Prospective students from France

We welcome applicants from France who would like to apply for a place here at Christ's College. We also welcome teachers and guidance counselors at schools in France to get in touch if you have questions about supporting students from your school who would like to apply to Christ's College.

• Entry requirements
• Maths advice
• English language requirements
• Student profiles
• The application process
• Finance
• Where can I find out more?

Entry requirements

The minimum Christ's offer for applicants taking the baccalauréat general (French Baccalaureate) would ask you to achieve 17 (mention très bien) out of 20 overall, with a minimum of 17 in individual subjects. Please be aware that 17 out of 20 is a minimum requirement - in recent admissions rounds, most successful applicants taking the baccalauréat have exceeded the required scores, especially in relevant subjects, so it is good to be academically ambitious and aim to achieve above 17 if you can.

We also welcome applicants taking the baccalauréat français international (BFI), and our typical offer for this qualification would ask you to achieve 17 (mention très bien) out of 20 overall, with a minimum of 17 in individual subjects.

Students taking International A levels will need to achieve at least A*AA or A*A*A, depending on the course applied for. See our page for International A levels.

Offers for Mathematics also include STEP II and III, which are additional exams that you take at the same time as the bac. Further information about STEP and preparation support is available on the Maths page. 

Some of the courses also require  an Admissions Test, which you will need to register for by mid-September (the exact registration dates vary from test to test, but please be extremely careful with these deadlines - they are before the UCAS application deadline). If you are looking for information about the format and content of a test, look out for the specification and sample questions, which you can access by clicking on the entry requirements tab on the relevant Cambridge Admissions website course page and scrolling down to the assessment information.

Maths advice

Any course that requires or strongly recommends A-level Further Mathematics is likely to expect applicants to have a more advanced knowledge of mathematics than you can acquire simply by completing the baccalauréat. If you are applying for one of these courses, you should ensure that you familiarise yourself with a Further Mathematics syllabus (example) and mention the fact that you are “topping up” your mathematics, in your personal statement. Some online resources are available to non UK students via NRICH Mathematics and the Advanced Maths Support Programme, and Mark Warner and Anson Cheung's book, A Cavendish Quantum Mechanics Primer is especially helpful for those considering Engineering and Physical Natural Sciences, and further resources are available in the helpful resources section on the relevant subject pages.

If you're planning an application for a course that requires or recommends Further Mathematics at Cambridge, the Advanced Maths Support Programme website contains a range of resources, including problem sheets, test materials and links to other sites. Getting involved with Mathematics competitions and programmes is a great way to stretch your wings mathematically, and many successful applicants to Cambridge participate in the International Mathematics Olympiad. If your maths is very strong, you might also wish to practise past papers for STEP, the advanced examination used by Cambridge, Warwick and a few other universities to test mathematical aptitude. Christ's offers for Mathematics usually include STEP 2 and STEP 3 and Cambridge University provides a free online STEP Support Programme.

Please be aware that the interviews in early December will include maths questions for these maths-heavy courses.

English language requirements

If English is not your first language, we will look at your grades for English at school and also assess your language skills during the various elements of the Cambridge application process. We may include an English requirement in an offer if a candidate's English seems variable at interview, or in an at-interview admissions assessment. This is more common in essay-based subjects.

If you are given an English Language condition, the standard requirements are on the university website, and you would have about seven months to meet the condition after your offer is made in January.

NB. Some UK universities do routinely include TOEFL, IELTS and comparable qualifications in offers to French students, so if you already hold such a qualification, you should mention it in your UCAS application.

Student profiles

Anna is from Mulhouse in eastern France, and wrote a student profile for us at the end of her second year studying Maths at Christ’s:

• Anna's profile

It can be very helpful to read student profiles, so do look up the students who have written about the course you are interested in, and you might like to read accounts by our European students in other subjects too - we have a separate page where the profiles are grouped by where the students are from.
 

The application deadline

For applicants from France applying in 2024 (for 2025 entry or deferred 2026 entry) the application deadline is 15 October 2024, however it is very, very important to check whether your course has an Admissions test that requires registration, as you will need to check the registration deadline for this. Admissions Tests normally have a registration deadline in mid-September, some time before the application deadline. See the application process section below.
 

The application process

We recommend that you apply as soon as possible once UCAS opens for applications in September. Your course may require registration in September for an admissions test (depending on the subject) and then the UCAS application deadline for all courses is 15 October 2024. Application is for entry the following October (or for deferred entry the year after). We encourage all applicants to read the information about applying on the relevant subject page, as well as the how to apply page well in advance of September, as there are a number of parts to the application procedure which may take time to organise and complete:

1. If you have a test that requires registration (needed for some of the courses), you will need to make sure you are registered for this by the relevant deadline. Details are updated on the Admissions Tests page by July each year for students applying the following October. You will be able to search for the test centres in France.
2. There is more than one application form. You first make a UCAS application and then you complete an additional form called My Cambridge Application.
3. You will need a referee who can provide a reference and predicted grades for any exams that you have not yet taken.
4. You will also need to arrange for your school to provide a transcript, which you upload as part of My Cambridge Application. 

Do also explore our additional support pages for international applicants, and note that on 20 September Christ's publishes the current applicants section, which will support you (in detail!) through the next steps once you have submitted a valid application and chosen Christ's College in your UCAS application.

Finance

Please have a look at our finance section for details of the costs and financial support available. In addition to the university-wide awards from the Cambridge, Commonwealth, European and International Trusts, you'll see that at Christ's we have Christ’s College International Awards and Christ's Awards.

The Christ's College International Awards awards are worth £10,000 a year and may be accompanied by a full or partial waiver of the College Fee (currently £11,300 a year).

More information is available on our page on international financial support and do also read the notes for EU students.

Where can I find out more?

We encourage you to explore the college online and see lots of pictures to help you to get a sense of it. We have a College map and there are picture pages for First Court, Second Court, Third Court, New Court and the Fellows' Garden, as well as a section on Christ's facilities including pages on the Hall, Canteen, Working Library, Old Library, Law Library, Chapel, Theatre, Common Rooms, Café and Bar, Swimming Pool, Gym, Squash Court, Function Room, Sports Fields and Boathouse. There's a page on accommodation, and 360 degree photography of First Court, The Fellows' Garden, and Third Court.

Do explore the undergraduate admissions section, and the international students section plus the relevant subject page in particular. If you read through some of the student profiles and the student life section, you'll also pick up lots of detail about College life.

For your course research we recommend reading the Christ's subject page (and following links from it to the university pages too). It is essential to read this page before making your application as it also has any subject-specific requirements, advice and resources.

We hope that you will feel free to email the Christ's Admissions Office: admissions@christs.cam.ac.uk with any questions. We'll be pleased to hear from you!

If you would like to visit Cambridge, you are welcome to Visit Christ's (and there are a number of options for this on the page). We also have events (including online events) through the year, so don't worry if you can't travel. We recommend reading this website, and it would be particularly helpful to sign up for our international webinar.

International Students / Should I apply? / How to apply / Subjects at Christ's / Application support for International Students