We welcome applicants from the United States who would like to apply for a place here at Christ's College. We also welcome teachers and guidance counselors at schools in the US to get in touch if you have questions about supporting students from your school who would like to apply to Christ's College.
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Do join us for regular webinars, online open days and the next Christ's International Webinar. A complete list of forthcoming events is here - quite a few of them are online! If you are applying for one of the following courses, please be aware that you will need to register for an Admissions Test by mid-September: Chemical Engineering & Biotechnology, Computer Science, Economics, Engineering, Law, Medicine, Natural Sciences. We advise you to register as early as you can to increase your chances of getting your chosen Test Centre. Further info below. |
Entry requirements
Typical offers for Christ's applicants taking Advanced Placements require a minimum of five Advanced Placement (AP) Scores at grade 5 AND high passing marks on your school qualification (eg the relevant US High School Diploma) AND a high score on the SAT (I) Reasoning Test or ACT.
Please see the further detail on our dedicated pages:
Please note that you must include ALL tests taken and scores achieved (including retakes). We do check information at times, and you may be at a disadvantage if you do not include all of your results.
Students taking the International Baccalaureate would need to achieve 42 points overall (including bonus points), with 7,7,6 in Higher Level subjects. If you are applying for a course that requires Maths at Higher Level in the IB, make sure that you take the Maths: Analysis and Approaches option at Higher Level. See our page for IB students.
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.
Some courses require an Admissions Test. The registration dates for these tests are normally in mid-September so please check this carefully in relation to the course you are planning to apply for.
Offers for Mathematics include STEP II and III exams, which you take in the same summer as your Abitur or IB exams. Further information about STEP and preparation support is available on the Maths page.
Assessment on academic merit and potential only
Please bear in mind when making your application that we only assess you on your academic merit and potential. We do not require you to be a well rounded individual and to show leadership skills, volunteering etc. Although our students can take part in lots of extra-curricular activities during their time here (see our student profiles and student life section), these are not assessed at all during the admissions process.
In particular please be aware that the UCAS personal statement should be very different in focus to the College Essay needed for application to universities in the USA. We have a page on personal statements in our international application support section.
Choosing one course
Whilst applicants choose just one of our courses to apply for, note that there is a great deal of flexibility within the courses. Most courses offer a pyramid structure, with broad introductory material at the beginning and opportunity to then specialise later in the course, once you have had chance to see what interests you most. See, for example the Cambridge Natural Sciences course, or Human, Social and Political Sciences. If your interests change whilst you are at Cambridge, in some cases it is also possible for a student to change courses at the end of a year, and some of the courses include opportunities to "borrow" papers from other courses.
English Language requirements
If English is not your first language, note that we may include IELTS Academic / TOEFL in offers to candidates whose English seems variable at interview, or in an at-interview admissions assessment; this is more common in essay-based subjects. If you demonstrate very good English Language skills at interview and in any admissions test, we may not need to set you an English Language condition, however. If you are given an English Language condition, the standard requirements are on the university website.
If you already hold such an English language qualification, you should mention it in your UCAS application.
Student profiles
Ana-Maria, Pascual and Max all applied to Cambridge / to Christ's from the USA. In the profiles below they have shared their experiences of coming to study at Christ's including their courses and living in College.
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 international 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 applying in 2024 (for 2025 entry or deferred 2026 entry) the application deadline is 15 October 2024.
It is very, very important to check whether your course has a test that requires registration, as you will need to check the registration deadline for this. Depending on your subject you may need to register some time before the October UCAS 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 for an admissions test by mid-September (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:
- 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 in mid-September. 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 the USA.
- There is more than one application form. You first make a UCAS application and then you complete an additional form called My Cambridge Application.
- You will need a referee who can provide a reference and predicted grades for any exams that you have not yet taken.
- 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.
Further detail on aspects of the application process
We have additional help pages for international students for aspects of the application process such as UCAS personal statements, UCAS references, Admissions Tests and interviews. See the additional application support for international applicants.
Do read these details carefully, as it's important to understand what you will be assessed on and what we are looking for. It is worth bearing in mind, for example, that a Cambridge interview is not a straightforward academic “examination” of what you know: it is a way of finding out how you handle and apply new information, and whether you would thrive within the supervision (tutorial) system. See the interviews page for the detail.
The timing of your application
The application process takes a year - you can see an overview of the timings on our how to apply page.
Most UK students apply in their final school year, however it is worth considering the timing carefully if you are applying to both UK and US universities.
If you apply before taking your AP and SAT/ACT exams (i.e. if you apply in Sept/early October of your final school year and take your AP exams in the following summer) any offer you are given in January would normally be a conditional offer, and we would wait until we receive your results in the summer to confirm your place. This may be problematic for your choices as your US universities will require you to respond to their offers by May.
If you want to consider both US and UK options, it may therefore be wise to apply after you have taken your AP and SAT/ACT exams. In this case, any offer we make in January would normally be academically unconditional, meaning that you can choose freely between US universities and Cambridge, UK by the May deadline for US universities.
For more information about the timing of application and the difference between applying before or after AP & SAT/ACT exams, please see when to apply.
Finance
Do 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 as there are 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, 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
