in to show extra interest. However due to house size I was not able to do the exchange although I really wanted to and since I wasn't even sure that university was for me, I also haven't done any taster classes or applied for programmes for german and now it's too late.

My problem is that german is my greatest passion and my spend my whole life speaking and thinking in german so the interest is definitely there but I feel like I have no way to prove this on my personal statement. In September I will be running german society in my college and I am planning to organise a talk with a professor as part of that, however by that point I would have had to have written and submitted my personal statement so that it can be checked (my college has separate deadlines).

Does anyone have any ideas of what I can do for my personal statement to show and prove how interested I am and how much I love the subject? Or know of any programmes to do with German or languages that I can take part in in year 13?

If anyone has any recommendations for extra reading for german or any areas of culture for the Italian side I'd also really appreciate it!

Thanks,
Hannah :smile:

Reply 1

Snufkin

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by H4nn4h_R

Cambridge aren't interested in your extracurricular activities, and they certainly won't care that you haven't been on a study exchange. They want to know about your academic interests and what you have done to extend your knowledge of your chosen subjects outside of school (e.g. books you've read, lectures you've been to/watched online, films you've watched, radio programmes you've listened to etc- and crucially, what you thought of them).

Have a look in the University of Cambridge forum, there is so much information there. Also look in this thread, it might be old but there's years of good advice to be found in it: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=503974&page=104

I'll tag in @Saracen's Fez as he will know a lot more about the application process than me.