Overseas
Candidates
We welcome applications
from overseas students but we would like to emphasise that the competition
for candidates from overseas is exceptionally severe. This is because
the Government obliges us to take a certain minimum number of home
(including European Union) students. In most years, we have only
about seven places to offer to overseas candidates, in all subjects
taken together.
Applying
Overseas students should
apply using the standard Cambridge Application form, and their application
should reach us by the usual mid-October 2010 deadline. In addition,
they MUST apply separately to UCAS,
Fulton House, Jessop Avenue, Cheltenham, Glos GL50 3SH, UK, preferably
by the same date.
Qualifications
Competition for undergraduate
places in Cambridge is extremely severe. Many overseas students
applying will be taking final school examinations among those listed
on this website (see Offers), and we would
expect them to gain grades broadly at the standard indicated here.
We do also welcome candidates
applying with other final school qualifications, but we have less
experience in assessing them. If you will be applying with other
final school qualifications, it would be very helpful to us if you
could provide, with your application, details of your examination
grading system, and of what proportion of candidates nationally
achieve each grade.
Applicants must have a
very high level of fluency in English - we ask for a 7 overall, and a 7 in each individual element, in the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) examination. Further details on where you can sit the examination can be found on the IELTS website.
Candidates applying in particular subjects may be asked to send
in written work anyway, and we ask that this should be in English:
see details under Courses.
Interviews
Ideally, we like to be
able to interview all overseas candidates, particularly where they
are from school systems unfamiliar to us. Therefore, to stand a realsitic chance of admission you would really need to attend interview in Cambridge, in December.
Cambridge Colleges do send some interviewers to places overseas to conduct interviews. Details of this can be found in the Undergraduate
Prospectus.
Alternatively, it may
be possible to make an assessment on the basis of samples of school
work sent. If you would like to apply to Clare, and your academic
record meets the standards set out above, but you find it impossible
to attend for interview, please get in touch with our Admissions
Office.
Finances
The amount of support
available for overseas students is very limited and almost always
only a partial contribution to overall costs.
The
Cambridge Commonwealth Trust, The Cambridge Overseas Trust offer
part-cost awards to overseas students who have been accepted for
admission.
If overseas students are
made an offer or unconditional offer of a place it will also be
subject to financial conditions. If you are liable for University
and College fees at the overseas rate, then it is a part of the
conditions of an offer that firm evidence is provided that you are
able to meet the necessary costs as set out in the Cambridge
Admissions Prospectus.
International Students: |