91Ö±²¥

Yes! We are happy to welcome prospective applicants to visit the College at any time. Just tell our friendly Porters you’re thinking about applying here when you arrive at our Porters’ Lodge on Trinity Street (CB2 1TA).

The best time to visit us is on one of our open days in early July or mid-September.

We do not normally consider applications from students currently enrolled on a degree course at another UK university, unless:

1. You are in the final year of your current course and are applying for a second undergraduate degree or
2. You are completing a standalone Foundation Year or taking credit-bearing courses with the Open University (or comparable institution) or
3. You have exceptional circumstances which mean that you are unable to continue at your current institution or
4. You want to change from what you're studying to a substantially different subject.

In cases 3 or 4, you will need strong support in the form of a written reference or letter of support from your course director or tutor. You may also be asked to demonstrate that you have sufficient funding to complete the Cambridge degree where you have already used part of your Lifelong Learning Entitlement. 

We recognise that there may be good reasons for students from outside the UK to be undertaking an initial period of study at a local university. If that applies to you, and you have further questions, please contact us at admissions@cai.cam.ac.uk.

Please note that it is not possible to transfer credit to Cambridge from another University. 

If you do not disclose prior undergraduate study via your UCAS application, this will be treated as a fraudulent application, and your application may be cancelled

No! In all cases, we recommend applicants taking a gap year to keep up with their subject during their time out of formal education (perhaps an hour or two a week spent reading or otherwise engaging academically). This is particularly important in subjects with heavy maths content, as mathematical problem solving skills can fade in the total absence of practice.

Yes, we do. Three undergraduate colleges at the University are ‘mature only’: Wolfson, Hughes Hall and St Edmund’s. Mature applicants often choose to apply to one of these colleges as they are specifically set up to support the mature student experience. But we are happy to consider applications from mature applicants at 91Ö±²¥.

Any applicant can choose to apply for deferred entry. Your application will be considered in the same way as if you had applied for direct entry the immediately following October. Applicants applying for direct entry are assessed in a gathered field; applicants for deferred entry are necessarily assessed against a field which, in the main, does not yet exist. In our experience this can mean that it is slightly harder to be successful as a deferred applicant than a direct entry one. 

Only for our Medicine course (25 students per year, of which 2 can be overseas). The limit on the number of overseas students each year on our Medicine course is set by the UK government.

We welcome applications from students with disabilities and are committed to providing the necessary support throughout the application process, and whilst studying at Cambridge. We would encourage you to come along to an open day to visit 91Ö±²¥ and your chosen department/faculty to check where they are located and that we/they can meet your needs. Our application process is fair, accessible and inclusive and, if you're a disabled student, your application will be assessed in the same way as any other application. More information can be found on the University’s support page, .

Our admissions process across the University of Cambridge is contextualised. This means Admissions Tutors and subject experts want to get a sense of each applicant as an individual, within the context in which they have so far undertaken their educational journey. The fact that applicants are divided across 29 different undergraduate colleges in Cambridge enables the University admissions process to run in such a highly individualised way. 

We take all kinds of context into account when assessing applicants: school context (average GCSE and A level performance of the school(s)/college an applicant went to, history of Oxbridge progression at an applicant’s school/college); local area context (the socio-economic characteristics of an applicant’s postcode area); individual context (current or recent Free School Meals eligibility; care experience; any personal and individual factors that have affected an applicant’s individual journey and/or will affect their performance in the admissions process).

Contextual data is not one extra item on the list of admissions criteria we consider but rather the lens through which all of those criteria are viewed and evaluated.

At 91Ö±²¥ we interview the majority of applicants for undergraduate study - usually between 60 and 70%. As is the case across the University, rates of interview differ between subjects, with the average figure in subjects with pre-registration required assessments being closer to 50%, and the average figure in other subjects often being well over 70%.

For the 2026/27 application cycle, should your application reach the interview stage:

If you are at school in the UK or Ireland, then you will be offered an in-person interview. You will have the option of choosing an online interview if you prefer. If you are at school overseas, your interview will be online. We are completely confident in both modes of assessment, and neither hold any inherent advantage or disadvantage.

My Cambridge Application is a mandatory additional form that you need to complete if you're applying to study an undergraduate degree at Cambridge. This is in addition to your UCAS application, and the deadline for the My Cambridge Application is typically one week after the UCAS deadline in October. Please check the University’s webpage for the exact deadline date for this year: . The form is personalised, so you’ll only be asked questions which are relevant to your application. If you do not submit your My Cambridge Application, your application to Cambridge will be discontinued.

