Summer School (Gonville and Caius)

Thank you very much indeed for applying to this year's summer school at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. I am very sorry to have to tell you that we have not been able to offer you a place. I realise that you may be disappointed by this news and would like to take the opportunity to explain something about how we made our decisions.

We received an unexpectedly large number of applications for the summer school this year which means that we are in the difficult position of having to turn down a large number of extremely promising and very well-qualified students. This year, towards 600 students applied for the 100 summer school places available. Astonishingly, this means that application to the summer school was rather more competitive than application for an undergraduate degree for which there are, on average, only four applicants per place. Where individual schools have sent several summer school applicants it is likely that at least some of them will be disappointed. We had hoped that most schools would have at least one of their applicants admitted for the summer school, but even that has not quite been possible due to numbers.

The standard of applicant was universally high this year, and it is very important that those who are turned down are not discouraged from applying to the very best universities in the country. Failure to secure a summer school place carries no implication whatsoever that a student might not be accepted for an undergraduate degree here. Indeed, I should be delighted if many of this year's unsuccessful summer school applicants went on to apply to Cambridge and to Caius for an undergraduate degree, and I am sure that if they were to do so then some would be admitted. To emphasize, there is no doubt that many students whom we are turning down for a summer school
place have academic profiles and supporting references comparable with those of successful candidates for undergraduate study at Cambridge. I have written to the Head of Sixth Form at every school to have sent a summer school applicant expressing this same message.

Again, many thanks for your interest in Cambridge and Caius. Whilst we are unlikely to be able to provide detailed feedback on summer school applications, I should be pleased to answer any specific questions about application to Cambridge for undergraduate study. Details of the College
are available at http://www.cai.cam.ac.uk/ and details of all aspects of University admissions are available at http://www.cam.ac.uk/admissions/

I wish you the very best in your future studies and hope perhaps to meet you at an open day or admissions event later in the year.

Andrew Bell

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Dr Andrew Bell
Tutor for Admissions
Director of Studies in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic
Gonville and Caius College
Cambridge
CB2 1TA

tel: 01223 332440
fax: 01223 332456

can anyone else not open the four 0.3 KB attachements
if you can, is it anything important?