Cambridge deadline/ Predicteds

Are you applying through your school with a buzzword or independently?

If applying through your school I'd suggest submitting it then urgently raising the question on Monday morning with whoever is responsible for coordinating UCAS applications to understand if this will be done, given you are applying by the earlier deadline.

If you're applying as an independent student (i.e. you're a mature student who has been out of education for some time, you are at uni elsewhere and your uni tutors are providing a reference, or similar) then this may be more complicated given the timeframe.

Reply 2

Im a mature student who is applying thru a reliable third party, but i fell ill some while back which created a week's delay in things. They havent been responding to me for a week, but they did respond yesterday, saying they'd call me today (no call so far)

Reply 3

Original post by AHAWA

What do you mean a "third party"? You should be applying directly through UCAS yourself in this case. Note UCAS explicitly states it is the applicants responsibility to ensure all parts are completed before any relevant deadlines.

Also you will need an academic referee who is familiar with your academic work and can a reference for you and provide your predicted grades - this should be organised well in advance of the deadline. Have you actually entered their information and clicked for it to go through to them in the referee section, and are just waiting for confirmation they've completed it? Or have you not done that yet?

In either event with the deadline in a few days for Oxbridge, and it being the weekend now, you basically have to get this sorted out between now and the end of Monday (the deadline is 1800 hrs on Tuesday but they will still need to actually get everything filled in and submitted and account for potential system issues so realistically you need to be aiming to get it done on the Monday in case it takes several attempts to submit it...).

As noted above, as per UCAS it's the applicants responsibility to ensure the reference is completed and submitted before any relevant deadlines, and they do advise the applicant should contact the referee in advance to get their agreement (and practically: to also inform them of the relevant deadlines and follow up as needed to ensure it's completed by then).

Realistically also it is far too late to organise a new referee as usually they need a couple weeks to review your information and write your reference on top of their other responsibilities.

Reply 4

Original post by artful_lounger

What do you mean a "third party"? You should be applying directly through UCAS yourself in this case. Note UCAS explicitly states it is the applicants responsibility to ensure all parts are completed before any relevant deadlines.
Also you will need an academic referee who is familiar with your academic work and can a reference for you and provide your predicted grades - this should be organised well in advance of the deadline. Have you actually entered their information and clicked for it to go through to them in the referee section, and are just waiting for confirmation they've completed it? Or have you not done that yet?
In either event with the deadline in a few days for Oxbridge, and it being the weekend now, you basically have to get this sorted out between now and the end of Monday (the deadline is 1800 hrs on Tuesday but they will still need to actually get everything filled in and submitted and account for potential system issues so realistically you need to be aiming to get it done on the Monday in case it takes several attempts to submit it...).
As noted above, as per UCAS it's the applicants responsibility to ensure the reference is completed and submitted before any relevant deadlines, and they do advise the applicant should contact the referee in advance to get their agreement (and practically: to also inform them of the relevant deadlines and follow up as needed to ensure it's completed by then).
Realistically also it is far too late to organise a new referee as usually they need a couple weeks to review your information and write your reference on top of their other responsibilities.

Update: disregard the inaccuracies i was panicked. they responded, luckily im ok!

Reply 5

Original post by AHAWA

Update: disregard the inaccuracies i was panicked. they responded, luckily im ok!

That's good news!

Always worth trying to get reference matters sorted far in advance to avoid last minute stress but good thing it turned out all right :smile:

Reply 6

Original post by artful_lounger

That's good news!
Always worth trying to get reference matters sorted far in advance to avoid last minute stress but good thing it turned out all right :smile:

Thanks! I have a question that you might be able to help me with- are mature students particularly disadvantaged when it comes to applying to cambridge? Ill turn 21 month before course starts.

Reply 7

Original post by AHAWA

Thanks! I have a question that you might be able to help me with- are mature students particularly disadvantaged when it comes to applying to cambridge? Ill turn 21 month before course starts.

No, they shouldn't be. If anything, Cambridge might have slightly better awareness around mature student matters since they have dedicated mature undergraduate colleges (who as I understand, support the all ages colleges who receive mature applications as well as managing mature students who apply to their own colleges).

Certainly in principle they aim to ensure mature students don't face barriers in applying or in their admissions processes in any event (same as with any protected characteristic).

Reply 8