Application FAQs

Churchill is set in a 42-acre park to the west of Cambridge, a short walk from the city centre. We’re the largest College in the University so we have space to accommodate all our undergraduates on-site, with an exceptional environment and amenities. We’re up the road from the University Library and the Sidgwick Site (arts and humanities), and effectively next door to the West Cambridge Site where many science courses are based.

For more information, head over to our Visits and Open Days page. We don’t have capacity to offer individual/personalised tours of College but you can visit informally, come and see us on an Open Day, or take a virtual tour. Also, go to our Outreach page to subscribe to our regular free webinars and Q&A sessions, featuring current students and/or academic staff involved in admissions.

Finally, check out videos of our students telling you about their Cambridge experience and taking you on a full tour of College, our accommodation and facilities.

Once you’ve chosen a course you’d like to study at Cambridge, you’ll also have the option to choose a College in your UCAS application. Choosing Churchill means that we’ll review your application on behalf of the University and have first choice of making you an offer.

Whether you’re new to the idea of applying to a UK university or are seeking detailed guidance about applying to Cambridge and Churchill specifically, our Undergraduate admissions page and the resources linked from it will provide the information you need. We’ve covered content from preparing to make a strong application and our entry requirements, through to what it costs to be a student and the technicalities of the admissions process itself.

Check out our Outreach page to subscribe to our free webinars and Q&A sessions, which regularly feature current students and/or academic staff involved in admissions.

We’re asked this a lot so we’ve included a detailed answer in our Undergraduate admissions (pre-applicant pack), linked at the bottom of this page.

Your academic track record is a really important part of your application. In it, we hope to find evidence that you’re very high performing, within your cohort and nationally, and especially in subjects that are relevant to your target course. GCSEs, IGCSEs, Scottish National Qualifications, and transcripts provide us with these data.

To apply to Churchill, you must have a minimum of 6 GCSEs/IGCSEs or 5 Scottish National Qualifications. If you haven’t, you’ll need to include a high school transcript as part of your application, per the description on the University’s Completing My Cambridge Application webpage. If you’ve studied for more than a year at another university then we’ll require a university transcript from you, as well as evidence of your high school qualifications.

Beyond the above, there isn’t a minimum standard of academic track record that you’ll need to apply. However, our application field is strong and the very top grades are common, so it’s regretfully the case that we oftentimes cannot progress the applications of candidates whose track records are relatively less strong (within any of their school/college cohort, their national cohort, and the gathered field of applicants for their target course).

For several Cambridge undergraduate courses, most applicants from A Level background present Further Mathematics. Furthermore, most of the University’s entrants in these courses achieve an A* in it.

In our view, this means that an A* in Further Mathematics is de facto a Cambridge entry requirement for these courses. In most cases, Churchill has not admitted an A Level entrant to these courses without an A* in Further Mathematics for years.

Against this background, and for clarity, Churchill’s entry requirements with respect to A Level Further Mathematics are as follows.

If you’re applying to read Engineering or Mathematics then we’ll require you to get an A* in Further Mathematics. If you’re not taking Further Mathematics, we won’t be able to progress your application for either of these courses.

If you’re applying to read Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Computer Science, Economics, or Natural Sciences Physical, and Further Mathematics is offered at your school or college then we’ll require you to get an A* in it. If Further Mathematics is offered at your school or college and you’re not taking it, we won’t be able to progress your application for any of these courses.

Finally, if you’re applying to read Natural Sciences Biological and you’re fortunate enough to be taking Further Mathematics then we’ll likely require you to get an A* in it. If you’re not taking Further Mathematics, we will certainly require you achieve grade A* in Mathematics.

For any of the above courses, if you’re applying from a curriculum background other then A Level then our expectation will be that you should achieve the very top grade in the highest level Mathematics qualification(s) available in your home curriculum. This assumes, of course, that your curriculum is accepted for entry to Cambridge. To find out more, check out Churchill’s Entry Requirements and the University’s Entry Requirements and International Entry Requirements webpages.

If you’re not from a majority English speaking country (as defined by the UK Home Office), any offer we set you will likely include an English language condition in an approved English language test (ELT), namely one of IELTS Academic, TOEFL iBT, Cambridge English: C2 Proficiency, or Cambridge English: C1 Advanced. We will usually use the minima in these that are specified on the University’s Entry Requirements webpage, requiring all components to be achieved in a single sitting (no one skill retakes). If there’s no evidence in your application of previous engagement with one of the above four ELTs, any offer we set will default to IELTS Academic.

