2018 entry for Geography at Cambridge

Original post by moonpies

Hey guys, haven't seen a thread for 2018 entry to geography at Cambridge. So thought this would be a good place to discuss applying for geography this year

Feel free to chat here about anything to do with your application ; advice, your favourite colleges, other universities you're thinking about applying for and anything you just want to chat about.

To start off, fill in this information and hopefully soon enough we can all begin to chat about applying, yay

Information about you:
- Human or physical geography?
- Which aspect of the course are you most interested in?
- Which college(s) are you looking at?
- What other universities are you applying to?
- What were your GCSE grades?
- What are your predicted/achieved A Level grades? (if/when applicable)
- What are your extra-curricular interests?
- Work experience
- A random fact about you!

Type of geography: Human (but volcanoes are pretty cool)
Course Aspect: Geographies of Food and Power
College: Applied to Emmanuel
Other Uni's: Durham (offer), UCL (offer), KCL (offer), LSE (pending)
GCSE grades: 6 A*, 4 A's and 1 B
AS grades: A Psychology, A* Geography EPQ
Predicted grades: A* Geography, A History, A Biology
Extra-curricular activities: Professional answer: Duke of Edinburgh awards. Honest answer: Watching TV and Films 😂
Work experience: nothing really relevant. I have a part time waitressing job and I used to do marking for an 11+ tutoring company, but thats about it. Unless you count the times I've helped my mum with admin for her small business 😅
Random fact about me: 90% of the reason I chose Emmanuel is because they do you're laundry for you 😂 a.k.a I'm lazy

Just got an interview offer from Emmanuel on the 8th Dec, so my brain can't decide whether to be chuffed or nervous right now 😂

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 4

Original post by theother51

Type of geography: Human (but volcanoes are pretty cool)
Course Aspect: Geographies of Food and Power
College: Applied to Emmanuel
Other Uni's: Durham (offer), UCL (offer), KCL (offer), LSE (pending)
GCSE grades: 6 A*, 4 A's and 1 B
Predicted Grades: A*AA
Random fact about me: 90% of the reason I chose Emmanuel is because they do you're laundry for you 😂 a.k.a I'm lazy

Just got an interview offer from Emmanuel on the 8th Dec, so my brain can't decide whether to be chuffed or nervous right now 😂

What subjects do you do?

Reply 5

Original post by Fonzworth

What subjects do you do?

Sorry just updated my last answer, but I do Geography, History and Biology :smile:

Are you applying for Geography at Cambridge too?

Reply 6

Original post by theother51

Sorry just updated my last answer, but I do Geography, History and Biology :smile:

Are you applying for Geography at Cambridge too?

Next year, hopefully. I sort of wish I did Biology as an A-Level, seems to go so well with Geography :/

Reply 7

Original post by Fonzworth

Next year, hopefully. I sort of wish I did Biology as an A-Level, seems to go so well with Geography :/

I wouldn't worry about it too much, unless your other subjects are 'doss' subjects like General Studies, I think its more about the grade than the subject. Some colleges don't even require you to study Geography at A Level 😂
I've often regretted not studying Economics because its closely related to the areas of Geography I focused a lot on in my personal statement, but they still seem to want to give me a chance :P
What are your other subjects?

Reply 8

Original post by theother51

I wouldn't worry about it too much, unless your other subjects are 'doss' subjects like General Studies, I think its more about the grade than the subject. Some colleges don't even require you to study Geography at A Level 😂
I've often regretted not studying Economics because its closely related to the areas of Geography I focused a lot on in my personal statement, but they still seem to want to give me a chance :P
What are your other subjects?

I'm doing History, Geography & Politics, I plan to do Physics as an AS and maybe even an EPQ.

I really wanted to do Economics too, but the timetabling at my college meant that it clashed with Geography :|

Did you do anything for your PS like books etc.?

Reply 9

Original post by Fonzworth

I'm doing History, Geography & Politics, I plan to do Physics as an AS and maybe even an EPQ.

I really wanted to do Economics too, but the timetabling at my college meant that it clashed with Geography :|

Did you do anything for your PS like books etc.?

Yeah you have nothing to worry about, those subjects sound great. I'd definitely recommend an EPQ, it really helped me to decide that geography was the right subject for me and gave me something to talk about on my PS.

I read 'Eruptions that Shook the world' by Clive Oppenheimer and went to a few lectures at London universities for my PS. I also attended a few short summer schools at Cambridge, including one with Sutton Trust (I didn't get into the week-long one, but they offered me a 2 day course instead) and another 2 day one at Robinson college.

If you're looking for stuff to read, based on your subjects I think you'd find 'Prisoners of Geography' interesting. It was set as homework for me recently and I wish I could have put it in my PS myself, I'd be perfectly happy to talk about geopolitics in an interview :'D

Reply 10

Original post by theother51

Yeah you have nothing to worry about, those subjects sound great. I'd definitely recommend an EPQ, it really helped me to decide that geography was the right subject for me and gave me something to talk about on my PS.

I read 'Eruptions that Shook the world' by Clive Oppenheimer and went to a few lectures at London universities for my PS. I also attended a few short summer schools at Cambridge, including one with Sutton Trust (I didn't get into the week-long one, but they offered me a 2 day course instead) and another 2 day one at Robinson college.

If you're looking for stuff to read, based on your subjects I think you'd find 'Prisoners of Geography' interesting. It was set as homework for me recently and I wish I could have put it in my PS myself, I'd be perfectly happy to talk about geopolitics in an interview :'D

That’s fantastic advice, thank you! I’ll try get my hands on that book, geopolitics is the topic I’m most excited about. Any careers your aiming for after university?

