Geography

From geopolitics to climate change, natural hazards to inequality, Geography offers insights into some of the most pressing contemporary challenges. The discipline is characterised by the complex interactions between global scale change (e.g. sea level rise, human migration patterns) and more regional and local scale change (flash floods, urban inequalities).

Geography sits at the interface of the natural and social sciences in a world - the ‘Anthropocene’ - where humans increasingly modify their environment and where the environment, to differing degrees across different social groups and cultures, impacts and changes lives and livelihoods. Geography graduates are skilled in both quantitative and qualitative analysis and go on to careers in a variety of sectors, including industry and commerce, planning, social work, environmental management, conservation, and the media.

Magdalene has a lively group of undergraduate geographers with the typical intake being between two and four students per year. Teaching occupies the first two terms, together with the first half of the third term: the remaining four weeks are given over to revision and examinations. You can expect to have 7 or 8 one hour lectures each week, although this is only a rough guide: much depends on which papers you are taking and how they are timetabled. In the first year you will also have laboratory, practical classes or workshops each week. In the summer vacation after your second year, you will work on your dissertation, which is often the highlight of a student's Geography degree. Many of our students choose to travel around the world for their research.

In all three years you will normally have supervisions, where a small group of students (usually 2 - 4) discuss a particular topic for about one hour. You are often expected to have written an essay for each supervision. This is a valuable discipline in itself and provides a springboard for discussion: supervision essays do not count towards your final examinations. This means that you can afford to be more adventurous than might otherwise be the case: you can read beyond the syllabus, try out your own ideas, and reach your own conclusions. Supervisions are led by experts in the field, and since no college has a monopoly on these, you can expect to be supervised by people from many different colleges while you are here. In this way, not only do you have the chance to tackle questions at the frontiers of research: you are also exposed to different teaching styles, ideas and opinions.

Geography undergraduates are encouraged to apply for Departmental and University funds to assist with fieldwork expenses incurred in data gathering for the third year dissertation. College Scholarships are awarded for First Class results in University examinations. The College also has a number of travel awards.

More details of the course and the optional papers available can be found on the University’s Undergraduate Study pages and the Department of Geography website.

Do you enjoy learning about environments, landscapes and peoples, their societies, economies and cultures? How these relationships have been forged in the past, how societies are coming to terms with uncertain and changing environments, and how they are thinking about future global change? For example, Geography at Cambridge may challenge you with questions like these: 

• Science: what constitutes valid environmental knowledge?
• Economics: what and whom do we value and why?
• Risk: how are environmental risks perceived?
• Communication: how is climate change framed?
• Development: what constitutes well-being?
• Governance: how should societies be governed?

We want to see real interest, enthusiasm and engagement with Geography, perhaps through reading general science and geographical magazines, attending talks and lectures, or thinking critically about the world around you. You will need to be motivated to develop a wide range of analytical skills (broadly defined, both qualitative and quantitative) within an academic degree ranging across the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities. Above all, we are looking for an eagerness and willingness to learn, an openness to new ideas, and the intellectual curiosity to seek out more.

It is very desirable for applicants in Geography to have studied Geography to A-level or equivalent. We realise, however, that school provision in the subject varies, especially internationally. For international applicants who have not had the opportunity to study Geography formally, we would look for evidence during the application process that you have understood what the study of geography entails.

Minimum Offer

A-level: A*AA 

IB: 41-42 points overall, with 7,7,6 at Higher level. 

Sometimes we will specify the need for an A* (or 7 at IB Higher Level) in Geography.

Other qualifications: Check which other qualifications we accept 

Candidates will normally have two interviews of 20-25 minutes each. 

The interview process aims to assess your intellectual ability, potential, and commitment to the subject.

We do not require a written work submission for this subject.

There is no admissions assessment for Geography at Magdalene.

More information is available on the Interviews, Written Work and Assessments page.