UNDERGRADUATE ADMISSIONS GUIDE
Your course comes first. We’ll help you understand the education, connect your interests with the right preparation, and make room for the questions you are still working through.
October 2027 entry
UNDERSTAND THE EDUCATION
You apply for a particular course, not a general first year. Some Cambridge courses are broad within their field, but the scope of that exploration is already part of the degree you choose.
YOUR UNIVERSITY COURSE
Departments arrange lectures, seminars, and practicals. Students on the same course share this teaching across Colleges.
YOUR COLLEGE COMMUNITY
Your College provides accommodation and academic and personal support. It also assesses your application, interviews applicants, and makes offers.
Your College arranges regular discussions with subject specialists. You work through ideas in a small group and receive feedback without the supervision itself being assessed.
Prepare something to discuss. Read, write an essay, or try a problem set.
Explain how you reached your view. Ask questions and test your reasoning with a supervisor.
Use the feedback to go further. Revisit an assumption or try a different approach.
What Cambridge says: A supervision usually lasts an hour, as a small-group discussion with your supervisor. How many you have each week depends on your course.
Open applications: If you have no preference, Cambridge can allocate your application to a College. If another College later has room for a strong applicant, the pooling process may lead to an offer there. An open application is not an application to every College.
29 Colleges: Three admit only mature students, aged 21 or over, and two accept applications from women only. Not every College offers every course. Colleges guarantee accommodation for three or four years for students without children.
Letrado’s advice: Shortlist Colleges around your practical needs. If a subject combination, access requirement, or qualification is unclear, ask their admissions office before you apply.
Three eight-week terms: Michaelmas runs from October to early December, Lent from January to early March, and Easter from April to mid-June.
Three or four years: Most courses take three years. Some, such as Engineering, Mathematics, and Natural Sciences, can add a fourth, master’s year.
BUILD EVIDENCE OF ACADEMIC POTENTIAL
Cambridge considers your academic record, reference, writing, assessments, interview, and circumstances together. Its published guidance puts particular weight on recent, relevant academic performance.
YOUR SUBJECTS
Strong grades need to sit alongside the subjects your course requires. Some first-year options also have their own prerequisites.
Letrado’s adviceCheck the requirements before choosing your final school subjects. If your school cannot offer a required subject, contact your shortlisted Colleges early.
YOUR INTERESTS
Cambridge’s writing guidance asks what you learned from exploring your subject, not how many activities you can name.
Letrado’s adviceKeep a short record of a question, something you read or tried, and how your view changed. A library book or free lecture can give you plenty to think about.
YOUR REFERENCE
Your academic reference helps Cambridge understand your preparation and educational context.
Letrado’s adviceShare your course choice, deadlines, and a few examples of academic work with your referee. Ask your school to explain important gaps or interruptions in your education.
2027 ENTRY · FOUR EXAMPLE COURSES
These are published minimum offer levels. Colleges may set higher or more specific conditions. IB figures show overall points and grades across three Higher Level subjects. Check your course and College together.
Natural Sciences: explore several sciences before narrowing your focus. In the first year, you choose three science subjects plus a mathematics-based subject. Your school subjects affect which options are available. Academic preparation: A*A*A at A level; Mathematics plus two other science or mathematics subjects. IB: 41–42 with 776 at Higher Level, with the required subjects. Assessment: ESAT before interview selection.
Engineering: build broad foundations before choosing a specialism. The first two years cover engineering fundamentals. Specialisation begins in the third year. Academic preparation: A*A*A at A level; Mathematics and Physics, plus Further Mathematics to AS or A level if your school offers it. IB: 41–42 with 776 at Higher Level; Mathematics: Analysis and Approaches and Physics. Assessment: ESAT: Mathematics 1, Mathematics 2, and Physics.
Human, Social, and Political Sciences: connect questions about politics, society, and culture. First-year papers draw on politics, international relations, social anthropology, and sociology. Later, you follow a single-subject or combined track. Academic preparation: A*AA at A level; no compulsory school subjects. IB: 41–42 with 776 at Higher Level. Cambridge recommends English, History, or languages as useful preparation. Assessment: Hughes Hall, King’s, and Newnham use a College assessment. Check your College’s written-work requirements too.
