Cambridge Admissions Office

32 Trumpington Street Cambridge CB2 1QY UK

NOTES FOR STUDENTS FROM CHINA WHO ARE THINKING OF APPLYING FOR 2012 UNDERGRADUATE ENTRY TO THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

These notes are intended for students from PRC considering applying to Cambridge and supplement

information given in the University of Cambridge Undergraduate Prospectus, published annually in March. Copies of the Prospectus should be available for consultation in China at offices of the British Embassy and Consulates (Cultural and Education Section). If you would like a personal paper copy of the Prospectus, you should contact the Cambridge Admissions Office (address above), enclosing £9.50 GBP or US$15 to cover the cost of overseas postage. You can also view the Prospectus, or order and pay for a printed copy, online at: http://www.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/publications/prospectus/. If you have questions not answered by the Prospectus or by these notes, you can write to the Admissions Tutor of a College (addresses are in the Prospectus) or to the China Application Centre (prc@cao.cam.ac.uk).

Information postgraduate courses may be obtained at: www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/gradstud/prospec/.

1. INTERVIEWS

Competition for places at Cambridge is very strong especially in the most popular subjects and interviews, whether held in Cambridge or overseas, are considered an important part of selection procedures. Teams of Cambridge Admissions Tutors carry out interviews in certain countries overseas. This year amongst other venues it is expected that overseas interviews will be held in China (Shanghai) on 2, 3 and 4 November. Interviews will also be held in Hong Kong at the end of November but these are only for those currently resident or at school in Hong Kong.

The interviews will be about 20-30 minutes in length and are designed to assess your academic potential in your chosen subject area. Most interviewed applicants will also be asked to take a short written subject test (usually on the same day as their interview in November) requiring familiarity with the current syllabus for those who are still at school. Applicants who have already left school may also be asked to take a written test. For most applicants the test will involve some essay-writing and/or be the Cambridge TSA (Thinking Skills Assessment). Everyone applying for Medicine or Veterinary Medicine, however, has to take the BMAT (Bio-Medical Admissions Test) of 2 hours duration in November. Entries for the BMAT are made separately via the individual test website.

Specimen questions and some further information on the BMAT and on the TSA may be found at: www.admissionstests.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/adt/ 2. APPLICATION PROCEDURES

Overseas applicants to Cambridge must apply via UCAS and also have submitted a Cambridge Online Preliminary Application (COPA) - see paragraph 4. If you wish to be considered for interview overseas, you should note the two possible alternative procedures outlined below:

A) If your completed COPA and application fee have been received in Cambridge by 20 September 2011 we can consider you for inclusion in the overseas interview programme. You will also need by then to have achieved a satisfactory result in an approved English language test. Your UCAS application must also be submitted by this date. Not everyone who applies will get an interview: decisions on who will be interviewed will be taken by the Cambridge Colleges, and applicants being called for interview will be notified about a week or so in advance. Some applicants may already be intending to come to England to visit universities in December or January and – if so – might prefer to be interviewed at that time in Cambridge. In such cases, they should make this clear when submitting their COPA. No applicant who has been interviewed overseas will also be interviewed in Cambridge in December/January.

B) An alternative route of application that applies only to applicants from PRChina for entry to study any degree subject offered at Cambridge is by a scheme organised for Cambridge by Ameson Foundation in China. Under this scheme students will be required to take written tests in Mathematics and English at

centres in China no later than 31 August 2011. Results of this test, and other examinations taken, will be used to pre-select applicants for interviews in Shanghai by Cambridge interviewers in early November. Further details of the scheme may be obtained from: Ameson Foundation China Office, 4th Floor, Jiangsu Provincial Educations and Scientific Research Building, 77 Beijing West Road, Nanjing 210013, China. 3. REQUIRED STANDARD IN ENGLISH

If your first language is not English, please note that you will be required to achieve, before entry, a satisfactory standard in the IELTS International English Language Test taken through the British Council, normally achieving an overall score of at least 7.0 in each element of that test. Furthermore, a reasonable standard in spoken English is also required at the time of interview, equivalent to at least IELTS grade 6 or a similar mark in an approved alternative test. The only alternative tests currently approved for this purpose are to have achieved a mark of at least 60% in the Ameson English test (details from Ameson at the address given in section 2(B) above), or to have achieved a score of at least 85 in the TOEFL test (internet based).