Where we set English language requirements in internationally-recognised testing systems like the above four (as opposed to high school curricula, for example), we do so both to assure us and you that you are fully prepared to undertake a highly demanding undergraduate programme taught through the medium of English, and to enable you to gather maximally appropriate documentation in evidence of this (which may be helpful, for example, in respect of visas).

Regretfully, if you’ve not attained or you’re not on track to attain at the very least Cambridge’s minimum offer level for your chosen course (inclusive of English language requirements, if relevant) then it’s unlikely that Churchill will be able to progress your application.

If you don’t have access to a high school curriculum that’s acceptable for entry to Cambridge (which is quite common in the case of certain international applicants, for example), we advise you to self-study for portfolio of exams that meet our requirements, as an individual candidate. For most, the easiest way to do this is to undertake a single sitting of a minimum five Advanced Placement tests which are relevant to the target course, achieving Grade 5 in each.

At Churchill (and Cambridge), we generally place less emphasis on UCAS personal statements than many other universities do.

This being said, what we find most helpful in them is evidence that you have explored your subject (engaged in super-curricular activities) and are continuing to do so, and therefore that you have made an informed choice about your target course. If you’re later invited to interview, conversations about these things may form part of the discussion.

Personal statements often include accounts of extra-curricular activities, i.e., activities or interests that you do outside school/college which’re unrelated to your target course. As a point of principle, we don’t regard these as relevant – though other universities might.

For further guidance, head to the personal statements section of Cambridge’s UCAS application webpage.

Yes. Head over to our Undergraduate applications page to see the range of information we consider about each applicant, including contextual data.

Due to the competition for places here, you should be aware that extenuating circumstances in and of themselves won’t mean that we can admit (even interview) you if you’re not on track to attain at the least Cambridge’s minimum offer level for your chosen course. Nevertheless, your application should clearly tell us about any extenuating circumstances, particularly if you have excelled in the face of adversity.

Remember, if you don’t tell us about your circumstances then we can’t factor them into our considerations.

We’re positive about gap years, provided we’re told about them up front. Successful gap year applicants typically have a plan for the time, such as a unique academic or personal opportunity, significant work experience, or a preference to earn before starting their studies. They tend to be unusually strong candidates, inasmuch as any university awarding a gap year place must have confidence that the offer-holder would be exceptional in any annual applicant field, not just the one in which they apply.

On the same basis, we welcome post-qualification applications, noting that competitive candidates tend to have attainment that is at least in line with those of typical Cambridge entrants, by course.

In either case, we’d encourage you to maintain your academic skills and knowledge during your time away from formal education. If you can tell us how you plan to do this as part of your application, so much the better.

As a rule, we don’t entertain deferral requests after offers have been made. To do so would be both to lose a place that could’ve offered to another student for the upcoming year and mortgage a place for the year hence, which is a combination we’d wish to avoid.

Churchill does not admit students to the Cambridge Foundation Year.

If you’re taking another foundation year, in the UK or internationally, you may technically be eligible to apply to Cambridge. Check out the University’s accepted qualifications page.

However, as a rule, at Churchill base we our admissions decisions on internationally-recognised secondary or high school qualifications as described on our Undergraduate applications page, because these provide the best indicator of an applicant’s potential to thrive at Cambridge.

For this reason, it’s highly unusual for foundation year candidates ultimately to be offered a place at Churchill, particularly if their previous academic profile places them outside the very top percentiles of their cohort (in terms of ability and achievement) and/or is evidently not commensurate with entry to Cambridge. If one or both of these is true in your case, we’d advise you to undertake a single sitting of internationally-recognised secondary or high school qualifications (like A Levels or APs) alongside your present course of study, and to apply with predictions or outcomes in these which are at least in-line with the University’s minimum offer level for your chosen course.

To be transparent, in the past decade, no applicant presenting foundation year as their primary qualification for entry has applied successfully for undergraduate admission to Churchill.

Churchill does not accept mid-course transfer applications from students at any other universities, UK or international, under any circumstances.

