Interviews are finished now

Well, the interviews are over and the interviewers will be (or have been) meeting together with our Director of Admissions to discuss the outcome. I think you would be amazed if you could see the time and trouble they take over making the final decisions. I can assure you that every part of every application is carefully and individually considered taking into account ALL the information available. So please don't think we take these decisions lightly. We are very aware that you have put everything you can into your application. Many of you say that since you were very young it has been your ambition to study at Cambridge.
This is now the ninth year for me as admissions secretary, first at another college and since 2005 here at Christ's. During that time, I have processed several thousand applications and, for the some, (about 1 in 5) there has been joy. Sadly the reality is that for 4 people in every 5 there's disappointment, and we do understand that it's hard to take.
However, some years nearly half as many people recieve offers through the pool as those who recieve the offer of a place at Christ's (see http://www.study.cam.ac.uk/undergraduate/apply/statistics/ for more information). For information about decisions have a look at this website http://www.study.cam.ac.uk/undergraduate/apply/ourdecision.html
Whatever the future holds for you, I must say I've enjoyed this journey with you and I'm grateful to have received many kind messages of thanks from you. May I wish you all the very best for Christmas and the New Year.

Something you'll all want to know

I've been sent a few emails along the following lines: "I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for making the interview process so smooth! I very much enjoyed my day in Cambridge and the interviews! However, I do have one more question- when can one expect to hear further from the college?"

The answer is that letters communicating admissions decisions will be posted first class on Thursday 3rd January 2013. We hope that the post won't be delayed for you but if you don't receive your letter on Friday you should be able to see your UCAS status updated. If your letter is late arriving and your UCAS status has not changed, it's likely but not certain that your application papers will have been placed in the Pool. I know lots of you will email me to ask if I can send your letter by email but I'm afraid this takes a long time to work through everyone so I probably won't be able to respond immediately. 

For more information see http://www.study.cam.ac.uk/undergraduate/apply/ourdecision.html - there's a link to information about the Winter Pool

We've had a very busy interview day today, it's been fun meeting so many interesting people! We're sorry we won't be able to have you all but I'm glad that several have been emailing to say that they enjoyed their day in Cambridge. If your interviews are still to come, I hope you enjoy your day too.

One week of interviews nearly completed

By the end of tomorrow we will have interviewed (in Cambridge) over 100 applicants, next week another 250 candidates will be coming for interviews and the following week there will be another 100. At last everything is in place, everyone has replied and we're set for a busy week.  I hope those of you coming for interviews in the next two weeks have good journeys here and I hope you'll enjoy being here in Christ's. We've had some great emails from people who had their interviews last week, here's an example "I wanted to thank you, and the rest of the admissions team for your correspondence over the past month or so, I had my interviews today which I thoroughly enjoyed and the porters were very helpful in their guidance." So that person found it not so scary and managed to enjoy the experience - I hope you will too!
Just a hint, if you can aim to arrive at the Porters' Lodge 20-30 minutes before your first appointment this will give you time to get yourself checked in and time to find the interview room. This is especially important if your first appointment is a written test - there's likely to be several other people arriving at the same time so a queue can build up which might delay you if you haven't allowed quite enough time. We don't want you arriving all stressed and harrassed!
Have a good weekend and relax - most people find interviews fun rather than an ordeal!

I hope you have all heard from me . . .

I've finished all the interview scheduling now so I hope you have all received an email from me either inviting you to attend interview or, sadly, an email saying that we are not able to offer the opportunity to attend interviews. If you have not heard please email admissions@christs.cam.ac.uk and I will get back to you straight away.
The interviews have started already with just a few candidates coming to the College this week. Next week will be a bit busier and the following week will be absolutely packed, interviews wall to wall! So I'm looking forward to meeting some of you and, for those who are coming to interviews, may I wish you all the very best. But don't forget, there are only about 125 places and we're interviewing almost 500 of you so the competition for places is intense.

Still timetabling interviews!

I've been working very hard trying to schedule interviews, not an easy task!

What I really need from you (those of you who have applied for certain Arts subjects) are your essays! Please send them to me as soon as you can. The instructions are

are available at http://www.christs.cam.ac.uk/your_application/ just click on the link entitled FOR YOUR SUBJECT

You'll find everything you need there, including the cover sheet and a reminder of the deadline which is a week today, Thursday 15th November.

If you decide to send them by recorded or delivery, it's unlikely that the Royal Mail track and trace facility will work so I recommend that you include a stamped addressed postcard or sealed down envelope which we will return to you as your receipt.

