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Ask the Admissions Team - 2017 entry

Hello again from the Peterhouse Admissions Team!

We're back for another two-week thread until the 16th for you to ask us any questions about Peterhouse, our courses or the application process. Your questions will be answered by the most appropriate member of the team.

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Reply 1

Ehmb

Hello, I was wondering if your open day is a part of the whole university open day. Also, is booking required?

Reply 2

Ayooo

Hello! I'm a prospective music student, hoping to apply this year. Just wanted to ask, would I be at a disadvantage if I got a B in my AS for music but was predicted an A for A2?

I do understand academic ability is important in the subject, but I was just wondering whether it would be a hinderance to my application, granted other aspects of it was good - i.e personal statement, reference and potential to do well.

Thanks!

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 3

I can do this

Hi there, thank you so much for doing this thread! It is much appreciated :smile:

I have three questions:
A) will UMS marks for a full maths a level taken this year be looked at closely?
B) will GCSE grades be looked at more closely as a discriminator?
C) for medicine, is a CREST gold award about how voice recognition and reconstruction is done and it's applications in medicine in throat cancer patients etc considered valuable? I am debating whether or not to do it. It is a lot of time which I am willing to put in, but I wondered whether it'd be time better spend elsewhere, since it is a physics related project.

Thank you so much!

Reply 4

Zacken

Original post by Emilypickett

What does Cambridge look for in a strong applicant? Also, would it be more desirable for an applicant to continue mathematics to A2 rather than sociology?

Might want to state the course there...

Reply 5

Peterhouse Admissions

Official Rep

Original post by Ehmb

Hello, I was wondering if your open day is a part of the whole university open day. Also, is booking required?

Hi,

The summer open days involve essentially the whole university. Some sessions and visits you have to book, some you don't. At Peterhouse, we'll be open 08:30-18:00 on 30th June and 1st July with no booking needed, just turn up at any point for an informal guided tour with a student. We'll have a Subject Fair where you can meet interviewers and Directors of Studies in your subject from 12:00-13:00 both days, no booking required and there will be members of the Admissions Team around all day with talks from the Admissions Tutors at 11:45 and 16:00 each day.

See you there!

Reply 6

Peterhouse Admissions

Official Rep

Original post by Ayooo

Hello! I'm a prospective music student, hoping to apply this year. Just wanted to ask, would I be at a disadvantage if I got a B in my AS but was predicted an A for A2?

I do understand academic ability is important in the subject, but I was just wondering whether it would be a hinderance to my application, granted other aspects of it was good - i.e personal statement and reference.

Thanks!

Is that a B in Music?

Reply 7

Peterhouse Admissions

Official Rep

Original post by I can do this

Hi there, thank you so much for doing this thread! It is much appreciated :smile:

Hi, happy to help!

A) Any and all available UMS marks in relevant subjects will be considered. Remember this is just one of the many things looked at - no particularity weight is ever attached to any one piece of information (nothing is any more or any less important than anything else) and everything is considered in context.
B) No
C) Anything supercurricular which you find interesting is of interest. We're not prescriptive in what we expect you to have done or have read, it is up to you to pursue your interests in whatever direction. We recognise that your interests can cover more than one subject or topic and this is completely fine - there are many different perspectives to approach any of our courses or subject matter from,

Reply 8

Ayooo

Original post by Peterhouse Admissions

Is that a B in Music?

Yep, a B in music. I changed what I wrote above to make it clearer.

Thanks

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 9

blooptop

blooptop Offline
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1 19h ago
At the moment I'm deliberating over which subjects to study at A-level; at the end of the course, I would ideally like to apply to Oxbridge, to study either biology at the former or the biological natural sciences pathway at the latter.

For the first year of the Cambridge course I would be choosing Evolution and Behaviour, Earth Sciences, and Physiology of Organisms (as well as Mathematical Biology).

The subjects I'm leaning towards are biology, maths, geography and English literature, at least the first three of which I would probably take through to A2.

At GCSE I got 6A*s, 5As and a C, and I am predicted A grades at AS level and possibly higher at A2. All my subjects are facilitating, although only two are hard sciences, the others being a humanity and and an art, though I hope they'll give me skills to do with essay writing and Earth sciences.

My question is whether I would have a realistic chance of getting into the Natural Sciences course, and whether there are any adjustments I could make to my choices to improve my chances? I am not looking to change my subject profile completely, however, because I want to choose a university course that I will enjoy, not just get into a top university for the sake of it.

The admissions criteria say that two of biology, chemistry, physics maths and FM are necessary, and more are preferred, but have you ever seen anyone actually get in (and/or do well on the above courses) with only two hard sciences? Especially biology and maths without chemistry?

