We usually talk in terms of A-levels when outlining 'typical' offer conditions and the like because that is the qualification most of applicants are studying, but a very substantial number of applicants are studying alternative qualifications, and we are accustomed to assessing such applications.

A good number of our students have taken the International Baccalaureate, Scottish Highers and Advanced Highers, or Cambridge Pre-U qualifications, but many others have studied in different systems altogether. Quite a number have SAT scores alongside APs. The status of most international qualifications for Cambridge entrance can be found on the University website here.

If you are studying an Access to HE Diploma or a stand-alone Foundation Year Programme, then please see the advice on the University website here. These qualifications alone are not usually sufficient for a competitive application to Cambridge for science subjects. They may be suitable as part of an application for some arts subjects or for PBS.

If you are still not sure, or are studying for a qualification not listed on the linked pages, then please contact the Admissions Office for advice.

Yes, absolutely. Each year we make offers to a number of people who already have their A-level results, or equivalent. A successful post-A-level applicant will have achieved the 'typical' offer level for their subject, and most will have exceeded it.

Successful post-A-level (or similar) applicants are usually made an offer with no academic conditions attached.

Yes, in each round you can make an application for deferred entry the following year if you wish. You can not apply for entry this year and for deferred entry at the same time, and you cannot apply for deferred entry more than one year ahead.

We make a small number of offers to deferred entry applicants each year. In doing so, we need to be confident that the applicant is as strong as any applicant likely to apply in the next round. To this end, deferred entry offers are likely to carry slightly stronger conditions than the usual. If you meet those conditions, though, you can rest assured that your place at Cambridge the following year is secure.

One thing we will consider for any deferred entry applicant is what their plans for their gap year are. We will expect them to be beneficial to the student's academic growth, and will want to be reassured that you won't get out of the practice of academic work. This is more of a concern in some subjects than in others. In some subjects, for example Engineering, a gap year spent in an industry internship or gaining other relevant work experience is actively encouraged, although by no means required.

If you are a current undergraduate at another UK university (and not in your final year there), then we will not normally accept an application from you. This is a university-wide policy.

Very rarely, we may accept an application in these circumstances but only if (a) you are changing direction to study a distinctively different subject than the one you are currently studying and have strong reasons for doing so, (b) are unable to study that subject at your current institution, and (c) your current institution enthusiastically supports your application. Even in those circumstances, acceptance of an application would be at our discretion.

If you are currently studying at a university or similar institution outside the UK, then you are welcome to make an application to study here (although you cannot transfer into Cambridge part-way through a course; you would have to start again here in Year 1).

Final year students may, of course, apply to study a second undergraduate degree, possibly as an affiliate student, but any offer they receive will be conditional on the result of their current degree.

Ordinarily, we only accept applications from people who will be 18 or over by the end of their first term at Magdalene.

It would be very unusual for us to accept an application for someone who is significantly younger than this, although we are willing to discuss the options if you have a good reason for applying early. We discourage applications from students who would be under 16 at the beginning of their studies.

Applicants should be aware that Magdalene College and the University of Cambridge are institutions designed for adults, and all applicants must demonstrate that they have the maturity and personal skills to cope with university level study and will be able to gain full benefit from the course if admitted.

If you are applying for Medicine then national restrictions mean that students under the age of 18 aren't permitted to undertake any clinical elements of the Medicine course, which start in the second term of the first year at the latest. Therefore, all medical students are required to be 18 years of age by the end of the first term of their first year.

No. All undergraduate applications to Magdalene (except for one-year exchange students applying for JYA or ERASMUS) must be made through UCAS. Please note that the JYA scheme is suspended for the current admissions round (entry in 2021).

Yes. Each year we have up to five visiting students studying here for one year as part of their degree at an overseas institution.

Two of these places are available for students from any country outside the UK undertaking what is often referred to as a 'Junior Year Abroad' (JYA). In fact JYA students at Magdalene may arrive in any year of undergraduate study, except the first. More information on the Magdalene JYA scheme is available here.

Please note that the JYA scheme is suspended for the current admissions round (entry in 2022).

We also participate in the ERASMUS+ scheme, and each year there are usually three ERASMUS+ students at Magdalene.

We only accept JYA and ERASMUS+ students for a single full academic year. The structure of the Cambridge degree makes it impractical for visiting undergraduates to study here for shorter periods.

We are very happy to receive applications from mature applicants (which means anyone who will be over the age of 21 on the day they start their studies). Applications from mature applicants are considered alongside and in the same way as those of standard age applicants, without any regard to the age of the applicant. Applicants with families, however, should be aware that we can only provide single accommodation for undergraduates and that they may find the facilities at one of the designated mature colleges better suited to their needs.

Affiliate students are those who have already completed one degree and wish to study for a second undergraduate degree.

