We welcome prospective students from Scotland and encourage you to consider an application to Christ's College! This section sets out some additional information for you to read alongside the more general Christ's undergraduate admissions pages and we hope that you will find it helpful.
Applicants from Scotland are encouraged to attend online events and research courses in S4 and S5, and you would normally apply to Cambridge during S6 (though it is also possible to make a post-qualification application after you have finished S6, or even a mature application if you prefer).
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Getting started
Why not start by reading the profiles of James from Glasgow who studied Maths at Christ's and Iona from Edinburgh who studied Medicine.
Then, it would be great if you could attend Cambridge for Beginners in S4 or S5, and a Christ's online open day in S5 or early S6. These events will give you an introduction, explaining what is special about studying at Cambridge, with the College system and supervision teaching, as well as taking you through the application process and how to make a competitive application - they will give links for further research and more events, and encouragement to sign up (if you want to!) for our ongoing support emails. We also run a regular webinar called Christ's: A look at the Grounds and Facilities, which is a good way to get a sense of the College from a distance.
Coming from a Scottish state-school, Cambridge seemed like a unattainable dream. I knew no-one who had ever applied, let alone gone, and its reputation made it seem like a distant reality. However, the three years I’ve spent here have been some of the best of my life.
Entry requirements
Of course, one important consideration is our academic requirements. Many students from Scotland will be taking Highers and Advanced Highers, though depending on where you are at school, we realise that you could be taking the International Baccalaureate or A levels.
We define the terms of each offer individually, but the typical conditional offer for your course is given below. You need to be academically ambitious, as most Christ's students arrive with higher grades.
Please also note that some of our courses have an admissions assessment that you would sit during the application process, details of which are on the relevant Christ's subject page.
Scottish Highers and Advanced Highers
| Typical offer | Course |
|---|---|
| A1, A2, A2 in three Advanced Highers | Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, Archaeology, Architecture, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Classics, Design, English, Education, Geography, History, History and Politics, History and Modern Languages, History and Politics, History of Art, Human, Social and Political Sciences, Land Economy, Law, Linguistics, Modern and Medieval Languages, Music, Philosophy, Theology, Religion and Philosophy of Religion |
| A1, A1, A2 in three Advanced Highers | Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Computer Science, Economics, Engineering, Medicine, Natural Sciences; Psychological and Behavioural Sciences |
| A1, A1, A2 in three Advanced Highers and 1,1 in STEP Mathematics papers II and III. | Mathematics |
Special notes
For advice about suitable subject choices click on the subject link in the table if there is one / see the subject requirements on the relevant subject page. Advanced Highers will satisfy A Level subject requirements. Over time we're hoping to make a lot of the subjects mentioned above into links with specific information for you (work in progress!). Feel free to email us with questions in the meantime.
Scottish Baccalaureate
If you're studying towards a Scottish Baccalaureate qualification, we will need you to take three Advanced Highers as part of it - see the information about the Advanced Higher requirements above, as these are what we base our offers on.
Although the Cambridge entry requirements focus on your Advanced Highers, do use the Interdisciplinary Project as an opportunity to experience working on a larger project, as you will need the skills it helps you to develop at university!
International Baccalaureate
Students taking the International Baccalaureate would norm
ally need to achieve 42 points overall (including bonus points), with 7,7,6 in your Higher Level subjects.
If you apply for a Cambridge course that requires Mathematics, IB students would need Higher Level Mathematics: Analysis and Approaches. Please see our IB page for more detail.
Costs and Financial Support
As you consider Cambridge, one thing that you should certainly look at and discuss with your family, is the financial information, which is quite different for university in England to the arrangements for universities in Scotland. Don't be too hasty - if you're interested in studying here and will be classed as Home for fee status, look into it properly, as you'll need to work out the costs of a degree, but also, and very importantly, explore the financial support available to our students via the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS), Cambridge Bursaries, Christ's Scotland top-up bursary and Christ's Awards.
Kirsty, one of our students from Scotland says 'In my opinion, paying tuition fees is outweighed by access to a first-rate education, incredible academic resources, guaranteed and affordable accommodation, and the benefits of the collegiate system.'
Accommodation
Once you have a place at Christ's, you do not need to worry about where you will live as you are guaranteed a College-owned room during your undergraduate course. We have lots of rooms (and lots of choice!) on the main College site as well as some College-owned houses in the roads just behind the College for students who prefer to be in a shared house. One advantage we have is to have all of our accommdoation close together - as living around each other helps to build the College community. See the undergraduate accommodation section for further information and some pictures too.
Visiting in person is a nice extra, but not essential
You are of course very welcome to visit in person as well if you want to/can, but we're aware that this isn't possible for a lot of our Scottish applicants, and we've designed our support so that visiting is a nice extra but is not essential for a competitive application to the College.
We put a lot of information in our undergraduate admissions and student life sections, as well as a lot of pictures - do look at the pages in our grounds and facilities section in particular, and please don't hesitate to send us an email (admissions@christs.cam.ac.uk) if there's information that you can't find in the undergraduate admissions and student life pages.
The Christ's interviews are online
At Christ's College, we interview all students selected for interview online, so there is no need for anyone to travel to Cambridge for interviews. We've interviewed online for the past three years and can confirm that the online format does not affect how we assess applicants. Most of our applicants do their interviews at home, but you could do your interviews from school if you prefer (e.g. if you are worried about your home internet connection or don't have a quiet space). We provide a webinar to help students set-up for interviews during the application process, and you can see comments from students who had online interviews here. If the subject page for your course says that there's an admissions assessment for students invited for interview, note that these are also online.
If you prefer to select a different College for your Cambridge application, you can check whether the interviews are online or in-person.
Further Information
- University page for applicants from Scotland
- You can read the University's admissions policy statement on Curriculum for Excellence for information.
Subjects / Student profiles / How to apply / Application Support for UK students
