Why does Downing College have different entry requirements for law?

Downing College at Cambridge has minimum entry requirements of A*A*A, unlike the rest of Cambridge, which has A*AA for law. Why is there this difference and, if I am predicted A*A*A+ would it be a good idea to apply to Downing College due to perhaps fewer applicants. Also, if I was pooled to Downing College after applying elsewhere, could I then get an unexpectedly high offer?

Reply 1

JustBenjamin

12

Original post by Anonymous

Downing College at Cambridge has minimum entry requirements of A*A*A, unlike the rest of Cambridge, which has A*AA for law. Why is there this difference and, if I am predicted A*A*A+ would it be a good idea to apply to Downing College due to perhaps fewer applicants. Also, if I was pooled to Downing College after applying elsewhere, could I then get an unexpectedly high offer?

Cambridge admissions are less centralized so colleges can have different requirements but I wouldn’t expect as much difference in number of applicants from this. In terms of unexpectedly high offer yes though, in fact even if a college has lower entry requirements they can give you a higher offer, not sure how often this happens in humanities but I know stem people with 4A* offers for subject with standard requirements of 2A*A

Reply 2

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

21

Original post by Anonymous

Downing College at Cambridge has minimum entry requirements of A*A*A, unlike the rest of Cambridge, which has A*AA for law. Why is there this difference and, if I am predicted A*A*A+ would it be a good idea to apply to Downing College due to perhaps fewer applicants. Also, if I was pooled to Downing College after applying elsewhere, could I then get an unexpectedly high offer?

As above, the colleges set the requirements. Downing has historically been linked to law as a subject area so I believe is somewhat more oversubscribed than others as a result (similar to but not to the same degree as Trinity for maths). I believe Churchill actually used to set 4 A-level offers for all applicants to law. Not sure if they still do it.

Reply 3

lalexm

16

Original post by JustBenjamin

Cambridge admissions are less centralized so colleges can have different requirements but I wouldn’t expect as much difference in number of applicants from this. In terms of unexpectedly high offer yes though, in fact even if a college has lower entry requirements they can give you a higher offer, not sure how often this happens in humanities but I know stem people with 4A* offers for subject with standard requirements of 2A*A

It happens a lot, even in humanities subjects. If you are lucky your get the minimum, but it is very common to need the A* in a specific subject, needing an additional A* above the minimum, or getting a 4 A-level offer, if you are studying 4 A-levels.

Why does Downing College have different entry requirements for law?

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