4. APPLICATION FORMS

The COPA and instructions for its completion will be available online from July 2011 via the Undergraduate Admissions website (www.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/). A completed COPA, together with evidence of payment of the application fee of UK £25, and a qualifying English Test result (see Section 3 above) should be submitted online to arrive in Cambridge by 20 September if you wish to be considered for an interview in China or elsewhere overseas. The COPA procedure replaces the Cambridge Overseas Application Forms (COAF) used in previous years which are no longer valid. Each applicant short-listed for interview outside the UK will also be required to pay an additional fee of UK £100 towards the costs of the overseas interview scheme. The various fees may conveniently be paid by credit or debit card (see: www.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/howtopay/).

5. COLLEGE CHOICE

The UCAS application and the COPA (see paragraph 4) ask you to choose one of the 29 Cambridge Colleges as your College of preference. One strength of the collegiate system at Cambridge is that students will come into contact with those from other backgrounds and who are studying different subjects. For this reason there is no answer to the common question: \"What is the best College choice for a student from overseas, or applying in a particular subject?\" In general all Colleges accept applicants for all subjects (the few exceptions are shown in the Prospectus). If you prefer you can submit an Open Application and be allocated to a College. Applicants making a College selection are advised to do so after reading College entries in the Prospectus. 6. DECISIONS

Cambridge Colleges will normally write to all applicants in January to advise them of the outcome of their applications. The decision may be an acceptance or a rejection; an acceptance is likely to be dependent upon satisfying specified conditions including showing that financial support is available for the course and (for applicants still at school) achieving specified examination grades. Competition for Cambridge places is very severe: experience shows that a typical successful applicant will be well-motivated and achieving academic results in the top 1-2% of their year. 7.

For all subjects it is absolutely essential that applicants should read the Prospectus and be well acquainted with the structure and contents of the course for which they are applying. If an applicant indicates at interview that they are unfamiliar with the nature of the course, this will make a very poor impression. You can be considered for any course offered by the University as listed in the Undergraduate Prospectus. Some specific points to note are:

Architecture – This is not considered as a purely technical subject at Cambridge and applicants usually have to bring a substantial portfolio of artwork with them to be discussed at an extended interview in Cambridge, usually with a professional architect. In previous years very few applicants interviewed overseas have been successful in gaining places: serious applicants are advised if possible to be prepared to come to Cambridge for interviews.

Economics – Competition is currently very severe for places to study Economics. A good ability and knowledge in Mathematics is of at least equal importance to the required interest in and basic knowledge of Economics itself.

SUBJECT CHOICE

8.

The total annual cost of studying at Cambridge as an international undergraduate is currently about £23,000 - £30,000 (depending mainly on subject, and excluding travel and summer vacation living costs). Costs in future years are likely to increase at least in line with inflation, and the effect of any changes in exchange rates cannot easily be predicted. There are currently about 3,400 international students (that is coming from outside Europe) at Cambridge, including about 1,300 undergraduates (of whom about 350 undergraduates are from China). Around 25% have some financial support from bursary or scholarship schemes; the remainder are supported by other sponsors, parents and loans. The Cambridge Overseas Trusts have schemes of bursaries which may provide some support for those able to meet most of their costs from other sources. It is appreciated that applicants looking for awards are unlikely to be sure of their funding situation when applying.

© Cambridge University, April 2011

Law – Currently there is a lot of competition for places to read Law at Cambridge and motivation for the course plus a relish for the intellectual challenges that would be involved in legal study and work are important in addition to achieving strong examination grades in relevant subjects (not necessarily including Law). Where possible, applicants should try to see the Law in action, by work experience or shadowing a lawyer, or by watching a few court cases. The Written Test for law applicants will be a two-hour version of the Cambridge Law Test (see www.law.cam.ac.uk/admissions/cambridge-law-test.php).

Medicine – Because of UK Government restrictions there is a maximum percentage admission at any university for overseas medical students, and for Cambridge as a whole this limit corresponds to 20 new students a year. Anyone admitted as a preclinical medical student is assured of a clinical course place, subject only to satisfactory progress and health requirements, but only about half the preclinical students at Cambridge complete their course at the Cambridge Clinical School; the remainder will proceed to other Medical Schools, mainly in London or Oxford. The full cost of an entire six-year medical course of training totals up to £350,000 at current rates.

FINANCE