The UCAS personal statement

The personal statement is a key part of your UCAS application. It will be sent to all the universities to which you apply. It may be more important for the other universities (apart from Cambridge) because they will probably not interview you whereas Cambridge almost certainly will.

The personal statement is approximately one page page long of typed text in which you'll talk about why you want to go to university to study a course and why you should be admitted. It will be read by the people making admissions decisions. When you apply to Cambridge, the amount it is used varies greatly. Sometimes you'll be asked about things you mentioned in your personal statement at interview, although I wasn't and it seemed like they hadn't read it because the interviewers didn't have a copy at interview and didn't ask anything about it. So it might be the case that it's not mentioned at all, although sometimes interviews will focus around things you've said in your personal statement you it needs to be good just in case.

The general structure I followed was:

Interests in the subject I applied for
Other academic interests and achievements
Non academic extra curricular activities
Brief summary referencing the first paragraph

That is, over half of my statement was based on academics as opposed to non academic extra curriculars. This worked for me and is what I'd recommend because you are ultimately applying to read an academic subject at university. Extra curriculars are important, and you should have several that you can mention along with evidence of achievements. For example, sporting achievements such as winning competitions or representing teams are worth mentioning, as are music achievements such as grades, competitions, diplomas and so on. However in the end the main thing you want to show is your interest, ability and achievements that relate to the subject you're applying for. If you've taken A levels early or got particularly good GCSEs you might want to draw attention to them in your statement.

This is easier for some subjects than others. For example, if you've studied a subject at school and are applying for that subject at university, you'll be able to mention outside reading and work you've done in that field as well as achievements you may have through school such as UKMT maths challenges or Olympiads.

There used to be an additional Cambridge statement where you could talk about why you chose that college and college choice but that's since been got rid of. Since your UCAS statement goes to every university you apply do, you can't really talk about college choice here. Anything Cambridge specific should be left out as well.

So the main thing to sell in your personal statement is your interest and ability in the subject you're applying for. Also mention lots of outside interests but focus on what you're applying for as that is predominantly what you'll be judged on.

What GCSE grades do I need?

One thing you might be wondering when you are thinking about applying to Cambridge is what GCSE grades you need to have a chance of getting in. The first thing to say is that good GCSE grades are an important prerequisite for getting into Cambridge, but they are not usually a deciding factor. A level results are much more important but that does not mean GCSE grades don't matter. If you are thinking about applying to Cambridge, you probably already have GCSEs that are good enough to apply. However Cambridge are very unlikely to use GCSEs as a deciding factor when making admissions decisions.

Now onto what exactly "good" GCSEs are. To be seriously considered when applying, for most subjects you want to have at least about 5 A*s at GCSE, with the rest at mostly A grade level. You can get away with the odd worse grade, for example one B is not going to rule you out. I also know of someone who got into Oxford for physics with 3 A*s at GCSE. However the more A*s you have, the better. Medicine is notoriously difficult to get in for and the AVERAGE student has 8 A*s at GCSE, which means you really cannot have much less than this if you want to do medicine or veterinary medicine. Emmanuel only took 2 people out of 30 who they interviewed in 2006 for veterinary medicine and so the competition for these subjects can be fierce.

The grades I've given here (4/5 A*s for most subjects, 8 A*s for medicine) are really just enough to get your application to be considered. If you only just meet these, you'll need to make you application stand out in other respects. If you want your GCSEs to be a big plus, you'll need to be doing better than the average admitted student.

How high your GCSEs can go will largely be determined by your school. If you go to a comprehensive, you'll be doing well to get 8 A*s but if you go to selective state (grammar) or private school you might well be able to do a lot better. For example I know someone who got in for law with 12 A*s and 2 As at GCSE. However I also know of someone who got rejected with 11 A*s and 2 As at GCSE for economics so GCSEs are not really used as a deciding factor.

If you don't have amazing GCSEs, for example no A*s then Cambridge may ask questions as to why this is but so long as you've got several A*s and As, it doesn't make much difference as to whether you've got 6 A*s or 10 A*s. At this point the decision will probably be made more on other factors, such as the interview and personal statement. Different colleges may also give different weightings to GCSEs.

In summary, so long as you can get several A*s and the rest mainly As, you'll have good enough GCSEs to be seriously considered for a place at Cambridge.

