Ask an Admissions Tutor X: 20 September - 21 October

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.

Hi Dr Spencer,

I have a query about the SAQ. I have applied for Maths at Cambridge and I was just wondering how specific do I need to be in the section that requests topics for Maths (Section 5.5). Is it alright to just write "Calculus" rather than explicitly stating "Integration by Parts" for example? Also can we separate Maths and Further Maths in this particular section as different qualifications?

Thanks in advance!

I know this is repeating a question that you have already answered, but I just need to make 1000% sure and I can be quite pedantic.

Does the EPQ go onto the education section on the SAQ (the bit where I am writing the topics, class sizes, subjects etc)?

If I apply with achieved grades at A2, e.g. A*A*A for medicine , would you still look at my AS grades and ask for UMS or will my AS grades no longer be used and looked at at all for the selection process ?

Hello.

In the SAQ additional personal statement, would it be appropriate to mention issues with mental health which occurred during my GCSE years?

I think it's important and will add context to my application however I'm worried it will come off like I'm making excuses. Maybe I should just make a small note about it?

Also, my dyslexia wasn't properly diagnosed until just before my A2 exams (I'm a gap year applicant). Would this be a good thing to mention? I've had a lot of trouble with essay writing, I didn't receive extra time in exams until this summer (which only came in after my first 3 exams).

I want to study mathematics if that helps you at all.

Thank you,
Louis

I'm applying for Computer Science Post A Level with A*A*A* in Maths, Further Maths and French. Would I be eligible for auto pooling?

Posted from TSR Mobile

No, I'm afraid not. For a science subject you need to have 3 A*s in maths/science subjects to be eligible for compulsory pooling. Of course that doesn't mean that if you aren't successful at your original college that you won't be pooled, many candidates are.

Hi, apologies if this has already been asked! In the SAQ, I've noticed you only write around 3 topics for each subject you've studied. Could I ask, how you're meant to choose these topics? Are these going to be used in interview?

For postcode on Polar3 what statistics do you look at? My postcode has a 5 polar3 young participation and 2 adult he qualification and 4 participation gap.


Will you be able to know if someone is first generation attending uni or should I mention that in an email to the college

Hello Dr Spencer. Many thanks for doing another thread. I have just submitted my SAQ but, after having read something on a TSR thread, I'm not sure if I wrote the right thing for the unit codes for one of my A levels. Will this matter? Will Cambridge have enough information to still understand what I mean? Thank you.

There's no need if you've put the title elsewhere at UCAS or discussed it in your PS.

I'm pretty sure we use the young person figure. No, we won't know unless you tell us that you're the first person in your family to go to university - our records aren't that good!

Hi Dr. Spencer!

I have a question about section 5.5 in the SAQ where I am asked to complete a table with subjects and qualifications. I have Swedish qualifications from upper secondary school and we had five different courses in Mathematics (1,2,3,4 & 5). If I have taken them all, should I keep the number of the course or should I just write "Mathematics" for the five courses?

Thank you for answering our questions!