Mathematics: prepare for mathematical reasoning at two stages. The degree develops proof and abstract reasoning alongside applied mathematics. First-year options include Mathematics with Physics. Academic preparation: A*A*A at A level, with Mathematics and Further Mathematics. IB: 41–42 with 776 at Higher Level, including Mathematics: Analysis and Approaches. Check the course’s subject-grade requirements. Assessment: TMUA in October 2026; STEP normally forms part of a later conditional offer, taken in summer 2027.
WHAT CAMBRIDGE DESCRIBES
Contextual flags for UK applicants, such as Free School Meals, help Colleges read your record in context.
WHAT CAMBRIDGE DESCRIBES
From your College, mostly in November and some in early December.
From 7 to 18 December 2026, online or in person, depending on your College and course.
Interviewers may ask you to apply knowledge to new material or discuss something you submitted. The conversation explores your reasoning, subject understanding, and openness to new ideas.
Most applicants have one or two interviews, 35 minutes to an hour in total.
FREE OFFICIAL PRACTICE
UAT-UK’s ESAT and TMUA practice tests and past papers, and Cambridge’s STEP Support Programme, cost nothing.
WHAT CAMBRIDGE AND UCAS SAY
Cambridge allows AI as a prompt for ideas or research for your personal statement, but warns against relying on it. False claims about your achievements count as application fraud.
UCAS says submitting AI-generated text as your own could be considered cheating. You declare your statement wasn’t copied from another source, including AI, and UCAS checks for similarity.
AI tools are prohibited during Cambridge interviews, and interviewers make random checks.
BUILD YOUR CALENDAR AROUND YOUR COURSE
Test registration can close before the UCAS deadline: for 2027 entry, booking for the ESAT, TMUA, LNAT, and UCAT closed in September 2026. Most applicants then submit UCAS and the separate My Cambridge Application form one week apart.
UCAS application
15 October 2026My Cambridge Application
22 October 2026Main interview period
7–18 December 2026December interview outcomes
27 January 2027Dates are for the main October application round. You can’t apply to both Oxford and Cambridge in the same year, and you apply for one Cambridge course.
Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Engineering, Natural Sciences, and Veterinary Medicine. Booking closed on 28 September 2026, and the test dates are 12–16 October 2026.
Mathematics applicants now take TMUA as well as normally meeting a later STEP condition. Booking closed on 28 September 2026, and the test dates are 12–16 October 2026.
For Cambridge applicants, registration and booking closed on 15 September 2026, and the last test date is 15 October 2026.
Booking closed on 16 September 2026, and the last test date was 24 September 2026.
Your interviewing College arranges these after shortlisting, with no advance registration. Some courses also ask for written work.
Regional dates: For applicants in China, Hong Kong, and Macau, the ESAT sitting is 12 or 13 October; TMUA is 15 or 16 October 2026. ESAT and TMUA access-arrangement requests closed on 14 September, and bursary requests on 21 September.
Fees and results: The ESAT and TMUA cost £78 in the UK and Ireland, or £133 elsewhere. Candidates receive their results on 16 November 2026.
Other assessments: Other courses may use a College-arranged assessment or ask for written work or a portfolio. Computer Science applicants to Peterhouse or Trinity also take the CSAT. Follow your course and College instructions, not just the four tests above.
ESAT modules: Engineering applicants take Mathematics 1, Mathematics 2, and Physics in the ESAT. Other Cambridge ESAT courses require Mathematics 1 plus two selected modules; check the permitted combination for your course.
UCAS is the first submission. You apply to either Oxford or Cambridge in the same year, and submit one Cambridge application. Your school reference is part of that submission. The UCAS fee for 2027 entry is £34.50.
Cambridge then asks for more detail. My Cambridge Application may request school topics, a transcript, language-test details, and funding information, plus a photo. Most applicants applying from outside the UK, Ireland, Channel Islands, and Isle of Man pay £60, with exemptions.
Letrado’s advice: Ask for your transcript before you need it. For 2027 entry, Cambridge will not review extra documents uploaded to UCAS: send required material through My Cambridge Application or your College, as instructed.
Qualifications: For U.S. applicants, a diploma alone isn’t enough: Cambridge usually asks for at least five AP scores of 5, in subjects related to your course, plus a high SAT or ACT score, such as 1500 on the SAT for science courses and Economics.