If an applicant's qualifications are recognised and their application successful, it is normally possible for the College to exempt them from part of the regular undergraduate course. In the case of a three- or four-year course, the affiliate student normally joins Year 2. However, in certain subjects the affiliate student may need to take some first year exams.

For example, in Law, affiliate students who wish to practise will take Parts IB and II of the Law Tripos, but they must choose some papers which are also covered in the Part IA exams in order to gain exemption from Part I of the English law exams. In English, affiliate students take a two-year Part II which will normally include one paper from Part I.

We will consider applications from suitably qualified applicants for entry as affiliate students in most subjects. Successful applicants are likely to have a achieved First Class honours or equivalent in their first degree. They will still need to demonstrate that they meet any set Entrance Requirements for the subject they wish to study and their application will be considered alongside and on the same basis of those of the standard applicants that year.

Any offer made to an applicant who is yet to graduate is likely to be conditional on them achieving a certain standard in their first degree (usually First Class honours or a 4.00 GPA).

We cannot consider applications for entry as affiliate students in Architecture, Mathematics, Medicine, or Veterinary Medicine.

The total number varies from year to year, but is usually between 400 and 450. Of these, we undertake to interview at least 75%.

We aim to admit 105 new undergraduates each year, meaning that the success rate of applications to Magdalene (as with Cambridge as a whole) is around 5:1.

Our students are divided roughly 50:50 between arts and sciences, and between male and female. Approximately 30% of our undergraduates are from outside the UK.

No. We are looking only for academic ability and potential. Our interviewers and Admissions Tutors are very experienced at discerning these things regardless of educational background or level of preparation.

In the words of the Vice-Chancellor: Quite simply, if you have the ability, the enthusiasm and the motivation to study here, then we want you to apply to us.

There is no 'one size fits all' answer to this, and context is important here. If you are at or near the top of your year at school, then your academic record is likely to be considered strong. For most people this will mean that their GCSE grades will be mostly As and A*s (or 7s, 8s, or 9s in the reformed subjects). Your A-level predictions will meet or exceed the typical offer levels for your subject; if you took AS levels, these will mostly have been As.

It may be, however, that your grades are slightly lower than this but with good reason. You may have had a more challenging educational background, either because of the school provision available, or because of health or family circumstances. We look at each application in context, and we are more interested in how your academic record relates to those of your schoolmates, than to those of other applicants.

Having said this, it is important to recognise that each year we receive many times more applications from people with a strong academic record than we have places for. It is also important to realise that Cambridge degrees are some of the most demanding in the world. We need to be satisfied that you have the academic tools to be able to cope. The extent to which we rely on grades to tell us this will vary from subject to subject.

Ultimately, there really is only one way to find out. We can't predict whether your application will be successful, but we can promise to give you a full and fair hearing, and to consider your application in your own context.

It is important, but it is just one of the many aspects of an application that we take into consideration.

We are aware that your personal statement will be written to be read by all the institutions to which you are applying, not just Cambridge. Unlike many other universities, we are able to interview you to see something of the person 'behind' the personal statement, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't count.

The first thing to remember is that the personal statement should be just that: personal. Don't write something just because you think you should; try to get across something of yourself. That does not mean that it has to be particularly quirky or 'original'; it does mean that it has to be honest.

We are interested to know why you want to study the subject you do, and what you have done to date to learn more about it. We are keen to see evidence of self-motivation, and ideally a hint of an independent mind.

Whilst it can be reassuring to know that you have a healthy extra-curricular life, we are not especially concerned to know in detail about your sporting activities or other pastimes, unless they relate directly to your field of study.

You should also remember that we may well take the personal statement as a starting point for some of our discussions with you at interview. If you mention a book you have read, or a play you have seen, or a country you have visited, be prepared to talk about it! 

Absolutely not. Despite what you may sometimes read in the papers, or what might have been true 100 years ago, there is no such thing as a 'typical' Cambridge student. Indeed, individuality can be an advantage.

We are looking for people who are intelligent, hard working, and able and willing to think for themselves; beyond that we have no preconceptions.

Cambridge and Magdalene are diverse, international communities. Our students and staff represent a wonderfully wide range of backgrounds: social, economic, ethnic, national; in terms of gender, sexuality, age, and belief. They vary in their views, experiences, interests, and traditions. We believe that this diversity is one of twenty-first-century Cambridge's great strengths. Cambridge is built on the assumption that we all have something to learn and we all have something to give.

If you have already taken one or more A-levels and done well in them, then that may well enhance your chances of receiving an offer in the first place, but it will not count towards any conditions set.

Other than in very exceptional circumstances, we expect applicants to be sitting a minimum of three A-levels (or equivalent) in Year 13. We are keen to see not only that you can achieve high grades in specific subjects but also that you can perform at that level whilst coping with the workload of three A-levels at once. This is for your own benefit: the workload, both in standard and intensity, during the first year of a Cambridge degree is significantly higher than that of the final year of A-levels, and we want to be confident that you are well prepared for it.

