Ask an Admissions Tutor X: 20 September - 21 October

Welcome back! I hope the girls are treating you well

Normally you get offers based upon As to A level. However I am self teaching and since its maths, further maths and additional further maths, I will either have An A level and an AS or 2 A levels/1 A level and two AS How does that work with Cambridge would that still get an offer? because If I have A*A* surely the offer would literally be just A/A* would that hurt my chances or is that fine.

Hi Dr. Spencer

Say if I were to apply to your college post A levels to do either Computer Science or Engineering, for which I may have all A*s with 90 + UMS in all modules. However my GCSEs weren’t the best: 4 A*s and 7 As, I was wondering what the effect my GCSEs would have on my chances of being a successful applicant?

Finally out of curiosity, for those students who no longer have the opportunity to do AS levels at some schools, would you put a bigger emphasis on their GCSEs? Would you advise them to take AS levels out of school?

Thank you for taking part in this forum, it’s much appreciated!

-F

P.S. Apologies if such questions have been asked already.

Thank you - it's nice to be back on TSR after a (very) short break! No students around yet but am settling in nicely.

Any cats?

Hi Dr Spencer,
4As in maths, f.maths, chem and phys
Predicted 4A*S
Maths - 297
c1 - 100
c2 - 100
s1 - 97
F. maths - 241
m1 - 85
d1 - 84
fp1 - 72

I know my further UMS is dire. I honestly cannot explain my fp1 result. Any idea how likely am I to get to interview applying for mathematics?
Many Thanks!

Oooh it's my first time ever writing something on TSR,
I want to ask if my grades are good enough for me to get an interview at least.
I'm applying to Churchill college (only applied there because of description 'music recording room' haha) for engineering. I live in Moscow, if it makes any difference.

My IGCSEs : 9A*s and 2As (for Eng lit and lang, it's near impossible gee :/ )
AS Level : 5As : maths, further maths, physics, chemistry, Russian (I'm from South Korea, so that counts as a foreign language for me I guess?)
Module breakdown:
Core Maths 1&2 (international students have combined module called C12): 200/200
FP1: 95/100
D1: 80/100
M1: 100/100
M2: 90/100

Lowest UMS is D1, but it shouldn't matter that much I hope as I'm going for engineering...

Also another question, engineering in Churchill college, do I need to take ANY STEP papers? It doesn't specify on the Cambridge website, and in my school they were all like engineering definitely requires STEP I and STEP II, maybe even STEP III. I'm confused about this, and would really appreciate your help thank you

Sorry, you're question and follow up answers are a bit confusing but I am assuming you are applying for Maths and are a mature student? We normally need to see three A Levels in addition to STEP. I think you will need to contact the college/s to which you wish to apply to get their advice on how they would deal with your individual case. My instinct would be that you would get a A*A* offer and 1,1, in STEP II & III.

Hello Dr. Spencer, I'm thinking of applying to Cambridge for Medicine but I'm unsure whether it's too unrealistic due to my GCSE results

GCSEs:
Maths - A*
Core science - A*
Additional Science - A*
English Literature - A*
Spanish - A*
History - A
Religious Studies - A
English Language - A
Music - B
(Please bear in mind I live in an overseas British territory where the results are less than stellar on average)

In AS I achieved three As in Biology, Chemistry and Maths. I got a 97% UMS average for maths but since the other two subjects are linear I there is no UMS. I'm likely predicted three A*s, do I have any chance of getting an interview?

Thank you - it's nice to be back on TSR after a (very) short break! No students around yet but am settling in nicely. I hope you're looking forward to starting soon!

Hello, for people retaking A levels and STEP, is STEP better left for if/when you get an offer? I was thinking that admissions tutors would want to access your script, which wouldn't be possible if you do STEP before-hand.

Thanks

Finally started packing and it's a nightmare. Still feels surreal though and I doubt it will sink in until I actually get there

It will feel strange and a bit surreal even after you arrive. Will settle down soon though and it's always important for all new students to remember that they deserve to be there and have done really well to do so!

Thank you, I'll try to keep that in mind, though the freshers group chat on Facebook is making me feel out of place already

Hello again TSR. My name is Dr Andrew Spencer and I am the Admissions Tutor at Murray Edwards College in Cambridge. Welcome to my tenth Ask an Admissions Tutor thread, this time in my new guise as Murray Edwards Admissions. The @Christ's Admissions profile, which I ran for the last three years, will continue under my successor but for the next month before the application deadline for Cambridge, I'll be answering your questions here so please fire away.

Is there any chance of me getting an offer based on further maths, which I am sitting on it's own in my gap year?
The course is natsci and I already have A levels in maths, biology & chemistry - could I get an offer based off further maths? It will be pretty relevant, as I'm doing S1, S2 & S3 as part of the qualification so fairly useful w.r.t. biology

Hi Dr spencer. I wanted to know about admissions and acceptance rates typically relating to indian international students. How fierce is the competition and how many people are typically accepted. And if you have any knowledge about admissions at university of bristol to be precise, I would love to hear.
Thank you

I think a good rule of thumb for any Fresher is to ignore anything in the freshers group chat on Facebook - it's not representative of what you'll find in Cambridge!

Hi Dr spencer. I wanted to know about admissions and acceptance rates typically relating to indian international students. How fierce is the competition and how many people are typically accepted. And if you have any knowledge about admissions at university of bristol to be precise, I would love to hear.
Thank you