College differences

In a previous post I talked about how much college choice mattered when applying to Cambridge. In this post I'll be giving an overview of some of the differences between colleges.

There are 31 colleges at Cambridge from which to choose where to apply. However you can rule out Darwin and Clare Hall as they only admit post graduate students. Three are women only (Murray Edwards, Lucy Cavendish, New Hall) and four are mature students (over 21) only (St Edmund's, Wolfson, Hughes Hall, Lucy Cavendish).

So there are 23 mainstream colleges to choose from. They vary in many different respects. Firstly is age. The oldest college is Peterhouse which dates from the 13th century whereas newer colleges such as Robinson and Churchill were only founded in the 20th century. The age of a college impacts on the architectural style of the college as well as the accommodation style. Older colleges such as Trinity and King's have far more impressive grounds than newer ones such as Robinson however the accommodation in older buildings can sometimes be worse. You are more likely to be able to get en suite accommodation in Robinson than in some of the older colleges.

The age of the college is also correlated with the size of the college's endowment, that is how rich it is. The wealth of a college impacts its students in several ways. Older colleges tend to be richer than newer colleges. For example St John's and Trinity are the richest colleges. However there are exceptions, for example Queens' is 15th century however is not that rich in comparison to the other old colleges.

Rich colleges can afford to give more money to its students. For example there will be more money available in the form of things like travel grants and book grants. Some colleges such as Trinity will reimburse printing and binding costs for things like dissertations, others such as Robinson will pay for students' languages courses (which cost around £100 for students). Colleges also reward students' good exam results with scholarships and the size of these varies greatly between colleges. For example, Queens' gives £75 to people who get a First in their first year whereas Trinity gives £250 and St John's gives £400. The only problem with choosing to apply to an older, richer college is that many people will want to go there and so it might be difficult to get in.

Colleges also vary in the facilities that they have available to students. For example Jesus has its own astro turf sports pitch, most have gyms (although these are poor quality on the whole), some such as Churchill have squash courts, St John's has its own snooker table, some colleges on the river Cam have their own punts and so on. If you are interested in sports, it is worth checking out what will be available at your chosen college.

The location of a college is another factor to take into consideration. Colleges range from being right in the center of Cambridge, such as King's, to 3 miles out of the city (Girton). Girton and Homerton are far out from the city and since no one in Cambridge drives, it means you'll have to walk, cycle or get the bus every day to lectures, which might be quite a distance. I'd strongly recommend applying to a central college unless you have some reason not too. You may want to pick a college near to your faculty or department buildings, where you'll have lectures. For example, Churchill is particularly popular with computer science applicants, in part due to its close proximity to the William Gates Building where 2nd and 3rd year computer science lectures are held.

Overall, I've given an overview of some of the main differences between colleges here but there are more which you might want to look into such as their reputation for your subject, how easy it is to get in, music, arts and drama opportunities, library facilities and so on.

A levels

In this post I'm going to talk about A level choices and how they affect your chances of getting into Cambridge.

Firstly, when I applied was before the new A* grade had been brought in and so the top A level grade was an A. Back then the standard offer from Cambridge was at least AAA. However, since the new A* grade has come in, offers will normally be at least A*AA and there has so far even been one case of an A*A*A* offer being made but this is not yet commonplace.

If you do get an offer, you've got through the toughest part of the selection process (in most cases) and you'll have from January until the summer to make sure you're up to standard on all your subjects to ensure you meet the offer. There are a few exceptions, mainly maths where you might get a STEP offer which is a LOT tougher than A levels.

With regards to which A levels to pick, Cambridge recommend doing 4 or 5 AS levels and then 3 or 4 full A levels. They say those doing 4 ASs will not be disadvantaged against those doing 5 however I would not agree with this. Overall you want your application to stand out as one of the best and doing more A levels helps with this. Basically 3 A levels is not enough. The average entry qualifications (before the A* grade) to Cambridge was AAAAa (4 As at A level and an A at AS level). This means you should be doing at least 5 ASs and 4 A levels if you want to be at the average entry standard.

If you are able to do more A levels then all the better but once you start going past 4 you need to make sure you're still going to have enough time to do interview preparation. I know multiple people who got in with 5As at A level and one who got 6As at full A level. Doing this many is not necessary but it does help you to stand out.

