Ask an Admissions Tutor XI - 13 June 23 June 2017

OP

Original post by Demesne7

Hello was just wondering whether my A level subjects History, Economics, and Sociology are an acceptable combination for History at Cambridge? Would they disadvantage my application in any way / make it less competitive? Just concerned because have heard things from some people and need clarification. Thanks :smile:

Posted from TSR Mobile

Hello and thanks for your question. Your A Level choices are absolutely fine for History at Cambridge. You would in no way be disadvantaged with them. All are relevant to a History course and are respected A Levels.

Reply 22

Hello. I was just wondering how my application would fend, even though by 2018 (the year I would hope to start at the university) I will have had two years out of formal education. This year I have been studying for the SAT and ACT, so that I can also apply to American institutions in 2018. I have definitely been maintaining my knowledge from A levels and have also been reading around my subject rather heavily in the past six months. I am hoping to apply for the Psychological and Behavioural Sciences Tripos course. I attained 10As and 2Bs at GCSE and, although I know that does not consist of the many A*s that the majority of applicants will be armed with, I did step up massively at A level, achieving 3A*s in Maths, Chemistry and Psychology. Your response would be really appreciated. Thank you!

Reply 23

OP

Original post by Ryhhill181998

Hello. I was just wondering how my application would fend, even though by 2018 (the year I would hope to start at the university) I will have had two years out of formal education. This year I have been studying for the SAT and ACT, so that I can also apply to American institutions in 2018. I have definitely been maintaining my knowledge from A levels and have also been reading around my subject rather heavily in the past six months. I am hoping to apply for the Psychological and Behavioural Sciences Tripos course. I attained 10As and 2Bs at GCSE and, although I know that does not consist of the many A*s that the majority of applicants will be armed with, I did step up massively at A level, achieving 3A*s in Maths, Chemistry and Psychology. Your response would be really appreciated. Thank you!

Hello and thank you for your question. With 3 A*s achieved at A Level and in those subjects, you would certainly be a good candidate regardless of your GCSEs. I guess that we would be interested to see what you've been doing since you finished full-time education but your break certainly wouldn't hurt your application.

Reply 24

Original post by Murray Edwards Admissions

Hello and thank you for your question. With 3 A*s achieved at A Level and in those subjects, you would certainly be a good candidate regardless of your GCSEs. I guess that we would be interested to see what you've been doing since you finished full-time education but your break certainly wouldn't hurt your application.

Thank you. Would you recommend writing about my break in my personal statement? And would it benefit my application to send Cambridge my SAT and ACT scores alongside my UK qualifications?

Reply 25

OP

Original post by Ryhhill181998

Thank you. Would you recommend writing about my break in my personal statement? And would it benefit my application to send Cambridge my SAT and ACT scores alongside my UK qualifications?

I think it would be useful to mention it at least, yes. As for your SAT and ACT scores, there is a section on the SAQ for this but they aren't going to be a major factor in our decisions making for a student with UK qualifications.

Reply 26

AsianG99

15

Original post by Murray Edwards Admissions

Hello and thank you for your question. With 3 A*s achieved at A Level and in those subjects, you would certainly be a good candidate regardless of your GCSEs. I guess that we would be interested to see what you've been doing since you finished full-time education but your break certainly wouldn't hurt your application.

How important are A* at gcse for economics cambridge?
Is it ok if you have majority grade a's at gcse
and if you meet the entry requirements at cambridge A*A*A
Could you get in?

Reply 27

AsianG99

15

Original post by Ryhhill181998

Hello. I was just wondering how my application would fend, even though by 2018 (the year I would hope to start at the university) I will have had two years out of formal education. This year I have been studying for the SAT and ACT, so that I can also apply to American institutions in 2018. I have definitely been maintaining my knowledge from A levels and have also been reading around my subject rather heavily in the past six months. I am hoping to apply for the Psychological and Behavioural Sciences Tripos course. I attained 10As and 2Bs at GCSE and, although I know that does not consist of the many A*s that the majority of applicants will be armed with, I did step up massively at A level, achieving 3A*s in Maths, Chemistry and Psychology. Your response would be really appreciated. Thank you!

Thats awesome how you got more A* at a level than gcse
#NeverGiveUp
I like that!

Reply 28

Original post by AsianG99

Thats awesome how you got more A* at a level than gcse
#NeverGiveUp
I like that!

Haha thank you very much! I just really grew into myself at sixth form - the best two years of my life... so far anyway 😆

Reply 29

OP

Original post by AsianG99

How important are A* at gcse for economics cambridge?
Is it ok if you have majority grade a's at gcse
and if you meet the entry requirements at cambridge A*A*A
Could you get in?

As I said earlier, GCSEs alone are not going to determine the success or otherwise of your application. Economics is a very competitive course and the better you do in every aspect of the application the better your chances of success. The more A*s you have the better but that is not to say that you cannot be successful without a whole load of A*s. Applications will be looked at in the round to see the various strengths and weaknesses of individual applicants.

If you are made an offer of A*A*A and you meet it then yes you will be admitted.

Reply 30

dontrejectme

Hello,

I am an international student and got an offer from Robinson for maths. They ask me to get 7.5 overall and at least 7.0 in each individual element in IELTS. However, my grade is still below the requirement.
I got 7.5 overall but 6.5 in speaking and writing in March. I also improved my writing score to a 7 in another exam but my speaking score was still below 7. If I eventually fail the IELTS, does it mean that I will be immediately rejected or I still have chance to get in?
Can I combine grade from different exam?

I have already got SS in STEP2,3 last year. I don’t want to be rejected just because of my IELTS.