Within the My Cambridge Application form, you have the opportunity to submit an ‘Additional Personal Statement’. This is optional, and you will not be disadvantaged for not completing it, however it is a good opportunity to highlight what interested you in the course at Cambridge specifically, or to tell us more about the ways in which you’re exploring your subject outside of your school curriculum (if you haven’t been able to cover this fully in your UCAS personal statement).

*Please note that, whilst the Additional Personal Statement section within the My Cambridge Application form is optional, the My Cambridge Application form itself is mandatory*

We are looking for applicants with a genuine enjoyment of and interest in the subject they want to study here at Cambridge. Competitive applicants will be working at or close to the top of their school cohorts in subjects relevant to the proposed course of study in Cambridge. We want applicants who are able to think: to be mentally agile and adaptable when presented with new information, be that an unfamiliar problem to solve or an unfamiliar text to read. In short, we are looking for academic potential - and we are not interested in anything that is not relevant to that. So, we are not looking for cultural capital; a particular kind of school background; a particular kind of personality; extra-curricular excellence (or indeed participation). We simply want to admit students with the most academic potential in the subject they've applied for.

No one part of an application is given a heavier weight than another. Each application is assessed in its entirety, and each part of an application is important.

In subjects with pre-registration required assessments, however, we do want to stress the particular importance of these assessments in both our selection and deselection processes. Generally, candidates who have performed in the bottom quartile or two in these assessments, within the gathered field of test-takers in their subject, are unlikely to be successful in our admissions process and, in many cases, to be interviewed.

Absolutely. Our aim in the admissions process is to get a sense of each applicant as an individual. If something has affected your education, we want to hear about it so we can take it into account. The best place to tell us about extenuating circumstances is the UCAS reference. You can also tell us about factors affecting your education as part of the My Cambridge Application portal. If for any reason that is not possible or sufficient, you can also contact us with information once you have made your application.

We do not have a minimum GCSE requirement. 

GCSEs are contextualised and evaluated against the average performance in the school in which you sat them. As a general rule, we want to see applicants who are close to or at the top of their cohorts in relevant subjects to their proposed course of study at Cambridge. A low GCSE performance within an applicant’s school context, especially when combined with other less positive indicators in an application, can be a reason for deselection (that is, not being invited to interview).

We also contextualise your GCSE performance by considering the wider context within which you have undertaken your educational journey (see section on ‘contextual data’). We recognise that candidates can underperform at GCSE for a range of reasons. If you are worried about the potential competitiveness of your application here at 91Ö±²¥, we would be happy to hear from you. But please bear in mind that applications are assessed in a gathered field: the best way to find out if you will be competitive, ultimately, is to apply!

The best grades are the grades you apply with – whether these are predicted or achieved, we will assess your application in the same attempt to gauge your individual academic potential. We trust the predicted grades we receive as part of your application.

Because of the nature of the university admissions process in the UK, we run our selection process at a time of year when the majority of UK applicants are yet to sit their A levels/Advanced Highers/equivalent exams. This means that, for these candidates, we make offers in January which are conditional on future exam performance. Every year, we make around 200–220 offers for 155–165 places at 91Ö±²¥. A sizeable minority of offer-holders sadly miss their offer every year. It is also true that a number of offer-holders exceed their predictions when they take their summer exams.

Achieved grades do not change: they will not go down, but they also will not go up. So neither predicted nor achieved grades are ‘better’, and we advise you to apply when you’re ready to apply.

Our view at 91Ö±²¥ is that there is no inherent advantage to taking 4 A-levels over 3. Our admissions process is competitive, and applicants are understandably often keen to find ways to ‘stand out’. We would gently encourage applicants with this attitude to reframe it as a desire to best represent and further the genuine interest they have in the subject they want to study here. Taking on extra A levels will not make you ‘stand out’; cultivating your interest in your subject beyond the school curriculum, your ability to think critically and flexibly, to problem solve – all of this will make your application stronger in a way that a fourth A level may not.

It may be that, if you have the opportunity to sit a fourth A level, that is the right decision for you. If you are interested in all four subjects and/or all four subjects are relevant to the subject you want to study at university, it may well be that taking a fourth A level is a good idea. But the simple fact of applying with a fourth A level will not make your application any stronger, and we would discourage applicants from taking on extra A levels purely for their own sake where they do not enjoy and are not interested in them.

