History at Cambridge

Hi all,
I’ll be applying for uni (early application) this October and starting to write my personal statement, just wondering if anyone who’s at cambridge doing history can offer me any advice on this / admissions? Thinking I want to apply to Clare college, too!!

Hi! I'm doing History at Cambridge right now, so I might be able to answer some of your questions (although melancollege is right that the personal statement has changed, so unfortunately I can't give you any specific advice on how to deal with the new format). What do you want to know exactly?

Hi thank you so much! The new format of the personal statement hasn’t really changed much i don’t think apart from dividing it up into 3 sections, we’ve been told to just write it the old way and copy and paste it into each q haha. But I was just wondering how you formatted it in terms of topics explored - did you focus on one thing and explore it quite deeply, or a couple of different time periods etc?

There are honestly multiple ways to format it!
I personally focused on three different books I'd read and structured my paragraphs around them. Those were from/about different time periods, and I think that might be good because it shows that you have broad interests and like multiple areas of history. In addition, I had an introductory paragraph about my volunteering experience and a paragraph at the end that briefly mentioned some of my extracurriculars. Those were only a couple of sentences though, and I'd suggest using the majority of your text to describe your academic interests (like 80% academic 20% other stuff). I tried to connect my extracurriculars to skills I'd gained from them, but tbh it's not even necessary to mention them at all if you don't feel like it adds much!
I also know people who took a thematic approach; they chose one topic they were really interested in (for example women, or political history) and then related it to different books/time periods. While I personally didn't do this, I would say that it's always good to find some connection between your paragraphs (no matter how small), to make sure your text has a good flow (though that might be less important now with the three questions format).
Overall, my best piece of advice is to write about things you're really passionate about. If you get to the interview stage, you will almost certainly get asked about your personal statement. It's so much easier to answer questions about a book you genuinely liked than about a book you saw somewhere on a reading list.
If you have any other questions, feel free to ask, and good luck on your application!

Hi! I'm doing History at Cambridge right now, so I might be able to answer some of your questions (although melancollege is right that the personal statement has changed, so unfortunately I can't give you any specific advice on how to deal with the new format). What do you want to know exactly?

Hi, what books did you read for PS/ interview and what where the hardest questions you where asked in your interview