Ask the Admissions Team!

Hi all,

We hope you've had a lovely Easter break (we certainly have)!

We're back for another two week thread (until 5PM on Friday 5th May) to answer any questions you might have about Peterhouse, Cambridge, our courses or the application process.

Ask away!

What sort of things make for an impressive application- especially for a maths degree

what sort of ums in maths and fm AS would be competitive for an economics applicant, like 90 , or 95?

thanks

How do you make a personal statement at such an impressive institution, where most applicants have many exceptional achievements, stand out? Particularly for Economics. How would you recommend revising/preparing for the ECAA? How would you also recommend preparing for interview?

Hi all,

We hope you've had a lovely Easter break (we certainly have)!

We're back for another two week thread (until 5PM on Friday 5th May) to answer any questions you might have about Peterhouse, Cambridge, our courses or the application process.

Ask away!

Hello, thank you for taking the time to answer questions!

I want to apply for Computer Science, and on the website it says that Further Mathematics is desirable. I am, however, from Germany where this subject isn't offered, everyone is required to take the same maths. Does this put me in an disadvantage?
Looking at the topics in the A-Level modules, I actually learned some of the pure maths like proofs, complex numbers and differential equations in an additional (not graded) course I took, and we covered a lot of the Decision topics in our Computer Science course, as well as some Mechanics in Physics classes in previous years. Should I study more of the topics on my own?

Hi there

Can you apply for courses after doing an apprenticeship or will we need A-levels? I'm doing an engineering apprenticeship but would love to go to uni at some point!

Thanks

Thanks for coming on again to answer applicants' questions - I think we all greatly appreciate your work here.

Although we regularly answer these threads with the existing guidance, there is still a pervasive mentality that only 8+ A* and A will be enough to be offered an interview, and that it makes your application more competitive to offer more and more A levels subjects, rather than concentrating on getting stellar marks in 3.

It would be great if you could, (once again) clarify the position of your college regarding GCSE grades, and the number of A levels it is necessary to take to make a competitive application (also, I have noticed questions about STEM subjects at Cambridge and that it is commonplace now to offer a fourth A level in Further Maths - some confirmation of this too would be great!).

Thank you

1. "Are GCSE grades really important for a competitive Cambridge Application?"
"now we don't get an AS mark to put on our application, aren't GCSE grades much more important now'.

2. "Should I take 4 (or more) A levels to make my Cambridge application more competitive?" / "Am I at a disadvantage/won't be offered a place if I only take 3 A levels?"

Hi, for medicine applications, I've heard that you don't always look at the candidate's AS level UMS scores, but you may do. When is it the case that you do not look at the UMS scores at AS? Also, if you do look at them, what sort of average percentage UMS are you looking for, e.g. in Maths and Physics, which are not directly relevant subjects to Medicine?

Hi, happy to help!





There are no GCSE requirements for entrance to Cambridge. The University's own research shows that GCSEs are a poor predictor of success here so it would be irrational of us to rule candidates out using GCSEs. GCSEs are not any more important now than they ever have been.




Our typical offers are based on 3 A levels taken at the end of year 13. It is far better to excel in 3 than to do less well in 4 or more - no number of A grades equals one A*. Candidates are expected to follow whatever their school's A level policy is and won't be disadvantaged for doing that. If you take an A level at the end of year 12 and then 3 more at the end of year 13 we will generally make any offer conditional on the 3 year 13 results. Conditions can only be set for results which aren't know yet but this doesn't mean we don't consider the early result - we very much do but we want to see candidates continuing to work hard in year 13.

If candidates are taking 4 or even 5 A levels then of course offer conditions can be made on all 4 or 5 subjects - as you point out this is much more common in the sciences where maths and FM plus two other sciences are a great combination for some courses such as Chemical Engineering or if candidates want the full pick of the Natural Sciences courses in our first year.

Hi, thanks for posting!

If you're from a country where Further Maths isn't available then we don't expect you to have studied it. What you've done is a very sensible idea in comparing the syllabus for UK further maths to what you already know. Studying extra topics on your own isn't expected and won't necessarily increase you chance of an offer. You tell us on the SAQ what topics you've covered so we shouldn't ask you interview questions on something you don't know. If we do you can just say 'I don't know, we haven't covered this in school yet' and the interviewers will move on without it counting against you (obviously you can't answer this to every question though).

However, if you are successful in getting an offer then some additional study on those areas of A level further maths you haven't covered might mean that you have less of a steep learning curve once you get here.

Thank you for the answer.
Should I mention the additional course I took and its content somewhere on my application?

Hi, thanks for doing this AMA!

Someone told me that for NatSci, if you do 4 A-levels you might get an A*A*A*A offer. Is this true, or would you still get an A*A*A offer? Is there a grade requirement for the 4th A-level?