how do I make my application more competitive for Computing at Imperial (+ cambridge)

I'm currently in Year 12 and got AACC in Maths, Biology, Computing and Further Maths respectively in my Year 12 mid-year mocks. I am going to drop Biology and I am willing to work hard to raise these grades to get predicted A*A*A* in my end of year mocks.

For my GCSE's, I got 99888888777 (the 7's in Further Maths as it was half self taught, English Literature and Art)

I'm aware that these universities are extremely competitive, especially for the Computing course, but I really want to work to put the effort in. I am planning to do a programming project, a programming competition and an NEA on artificial intelligence and do some wider reading. I'm not sure what else I can do.

I have a couple questions:
- Does not taking Physics weaken my application as most applicants take Maths, FM, Physics, Computing whereas I will only take Maths, FM and Computing?
- How else can I make my application more competitive?
- Are my GCSE results too weak to get into top universities like Imperial and Cambridge?
- What other Russel group universities have just as good course and job prospects, but are less competitive/have a lower grade requirement?

I got rejected from Cambridge pre-interview due to an unfortunate series of events but had things worked out as intended, I would have secured an interview at the very least (I looked at the wrong end timing for my admissions test and so I only managed to get half of my answers on the answer sheet even though I finished the whole paper in the question paper with workings out. I slowed down during the first paper because I worked through the first 8 questions in like 10 minutes, which eventually cost me.).

However, I have an offer from Imperial so I think I can answer your question.

- Does not taking Physics weaken my application as most applicants take Maths, FM, Physics, Computing whereas I will only take Maths, FM and Computing?

My A levels: Maths, Further Maths, Chemistry, Computer Science and EPQ (5 A* predicted)
My GCSEs: 9999999988 with the 8s in English Literature and RS.

Not taking Physics will not lower your chances of getting in. I do Maths, Further Maths, Chemistry, Computing and EPQ (which is a dissertation concerning the ethical concerns around artificial intelligence and machine learning in industry.) I was considering doing an artefact but given I'm already doing an NEA and I have 4 A levels, I didn't think I would be able to pull it off in time before my school's internal deadline. If you don't meet the internal deadline, this will reflect in your results. My friend is also applying for CS with 4 + EPQ and he chose to do an artefact - worst mistake of his life. He's still doing the artefact and the internal deadline was the 26th of Jan so he's going to be docked a lot of marks.

You really need to hit an A* in Maths at the very least. I mean, at most, if not all, top universities, they require it as a minimum so make sure you hit that mark. The other 2 realistically should be at least one A star and one A to put yourself in with a decent chance at Cambridge and Imperial.

The Imperial website says the lists of recommended subjects and preferred subjects and as far as A levels go, all of your subjects are on the recommended subjects list so you have nothing to worry about. Doing 3 A levels won't really disadvantage you too much so long as they link well to your course. It will only mean that your grade requirements will be higher if you get the offer. I think it's 3 A stars for 3 A level people with the STEP requirement whereas I think it's 2 A*s 2 As for people doing 4 with the STEP requirement.

This has increased from when I applied this year for 2024 entry. It used to be 2 A*s A for applicants with 3 and then one A star 3As for applicants with four (which is what my offer is). Both have the STEP requirement which can vary and is up to their discretion as to what they offer you. Standard is grade 2 in STEP II, which is what I have.

- How else can I make my application more competitive?
Projects - make sure it is something complex beyond A level standard and interests you. You need to show them that you are actually interested and proactive to do things rather than just doing things for the sake of your application. In my personal statement, I did an industry-standard project for a client who I got in touch with through the company I did my work experience with. It was a machine learning bot that predicts the price of a stock in the market using available data and also sends out an email to users on a mailing list if there has been a significant increase or decrease in the value of a given stock. I talk about how it was the application and problem solving elements that drove me to take up computing in my personal statement so this links in really well. I also did loads of smaller scale projects like games and other cool things after completing free online courses, which I recommend you do.

I would recommend attending the Imperial Future Computing taster course. Registration ends sometime in May but I would sign up as soon as I can as it is quite popular.

I did two bouts of work experience: an in person one for a cybersecurity firm and a virtual one on springpod.com for the FujitsuX cybersecurity team. I could have done the software engineering one for JP Morgan Chase on theforage.com but then decided that I've already done one virtual one and it wouldn't be worthwhile my time.

I started the school's CS society and I am an avid member of the school's maths society.

The AMSP does a problem solving course so it may be worth looking into that.

Essay competitions - if you aren't doing EPQ, a good way to show wider reading would be through doing essay competitions. There are many that take place and if I remember correctly, I only started looking into them at this time of the year. I entered three and one of my entries for one of the competitions was shortlisted in the top 10 in a competition where there were over 10k entries.

Maths Challenge - Have you ever done the UKMT to some level of success (I'm taking gold certificates, kangaroo qualifications and certificates and olympiad qualifications)?

Have you ever represented your school in like a Maths competition or been selected to go for a series of masterclasses?