Fee status: It depends on your nationality, UK immigration status, and where you lived in the three years before your course.
Your visa: Without a UK or Irish passport, you’ll usually need a Student visa: £558 from outside the UK, plus a health surcharge of £776 a year.
Your circumstances: If illness, school disruption, or other circumstances affected your studies, Cambridge explains how your referee or another appropriate professional can tell the College. Avoid repeating information already supplied in your reference.
English: You may also need to meet an English-language condition. Cambridge normally expects IELTS Academic 7.5 overall, usually at least 7.0 in each component; check the current rules and your College’s requirements. For an interview, Cambridge looks for at least IELTS 6.5 when you apply.
Mature students: For eligible mature applicants to selected courses and Colleges, the UCAS deadline is 13 January 2027, and the My Cambridge Application deadline is 20 January 2027.
Foundation Year: The Foundation Year also has a 13 January 2027 UCAS deadline and its own application requirements. Check eligibility before using either route.
MAKE YOUR INTELLECTUAL INTEREST VISIBLE
4,000 characters in totalIncluding spaces, across three UCAS questions, with at least 350 characters for each answer.
Cambridge reads your personal statement for academic potential, without giving it a formal score. Focus on a few meaningful explorations and the ideas they led you to consider.
Letrado’s adviceGive each example a purpose. Explain the question, the idea you encountered, and your response to it. You do not need three equal-length answers or a catalogue of books.
Name one idea or problem, and what you did next. Cambridge doesn’t expect a statement aimed at Cambridge alone.
Cambridge says it’s better to explore a few things in detail. Show how one topic changed your understanding.
Cambridge suggests non-academic activities take up no more than 20% of the answer where you mention them.
It can help if your Cambridge course differs significantly from your other UCAS choices. Add relevant academic detail; do not repeat your UCAS answers or explain your College choice. Letrado’s advice: if your other choices are direct Physics degrees, explain why Cambridge’s Natural Sciences structure also interests you. Point to the scientific connections you want to investigate, not Cambridge’s reputation.
Human, Social, and Political Sciences applicants, for example, submit two pieces. Interviewers may ask about anything you sent.
MAKE THE WHOLE DEGREE AFFORDABLE
Cambridge has published its 2027-entry fees and 2027–28 living-cost estimate. Home and international students have different fee and funding arrangements.
2027–28 · ESTIMATED LIVING COST
Including £880 for accommodation and £255 for food.
FOR NINE MONTHS
If you spend the academic year in Cambridge.
FOR TWELVE MONTHS
If you also stay through the vacations.
The estimate includes accommodation, food, personal, and study expenses, but not tuition or the College fee. Your actual spending and time in Cambridge may differ.
Build your living-cost budget (opens in a new tab)2027 ENTRY · INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL TUITION
£30,798–£70,554Your subject changes the starting figure. International students also pay an annual College fee, from £12,885 to £15,950 in 2027–28. Tuition is fixed for the length of your course, and in many cases the College fee is too.
Check the full course table and your College’s fee, including any later-year exceptions.
See tuition and College fees (opens in a new tab)Letrado’s adviceDecide whether you need accommodation during vacations, and add travel, visa-related costs, and any course extras. Compare the full length of each degree, not just one year. Ask the College about unclear costs or funding conditions before accepting an offer, so you and your family can decide with the whole picture in front of you.
Research funding before relying on an award. Some country-specific scholarships are due with your Cambridge application.
Find international funding options (opens in a new tab)ONE STUDENT’S EXPERIENCE · G.S.
G.S. attended a state sixth form in northern England. His interest in physics grew through electronics and instrumentation, including circuits and readings that did not behave as he expected.
We helped G.S. explain the failed attempts, rather than leave them out.
He described how he isolated noise, and when he asked for help.
He concluded that part of the original design was unsuitable.
For his Cambridge Natural Sciences interview, he practised explaining his reasoning even when the next step was unclear.
HIS CAMBRIDGE OFFER
Offered a place to study Natural Sciences at Cambridge
HIS FINAL CHOICE · IMPERIALQueen’s Tower and Central Library, Imperial College London · Photo: Shadowssettle / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped.
Laboratory access and a sustainable family cost helped him decide after comparing the education behind his offers.
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