Written work

Don't forget that the deadline for receipt of written work is 15th November. Please check the applicants' website for your particular subject for details about the work you should send http://www.christs.cam.ac.uk/prospective-students/undergraduate-applications/applinfo/subject_interview_info/
In all cases work submitted must be your own original work, marked by your usual teacher and relevant to the subject for which you are applying. It should have been completed recently during your normal course of study. A separate cover sheet (word 97-03 or pdf) for each piece of work must be completed and returned with your work. It is acceptable to email your work as an attachment. The email address is admissions@christs.cam.ac.uk The quality of a fax is not generally good enough so we do not recommend this method.
If you send your work in an A4 envelope by first-class post, please ensure that you pay the correct postage (see Royal Mail Pricefinder for full information - it will be a LARGE letter). The postage address is The Admissions Office, Christ's College, Cambridge CB2 3BU). To enable us to confirm that your work has arrived, please enclose a stamped self-addressed postcard or sealed-down envelope. If you do this it is not necessary to use recorded delivery, in fact, recorded delivery to a Cambridge College is not logged on the "Track and Trace" website so a stamped self-addressed receipt is much more reliable - and cheaper!

Invitations to interviews . . .

Well, we've sent out a few invitations to interview today, in some of the subjects where the interviews take place early (before December). Although we won't be able to invite everyone to come to interviews in Cambridge, if you have not heard yet don't panic! It takes a long time to organise over 600 interviews (times two) and various written tests, pre-interview reading etc. We'll send out interview invitations as soon as they are scheduled so be patient and give us a week or two. If we decide not to invite you to come to interviews in Cambridge we will let you know before the end of November.
We've been having some lovely sunshine in Cambridge although it's very cold. Have a look at the front page of our College website http://www.christs.cam.ac.uk/

Missing photos

We're just going through all the paperwork (over 600 applications!) and we've noticed that a few of you have not yet submitted a passport style photograph to complete your application. Would you kindly send a recent photo of yourself as soon as you can? Full instructions are available on page 6 of http://www.study.cam.ac.uk/undergraduate/publications/docs/saq.pdf and the photograph submission form may be found at http://www.study.cam.ac.uk/undergraduate/apply/forms/photo.pdf

You can send an electronic photo direct to the admissions email address admissions@christs.cam.ac.uk

We're beginning to schedule the interviews for the subjects holding interviews in November and some of you will be hearing early next week about your interview arrangements. Don't forget to keep checking your emails and be sure to reply to any messages which require a reply.

For those of you who were on half term holiday last week, I hope you had a great time. Let me wish everyone a good weekend!

Information on the applicants' website

I've realised that some people have not yet found the information about their subject, including the instructions for sending written work on the website. On the main page http://www.christs.cam.ac.uk/prospective-students/undergraduate-applications/applinfo/ look at the fifth paragraph down where you’ll see the text: "Please regularly check here for details about submitting written work, tests and other interview information FOR YOUR SUBJECT. Further information will be added as soon as it becomes available.
The deadline for receipt of written work (if required) is Tuesday 15th November but if you can send your work before that date, please do so."
Click on the words FOR YOUR SUBJECT and you will be taken to the subject pages where you can click on the subject for which you have applied. The coversheet is linked to the words word 97-03 or pdf in the paragraph “In all cases work submitted must be your own original work, marked by your usual teacher and relevant to the subject for which you are applying. It should have been completed recently during your normal course of study. A separate cover sheet (word 97-03 or pdf) for each piece of work must be completed and returned with your work. The deadline for the receipt of work is 15th November. It is acceptable to email your work as an attachment. The email address is admissions@christs.cam.ac.uk The quality of a fax is not generally good enough so we do not recommend this method.”

Still waiting for some transcripts!

If you have not already uploaded your transcript when completing your SAQ or COPA, please send your transcript by email as soon as possible to admissions@christs.cam.ac.uk.  
If we do not receive your transcript with a translation by noon (UK time) Friday 2nd November, I regret we will not be able to take your application any further.
This applies to those attending a school or college outside the UK; without a copy of your high school transcript your application to the University of Cambridge is invalid. The only exception to this is if you took IGCSEs and are now taking/have just taken the International Baccalaureate (IB) or A Levels. If you took IGCSEs and the IB or A Levels and are now at university, then you must provide us with a university transcript. If you have taken A Levels or the International Baccalaureate Diploma (IB) but did not take IGCSEs, then you must submit a transcript for the qualification you completed prior to studying for A Levels or the IB. If the original transcript is not in English, it will need to be translated and authorised, i.e., signed or stamped, by an official translation service or by your school/college/university.
By high school transcript we mean a record of your academic achievement to date in your secondary school or college examinations. Your secondary school or college examinations are usually taken in the last two years of your schooling, but please provide as much information on your examination performance as possible. If possible, please include details of any internal assessments that you may have undertaken. For most students your transcript will be an official document or certificate from your school or college which lists the subjects you have studied and the grades/qualification that you have obtained.

