Should I reapply for next year?

You could have a gap year, which I believe most people should have. But, since your course is very mathematical I wouldn’t recommend taking a gap year and I would go to imperial.

Imperial is one of the best in the world; debatably better than Cambridge for computer science. If you look at graduate salaries, imperials is very similar to Cambridge’s (if that’s what you care about). I hope to join you at imperial this year 😁.

Good luck with your Imperial decision! I'm sure you'll get in. I'm not too worried about salaries to be honest - it was just reputation and the course modules themselves. Also on that point on the course being mathematical and you not recommending me to take a gap year, might I ask why? Someone applied for General Engineering to Imperial and Cambridge last year and got rejected from both. Said person reapplied with our cohort after taking a gap year and is now boasting offers from Pembroke College Cambridge (the same college he applied to the first time round) for Engineering and Imperial for General Engineering as well.

What course did you apply for?

Hi everyone,

So I got rejected from Gonville and Caius college at the University of Cambridge for Computer Science. They didn't give me a specific reason on the rejection email (as per usual) but I knew for sure that it was the admissions test.

In the room that the admissions test was taking place, there were 7 other admissions tests in the same room. I was sat at the back of the room and the end timings were presented in a tabular format. I saw the wrong end timing which meant that for the first paper, I thought I had 15 minutes more than I actually did. This messed up with my timings and since I saw that I was working through the test extremely quickly, I wanted to pace myself more so that I don't make any stupid mistakes. The test wasn't even that hard and I had workings out which led to answers that matched the options for each of the questions but timing screwed me over because it meant that I only got half of my answers down on my answer sheet in the allotted time even though I had all of my answers in the question paper.

I have offers from the following places:

Imperial: A*AAA and Grade 2 in STEP II
Edinburgh: 3 A*s
Manchester: 3 A*s

Waiting on:
Durham (but anticipating the offer).


My GCSEs: 9999999988
My A levels: Maths, Further Maths, Computer Science, Chemistry and EPQ (5 A* predictions).


If I do well in my A levels, do you think it's worth me reapplying? I'm happy with Imperial but I really wanted to go to Cambridge too! I understand that there is a risk that I don't get the offer next year and that I will have basically given up a year but it's an opportunity I don't want to regret later on. I will be doing loads of cool projects and internships now that I will have more free time so that I can add and change stuff to my personal statement. I will also do loads of admissions test and interview practice to ensure that I stand out from the crowd. I think that this year destroyed me because of what happened in the admissions test. At least, if I don't get in next year, I will be content with the thought that I gave it a fair shot but I wasn't good enough and that I didn't submit some awful admissions test score that was down to me fumbling the wrong admissions test timing.

Let me know what you think. Options:

1) Be content with Imperial (which I am) and go for it.

2) Reapply for 2025 entry in the hope that you will get into Cambridge.

Why bother? It’s a whole lot of extra effort and a year’s delay to higher education and there’s still no guarantee you get in plus you imperil your Imperial offer. I mean I got rejected from Oxford with 83 in mat and an 8.0 TMUA and decent interviews - so admissions test improvement isn’t a guarantee of anything. Be happy with your Imperial offer! (Ps I’ve got an offer for JMC there and probably gonna firm it)