Should I reapply to Cambridge if I get good results?

You will always be wondering 'what if' so its best to apply next year to Cambridge rather than go to Imperial with that niggling doubt at the back of your mind.

Gap year is not looked down upon because universities appreciate you will be a little older and wiser so easier to teach. Your life experience will make you stand out because you have the patience and resilience to cope with hard work and gained extra skills younger or immediate school leavers won't have.

What if you reapply and still don't get in... and in the process also don't get an offer from Imperial again? Because you'll have to reject all your current offers to be able to reapply and you'll be up against next years cohort for places. Its not a given.

Wow I'm in almost the exact situation as you; I was just rejected from Cambridge for Natural Sciences and I'm sure it's because of my admissions test and it's been weighing on me a lot, so I was considering reapplying but I think I'd rather take an offer that I already have than risk them for the chance of maybe getting in next year. It's true that you'll always wonder "what if" but that's true of every situation, and if you're happy with Imperial (which you should be because it's a massive achievement, congratulations) then you shouldn't be so worried about just one university that didn't give you an offer.

Also know that in your first year of whichever university you go to, if you are still thinking about Cambridge, then you can reapply there but you need to start the course from year 1 ( assuming you are successful and get in). You have all options available to you so your not losing out on anything. All the best!

I think this is wise. If you were left cold at the thought of Imperial then it would be worth reconsidering. But Imperial is a real prize to you that is not worth the risk. It feels as though you are mostly considering reapplying because of how things went wrong in the maths exam. Putting right a wrong that has irritated you greatly.
But these things happen and sometimes its best to just let go of it. I predict you will meet great people and do wonderful things at Imperial which would not have happened if it weren't for that test. That's the way life goes, in my experience.

I think this is wise. If you were left cold at the thought of Imperial then it would be worth reconsidering. But Imperial is a real prize to you that is not worth the risk. It feels as though you are mostly considering reapplying because of how things went wrong in the maths exam. Putting right a wrong that has irritated you greatly.
But these things happen and sometimes its best to just let go of it. I predict you will meet great people and do wonderful things at Imperial which would not have happened if it weren't for that test. That's the way life goes, in my experience.

What did you get in your TMUA? Did you get an interview, and if so, how was it?

It may be a mistake to just take a gap year just for the sake of reapplying to Cambridge. Imperial is still a very google uni that you should consider. They have really good connections with industry, and have a lot more practicals/group projects in their course. If you havs a quick google, the average salary of an Imperial CS graduate is even higher than Cambridge. Of course this also depends on what you want to do after uni, cause if you would want to do research, then Oxbridge is slightly better than Imperial. If you were going to take a gap year either way, then it wouldn't really matter if you were to reapply.

Remember: whatever uni you go to doesn't define your future. Whether you get into Oxbridge is not a measure of your intelligence.

Hi there! I got 7.8 in TMUA, 82/100 in MAT and SS in STEP. Happy to share tips and advice

In practice, I was scoring 7.5 on the 2022 paper (which was way harder than what we got). In the one we did, I scored 4.7 but that's down to timing. I didn't get half of my answers on the answer sheet for the first paper and then spent 25 minutes in the second paper not being in the right mindset and having a breakdown.
No interview, no nothing, which is really annoying because someone in my year got an interview for 5.2 score.

I agree with Imperial being great and I do want to enter industry which is why I'm probably not going to reapply, not to mention that someone worked out on another thread that as a home applicant, you have an 8.4% chance of getting in after removing the international student places available. I know I'm not that good so I don't see the point now. At my Imperial interview, in my group, literally EVERYONE had an Oxbridge interview and they were a smart group. It made me feel as though I got the interview through pure luck and even more so when I got the offer.

Hi everyone,

So I got rejected from Gonville and Caius college at the University of Cambridge for Computer Science. They didn't give me a specific reason on the rejection email (as per usual) but I knew for sure that it was the admissions test.

In the room that the admissions test was taking place, there were 7 other admissions tests in the same room. I was sat at the back of the room and the end timings were presented in a tabular format. I saw the wrong end timing which meant that for the first paper, I thought I had 15 minutes more than I actually did. This messed up with my timings and since I saw that I was working through the test extremely quickly, I wanted to pace myself more so that I don't make any stupid mistakes. The test wasn't even that hard and I had workings out which led to answers that matched the options for each of the questions but timing screwed me over because it meant that I only got half of my answers down on my answer sheet in the allotted time even though I had all of my answers in the question paper.

I have offers from the following places:

Imperial: A*AAA and Grade 2 in STEP II
Edinburgh: 3 A*s
Manchester: 3 A*s

Waiting on:
Durham (but anticipating the offer).


My GCSEs: 9999999988
My A levels: Maths, Further Maths, Computer Science, Chemistry and EPQ (5 A* predictions).


If I do well in my A levels, do you think it's worth me reapplying? I'm happy with Imperial but I really wanted to go to Cambridge too! I understand that there is a risk that I don't get the offer next year and that I will have basically given up a year but it's an opportunity I don't want to regret later on. I will be doing loads of cool projects and internships now that I will have more free time so that I can add and change stuff to my personal statement. I will also do loads of admissions test and interview practice to ensure that I stand out from the crowd. I think that this year destroyed me because of what happened in the admissions test. At least, if I don't get in next year, I will be content with the thought that I gave it a fair shot but I wasn't good enough and that I didn't submit some awful admissions test score that was down to me fumbling the wrong admissions test timing.

Let me know what you think. Options:

1) Be content with Imperial (which I am) and go for it.

2) Reapply for 2025 entry in the hope that you will get into Cambridge.

In practice, I was scoring 7.5 on the 2022 paper (which was way harder than what we got). In the one we did, I scored 4.7 but that's down to timing. I didn't get half of my answers on the answer sheet for the first paper and then spent 25 minutes in the second paper not being in the right mindset and having a breakdown.
No interview, no nothing, which is really annoying because someone in my year got an interview for 5.2 score.

I agree with Imperial being great and I do want to enter industry which is why I'm probably not going to reapply, not to mention that someone worked out on another thread that as a home applicant, you have an 8.4% chance of getting in after removing the international student places available. I know I'm not that good so I don't see the point now. At my Imperial interview, in my group, literally EVERYONE had an Oxbridge interview and they were a smart group. It made me feel as though I got the interview through pure luck and even more so when I got the offer.

Too bad it seems Cambridge Assessment has taken down the past year result statistics for TMUA, but according to the a website called "oxbridgemind" (i chose not to post the link because otherwise the post would be censored), "the scale is designed such that around a third of test takes will achieve overall scores higher than 6.5." So a 7.5 mark of TMUA probably around top 15~20% percentile. Your argument of "2022 paper was way harder" does not matter, because the result is scaled.

The reality is, as revealed by various FOI requests about cambridge admission, for a student ranked top 15% from the admission test, the probability of receiving an offer is only about 1/3.

Just want to point this out hoping to help you get over the admission test disaster which clealy is still haunting deeply.

Why not got to Imperial, prove yourself, and if you want, apply to Cambridge graduate course a few years later? make Cambridge regret they did not take you ealier!

Edit: that 1/3 probability offer success is actually for other STEM subjects. Computer science is now the most popular course, 8.4% success rate according to Cambridge admission statistics for 2022 cycle, the second most difficult course to get in (only after medicine graduate course 7.0% success rate), so 15% percentile TMUA rank would have even lower chance of receiving offer than 1/3.