Reply 11

JessicaAsh

12

So I got an interview for geog at Emmanuel, but I've just found out all my interviewers specialise in human geography. I haven't even done geography a-level and all my knowledge is through self-studying and general interest (which is mainly physical geography), should I frantically read up on the human aspects? Are they mainly going to ask questions in their speciality subject?
I am aware that most people on here won't have any more idea than me lol

Reply 12

Yarders

5

Original post by theother51

Yeah you have nothing to worry about, those subjects sound great. I'd definitely recommend an EPQ, it really helped me to decide that geography was the right subject for me and gave me something to talk about on my PS.

I read 'Eruptions that Shook the world' by Clive Oppenheimer and went to a few lectures at London universities for my PS. I also attended a few short summer schools at Cambridge, including one with Sutton Trust (I didn't get into the week-long one, but they offered me a 2 day course instead) and another 2 day one at Robinson college.

If you're looking for stuff to read, based on your subjects I think you'd find 'Prisoners of Geography' interesting. It was set as homework for me recently and I wish I could have put it in my PS myself, I'd be perfectly happy to talk about geopolitics in an interview :'D

I'm currently reading this - did you read it cover to cover or skim some?

Reply 13

Doones

21

Original post by JessicaAsh

Are they mainly going to ask questions in their speciality subject?
I am aware that most people on here won't have any more idea than me lol

No.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 14

Geo1215

9

Original post by JessicaAsh

So I got an interview for geog at Emmanuel, but I've just found out all my interviewers specialise in human geography. I haven't even done geography a-level and all my knowledge is through self-studying and general interest (which is mainly physical geography), should I frantically read up on the human aspects? Are they mainly going to ask questions in their speciality subject?
I am aware that most people on here won't have any more idea than me lol

Hey! I'm currently in my first year studying Geog at Cambridge, and for my interviews I had 100% human geographers interviewing me. They definitely do not ask questions in their specialty subject only, and all of them are capable and will ask questions with a human and physical theme (remember that the course here is very mixed - for first year we do both human and physical, and most human geographers in second year carry a physical topic with them).

Perhaps finding yourself a geography A level textbook and having a read through the general human themes may come in handy - especially as most physical geography things can often have human impacts.

On a side note - the Geography directors of studies at Emma are lovely, so don't be scared of them :smile:

Reply 15

username1865079

14

Original post by JessicaAsh

So I got an interview for geog at Emmanuel, but I've just found out all my interviewers specialise in human geography. I haven't even done geography a-level and all my knowledge is through self-studying and general interest (which is mainly physical geography), should I frantically read up on the human aspects? Are they mainly going to ask questions in their speciality subject?
I am aware that most people on here won't have any more idea than me lol

Original post by Geo1215

Hey! I'm currently in my first year studying Geog at Cambridge, and for my interviews I had 100% human geographers interviewing me. They definitely do not ask questions in their specialty subject only, and all of them are capable and will ask questions with a human and physical theme (remember that the course here is very mixed - for first year we do both human and physical, and most human geographers in second year carry a physical topic with them).

Perhaps finding yourself a geography A level textbook and having a read through the general human themes may come in handy - especially as most physical geography things can often have human impacts.

On a side note - the Geography directors of studies at Emma are lovely, so don't be scared of them :smile:

I know several geographer at a few different colleges and they all had one of physical and the other on human, though contents were different from college to college. (One of them only did human geography at school but the college still gave them a same set of interviews)

Reply 16

Original post by Fonzworth

That’s fantastic advice, thank you! I’ll try get my hands on that book, geopolitics is the topic I’m most excited about. Any careers your aiming for after university?

Np! I'm not too sure what career to go for yet, but I'm currently looking for work experience in marketing, advertising and PR. Think I'm just going to see how that goes and then decide from there :') Do you have any careers in mind?

Reply 17

Original post by Yarders

I'm currently reading this - did you read it cover to cover or skim some?

Do you mean Eruptions that Shook the World or Prisoners of Geography?

I skimmed Eruptions when I was working on my PS due to time constraints, but I'm trying to read through it a bit more thoroughly now in the lead up to my interview. Before I just read the summary at the end of each chapter.
As for Prisoners of Geography, the book is divided up into the geopolitics of each country and I was asked to write an essay about one. So I just chose Russia and studied it in detail, but i found it so interesting I ended up finding the time to read about China too. I want to finish it but juggling time with mocks in January is difficult 😭

Reply 18

PJ777

2

Hey I have an interview on the 8th too :biggrin:

at what time is yours?

Original post by theother51

Type of geography: Human (but volcanoes are pretty cool)
Course Aspect: Geographies of Food and Power
College: Applied to Emmanuel
Other Uni's: Durham (offer), UCL (offer), KCL (offer), LSE (pending)
GCSE grades: 6 A*, 4 A's and 1 B
AS grades: A Psychology, A* Geography EPQ
Predicted grades: A* Geography, A History, A Biology
Extra-curricular activities: Professional answer: Duke of Edinburgh awards. Honest answer: Watching TV and Films 😂
Work experience: nothing really relevant. I have a part time waitressing job and I used to do marking for an 11+ tutoring company, but thats about it. Unless you count the times I've helped my mum with admin for her small business 😅
Random fact about me: 90% of the reason I chose Emmanuel is because they do you're laundry for you 😂 a.k.a I'm lazy

Just got an interview offer from Emmanuel on the 8th Dec, so my brain can't decide whether to be chuffed or nervous right now 😂

Reply 19