Doing A levels early also helps to make you stand out. For example doing all of one or even two A levels by the end of Year 12 will show your work ethic and motivation. It will also help to take the pressure off in Year 13 when you need to prepare for the Cambridge interview. I would definitely recommend this if you're able to do it.

I do not know what standard offers will be like now the new A* has come in, but it used to be the case that Cambridge said the standard offer was AAA but they'd do things like making an offer of As in further maths, physics and chemistry which is effectively a AAAA offer as you have to get an A in maths to get an A in further maths. AAAC offers were commonplace if you were doing 4 A levels and AAAEE was commonplace for 5 A levels.

With regards to subject choices, Cambridge provide a list of subjects that are recommended at A level when applying to different courses. For your chosen course, anything that is essential or highly desirable you should definitely be doing at A level if you want any chance of getting in for that subject. Different colleges have different subject requirements which may influence which college you choose.

When picking the remainaing subjects, you want to choose hard, difficult, academic subjects like maths, physics, geography, english literature and so on. You should not be choosing easy subjects like media studies, business studies, theatre studies. These are looked down on by people at Cambridge which you don't want.

In summary then, I'd recommend doing at least 4 full A levels and preferably 5 if you can manage it, all at at least A grade level, in hard subjects that are relevant to your chosen course. If possible, try to complete 1 or 2 full A levels by the end of Year 12.

Does college choice matter?

Cambridge make out that college choice is no big deal and doesn't matter that much. In this post I give my views on whether college choice matters when applying.

When you're filling out the UCAS application forms to apply to Cambridge, you'll need to choose which Cambridge college you want to apply to. If you do get in, your college will be where you live, eat, socialise, have supervisions (small teaching groups) and much more. It is a huge part of your life at Cambridge.

When I was applying, I found choosing a college quite difficult since the information Cambridge provide officially is very generic and not that helpful in differentiating colleges. You can read the official line on selecting a college. It's a good starting point but by no means the best advice on how to choose.

The problem is that the university has to remain impartial with regards to colleges. They cannot say one college is better than another for a subject, even though there are vast differences between colleges.

If you read the offical advice, you'll see:

Don’t agonise too long over choosing a College. They have many more similarities than differences and most students quickly settle in and really enjoy their College, wherever they end up!

This is not completely true. Colleges are HUGELY different and make an enormous difference to your time at Cambridge. If you do get into Cambridge, most of your friends will be in your college, you'll eat, sleep and live there and spend the majority of your time there. Although this does not help with choosing a college, you need to be aware that it is a much bigger decision than the university like to let on.

Since the university has to remain impartial to all colleges, it can be very difficult to tell the difference from the website and prospectus. If you go to a school that sends a lot of people to Cambridge, you'll be able to get the scoop on different colleges but if you don't you might not be able to tell the differences.

On the official advice site you'll see:

How NOT to choose a College

Based on application statistics

* Many applicants think, or are advised, that choosing a College that attracts fewer applications or making an open application will increase their chance of getting an offer. In fact, careful analysis of our admissions statistics shows that, for equally well qualified applicants, College or open application choice does not affect the chance of being offered a place at Cambridge. This is because we have rigorous procedures in place to compare all applicants for each subject before selection decisions are finalised.
* Also, Colleges would rather admit a strong applicant from the pool than a weaker applicant who applied directly to them. Through the pool, strong applicants who’ve been squeezed out by the competition at their original College can be made an offer by another College.

That is they say you shouldn't choose a college based on how many people applied there in previous years for your subject. This advice is not that helpful and the statements below are not completely accurate. They mention "careful analysis" of admission statistics showing that college choice does not make a difference, but give no explanation of the analysis carried out. It also doesn't explain what the "rigorous procedures" are. In fact this is not true because before pooled applicants are made offers, other people already get offers so all applicants are not compared before selection decisions are made.

On the second point, whilst it may be true that colleges prefer to take stronger candidates from the pool than weaker direct applicants, the fact is that colleges must make decisions on their direct applicants before they can see the pool. They do not turn down direct applicants, look at the pool and then go back and make offers to rejected people because the pool was worse than they expected.

So in summary, yes, college choice matters a lot if you care about getting in and your Cambridge experience if you do get in. The main points to remember are that college choice is an EXTREMELY important part of your application. It greatly affects your chances of admission and will determine your complete university experience if you do get in.

In future posts I'll explore the differences between colleges, admission statistics and how to go about choosing a college.