It is usually impossible to give a definitive answer to these questions without seeing a completed application. What we can say is that you won't get in if you don't apply.

If you have a strong academic record, and if you are motivated to learn and to work, and so long as you meet the specific entrance requirements for the subject you want to study, then you stand a chance. The only way to find out how good that chance is, is to submit an application.

Each year we interview over 75% of our applicants.

Most of the written assessments we now have were introduced across the university in 2016, although a number had been in use by several colleges (including Magdalene) for some years.

One reason for their introduction is that we receive applications from people with an increasingly diverse range of school qualifications: A-levels, Highers, IB, Pre-U, and many international qualifications, and they all test slightly different things. Asking applicants to sit our own written assessments makes the process fairer, as it increases our ability to compare applicants' performance on similar terms to one another.

Another reason is that many of the subjects we teach are either not taught in many schools, or require skills or aptitudes not necessarily tested in school leaving qualifications. Our assessments are designed, amongst other things, to assess your aptitude for the specific course you are applying to study. Conversely, they are not designed to test your level of specialist knowledge beyond a standard it is reasonable to expect at the end of Year 12. They are focused on assessing thinking skills and aptitude, and do not require special study or revision.

Finally, qualification reform means that most UK students don't now take public examinations at the end of Year 12 (the old AS levels). These AS results had proved to be a reasonably good guide to applicants' suitability for Cambridge, not least because some students only begin to flourish academically after their GCSEs. These assessments, therefore, give us an additional way of assessing where you are now, rather than where you were a year and a half ago.

It is important to remember, however, that the assessments are just one of the many things we look at in the admissions process. Your performance in the written assessment will not be considered in isolation, but will be taken into account alongside the other elements of your application. 

This will vary slightly depending on the subject you are being interviewed for, but there is an extent to which all interviewers are looking for the same sorts of things:

• evidence of intellectual curiosity
• aptitude for the subject, as well as motivation for studying it
• ability to think on your feet, but also a willingness to really think, not just to speak
• a desire to learn and receptiveness to new ideas

You do not have to be confident, widely travelled, or brilliantly original. You will be asked tough questions, but you will not be asked trick questions.

Remember, nerves are natural, and we know that. Most of your interviewers were once interviewees themselves, at Cambridge or elsewhere, and they remember what it is like all too well!

More information about what to expect in interviews, and what we are looking for, can be found here.

We undertake to interview at least 75% of the people who apply to us (in fact it is usually a little more than that). We do give very careful and individual consideration to every application we receive.

There can be a number of reasons why an applicant is not called for interview.

• It may be that your application was incomplete.
• You may not have or be taking the qualifications required for the subject for which you applied.
• It may be that we had a particularly strong set of applications in your subject this year and that when judged against the other applicants, we felt that your application was not strong enough to be competitive, regardless of your performance at interview.
• It may be that the results of your pre-interview assessment (if you took one) placed you in the bottom 20% of applicants in that subject

Admission to Cambridge is extremely competitive and not getting an interview does not necessarily mean that your application was poor, simply that too many others were significantly stronger. We believe it is unfair to invite people for interview if they have no realistic chance of receiving an offer, regardless of how well the interviews go.

Not necessarily. A number of strong applicants to whom we are unable to offer a place will be placed in the Inter-Collegiate Winter Pool for consideration by other colleges who may be looking for candidates with stronger applications than those that applied to that college directly. The Winter Pool is an important part of the moderation process to ensure that the strongest applicants to Cambridge are offered places here, even if their first-choice college is unable to accept them.

We do not give feedback to applicants who receive an offer (the offer is your feedback!).

If you do not receive an offer, then we are happy to provide feedback on your application. The request for feedback must come from you, not your school, and must reach us by 31st January following your receipt of our decision earlier that month.

Assuming you have returned your Feedback and Confidentiality Form, the feedback will usually be sent to your referee, who will communicate it to you. We feel it is important for you to receive the feedback from somebody who knows you and who is likely to be able to answer any questions you have arising from it.

We try to send all feedback by the end of March, although this depends to some extent on the number of requests we receive.

The 'typical offer' level is the level of condition most commonly attached to an offer in a given subject.

Basically, the typical level is A*AA or equivalent for Arts subjects (except Economics), and for PBS and Veterinary Medicine; it is A*A*A or equivalent for Economics and for Science subjects other than PBS and Veterinary Medicine. Typical offers for Mathematics will invariably include an additional STEP condition.

The typical offer is really the minimum level that successful applicants for that subject are expected to achieve. It is very rare indeed for us to set an offer lower than the typical level. It is not uncommon for us to set a condition higher than the typical offer.

