Ask an Admissions Tutor IX, 4th August - 2nd September

Thank you for answering my question

I have called the general admission phone line and a lady stated that they accept a handful of transfers but this is at the discretion of the college. I will need to call individual college and ask them if they do accept transfers and how it works. I don't know if this helps, but either way thank you for trying to find out.

Is it possible to get an unconditional offer from university for a course requiring BBB with BCCc obtained A-Level Grades? Would it help if I mention in my personal statement that I was home-schooled and prepared for all three exams in 10 months?

Thanks for your help.

Sorry to ask another question, the Cambridge website says the typical offer for History is A*/A/A, I was just wondering whether the a* would be required to be in history, or would getting A*/A*/A with the A*'s in maths and further maths be better?


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Thanks so much for taking the time to answer this, and all the other questions. It's been so helpful to read all of your advice and I'm really grateful to you and TSR for these pages. Good luck to everyone!

Hello,

I got an A in my maths AS, and thought that would be fine, but reading through here, I'm concerned my UMS might not be high enough.
I got 93 in core 1, 76 in core 2, and 90 in M1, giving me an average of 86.3
I'd like to apply for natural sciences, specifically biological sciences. Will this UMS score be a problem? Should I consider retaking core 2?

Thanks

Sometimes colleges will peg the A* to the subject which the student wishes to study. It's quite common and is often done for the reasons @vincrows. It can also be good insurance where our average successful humanities student gets between 2 and 3 A*s. It allows one to relax the offer if they make A*A*A or A*AA but miss the A* in History or to be more strict if the circumstances warrant it.

ha! Never thought thats another reason.
Life is the never ending learning curve. Thank you for yet another insight.

Is it possible to get an unconditional offer from university for a course requiring BBB with BCCc obtained A-Level Grades? Would it help if I mention in my personal statement that I was home-schooled and prepared for all three exams in 10 months?

Thanks for your help.

When you have so many good applicants, it's good sometimes to give yourself some wiggle room in August in case you've made mistakes.

As a reapplicant, will you have access to my application to King's from last year? I saw that @Peterhouse Admissions mentioned that unsuccesful applications are shredded in his/her thread, but I was wondering if that is the case at all colleges, and specifically Christ's?

Always good to be prepared.

Is it possible to get an unconditional offer from university for a course requiring BBB with BCCc obtained A-Level Grades? Would it help if I mention in my personal statement that I was home-schooled and prepared for all three exams in 10 months?

Thanks for your help.

We are boy scouts and girl guides all! Forget Duke of Edinburgh award that's the way to a Cambridge offer [tat's a joke of course to anyone tempted to take it seriously!]

Hello,

I was wondering, how are applicants expected to prepare for the at-interview assessments (for Philosophy in particular, as that is the course I'm interested in), given the recent changes? Are competent candidates expected to read around the subject, take the intiative of finding similar problems/questions ourselves or is there something specific (e.g. recommended resources) that we'd be expected to make use of?

Do the interviews at Cambridge work in the same way as those at Oxford (which I'm using as a reference because I've researched it more previously)?Do the different colleges have different styles of interviewing?

Finally, what chance do I stand of making a competitive application (for Philosophy, 2017 entry)?
Academic profile:
11A*s at GCSE
AAAAA at AS (a B was resat to improve to an A this year, UMS (95+) is in Maths only, the others are unfortunately pretty weak ~80+ only). ASs in MAths, Physics, History, French, Critical Thinking.
A in EPQ
AAB overall at A level in Maths, History and Physics respectively - I was predicted A*A*A but significantly underperformed (i.e. weak UMS scores) due to extentuating circumstances (pertaining to mental health), so would retake at least four of my exams to secure the two A*s.

In my gap year I'd also plan to complete French A2, do Further Maths AS, do extensive reading and attend public lectures relating to my subject, keep a philosophy blog, and participate in a volunteering/tutoring project abroad for about a month or so.

I dont think you'd need to resit the FM. With A*A*A you'd be ok to apply and a decent candidate though not one of the strongest on paper. If you want to apply for the 50% option with maths, obvious the best preparation you can do is practice your maths as you'll need to impress the mathematicians.