So, we're here today because we've had a lot of parents and supporters
send us in questions that they'd like us very much to answer.
We've put all the questions in a bowl and we're going to have a go at answering them in a minute.
So we're here drawing on our experience of being Admissions Tutors at different Colleges.
So I'm Sam, Admissions Tutor at Newnham.
And I'm Chris, Admissions Tutor at Gonville & Caius.
And I'm Jonathan, Admissions Tutor at Churchill.
So, should we make a start? OK right, let's go for our first question,
'My student's school doesn't have a very good success rate with getting
people into Cambridge and I'm worried that this will affect his chances'
It won't.
When a student applies to a particular course, the important thing is not whether or not they
go to a school that's got a success rate in getting into a particular university right,
it's that they've thought their way through applying to the course, they know what they're moving towards,
they made a considered decision, they've got a strong application,
that's not necessarily something to do with school background in that way right?
Yeah absolutely, and we do have a kind of flagging system for context, and one of our flags is
a flag for an applicant who comes from a school with very little history of successful
application to Oxford and Cambridge, so we absolutely do take that into account as well.
So I think the first port of call for anybody should be looking at the website where we try to
make all of the advice and guidance available for students, but also for parents, teachers, carers,
anybody who might be kind of you know looking after someone who is thinking of applying.
Who wants to go next?
Come on, I'll have a go.
OK, so, 'We come from a low-income background.
Is there additional support available?'
So yes, absolutely.
Cambridge University has a really strongly held and long-held commitment to support
any UK student from a low-income background to make sure they can get the most out of Cambridge.
And obviously the best place to look is the website for current figures but you
know there will be several thousand pounds worth of support for people
from particularly low-income backgrounds, and then a sliding scale of support above that.
But actually we find our students find Cambridge a relatively cheap place to be a student.
Even though that might not seem obvious right at the start.
One of the big reasons for that is the short terms and the way accommodation works in the Colleges right.
You tend to only need to pay for about 30 weeks a year of accommodation.
You don't ever really need to rent privately, so you're not paying for the whole year, you're just paying for a fraction of it.
And the accommodation is guaranteed as well so
pretty much every College will accommodate every student, either in the College itself
or in College-owned houses, so you have really no need to engage with the private rented sector.
OK, time for our next question,
which is,
'Are independent school students disadvantaged in the selection process?'
So we get asked that question a lot.
We also get asked if state school students are disadvantaged in the selection process.
And of course the truth is that this is something that's getting more and more competitive each year,
and what we're interested in doing is identifying those students who've got the most academic ability and potential to come and study on our courses.
And part of identifying that potential is understanding people in their context.
So that's not about whether a student's attending a maintained or independent school for example,
that's about whether a student is attending a high performing school, perhaps a bit about the
socio-economic background of the community, perhaps a bit about whether that community
regularly progresses to university right?
And that context is so important in judging academic potential, which is what we're in the business of doing as you both say.
OK, so who wants to take the next one?
It's probably my turn.
OK, so, 'What support is available to help students settle in and adjust?'
Yeah, good question. So the Colleges all have
a kind of formalised peer support system, the College family system, a lot of Colleges call it.
So you are assigned as an incoming student
a couple of older students who are your College parents who have similar interests to you
to kind of look out for you, and introduce you to College life from the student perspective.
A lot of Colleges are also increasingly developing bridging programmes,
bridging courses to help you settle in socially, academically, or both in the run-up to joining.
An important part of academic settling, I think, is meeting your Director of Studies.
So that's the person in Cambridge who looks after you intellectually whilst you're here.
So often very early in that settling period a student will meet with their Director of Studies.
The Director of Studies would explain perhaps how lectures are going to work,
classes, labs, perhaps maybe even set an early piece of work to help that settling process.
And as well as a DoS, everyone will have a Personal Tutor.
So we're all Personal Tutors, we all have our tutees that we look
after. So kind of any health issues, you know I've had terribly homesick students
who've really successfully got through the course in the end after a rocky start.
So yeah lots and lots of different sorts of support available to everybody coming in.
OK, let's have a look for our next question.
Which is, 'What is the difference between
the Colleges and how do you choose which to apply for?'
So Colleges are a base for your studies, and so if you're wanting to choose a College,
think about accommodation, the way they feed you, location, facilities on offer.
But do know that we move people around to make sure that the best candidates get in
so don't kind of put massive amounts of energy into choosing
Don't you know think it's a disaster if you don't get into that College.
Everybody loves their College wherever they end up.
Absolutely, and I think it's really important to stress as well that there's very little difference
between the Colleges in the grand scheme of things right, so it's not a huge decision.
The vast majority of students here really love their College wherever
they are. And whether they've chosen it, whether they've been allocated it,
because you can make an open application if you can't decide, or whether you've
been placed in a different College through the winter pool or the summer pool.
And I suppose that's one of the exciting things about a collegiate
university environment isn't it? That you apply for a core course,
but there's this array of places that you might end up living and that's
a great thing about being here at Cambridge I think.
Right, time for the next question.
So, 'What is the most important part of the application process?'
In short, none of them. So we do expect to see that people
are predicted at, or more normally, above the typical entry-level requirements.
But aside from that, all of the different elements of the application play into the process.
