Cambridge Linguistics applicants 2024

Hi I had to make an account just to reply to this lol. As far as I can tell there isn't another thread for this. It sucks looking for resources online because it's such a relatively niche course. But it's nice to see there's at least one other person also applying for linguistics at Cambridge

yes, hopefully more people will find this thread at some point. What A-levels are you doing?

I'm doing English lit, politics, Econ. Wbu?

hiiii!! just graduated my ib diploma and going to do linguistics at cambridge this year. its so great seeing people interested in doing this subject!! if u guys have any questions u can ask me.. I hope everyone does the best!!

so glad I found this thread!! I also want to ask for tips on the admission tests as there seems to only be 2 past papers/ specimen papers online ;-; maybe doing some linguistics olympiad past papers will help since they are kinda similar?

so glad I found this thread!! I also want to ask for tips on the admission tests as there seems to only be 2 past papers/ specimen papers online ;-; maybe doing some linguistics olympiad past papers will help since they are kinda similar?

Yess they do help!!! I never knew ILO until after Jan, but their questions are cool. i do find cambridge's questions to be a bit harder tho!

Ah, when you refer to ILO questions may I ask which level of questions are you referring to? I actually participated in the 'regional round' of linguistics olympiad last year (didn't get in globals oops) so I had a go at the sample questions here: https://ioling.org/problems/samples/
I feel like the 'Easy' and 'Intermediate' problems are doable but the 'Hard' problems really rekted my brain, and the ILO past papers are even harder - where would you say the Cambridge questions rest? Thank you!

Hey everyone, did anyone else go to the open day on Friday? How are you all doing w your personal statements? Mine’s due by the end of this week (!)

Not at UK so didn't go ;-; I've completed my personal statement, but I am worried that it is too focused on sociolinguistics while Cambridge doesn't really offer it anymore (changed syllabus from Language, Brain and Society to Language, Brain and Machines)

Not at UK so didn't go ;-; I've completed my personal statement, but I am worried that it is too focused on sociolinguistics while Cambridge doesn't really offer it anymore (changed syllabus from Language, Brain and Society to Language, Brain and Machines)

Its ok!!! They do focus on socioling.. first year is an introduction to all major branches of linguistics!! They have to teach socioling.

Oh I didn’t realise that they’d updated the course page! Ty for the update
Abt socio, I did talk to the dos for lings at Pembroke & she said that she was preparing a lecture about the history of code-switching I think it was, so there’ll def be smth in there for you! & if not, you could always write abt it for your dissertation lol

Edit: I can understand the reasoning behind updating the syllabus tho: a considerable amount of graduates have gone into FAANG after the whole NLP craze — they probably wanted to introduce it to more students for career prospects (?)

Not at UK so didn't go ;-; I've completed my personal statement, but I am worried that it is too focused on sociolinguistics while Cambridge doesn't really offer it anymore (changed syllabus from Language, Brain and Society to Language, Brain and Machines)

I'm also starting at Cambridge for linguistics this year. The introductory reading includes a number of books on sociolinguistics so I doubt that would be too much of a problem. I had a good chunk of mine focused on sociolinguistics as well. Just try to focus on a few different areas maybe.