The one exception to this is in Physical Natural Sciences. In our experience, applicants who offer Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry as a four do have a slight advantage. But we routinely accept many applicants in this subject without all four of these.

Yes, absolutely. We welcome applications from candidates who are resitting A-levels, or have re-sat A-levels or GCSEs. 

We ordinarily like to see applicants achieve our minimum offer at A-level in a single sitting. There are sometimes extenuating circumstances which mean this isn’t possible for applicants. But in the absence of these, if an applicant has achieved A*AB, for example, we may not consider it sufficient to simply retake the ‘B’ subject the following year. We strongly encourage applicants in this situation to contact us for individual guidance before making an application.

An EPQ (Extended Project Qualification) is one good opportunity to research and write extensively about a topic that interests you. We are looking for applicants to explore their chosen subject beyond their school curriculum, and taking the EPQ is one way to formally do this. However, there are lots of other ways of exploring beyond the curriculum in the subject that you’re interested in studying at university (which may sometimes better suit you and your interests). Our view is that the decision to take an EPQ is a personal one - it may or may not be right for you - which is highly unlikely to have any meaningful bearing on the outcome of your Cambridge application. An EPQ in itself will not advantage an applicant, and you will not be disadvantaged for not having taken an EPQ. We will never make a lower offer because an applicant is taking an EPQ.

Some subjects require applicants to register and take an admissions test before we shortlist for interview. There is a helpful table on the University’s website with the most up to date pre-registered admissions test information: .

Some colleges also require applicants who are invited to interview to take a College admissions assessment for certain subjects. These are taken after we shortlist for interview and you do not need to register yourself for these. They are typically held a couple of weeks before interviews, although some may be on the same day as your interview. A list of subjects that run college admissions assessments can be found here: .

We take an applicant’s context into account when assessing their application (as explained in the question further up this page), however we do not make contextual offers in the sense used by some other highly selective universities. The minimum offer stated on the subject pages of our website is always the minimum.

Yes. If you apply to Cambridge and are unsuccessful, you are welcome to apply again. Your application will be treated as a new application and will not be linked in any way to your previous application. You can apply to the same college, or a different one. If you apply to the same college, of course it cannot be guaranteed that we would not remember you from your previous application, and you may be interviewed by the same academics as before, if invited. For that reason the standard University advice is that applicants should not apply to the same college twice. But we are happy to hear from applicants who would like to apply to 91Ö±²¥ for a second time, and we can advise accordingly.

If you reapply, you should explain in your application how you have been continuing to engage with your chosen subject since leaving school.

The application process is the same for all applicants to the University of Cambridge. All applications must be submitted through , and most international applicants are required to pay an application fee of £60 (with some exceptions – ).

We accept a wide variety of qualifications from all over the world and expect students to be achieving the highest grades. On our subject pages, we typically focus on A-levels and the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB), however many other school and national examinations at an equivalent level are equally acceptable. Please for more information regarding international entry requirements.

Applicants’ English language skills must be good enough for them to study a Cambridge course that is taught and examined in English. Offers may include an English Language condition if an applicant is not from a majority English speaking country (). During the application, we will assess your qualifications, written assessment, interview performance, and educational background, to decide whether to include an English Language requirement as part of any potential offer. This condition may be a particular grade in a high school qualification, or an approved English language test (e.g. IELTS).

No. We welcome international applicants at 91Ö±²¥, and our student body is diverse in a range of ways, including in relation to home country. Our admissions policy is to admit candidates with the greatest potential irrespective of background: we do not have quotas for overseas or UK students, or for any other criteria. The one exception to this is Medicine, where we operate within limits set by the UK government. No more than 1 in 10 Medicine students can be overseas by fee status. This does mean that, when measured purely by numbers, the Medicine application process is more competitive as an overseas applicant than a UK one.

Typically, in recent years around 10% of our overall undergraduate student body has come from overseas. This is one of the lowest international proportions amongst the colleges – but it is simply a result of the application field we receive and the operation of our selection policy. We welcome talented applications from across the globe.

Tuition fees for international students depend on the course you want to study. All international/overseas fee status students also pay an annual College fee in addition to University tuition fees. Subject tuition and College fees for the current academic year can be found here: . Remember, you’ll also have to pay for living costs while you’re studying (e.g. rent, food, and personal expenses).