University Application

I am a Year 9 student and I love Computer science and I would like to pursue my career in a Computer Science field, and I really want to get into Cambridge or Imperial or UCL, I was wondering how to start while there is still much time before I would apply, I was wondering if any current Cambridge, UCL or Imperial students could tell me everything I need to do from now to get the highest possible chance of getting in? For A-Levels, I would like to do Maths, Further Maths and Physics and Computer Science. Aside from grades, do Cambridge care much about extra-curricular activities such as sports and music? I play Badminton and do swimming. Is there any other extra curricular activities I could do to boost my application.

Reply 1

Kymarnii

12

Original post by m1tz

I am a Year 9 student and I love Computer science and I would like to pursue my career in a Computer Science field, and I really want to get into Cambridge or Imperial or UCL, I was wondering how to start while there is still much time before I would apply, I was wondering if any current Cambridge, UCL or Imperial students could tell me everything I need to do from now to get the highest possible chance of getting in? For A-Levels, I would like to do Maths, Further Maths and Physics and Computer Science. Aside from grades, do Cambridge care much about extra-curricular activities such as sports and music? I play Badminton and do swimming. Is there any other extra curricular activities I could do to boost my application.

Hey!!

It's amazing to see young students already thinking about their future. The subject and universities are an amazing choice, which shows that you have done your research!

Your extra-curriculars are fine, but what you need to focus on are super-curriculars. If you don't know what this means, then please do ask!

Good Luck in your journey to pursuing Computer Science.

Reply 2

Singam21

12

Original post by m1tz

I am a Year 9 student and I love Computer science and I would like to pursue my career in a Computer Science field, and I really want to get into Cambridge or Imperial or UCL, I was wondering how to start while there is still much time before I would apply, I was wondering if any current Cambridge, UCL or Imperial students could tell me everything I need to do from now to get the highest possible chance of getting in? For A-Levels, I would like to do Maths, Further Maths and Physics and Computer Science. Aside from grades, do Cambridge care much about extra-curricular activities such as sports and music? I play Badminton and do swimming. Is there any other extra curricular activities I could do to boost my application.

Yh super curricular is all thats left, maybe if ur in the uk, DofE is a good thing to have. Maybe if you do some coding in your spare time, make something useful that would really really impress

Reply 3

m1tz

OP

2

Original post by Kymarnii

Hey!!
It's amazing to see young students already thinking about their future. The subject and universities are an amazing choice, which shows that you have done your research!
Your extra-curriculars are fine, but what you need to focus on are super-curriculars. If you don't know what this means, then please do ask!
Good Luck in your journey to pursuing Computer Science.

Sure I will ask thank you.

Reply 4

m1tz

OP

2

Original post by Singam21

Yh super curricular is all thats left, maybe if ur in the uk, DofE is a good thing to have. Maybe if you do some coding in your spare time, make something useful that would really really impress

Thankfully, I am doing DOFE, Do you have any other suggestions?

Reply 5

Anonymous #1

Original post by m1tz

Thankfully, I am doing DOFE, Do you have any other suggestions?

you should do work experience and read books but i think it's very early to be doing that now, if you did it in y11 (eg the summer after gcses) you will by then have a greater understanding of the area and be able to recount the experiences more intellectually. this is just my opinion, others might say it's great to do it now. of course, you can do multiple work experiences starting now i just think that's adding on extra work and effort.

what you could do is learn skills, eg some coding. you don't need to be an expert now but if you start to learn it gradually that would be good

in terms of extra curriculars, they're just a sentence at the end of your personal statement, eg "outside of my studies i enjoy playing badminton and swimming" "i developed transferrable leadership skills in my DofE experience" so i don't think you need to do more for the application

Reply 6

JustBenjamin

12

While it may seem extra curriculars would matter for Oxbridge since you hear a lot about them for Ivys they really don’t matter at all, so don’t worry about them i would say, just mention what you’re doing at the time. In general it won’t have an impact on your application, and there’s no point in doing things like DofE, especially not for comp sci.
As mentioned by others what matters way more is super curriculars. Either doing some coding related projects, where arduino might be a good start, or work experience could be good ways to show passion. You don’t necessarily need work experience, or even books for computer science, if you can show your passion in other ways, but super curriculars can often be the main subject of a personal statement so it would be good to have some projects to write about, though they do usually care more about more recent stuff, so the main thing for now is just focusing on grades.
In terms of A levels that sounds like a good combination for comp sci.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 7

study23!

Study Forum Helper

16

Original post by m1tz

I am a Year 9 student and I love Computer science and I would like to pursue my career in a Computer Science field, and I really want to get into Cambridge or Imperial or UCL, I was wondering how to start while there is still much time before I would apply, I was wondering if any current Cambridge, UCL or Imperial students could tell me everything I need to do from now to get the highest possible chance of getting in? For A-Levels, I would like to do Maths, Further Maths and Physics and Computer Science. Aside from grades, do Cambridge care much about extra-curricular activities such as sports and music? I play Badminton and do swimming. Is there any other extra curricular activities I could do to boost my application.