LONG POST WARNING!!!
Dear all who are doing / have done this course:
I am a sixth form student in Year 12, who wants to apply for Human, Social and Political Sciences at Cambridge. However, I have serious lingering doubts as to whether I could feasibly be eligible, although I am very aware that applying to Cambridge is a gamble for every single applicant, no matter their background, no matter their studies. It's worth admitting my main focus is the Politics so I would focus on that if I took the course.
A huge problem is that I'm not studying English Language/Literature or History, which 84% of successful applicants took. Typical applicants may have alternatively taken a language such as French (which I'm doing at A level). However all remaining applicants took Maths (which I'm doing at A level) or a "good choice subject". These subjects include Politics (doing at AS level) and a science such as Physics (A level). That being said this is data from 2017-19 so it may have changed since then.
To further help, I'm doing an EPQ which I know does not lower grade requirements but can help when choosing who gets an offer. As an AS and EPQ are both equivalent to half an A level I am doing the equivalent of 4 A levels. Might be worth mentioning my Politics AS tutor is also my EPQ supervisor and he's the head of the History Department, might that be any use in respect to History?
My sixth form does not offer Psychology, Philosophy (closest is Religious Studies) or Sociology at all, nor Politics as a full A level only AS, but maybe that could help as I might be expected to do one of those had I gone to a sixth form which could. Notably I'm the only student in the whole year doing the Politics AS so it's not something I can discuss or ask for help with any other students.
As it stands (very beginning of June) I'm told it is quite possible to raise UCAS grades between now and the deadline near the end of this calendar year. I'm currently looking at A* in French, A in Physics, B in Maths, so if I raise an A to A* and a B to A I should be able to secure A*A*A, as 71% of successful applicants achieved. For Politics and EPQ no predicted grades given yet. I'm told most of my work on EPQ and AS will be in summer holidays so I guess I can get predictions afterwards. As you may notice Maths is my worst, which is why I'm not interested in PPE at Oxford.
So to summarise 3 A levels, plus 1 AS, plus 1 EPQ, totalling the equivalent of 4.
Of course most applicants aren't successful for every single course at Cambridge, but HSPS is very competitive and I'm afraid it might not be worth trying, due to 5 applications max, if I'm not up to the job. On the other hand my sixth form does have great success rates, with Oxbridge offers in 2021 being over a quarter of students in that particular year (if my calculations are correct). If you are doing HSPS at Cambridge please give feedback and advice on my situation!
Thanks for taking the time to read this very long post.