Extracurricular activities - while the universities don't really pay great attention to extra curricular activities like US universities do, they still want to see that there is more to you than meets the eye. Now, ideally this would be something that links well with what you are applying for. I play chess at the national level so I can form links back to the problem solving, critical analysis and decision making skills required for Computer Science. However, if it doesn't link directly to your course, you can look into soft skills which you have gained through doing these activities like teamwork and then link it.

Things you may wish to consider:
What have you done in your free time when you aren't learning and doing things like this?
What makes you tick?
Are you under any employment?
Have you done any volunteering?
You don't have to have done all of these things (I did but that's because I had way more time and I started doing things a bit earlier) but as many as you can.

I would say that your personal statement should be a 85:15 split between curricular and extra curricular activities

- Are my GCSE results too weak to get into top universities like Imperial and Cambridge?

Your GCSEs are fine - they are a good mixture of 9s, 8s, and 7s which is fine for Imperial but may be a bit questionable for Cambridge since there will be applicants applying with perfect grades. That being said, they aren't used that much as a main indicator so as long as you steer clear of the popular colleges and you smash your admissions test, you should be OK to secure an interview. GCSEs are an indicator of work ethic. You have high grades in your GCSEs and you have self-taught yourself Further Maths, which if you mention in your personal statement, I'm sure will count to SOME credit (but I would keep it on the side for now because you might have more impressive achievements).

- What other Russel group universities have just as good course and job prospects, but are less competitive/have a lower grade requirement?

So the ones I went for are:
1) Cambridge
2) Imperial
3) Edinburgh
4) Manchester
5) Durham. However, I don't recommend this because right now, if I don't get my Durham offer, I don't really have an insurance choice since Imperial will be firm at A*AAA and the other two are 3 A star offers.

My logic was this: I didn't think I would get into Cambridge or Imperial because of the calibre of applicants you see online getting rejected and they are particularly competitive courses (I think Cambridge is 1 in 13 and Imperial is 1 in 17 for 2024 entry) so I chose to apply to Manchester because it is well regarded in the CS field. I didn't want to compromise by applying to some universities that don't have a great reputation in CS and grad prospects. Upon doing some further research as to where else I could apply, I was considering Edinburgh, Bath, Durham, Warwick and UCL for the two remaining places. I knew that Manchester would be 3 A* minimum entry and that it would match their offer so that would probably be my firm choice if I get rejected from Cambridge and Imperial (but I'm open to change it).

At the UCL Open Day, there was a massive student protest about a lack of funding across all departments interrupting the main Open Day talk and I didn't feel like that was an environment I wanted to be in.

At Durham, the facility was simply AMAZING but there isn't really much to do in the town centre. I got this experience when I went to Durham in y11 at a non-open Day time when I went to visit a few family friends.

I would have applied to Warwick over Durham but there was a SIGNIFICANT drop in the rankings and there's a saying: "no smoke without fire" so I went against applying to Warwick though I would have done if there hadn't been a significant drop in the rankings.

On the Bath Open Day, I wasn't a huge fan of the city though I loved the facility.

That left Edinburgh. I loved Edinburgh as a city and the course is AMAZING so I knew it was for me, which is why I chose to apply there. On the website, it said AAB to 3 A* as the offer condition range and this also sounded good so I went with it. However, the AAB is only for contextual applicants which I didn't know about so when I got their offer, it was the top end of the range, which was unfortunate. I thought that your offer conditions would reflect based on the merit you show on your application but I was wrong.

It was then a toss-up between Bath and Durham. I chose Durham in the end because it had the better facilities in my opinion and wasn't too far from Newcastle if I wanted to go out somewhere.

However, if I were to re-apply, I would choose Bath over Manchester because my friend applied to Bath and his offer requirements were extremely low so I would have then had an insurance choice.

So if I were to reapply, I would go for:

1) Cambridge - (St John's college over Gonville and Caius, which is the one I got rejected from).
2) Imperial
3) Edinburgh
4) Bath
5) Durham (maybe KCL? but I think I would go with Durham in the end).


My final bit of advice to you would be about admissions test. As you may already know, Cambridge requires you to do the TMUA. Now, Imperial have also changed from their own admissions test to the TMUA so make sure you smash it. Start to prepare early. Earlier the better. As soon as your mocks that define your predicted grades are over, start to prepare for your admissions test, bit by bit. I started a bit late in August/September and paper 1 wasn't problematic - it was proving to be paper 2. But still, I was scoring around 7.5 on the scale which is well in offer territory so I didn't really have too many problems I guess. In the end, it was what happened on the day that let me down. If you mess up the admissions test, you've not only lost Cambridge, you've also lost Imperial so make sure you prepare well. Also, you sit the TMUA in October and if you get the Imperial offer, you sit the STEP during A level exams in the summer of Year 13.


I hope this was helpful. if you have any questions, please post away and I will endeavour to get back to you.

Thank you so much for your detailed post, I'm so grateful, it was incredibly useful and I will definitely be keeping all your advice into consideration.

I just have a final question, how did you get the in person work experience at the cybersecurity firm?