Ask an Admissions Tutor IV, 7 July - 27 July 2014

I don;t have enough data on international students for medicine who are doing A Levels as most are doing other qualifications. The average successful entrant at Christ's over the last three years for medicine had 95.77% average in their Sciences but that is just an average. For the BMAT it is 6.01 for Section I and 6.34 for Section II.

that's really helpful. Does Christ take only one international medical student every year? Do you compare standard of the international applicants applying to Christ with other colleges and make a final decision of who to give offer?

As far as I am aware, it is mainly UK focused but there will be universally applicable modules as well.

No, just what is listed in the Switzerland section.

Land Economy is a small subject and we haven't felt that we have had enough strong applicants in the last few years to make any offers. This happens sometimes in smaller subjects. We have a couple of students who have switched into Land Economy from other subjects.

Any of the colleges that offer Land Economy will be a good place to study it, though sometimes students want to have an internal DoS in the smaller subjects, so you may wish to see which colleges have fellows in Land Economy.

Thanks a lot for the valuable information!

Having made up my mind to apply for this course, I would like to ask some specific questions about the grades/transcript:

For the Swiss Maturity Certificate , students have to study up to 16-17 subjects and so far I have only 5 final grades, all the rest will be based on the final year's achievement only. So should I list all subjects in UCAS with more than 10 "pending"? Which grades are we supposed to give for the transcript? the school year 2013-2014's marks + achieved marks for the Matu Certificate ?

Which are the 3 subjects with marks over 5.5/6 that the admission authorities will look at? (not explained in the country specific section) The best ones? as no subject preference for Land Econ? Should we indicate which ones we prefer ?

Sorry for the lengthy list, unfortunately we have a complicated system...

Hello I am an international student hoping to study law.... I did my IGCSE's (CIE) in Sudan and only got 5A's and 4B's.. I am now doing the IB and should be able to get a predicted 42. My personal statement is solid, and I have work experience etc... I believe I can do well in the interview, but I am afraid to be rejected an interview due to my IGCSE grades, is that a possiblity?

Since this thread ends on 27 July will there be a thread open during A-Level results day as i have a query that could help you to give me a more definitive answer if i know my grade in a certain paper.

Hello!

Thank you very much for this opportunity to ask questions!

I am student from Romania and I will be applying to Economics only to Cambridge.

I need help with choosing a college. I think that my best types of assessment would be an open discussion at interview and a Maths test. This is how I would like to shortlist the colleges. What do these types of assessment exactly mean?

-preparatory study at interview
-test at interview
-Mathematics test at interview
-written test at interview
-school/college essay

Thank you very much for your help!

Kind regards,

George

1) Assuming you have kept up your Latin since Year 9, you would need to explain how in the personal statement or SAQ form. One of the interviews will involve some Latin translation where we can put your abilities to the test. Alterntaively, you could apply for the four year course where you do not need Latin or Greek to start.

2) Yes and you would need to get it translated.

3) It varies from subject to subject and would depend on what you specialised in towards the end of your undergraduate. if you ended up focusding more on literature, for instance, then a Master's in English would be possible.

Thank you for your replies.

Hypothetically - if my application were strong enough to get an offer (with one year of university study already completed abroad) and I decided to spend this coming year working toward an A-level in Latin, would I be more likely to get a conditional offer, instead of an unconditional one?

There won;t be a thread open on A Level results day, as you can imagine that is rather a bus week for an Admissions Tutor! I will, however, be oening a new thread a couple of weeks after the A Level results to help people with questions before they make their applications so you can ask your question then if you wish.

Hi there, with GCSE grades like that it is possible that you would not be called for interview. If you are predicted 42 in the IB, however, I would think that you probably would be called for interview. 5As and 4Bs at IGCSE plus a predicted 42, however, will not place you among the strongest candidates for Law.

The assessments mean, roughly, the following:

preparatory study at interview: you will be given something to read before (usually 20 mins-30mins) the interview, usually a source of some kind (it might be an article or a set of statistics) and will be asked about it during one of the interviews.

-test at interview: This could be either of the two below.

-Mathematics test at interview: a mathemtically based test to assess your mathematical ability

-written test at interview: this will be a written test,usually for an hour, where you will be asked to write an essay or answer a series of shorter questions.

-school/college essay: you will send one or two school essays to the college some weeks before the interview. These may be used in the interviews as points or discussion or may only be used to assess the quality of your writing independently from the interview.

I hope that helps.

Oh Would your college be more understanding if I were to explain my situation? It was the second english-speaking school I attended, I was moving every few years and I hadn't really been in an environment where I could develop study habits. It is through IGCSE's that I was able to learn about myself and grow into the scholar I am today. Also, there is a possibility that I have ADHD (will be tested next week).

Do you think explaining these to the college will give me a better chance? If yes, would your college permit me to submit a letter with my application explaining this?

Also is there anything I can do at this point to increases my chances of getting an offer?

Hi there!
When I was on the open day, I heard that for medicine, 2 out of the gcse scores, AS ums average and BMAT need to be very strong. Is this true? And is this in order to get the interview, or used significantly on he application process afterwards?
Thank you