History

• Why Study History at Christ's?
• Course structure and content
• Teaching 
• What do our students think?
• How to apply
  • Subjects: what do you need?
  • Written work
  • Interviews
  • Offers
• Helpful resources
• Open Days and Online Events
• Want to know more?

Why study History at Christ's?

Christ’s is proud to boast a distinguished reputation for History. Quentin Skinner, Simon Schama, Niall Ferguson, Sir David Cannadine, Linda Colley, Geoffrey Parker, Sir John Plumb and Roy Porter have all been students or Fellows of our College – and not forgetting Sacha Baron Cohen.

And we’re one of Cambridge’s leading colleges for the subject, thanks to our substantial community of historians. Each year we have around 25 undergraduates and 20-30 postgraduates pursuing Master’s or doctoral degrees. Christ’s History Society brings our historical community together for talks, debates and an annual History dinner.

On this course you gain an in-depth understanding of the past and develop valuable transferable skills: the ability to research complex material quickly, think critically and excel at written and verbal communication. Recent Christ’s graduates have gone on to professions including law, the civil service, banking, management consultancy, media, higher education, teaching, administration and PR.

Course structure and content

The History degree (or ‘tripos’) is a three-year degree. Please visit the University website for full details of the History course content and structure, including the course film. You will also find information on the Faculty of History page for prospective applicants. If you have further questions about course content, please contact schoolsliaisonoffice@hist.cam.ac.uk.

Teaching

Your lectures and exams are organised by the University’s Faculty of History. Here at College, we teach in ‘supervisions’ (tutorial sessions 1-to-1 or in pairs) to give you personally-tailored tuition and support – a major advantage of a Cambridge education.

Our current History fellows have a broad range of interests:

• Professor Susan Bayly Extra-European and World History, Colonialism and Empire, India and Southeast Asia
• Dr Harriet Lyon, (Director of Studies, Part I) early modern Britain
• Dr Helen Pfeifer Ottoman History
• Professor David Reynolds (Director of Studies, Part II) 20th Century British and American history.
• Professor Jim Secord Social history of Science since 1750
• Dr Arianne Urus Environmental History

Here in College our library boasts an excellent history collection, and you can apply to Christ’s generous educational and travel funds for support with independent study, such as research trips for dissertations. Our Levy-Plumb Humanities Fund offers grants for a range of resources including book and creative arts.

What do our students think?

Read about the experiences of Christ's History students Laura, Alice, Ossie, Max, Isobel, James and Sathya - these profiles have a lot of detail in them about what it's really like to live in College and study History, as well as how students approached the application process.

You may also find the profiles by students doing History joint degrees helpful. See the accounts by Sam, Eebbaa, Nik and Victoria.

If you’d like to hear from other Christ's students, please watch the Christ's student Q&A film, and visit our Student Profiles page.

How to apply

Visit How to Apply for full details and a timeline of the application process. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and school types, all over the world. If you're applying from outside the UK, please read our international students section.

Subjects: what do you need?

We expect you to study History at A-level, IB Higher Level, Scottish Advanced Higher or equivalent as one of your post-16 subjects. Apart from that, there is no ‘ideal’ combination of subjects. Our successful applicants have taken subjects ranging from maths and sciences to arts and social sciences. These all teach skills useful to the undergraduate historian.

We encourage students to attend one of our regular Subject Matters webinars for help with choosing Post-16 subjects for competitive university applications. This webinar is pitched for students aged 14-16 though it is also possible to attend when you have started sixth form. 

What are we looking for?

We’re looking for students who like reading, writing and thinking about the past in all its forms. You should be able to study independently, enjoy working with peers and relish discussion and debate.

Written work

After we receive your application, we ask you to upload TWO essays that you feel accurately reflect your abilities and interests. These should be no more than 2500 words, written during the normal course of your studies and already marked by a teacher. We recommend you keep a copy for your own reference as we may discuss it at interview.

We publish full guidelines on written work in the Current Applicants section on 20 September each year.

Interviews

If we invite you for interviews, these usually take place in early December. At Christ's we continue do all of our interviews online, as we have done for the last three years. You can have your interviews either at home (most applicants do this) or at school (if easier). Those selected for interviews are normally interviewed for 35-50 minutes in total. At Christ’s, we usually split the time into two interviews with academics in History. In one interview, we normally talk about your written work for part of the interview. In the other, we normally give you a text (or texts) to read shortly before your interview, and then discuss the material during the interview. Any details of the interviews each year are provided nearer the time in our current applicants section.

Further, more general information about interviews (including two useful films) is available in the Cambridge interviews section, and it's worth also having a look at supervisions (short film here), as the best way to understand interviews is to realise that they are similar to what you do every week as a Cambridge student. More specifically, we recommend this film in which current Cambridge History students discuss their interview experiences. Remember that your interviews may cover different things to the students speaking.

There is no written assessment for History at Christ's College. 

Offers

At Christ's we don’t have fixed quotas for places, so the number of students we admit in any year depends on the strengths of the applicants. In History we aim to admit 8 to 10 students each year.

We define the terms of each offer individually, though our typical conditional offer is:

• A*AA at A-level including History – sometimes we may specify the A* (or equivalent) is in History
• 42 points overall in the International Baccalaureate with 7,7,6 in Higher Level subjects including History
• A1,A2,A2 in three Scottish Advanced Highers including History.

If you’re taking another qualification, we expect you to be working at or close to the top of the mark range i.e.

• Baccalauréat français international (BFI): 17 (mention très bien) out of 20 overall, with a minimum of 17 in relevant subjects
• European Baccalaureate: at least 85% overall, with 9/10 in relevant subjects including History

You can look up other qualifications in the offer levels for other exam systems and international entry requirements, and if you are applying from outside the UK please read the Christ's international students section for further information and check the country pages.

If you will have finished school when you apply, please also read about post-qualification applications, taking a gap year, and, if relevant, applying from a university.

Helpful resources

Attend an Open Day / Event

Our open days and events page advertises regular online opportunities as well as events you can attend in Cambridge. If you can, sign up for a College Open Day (our October, February and September events normally include a meeting with a History subject specialist). As part of our outreach programme, we run an annual taster series for students from UK state schools who are interested in History - see Lady Margaret Beaufort - the mother of all Tudors for details and the eligibility criteria. Between February and August we also run regular webinars:

• Subject Matters: The importance of post-16 subject choices (this one is also run Sept - Nov)
• Cambridge for Beginners
• Christ's College: A look at the Grounds and Facilities
• Personal Statements and preparing for an application

Further subject-specific opportunities you might wish to consider include Subject Masterclasses organised by Cambridge Admissions Office, and subject-specific talks in the July Cambridge Open Days. If you are a UK student from a background where there is little tradition of entry to Higher Education, you can apply to attend a Sutton Trust Summer School in History or to shadow a current undergraduate studying History via the Cambridge SU Shadowing Scheme (do be aware that there's a high proportion of applicants to places for both of these last two opportunities so please don't be discouraged if you don't get a place).

Need more information?

For more detail of what the course involves, read Undergraduate History admissions on the University website. Take a look at the Faculty of History information for prospective students too.

And if you have any other questions, please send them to us at admissions@christs.cam.ac.uk. We look forward to hearing from you.

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