Official Cambridge 2020 Postgraduate Applicants Thread

Never heard of, or seen that happen, and I've been involved/observing the process since 2003.

Cambridge work hard to ensure they get the best and brightest, which means they constantly delay decisions in case stronger applications come in. In general, they only give a proportion of offer before about April when applications tail off (or whatever deadline is set per course if earlier) and then assess them. If your application is stellar, you could still get an offer quite late on in the summer (provided there wasn't a stated deadline).

Schemes like the one you mention is likely to have a fixed deadline, but if it considers the possibility of closing early, it should say so.

If anyone's interested, my application just moved to under review by department and I submitted my application on September 4th.

Hey! Do you get an email notification when the status changes or do you just have to keep checking?

@threeportdrift is it worth emailing the department to ask how long it might take to expect a decision, or just leave it and assume they'll get back before Christmas if I'm great/bad or Feb/March if not?

Thanks

@threeportdrift is it worth emailing the department to ask how long it might take to expect a decision, or just leave it and assume they'll get back before Christmas if I'm great/bad or Feb/March if not?

Thanks

Usually it takes about 4-6 weeks for the final decision (i.e. giving offer) to come up from the day of application

I started a job at Unilever (Hungary) but left after less than a week (due to family issues). I believe I wasn't officially registered at Unilever. If I put Unilever as a work experience in my CV, how likely is that university will find out/contact Unilever?

How can you claim work experience if you were only there a week? That's just asking for trouble.

It can help if you've got relevant work experience, but claiming for a week would just undermine the credibility of the rest of your application.

Thanks for your reply! Could you please tell me your opinion about my 2nd question?

How important is work experience with a famous company? Not at all. Cambridge is an academic university, it's doesn't use work experience as a guide, except where there is substantial professional experience which can replace academic qualifications in mature students. That doesn't mean 25 year olds with a few years experience, it means 30, 40, 50 year olds with decades of experience who had different university opportunities and grading systems when they went through at 18.

How important is work experience with a famous company? Not at all. Cambridge is an academic university, it's doesn't use work experience as a guide, except where there is substantial professional experience which can replace academic qualifications in mature students. That doesn't mean 25 year olds with a few years experience, it means 30, 40, 50 year olds with decades of experience who had different university opportunities and grading systems when they went through at 18.

Is it normal for an application to be stuck in the 'submitted' stage at this point in time? Does this mean it has not even been looked at, you know, opened or read, by a department? It is simply sitting on a computer waiting to be assessed, at which point it will move to the 'in review stage'?

- Current University: University of Leeds
- Achieved (Expected) Grade: First in Electrical Engineering (74.7%)
- Prospective Course: MRes in Connected Electronic and Photonic Systems
- Prospective College:Trinity Hall / Queens
- Fun fact/extracurricular activities:


Hey everyone. Can you please help me with the following questions. I had a total of 3 'mitigating conditions' cases during exams in years 2 and 3. This has affected my grades and our university policy does not allow us to resit exams as 'first attempts' unless we fail you fail so my transcript grades were affected. Should I mention my extenuating conditions to Cambridge? If yes, should I mention all 3 cases or not? My course mate told me that I might look like an apologist and that they might think I am undedicated person making lots of excuses to increase my chances of getting an offer. And even that it might not look very real and convincing. What do you guys think I should do ?

If you've got a First, what's the point?

The deal with mitigating circumstances is this - did something sudden and disrupting occur to make you perform less well that you could during the exam which means the exam result is not reflective of your current ability?

It doesn't cover - did something occur/exist which means you routinely perform below your potential (DDA not withstanding)?

You haven't said what your circumstances were, but if you've got a strong first, it doesn't seem like the first situation occurs. Up to you to judge though, but if you've got a first and the rest of your application is strong, will it make a difference?