We do call it a holistic process. So it is looking at each of the different bits of information we've
got, and weighing it all up. So your academic profile, any written work that you've sent us,
any admissions assessments that we've asked you to do, how you do in the interview itself, all
of those things will get weighed up against the contextual information that we hold on everybody.
And it really is about identifying the students who are going to come onto the course and thrive.
OK, next question, 'What is the criteria for interview success?'
For me, I think those criteria are being willing to problem solve.
So the point in a Cambridge interview is to kind of simulate the way we teach
right, and in the way we teach we're working with our students,
whatever the subject is, on problems. And so the interview is to give us an
opportunity to see whether students who have applied to us like that, right ?
Yeah absolutely. And we're looking for people who are able to think on their feet,
and are able to think beyond the bounds of the knowledge they already have, and
do well when exposed to new information and new problems.
OK, my turn I think, right.
'Is the student workload manageable?'
Yeah, it's absolutely manageable. But it is high, and we're open about that.
We're looking for students who really enjoy what they've applied to study,
and have a genuine interest in it. And it's really important , I think,
that students have that in order to thrive here. There's extensive opportunities to participate
outside of your studies which is great but your work needs to be, I think,
your priority whilst you're here, and if it's not your priority when you're applying, then it may be
a sign that Cambridge isn't the right place for you to apply, and that's that's absolutely fine.
So we tend to encourage students to think about it as a full-time job don't we? So,
you know maybe it's 40-45 hours a week, but even you know 45 hours a week, I've often
heard people talk about the 8-8-8 rule. So you work 8 hours a day, you sleep 8
hours a day, because that's really important. But you've also then got another 8 hours where
you can do lots and lots of other things. And our students do. They engage with
sport, music, drama, politics, you know all kinds of things, at all kinds of levels.
And those other things might actually be really important
to helping them work really efficiently as well right?
So it's not a sense in which your work completely subsumes everything else.
That balance for the overwhelming majority is a really important part of being here.
Having that time to do other things can help make the workload more manageable, high though it is.
Alright, next one,
'My son is academically capable but shy
and a little hesitant to speak out. Will the interview process cater for that?'
So, the interview process will probably actually suit him quite well.
Because it's a very very common profile for our applicants.
And remember, it's about that sort of in-depth academic engagement.
So it's a small setting, two interviewers, one candidate normally. So he will be able
to directly answer their questions, possibly even work through problems on paper if he's
applying for one of the science type courses. And it's really not about social confidence or
polish or any of those things. It's about can you engage
academically with the ideas. So as long as he's able to express
his ideas either sort of speaking out loud, or in writing, that then that's absolutely fine.
I'd say too that shyness manifests itself in a number of ways.
It can manifest itself in a student being quite quiet or reserved, as
appears to be the case here, but it can also manifest itself in people being quite you know
expressive, quite voluble, and either is fine. Our interviewers are used to working with people.
If you're a shy person, don't be concerned. Come along, be yourself, engage with the interview.
OK, next question,
'What is expected from students during the application process?'
That's an interesting one. So, I think our minimum
expectation is you take it seriously. You respond to the emails that the College you've
applied to or been allocated will send you. You hit all your deadlines.
And then in terms of what we hope as well, we really hope that an applicant enjoys the the
process on its own merits, regardless of whether they're successful or not.
And taking it in that spirit is also probably the best route to success I think.
I think in respect of that, I'd also say that we would expect people to
be themselves. We say to students, 'be you' when you're writing a personal statement for example,
genuinely personal, genuinely to you. When you come to interview, be yourself,
as an expectation that helps people hopefully to enjoy it the way you describe.
Let's find our next question, which is,
'Is having work experience in a particular field essential?'
Depends whether you're applying for Medicine or Veterinary Medicine, where we do like to see it.
Not essential, there are alternatives, but what it does give you is a realistic sense
hopefully of what that profession is like. And we are admitting you effectively to the
profession when we admit you to the course which is why that's important.
And outside those subjects, if we're using a very kind of narrow definition of work experience,
I think a good way to think about it, a good question to ask yourself is,
'can I make what I've done relevant to the subject I'm applying to?'
If yes, then then great, put it in your personal statement, talk about it at interview,
and think about what you've learned from it, think about what you've observed by doing it,
think critically about it. If it's not relevant,
you can't make it relevant to the subject, then it's probably best not to put it in.
OK, who's, I think it's me, and it looks like this is our last one.
So, the final question is,
'How can I offer support during the application process?'
Really good question. So yeah, I think parents,
supporters, can be helpful in just sort of understanding the timings of the process,
and knowing what's happening at each stage. But I think probably the most useful thing is to
minimise any pressure or expectations on the young people applying to us.
This is a process in which only a minority of people will come out the other end with an offer,
but hopefully everyone who goes through the process will have
seen it as a positive experience, and will have got things from it themselves.
And remembering, I think, that those young people are the priority in this process right.
They're putting themselves forward with their intellectual interests,
their careful choice of course, their really carefully written application.
It is they who are at the heart of it and so letting them be in supporting them as themselves
is, I think, really key as well right? Yeah absolutely.
So, the bowl is empty. We've managed to
make it through all the questions. Thank you so much for helping with this session.
Hopefully parents and supporters will find this just a really useful source of advice,
but if there are any remaining questions, then the website is going to be the first place to look.
And if that doesn't answer any remaining issues that people have got then a College
Admissions Office can also provide advice and guidance for anyone thinking about applying.