It is important to realise that these are the typical levels of conditions attached to offers, not the typical level of achievement expected of successful applicants. The vast majority of successful applicants go on to achieve grades significantly higher than the 'typical' offer level.

Having said this, every offer is tailored to the individual and is decided upon with regard to particular circumstances and context. We endeavour not to set unrealistic offers and do not ordinarily set an offer condition that exceeds an applicant's predicted grades.

This could be for a number of reasons. Sometimes, if there is a particularly strong field of candidates, setting slightly higher conditions allows us to make more offers than we ordinarily would without running an unreasonable risk of exceeding the available number of places in the College. This way we can say to strong candidates with good predictions, 'OK, over to you to prove yourselves'. The only alternative would be to make fewer offers and deny some of those candidates the chance of earning a place.

Sometimes, we are impressed by a candidate, but want to be reassured that they are going to be able to cope with the demands of the Cambridge course for which they have applied, or it may be that an applicant has impressed in most areas but is slightly weaker in one. In these situations we might set a slightly tougher condition. In the long run, these tougher conditions work to the student's benefit, by reassuring us and them that they are as well prepared as possible for the rigours of a Cambridge degree.

Each year we make a few more offers than we have places available. Candidates who make their offer conditions automatically have their place confirmed. Any remaining places are considered on an individual basis. Other than in exceptional circumstances, we are normally able to relax only a very small number of offers. In a year in which a large number of offer-holders have met their conditions, we may not be in a position to relax any offers. Candidates who do not meet their offer conditions should contact the Admissions Office to discuss their place as soon as they become aware that they have missed their offer conditions.

If you have missed your offer by a small margin and we are not able to confirm your place at Magdalene, then we may place you in the Summer Pool for consideration by other colleges. This takes place the day after A-level results are published. If you have missed your offer but do not wish to be placed in the Summer Pool so as not to delay your opportunity to take up your insurance offer or to enter clearing then please let us know.

There is no set answer to this, and we can't offer specific advice. Generally, however, reapplications to Magdalene are discouraged unless there is a good (and usually unforeseen) reason for you having missed the conditions of your offer. In particular, we would urge anybody to think very carefully before giving up a secure place at another university in order to reapply to Cambridge the following year. Some reapplications are successful, but many are not.

Offers are usually made on the assumption that the conditional grades set in three or four A-levels will be achieved in one sitting. The workload in the first year of a Cambridge degree is significantly higher than that of three or even four A-levels, and we need to be confident that you can cope with that and still perform at the highest level academically.

Having said that, there are always exceptions. Ultimately, this is a question for you and your advisors (parents, guardians, teachers).

Magdalene is able to offer undergraduates accommodation for the duration of their course. In the first year students are arbitrarily assigned a room near the centre of the College. In later years students are able to choose their room through a room ballot system. Room rents vary depending on the type of room required. All rooms typically offer a sink and internet facilities. A number of 'sets' comprising a study room and bedroom are available as well as en-suite facilities.

More information about undergraduate accommodation at Magdalene can be found here.

In addition to the standard govenment funded loans, UK and EU students at all Cambridge colleges with a household income of less than £42,620, are likely to be eligible for a Cambridge Bursary of up to £3,500. For those who are entitled to the full Cambridge Bursary, Magdalene will add a further College Bursary of up to £1,500 per annum, bringing the total annual bursaries available for the least wealthy students to £5,000 a year. As with the Cambridge Bursaries, these College Bursaries are not loans and do not have to be repaid.

Magdalene College Bursaries are made possible by the generosity of Magdalene alumni.

The College also has some funds to help students in cases of unforeseen financial hardship, and students can apply for College grants to support travel, music or sporting activities, or to contribute towards the cost of language courses at the University Language Centre.

More information about the sources of funding and financial support available to students at Magdalene can be found here.

An important part of the admissions process involves assessing an applicant's aptitude for the subject for which they have applied; and your application will primarily have been considered against those of other applicants in that subject. Other than in very exceptional circumstances, therefore, you will be expected to study the subject for which you applied and for which you have received an offer for at least the first year of your degree; changes of course are not usually permitted before the end of the first year.

The unique Cambridge tripos system, however, means that it is often possible to change course after one or two years of study. Permission to change course is not automatic and there are some courses (Medicine, for example) which it is not possible to transfer into part-way through, but there is still a surprising degree of flexibility. A few subjects (such as Management Studies, or History and Philosophy of Science) only have a Part II, which is to say they can only be studied in the later stages of a degree by students who have successfully completed Part I in another subject.

To be able to change course at the end of your first, second, or third year, you need the agreement of your tutor and the relevant directors of studies that any change is in your educational interests. You must also have the necessary background in the subject to which you wish to change. In some cases you may be required to undertake some catch-up work or take up the new course from the start/an earlier year. You should also consider if/how changing course may affect any financial support arrangements.