If you’re an undergraduate enrolled on a degree course at another UK university, we typically won’t consider an application from you to start afresh with us, unless: (i) you complete your current degree then apply to us read a second undergraduate degree in a different subject; or (ii) the circumstances are exceptional and/or your application involves a move to a different discipline, for example, you’re currently studying Engineering at another university and you want to apply to study English with us. If you’re in any doubt about whether your target course is too similar to your current one, email our Admissions Office. In any case, you would need to be appropriately qualified to study your new course and have strong support – a formal reference or letter of recommendation – from your Course Director or other academic tutor at your present university. It’d also be useful for your application to explain why you want to change course.

If you’re an undergraduate enrolled at a non-UK university, we may consider an application from you to start afresh with us, even for a cognate course or discipline. This is especially true where you have not previously had access to a high school curriculum that meets Cambridge’s international entry requirements. Under these circumstances, we’d still require evidence of your high school attainment (and would anticipate that this would show that you were high performing), as well as strong support – a formal reference or letter of recommendation – from your Course Director or other academic tutor at your present university. Before you apply, we would also strongly advise you to consider whether you truly want to move between universities, especially if you have already spent significant time at your current university. For most students in this situation who want to study at Cambridge, it’s best for them to finish their current course then apply to Cambridge for a postgraduate qualification.

Finally, if you apply successfully to us whilst you’re enrolled at another university (UK or otherwise), any conditional offer we set you will likely be academically contingent upon end-of-year outcomes in your current course, to confirm that you remain high performing in your present cohort.

Places at Cambridge are competitive so we’d never encourage you to reapply, particularly if you’ve got a really good university place elsewhere (and note the FAQ immediately above this one!)

This being said, if you want to make a fresh application in a future UCAS round then you may do so without prejudice.

In that instance, we’d recommend you get and carefully consider feedback on your previous application, and see our comments above about gap years and post-qualification applications.

Legally no, except for undergraduate Medicine (see the University’s Medicine webpage). However, if you won’t turn 18 during your first year here then the fact that you’ll need legally to be treated as a minor could feel limiting to your experience, since our courses are residential and most of our undergraduates are at least 18 when they arrive. For this reason, we recommend that entrants should optimally be 18 by the end of their first term.

If you successfully apply and will be aged younger than 17 at point of entry, we’ll need to talk with you and your family about accommodation and care arrangements. We’ll likely recommend that they or a legal carer should move to Cambridge with you, so you can live off site together until you are at least 17.

As an aside, young applicants have usually (by definition) taken high school qualifications early, sometimes in a non-standard fashion – for example, across consecutive sittings rather than concurrently. Our offers sometimes require students to attain certain grades across a range of subjects taken in a single exam sitting. This is because excelling in exams sat concurrently is a good predictor of success at Cambridge, where courses are mainly exam assessed.

In all cases, our academic expectations and admissions process remain the same.

No. If you’re a prospective mature student, including for a second and/or affiliated undergraduate degree then we’d welcome an application from you, with the caveat that our academic expectations and admissions process remain the same for all applicants.

There are two main costs associated with studying at Churchill — tuition fees and maintenance, including College charges. For further guidance, check out Fees and Costs.

If we make you an offer to study here, we’ll ask you to evidence that you’re able to fund your place. For home fees students who’re eligible for UK student finance and choose to apply to it for support with both tuition fees and maintenance, we’ll simply ask you to send us your UK student finance “University or College Payment Advice” when you get it. For everyone else, we’ll ask you for evidence of readily available funds (liquid assets) to cover the full duration costs of your course, underwritten by one or more guarantors.

Cambridge and its colleges are committed to the principle that no suitably qualified home fees student should be deterred from applying to study here for financial reasons. There’s more information on the University’s Financial Assistance webpages, including particularly the Cambridge Bursary Scheme for home fees students from low income households.

If you’re not a home fees student, or if you’re not going to apply for UK student finance, then you must plan to fund the full duration costs of your course through a combination of evidenced private finance (liquid assets) and/or bursaries and scholarships that you may choose to apply for.

Cambridge’s financial support for international fees undergraduates is limited and highly competed for, and there are only a few full undergraduate scholarships available. You can read more on the University’s International Fees and Costs page and the pages linked from it. Regretfully, Churchill does not offer College-based financial support for international fees undergraduates.