Panic about the SAQ here!

I've been doing my SAQ and am completely finished with it except for one thing. Where it says "Is there any time where you couldn't come to an interview?" (or words to that effect) I'm not sure what to put, as I'm skiing with the school for a week in mid-December. Quite a few other Oxbridge applicants from my school will be on this trip too - actually, it's like half the year, but I'm not sure what the school's position on it is, and annoyingly the teacher who deals with all the Oxbridge stuff has gone away to Belize on (another!) school trip until November 1st, by which time I'll have to have submitted the form.

So what should I do? I think it sounds a bit bad to say I'm holidaying and therefore couldn't come (uncommitted?), but then I really don't want to have to not go skiing because I've been given an interview at that time

I can't come to my interview on the dates my college sent me - will this seriously hurt my chances of admission? I emailed the secretary and she said the dates couldn't be moved. There is no way I can go during that time though. First off, I live in the US so it's so far away for one interview and I play varsity high school soccer and we have two LEAGUE games during the 4 days the secretary listed. I can't just miss two league games, that just doesn't happen.

I can't come to my interview on the dates my college sent me - will this seriously hurt my chances of admission? I emailed the secretary and she said the dates couldn't be moved. There is no way I can go during that time though. First off, I live in the US so it's so far away for one interview and I play varsity high school soccer and we have two LEAGUE games during the 4 days the secretary listed. I can't just miss two league games, that just doesn't happen.

Yeah, 2 football games is hardly a good excuse.

Effffff, I'm assuming you guys don't understand what varsity sports are like over here. I play on one of the best teams in the state, if not the country. It's serious business, most kids on my team are all already committed to top tier universities for scholarships. It's an excuse, if only the Cambridge admissions office would understand that.

Well, you could always just not go to the interview if you'd rather kick a ball around a field...

Effffff, I'm assuming you guys don't understand what varsity sports are like over here. I play on one of the best teams in the state, if not the country. It's serious business, most kids on my team are all already committed to top tier universities for scholarships. It's an excuse, if only the Cambridge admissions office would understand that.

And serrelllen, are you sure that's also true for overseas applicants? Don't they realize it's hard to travel such a long distance with such short notice? I would be able to go (and still play in my football games) if I lived in the UK.

Yeah, no offense, but you obviously don't understand.

If it were up to me, I would go to Cambridge in a second. It's just that I have around 19 players and 3 coaches who would not let me go. Never ever ever. I would have issues getting out of practice, missing a league game would be athletic suicide. My coaches would make sure I would never play anywhere, ever again, and that includes at university.

Yeah, no offense, but you obviously don't understand.

If it were up to me, I would go to Cambridge in a second. It's just that I have around 19 players and 3 coaches who would not let me go. Never ever ever. I would have issues getting out of practice, missing a league game would be athletic suicide. My coaches would make sure I would never play anywhere, ever again, and that includes at university.

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I'm having an issue too. I'm supposed to be attending an A Level English Language study day with seminars from the chief examiner on the 4th December. I'm applying for English Lit, so I should put that right?

I don't see how that can be viewed negatively by Cambridge. It's not like you're going clubbing or something.

For the part about 'stuff that you do aside the curriculum to keep up your interest with the subject', is it better to leave it blank or not? I mean, I was thinking of putting 'I read the Economist regularly' in. It is true that I do, but the plain truth is that I only read a few articles that appeal to me each week. Putting that sentence in hence makes me feel very exposed and it's as though I have lied. Surely, though, I can't put 'I read a few articles from the Economist regularly'! It makes me look very.... ugh..!


I'm sorry for brining up such a trivial thing, but it's been bugging me ever since I started doing this SAQ thing. I think the main reason is that I'm not sure how important that box is and how much it contributes to the interview, so to speak. I DO do things that help enhance my knowledge, but isn't it better to just allow them to 'extract' the knowledge out of me when/if I get an interview, rather than writing all the stuff out and making myself an obvious 'target', so to speak?


So, in this case, do you guys suggest me to still put the things in or leave the box out?