theology at Cambridge

Hi, I'm a current first year student at Cambridge studying Theology!
When I was preparing for my interviews, I looked at the reading list on the Divinity Faculty website and chose a few books from there which I thought sounded of particular interest. If you have any specific interests, then have a look what books/essays you can find related to those e.g. I read a book of essays on feminist interpretation of the Bible because I'm interested in religion and feminism.
For something a bit different to just reading books, the Radio 4 In Our Time podcasts are good introduction to some interesting topics within Theology and are only 45 minutes to an hour long. Again, it is a good idea to be guided by your personal interests as this will help you write your personal statement.
Other than the above, I kept up to date with news stories related to Theology and learned the Biblical Hebrew alphabet in preparation for the language paper (they do not expect any prior knowledge of the language, so don't worry too much about this- I was on a gap year so had lots of free time!)
I did my interviews in person, so had a different experience to anyone who interviewed this year. I had two interviews at the college I applied to, one subject based and one more general, and then another subject based interview at a different college. I also did an admissions assessment on the same day.
Hope this helps- please feel free to get in touch if you have any more questions and best of luck!

Hello! I am applying for theology at Cambridge this October. I’m not sure what college to apply to?! I quite like trinity but don’t know how competitive it would be for theology?! Please help!

It's such a tiny course that I wouldn't worry about this as might for other subjects. Things also really fluctuate, it's not uncommon for a college not to take someone for theology for a year or two every so often if the quality of the applicants isn't great. The only thing with Trinity is depends how much of an arts balance you want they are normally STEM heavy (and maths - 40/200 students a year are literally just Maths). Also not v high state school compared to most colleges, if you look at the stuff on the stats page it takes you to a tableau option which is detailed - Trinity always have a massive difference in applicants and offers (like. 70% who apply are state but they barely make 60% offers to state), in case that's your school type just interesting to know imo

Yes I think I’d actually prefer a smaller college because then there’s more mixing between undergrads and year groups. I’m thing Sidney Sussex or St Catherine’s. Are these good? Any cons I should know about? Also are you an undergrad, or just a Cambridge enthusiast?! I’m Tom and I’m a prospective theology undergrad in year 13

Alumni! Both of those are nice sized colleges, and all the rest but I'd pick catz for facilities and accommodation for sure. It's a little less central than Sidney but there's a chunk of the Sidney accommodation that comes onto the central streets and well, at night, you'll have people exiting the clubs as well as some... Interesting characters about (such is the nature of living the middle of a city centre). Catz are just out of that but still close. Though part of the accommodations are I think more out toward Sidgwick site, which would suit for Theology in any case.

Hello, thank you for that. Catz is certainly up there in my choices. As of now I’m actually thinking Jesus; it appears to be a medium sized college with a director of studies for theology with somewhat similar interests to mine. However, part of me still thinks Catz because apparently applying to a smaller college increases chances of getting in? Perhaps you could confirm? What college and course did you do?! Thanks again

Nah college size doesn't affect your Cambridge chances so just pick the one you like/vibe with. I did Law at Murray Edwards, graduated a couple of years ago but friends from all over through societies etc. Jesus also nice, like catz has had recent developments of some facilities so pretty nice

Cool. So there’s not dodgy reputations or stereotypes at Jesus? Also, as a state school student (nevertheless still a straight white male), is there any colleges that actively seek state school students that I might have a high chance of getting into?