Fee status form question

I'm sorry I forgot to mention something else about the Fee Status form last week. One or two of you have emailed me to say that you don't have a valid passport. In this case please send a copy of your birth certificate instead but be sure to complete section B with the details of your residence for the past three years.

Don't worry if you've already sent the form anyway - we'll ask you for documentary evidence later if necessary.

And if you've sent the form without stating that you'll be applying to Student Finance it doesn't matter at all. If you are successful in receiving the offer of a place you'll be asked later for further information about your funding arrangements.

It's a busy term here for our undergraduates; later this week Christ's Amateur Dramatic Society will present an exciting production of Oscar Wilde's classic comedy "The Importance of Being Earnest" http://www.christs.cam.ac.uk/news/events/pg/article==391
The Christ's JCR (student union) are about to elect their new committee http://www.thejcr.co.uk/
The Chapel Choir sing services twice a week http://www.christs.cam.ac.uk/college-life/chapel-and-choir/choir/choir-tours/
And the sporting life of the College continues to flourish http://www.thejcr.co.uk/sports

Have a good half term break!

I think most of our UK students will be having half term break next week - I hope it's a good one and if you are going away I hope you have a great time. Have a good rest!
We'll be pressing on with processing your applications (over 600 of them) - as you can imagine it takes quite a long time sorting out all the paperwork and getting everything together. Although the application process is now electronic, we still have a paper file for each one of you. So although we might seem to have gone a bit quiet on you after the all the initial email flurries, we are working away, carefully assessing your application and putting everything you have sent us into your file!
Anyway, all we need now (if you haven't already sent it) is your Fee Status Assessment Questionnaire, your written work (if applicable) and your disability information (if relevant).
For those who haven't got half term break, at least have a good weekend!

Fee Status Questionnaire and written work

When completing and returning the Fee Status Questionnaire, everyone must also send a copy of their passport or birth certificate to confirm name and nationality. 
Some of you have had some queries about the Fee Status Questionnaire; if you are a British Citizen all you have to fill in on Section B is UK for the country of residence, your birthdate for the date your residence began and the reason for residence is living with your family.
For Section C you should put Student Finance if you think you will be applying for a loan from the UK government.
Section D will not apply to most of you, only for the very few applicants who are applying as Affiliated students and who already hold an undergraduate degree.
Please don't forget to send a copy of your passport or birth certificate to confirm your name and nationality.
Regarding your written work; it's absolutely fine to send in work which was produced during year 12 - most people will be doing that. As far as we are concerned, Year 12 is "recent". Please do send work which has been marked by your teacher, it can be scanned and sent as an email attachement (along with the cover sheet) or posted via the Royal Mail (but check out my comments about using "track and trace" on the applicants' website).
I hope these comments are helpful and I look forward to receiving your documents and work (where applicable) as soon as possible.

Transcripts (International students)

If you have not already uploaded your transcript when completing your SAQ or COPA, please send your transcript by email as soon as possible to admissions@christs.cam.ac.uk.  
This applies to those attending a school or college outside the UK; without a copy of your high school transcript your application to the University of Cambridge is invalid. The only exception to this is if you took IGCSEs and are now taking/have just taken the International Baccalaureate (IB) or A Levels. If you took IGCSEs and the IB or A Levels and are now at university, then you must provide us with a university transcript. If you have taken A Levels or the International Baccalaureate Diploma (IB) but did not take IGCSEs, then you must submit a transcript for the qualification you completed prior to studying for A Levels or the IB. If the original transcript is not in English, it will need to be translated and authorised, i.e., signed or stamped, by an official translation service or by your school/college/university.

By high school transcript we mean a record of your academic achievement to date in your secondary school or college examinations. Your secondary school or college examinations are usually taken in the last two years of your schooling, but please provide as much information on your examination performance as possible. If possible, please include details of any internal assessments that you may have undertaken. For most students your transcript will be an official document or certificate from your school or college which lists the subjects you have studied and the grades/qualification that you have obtained.

Interview dates

Thank you for getting your SAQs done in time! We've now started receiving written work - that's excellent thank you. Please keep those essays coming. We'll be posting information for HSPS for those of you who have not written essays during school, and for those who don't have essays written in Engish - please check the website again in a day or two.
We're still finalising the precise dates for most of the large subjects and I'll post information on the applicants' website as soon as they are fixed. In the meantime please try to keep the interview period clear of other commitments; some of the "medium-sized" subjects are only running interviews on a very few dates. We'll do our very best to accommodate you but if you are not available, for example, for the whole of the first week of December, it might not be possible to offer you a date outside that time if that's when the interviews for your subject are taking place.