All responses are appreciated, thank you for reading!

Reply 10

Peterhouse Admissions

Official Rep

Original post by Ayooo

Hi,

Our typical offer for Music is A*AA and we'd want to see that candidates are on track to achieve that. It would really depend on the reasons for the B - were there any extenuating circumstances, did one module let you down, etc. Remember we ask for UMS on a module-by-module basis. We appreciate that anyone can have an off day and some resitting is understandable (you can tell us about proposed resits on the SAQ) but underperfomance in several areas would likely be of concern. Of course, we'd only look at your AS results in the context of everything else we know about you from the UCAS form, SAQ and additional data.

Reply 11

pompilius

Hello!

Will the university be releasing any further information or practice materials on pre-interview assessments?

Thanks!

Reply 12

satcha

Hello!

Does sixth form attendance factor into the application process?

Thanks for your help!

Reply 13

♥Samantha♥

Will you still be looking at UMS marks? As due to reforms many people will have no UMS marks or only have UMS for some subjects.

Reply 14

Peterhouse Admissions

Official Rep

Original post by pompilius

Hello!

Will the university be releasing any further information or practice materials on pre-interview assessments?

Thanks!

I think the information that is available online is all that is available for now. This includes the specification, information on types of questions, a syllabus (where applicable) and sample questions. The intention is that these assessments do not require extensive practice or preparation as we don't want to distract students from their ongoing schoolwork, which is far more important. The assessments aim to assess ability and aptitude in how you can apply subject-related skills, not test who knows the most.

Reply 15

Peterhouse Admissions

Official Rep

Original post by satcha

Hello!

Does sixth form attendance factor into the application process?

Thanks for your help!

Hi!

Attendance only matters in the sense that we pay attention to your teachers' reference on the UCAS form and any impact low attendance may have on your exams. If there are circumstances outside of your control which affect your attendance, you may wish to ask for an Extenuating Circumstances Form to be submitted on your behalf.

Reply 16

Peterhouse Admissions

Official Rep

Original post by ♥Samantha♥

Will you still be looking at UMS marks? As due to reforms many people will have no UMS marks or only have UMS for some subjects.

We will look at whatever UMS is available and it's worth reiterating that candidates without UMS will NOT be disadvantaged. We're very experienced in assessing candidates without UMS as something like 40% of applicants don't have UMS.

Reply 17

Doones

Original post by pompilius

Hello!

Will the university be releasing any further information or practice materials on pre-interview assessments?

Thanks!

Original post by Peterhouse Admissions

I think the information that is available online is all that is available for now.

Just to add to what Peterhouse commented, each course has a PDF of it's assessment specification on their Entry Requirements page. E.g. History is here
http://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/files/publications/haa_specification.pdf

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Reply 18

Peterhouse Admissions

Official Rep

Original post by blooptop

Hi, happy to help! Martin did Biological Natural Sciences at Cambridge so he will answer this!

Our typical offer for Natural Sciences is A*A*A with Peterhouse going along with the University guidance of two of Chemistry, Physics, Biology and Maths essential and a third highly advantageous. One extra thing to consider is that many of the first year courses have A level requirements too. Many of the second year options require particular first year courses to have been taken.

Your A levels are sufficient to apply for Natural Sciences and to do the first year options you like. However, you should be aware that many applicants for Natural Sciences have three sciences to A level and the extra understanding provided by more science subjects helps students to do well and understand the course content when they are here. For example, an understanding of some chemistry and physics is advantageous for parts of the first year Physiology and Earth Sciences courses. Provided you have done some wider reading and are prepared to do some extra work before coming to Cambridge and whilst you're here, it needn't be a problem to have only two sciences.

In your case, you'd certainly be considered, but we'd be looking for top scores in the sciences (on track for A*s in your Biology and Maths). Your AS in English would likely not be of much interest. If you were looking to change your subjects, you could consider replacing AS English with Chemistry or Physics and I'd encourage you to think of this as not just 'getting into a top university for the sake of it' but helping set yourself up to enjoy and to do well at any biology course at any university. It can be difficult to look past the entry requirements, but students should also be thinking about what skills and knowledge they can gain to help them do well once they've got in to whichever university.

Of course, in the end it is your decision as to what A levels to take and which universities to apply to and the most important thing is that you enjoy the process of learning for you A levels and that you are pursuing your interests, whatever they may be.

Good luck!

Reply 19

satcha

Original post by Peterhouse Admissions

Ah, okay! Thank you for that!

Am I correct in saying that attendance, apart from if it is an extenuating circumstance or something that may have affected performance, does not factor into an application to the university?

Thanks again!