Thank you

Reply 31

OP

Original post by dontrejectme

Hello,

I am an international student and got an offer from Robinson for maths. They ask me to get 7.5 overall and at least 7.0 in each individual element in IELTS. However, my grade is still below the requirement.
I got 7.5 overall but 6.5 in speaking and writing in March. I also improved my writing score to a 7 in another exam but my speaking score was still below 7. If I eventually fail the IELTS, does it mean that I will be immediately rejected or I still have chance to get in?
Can I combine grade from different exam?

I have already got SS in STEP2,3 last year. I don’t want to be rejected just because of my IELTS.

Thank you

Hello and congratulations on your offer and STEP results. IELTS is part of the condition offer and if you fail to meet it then you have not fulfilled the terms of the offer. What happens then is up to the discretion of the college. They can certainly waive the conditions if they wish but they may decide not to. Were they to decide not to, then I would suspect that they would put your application in the Summer Pool (you should ask them to consider doing this if they decide not to accept you were you not to pass the IELTS condition) and then other colleges could decide whether they were willing to waive the IELTS.

Reply 32

Reality Check

22

Hi,

Thanks for coming on again to do this for TSR :smile:

. Would you clear up a couple of misconceptions that regularly get bandied about?

1. That if you're offered A*/A*/A and get A*/A/A it's curtains - Cambridge has no flexibility with those who narrowly miss their offers.

2. That there is some magical combination of GCSEs and A Level subjects and grades, without which no application will be considered.

3. That Cambridge and Oxford work on two very different admissions processes - the former deselection, and the latter shortlisting and what's sauce for the goose isn't necessarily sauce for the gander.

I'm sure you've been asked these questions a billion times, but like piano scales, they unfortunately need frequent repetition to stick.

Thanks :smile:

Reply 33

Original post by Murray Edwards Admissions

I think it would be useful to mention it at least, yes. As for your SAT and ACT scores, there is a section on the SAQ for this but they aren't going to be a major factor in our decisions making for a student with UK qualifications.

Are UMS marks as important as grades in the admissions process? Although I attained 3A*s, I only attained 89.3% UMS marks in Chemistry and Psychology (over AS and A2), but attained 94.8% in maths. I have seen that only students obtaining a 93% average UMS are "pooled". Would you be able to clarify what that means please? And would my 91.1% average mean that I would be less likely to be admitted, regardless of my overall grades? Thank you for your time.

Reply 34

soggychips

7

Original post by Murray Edwards Admissions

Hello All and welcome to another Ask an Admissions Tutor Thread which I've been running intermittently since 2013. Feel free to ask all and any questions about admissions to Cambridge generally and Murray Edwards College, one of Cambridge's three women's colleges, specifically.

I'll be here for the next ten days answering questions in advance of the University Open Days on 6 and 7 July. As many colleges do, we are running an Open Day at Murray Edwards to combine with the University Open Days. Ours is on the morning of 6 July (my birthday!) and you can book a place here which will allow you access to other events in Cambridge as well as the sessions at Murray Edwards.

Do please fire away with your questions. :smile:

Hi, thank you for doing this!

I just wanted to ask a couple of things:

1. How would you recommend preparing for the interviews and the admissions test? (specifically computer science)

2. If I receive an offer for computer science with maths and miss only the STEP requirements, will I be accepted for just the computer science course?

3. Do you have any data showing the offer rate for computer science, compared to computer science with maths?

4. What are the main things that you look for in the applicant's personal statement? Does previous programming experience enhance a personal statement?

Thank you again for doing this!

Reply 35

OP

Original post by Ryhhill181998

Are UMS marks as important as grades in the admissions process? Although I attained 3A*s, I only attained 89.3% UMS marks in Chemistry and Psychology (over AS and A2), but attained 94.8% in maths. I have seen that only students obtaining a 93% average UMS are "pooled". Would you be able to clarify what that means please? And would my 91.1% average mean that I would be less likely to be admitted, regardless of my overall grades? Thank you for your time.

We do look at UMS marks, yes, but with post A Level applicants we will look most closely at your A2 marks which, given that you achieved 3 A*s will all be over 90 and the clear improvement from AS to A2 will be taken as a good thing.

For post A Level candidates, the threshold for compulsory pooling is 3 A*s, so if you are not successful at your original college, then they have to place your file in the Winter Pool for other colleges to assess. They can do this anyway even if you don't met the compulsory pooling criteria but in your case they have to.

Reply 36

OP

Original post by soggychips

Hi, thank you for doing this!

I just wanted to ask a couple of things:

1. How would you recommend preparing for the interviews and the admissions test? (specifically computer science)

2. If I receive an offer for computer science with maths and miss only the STEP requirements, will I be accepted for just the computer science course?

3. Do you have any data showing the offer rate for computer science, compared to computer science with maths?

4. What are the main things that you look for in the applicant's personal statement? Does previous programming experience enhance a personal statement?

Thank you again for doing this!

Hello and thank you for your questions.

1) If you look here then you will have the opportunity to practice on the Computer Science Admissions Test (CSAT). As for the interview, being secure on your Maths is the most important thing.

2) There is a good chance that you would be but it is not a certain chance. It is up to the college to decide what to do in those circumstances.

3) No, sorry.

4) We want to see evidence of your interest in the subject and how you have developed and maintained that interest. Programming can be a part of it but it doesn't have to be.

Reply 37

auburnstar

17

Would a lack of GCSE disadvantage an applicant with otherwise good post-A2 results? (A*AA or above?) (Poor high school in another country so no GCSE). Would this have to be compensated for in other aspects of the application or would this be an extenuating circumstance/contextual factor?

Reply 38

OP