Thank you to those who have already submitted their fee status assessment questionnaire.

Don't forget, if you need to send us written work, it should have been marked by your teacher and prepared during the normal course of your studies (except in special circumstances with prior agreement). You can send a photocopy by mail to the Admissions Office, Christ's College, St Andrew's Street, Cambridge CB2 3BU or it's fine to send a scanned attachment by email to admissions@christs.cam.ac.uk

Your teacher should complete a cover sheet for your essay(s) - please send everything all together if you can. The deadline is 15th November but it really helps us if you can get your work to us as soon as possible. Thank you!

SAQ deadline is Monday 22 October

As you know, the deadline for submitting your Supplementary Application Questionnaire is Monday 22 October. Don't leave it until the last minute - allow for technical hitches at your end. There will be many hundreds of applicants trying to complete the SAQ over this weekend so the system is likely to be very busy.
If you have submitted an application to the University of Cambridge through UCAS but do not receive an email about the SAQ by Saturday 20 October 2012 you should contact the Cambridge Admissions Office (email: saqhelp@cao.cam.ac.uk / telephone: 01223 333308).
More information about completing the SAQ can be found at
http://www.study.cam.ac.uk/undergraduate/apply/saq.html
Many of the most common questions can be answered by looking at the FAQ tab.

Students at school outside the EU, please complete your COPA

If you are applying from outside the EU, you need also to complete the Cambridge Online Preliminary Application (COPA). You need to complete and submit the COPA by 22 October in order for your application to be considered. This is a long form and will take some time to complete, so I suggest you make a start before the deadline.

Details of how to complete the COPA may be found on the following webpage:

http://www.study.cam.ac.uk/undergraduate/apply/copa.html

AFTER you have completed the COPA, you also need to complete the first section of the Supplementary Application Questionnaire (SAQ). You should have received an email from the University with your login details for the SAQ. Again, you need to complete and submit the SAQ by 22 October in order for your application to be considered. Providing you have already completed the COPA, this form should only take a few minutes to complete.

If you do not submit these two forms by the deadline of 22 October, then I am afraid your application can't be considered.

Admissions for 2013 Entry!

Hello!

It doesn't seem that long since we were sending out offer letters in Januray, but here we are for the admissions round for 2013 entry.

There's less than a week to go before the final UCAS deadline, so hopefully everyone who's planning to apply is in the final stages of getting their forms sorted. We've begun to recieve our first few completeed applications, please remember that the deadline for the Supplementary Application Questionnaire is the 22nd October, so don't put it off too long once you recieve the link!

Once we recieve your full application, you will recieve an email with a link containing full details of what to do next. For those of you applying for subjects requiring written work to be submitted, the deadline will be the 15th November and full guidance will be available via the link as to what types of essay are suitable to submit.

All communication will be via email so please check your spam folders to make sure you don't miss anything.

This blog will be updated regularly throughout the admissions round, so please keep an eye on it. If you have any specific questions, please get in touch via email or leave a comment on a post here.

Posting day today

As you know, we posted all the letters first class today and hope they will be dropping through UK letter boxes first thing tommorrow. If your letter has not arrived by Monday, please email admissions@christs.cam.ac.uk and we will send a copy by email. If there are large numbers of you asking for electronic letters there could be a considerable delay because it takes a while eamiling and ensuring that each letter is emailed individually to the correct recipient. Please don't phone because this just delays us further and in any event we can't give information by phone (for data protection reasons).

The UCAS website will be updated on Friday to show your offer status; if it looks as though no decision has been made it probably means that your application papers are in the University Inter-College Pool and are still under consideration. Again, please don't phone - we won't be able to tell you anything further to what you already know.

We will begin sending emails to non-UK students from Monday, starting with those who have received offers. Please be patient because there were well over 100 applications from those outside the UK and we have to be very careful in sending emails individually.

May I wish everyone all the very best, whatever the outcome of your application. It was great meeting some of you at interview time, and many thanks indeed for your subsequent good wishes and kind words of thanks. If your application turns out not to have been successful, don't forget that you are all highly qualified applicants chasing a limited number of places. We know from past experience that those we couldn't take usually go on to other top universities and do really well.

Oh yes, of course congratulations to the 125 who do recieve the offer of a place, and to those who will be taken by other Colleges via the Pool.

Best wishes,

Mrs Jan Marshall