Cambridge Postgraduate Application FAQs Thread

Steps and timelines:
If you're looking to understand the steps and rough timelines for each step in the admission process, [you can visit University of Cambridge's postgraduate admissions website where there is a link to "Application process" and "What happens next?"]. Note that the timelines on this page aren't 100% accurate during the pandemic: we have evidence from certain individuals that the PAO stage has taken up to 4 weeks in some cases, and not the "approximately ten days" this page suggests. Directionally speaking, however, this page is a great place to start.


GAO and PAO
There is no difference between them. None. If your status happened to change from GAO to PAO (or even vice versa), it's likely because some back-end person realised it was high time to start using a single term consistently. That's all.

Funding (Sources and Rankings)
Scholarships / funding can be given out through by various sources. The ones that come up here most often are the Cambridge Trust, the individual colleges at Cambridge and the UKRI councils. For these three sources, your department (e.g. Dept of French) essentially ranks you against other applicants; those department rankings are then used to establish a ranking at the Faculty level (e.g., Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics for the Dept of French) that is then sent to these funding bodies, along with any additional material that might be appropriate (e.g. transcripts; any scholarship-relevant material in your university application). These bodies then use all of this information to allocate their scholarships. Note: some departments might be willing to tell you how high they ranked you for funding purposes. The information might give you some comfort - but it's really quite useless, as the dept will likely not know what rank the overall Faculty ended up giving you, and the funding bodies take a whole bunch of other criteria into account other than just rank.

Funding (Timing)
The Cambridge Trust and individual colleges announce their results progressively between late March and mid-July; the UKRI councils all have their own timings that are available on their websites (AHRC is in April, for instance). There's nothing you can do to influence that timing.

Funding (College-specific scholarships)
Some scholarships from individual colleges are only available if you opted for that college as your first choice. The information is available in the small print of each scholarship. If you only realized after applying that you could have theoretically obtained a scholarship from a college if you had selected it as your first choice, that's unfortunate, but there isn't anything you can do about it.

Funding (Stats)
If you're looking for stats on scholarships, [you can visit the University of Cambridge's postgraduate admissions website, click on "How to apply for funding?" and then under the "What are my chances" section], it has stats available for the past couple of years; the rest of the page is pretty useful too. That's all there is really. The rest is conjecture and anecdote.

College membership
You may not get your 1st choice of college anyway. People here have got their 1st choice, their 2nd choice, their 3rd choice, and sometimes have been given a random college that wasn't in any of their choices. How each college chooses its students isn't super transparent - but generally depends (a bit) on your academic background and (a lot) on the kind of diversity (subject-based, gender-based, ethnicity-based, graduate vs postgraduate, etc) that that college is trying to establish. Whichever college you get, take a deep breath and relax: you only get a college once you have an offer, so that means you have got into Cambridge! Congratulations! Isn't that the bigger picture?

Random email sent by Cambridge
Many of us got this random email from Cambridge on February 26 ("Update from Cambridge University Admissions Office"). It's poorly worded and misleading but here are the takeaways: (a) the email contains no information whatsoever on your application specifically - only the application portal and / or any specific updates you receive via email about your application matter in this regard; (b) they've linked to an offer booklet PDF in that email; if you end up receiving an offer, maybe just go back to this PDF and read it, as it likely contains answers to the questions you're asking yourself at that stage. That's all - other than that, you can pretty much ignore the email. PS - And if you DIDN'T receive the email, no FOMO please - it's a pretty useless email and you can do without it really.

OMG OMG OMG. I haven't heard back. What can I do? Does this mean I'm out ? Woe is me. The anxiety. The angst. The panic. OMG OMG OMG.

Things will take the time they need to take. Sometimes that feels slow. The pandemic isn't helping either. But mailing your dept tutor and / or some rando's email address at Admissions or General Administration to request updates is likely not going to get you any further in the line. Rest assured, the uni hasn't forgotten your candidacy. If you haven't heard back, it's because they're struggling to clear backlog and for whatever reason, some applications are just quicker to clear than others. You'll hear back eventually - even though it might be later than some people (and earlier than others) for reasons no one can really know. Trying to second-guess those reasons (is it taking more time because you're an international student vs a UK student? Part-time vs full-time? Is it because your dept was slow in its paperwork? Because you wore green to graduation?) is going to be an exercise in futility. Take a chill pill. Focus on what you CAN control (the application and the interview - that's it, really). Have a glass of wine. Do some yoga. Breathe. Maybe connect to this thread less often. And it'll all work out in the end.