How to apply

Pembroke welcomes all applications, and does not discriminate on grounds of race, political or religious views, social class, educational background, or sexual orientation. Pembroke was a founder college of the Group to Encourage Ethnic Minority Applications. We are happy to encourage and give advice to those applying through the Cambridge Special Access Scheme - details of this are available from the Admissions Office.

Applying in 2011 for a place in 2012 or 2013

All UK and EU applicants must now apply on-line via UCAS by 15th October 2011. Applicants with Pembroke [Institution name: CAM, Institution code :C05, and College code: P] as their preference will have their on-line form sent directly to Pembroke electronically. You will then be prompted to complete the on-line Supplementary Questionnaire, which will also be sent to Pembroke College.

Applicants living outside the EU must complete a Cambridge On-line Preliminary Application(COPA) details of which can be obtained from the following page of the University website, and must also apply on-line to UCAS by 15th October.

There are two ways of applying for an undergraduate place.

Post A-level
If you will be completing your A-levels (or comparable exams such as the International Baccalaureate or Scottish Advanced Highers) in the summer of 2011 you may apply in the autumn for a place in October 2012. It is not possible to apply after A-levels for a place in the immediately following October (i.e. October 2011).

Pre A-level
You may apply in the autumn of 2011 before taking your A-level examinations (or Advanced Highers, etc.) for a place the following October in 2012 or for a deferred place in 2013. Any offer will be conditional on achieving certain specified A-level (or comparable) results in the following summer. In the event you do not quite achieve the required grades, you may still be offered a place, but only if there are places to spare.

Interviews

We interview almost all of those who apply and, in 2011, most interviews will be held between 5th and 16th December. You will have at least two interviews. If you apply to Pembroke and we are unable to offer you a place after the interviews, we may pass your file to the Inter-Collegiate Pool where all Colleges looking for people in that particular subject have a chance to look through it. Applicants picked out of the Pool may receive further interviews at another college in January. There is also an Inter-Collegiate Pool in August for those candidates who fail to achieve the required grades and are not taken by the College which originally made them an offer. There are no interviews at this stage.

Post-A level applicants may, for exceptional reasons, be interviewed early. However, if you wish to request an early interview, please make your application in good time. Any applicantss interviewed early will normally receive the result of their application when all the other applicants do.

Overseas applicants: very occasionally, arrangements can be made to interview some overseas applicants in their country of origin. Details are available on the University website.

When will I hear the result of my application?

Usually applicants receive a decision from us in the first half of January, unless their application has been passed to the Inter-Collegiate Pool, in which case they hear late in January.

Deferred Entry

Pembroke welcomes applications for deferred entry; a well-spent year away from formal study can be beneficial both academically and generally. We particularly encourage deferral for those who are very young, and we do not normally admit students who will be significantly under the age of 18 on arrival. Apart from wishing to ensure that plans for the 'gap' year are coherent and appropriate, we operate no strict policy in this matter. For Medicine and Veterinary Medicine most applicants want direct entry because of the length of the course. Deferred entry is also rare for Mathematics; the mathematical skills tend to get 'rusty' during a year away! In Engineering, we strongly encourage deferred entry, to enable candidates to gain a year of industrial or other appropriate experience, possibly with a sponsoring company; the number of deferred applications and offers is thus higher for Engineering than other subjects, but again usually accounts for the minority of applicants. If you are thinking of taking a gap year, there is a useful leaflet 'Jobs before Cambridge' available from the Pembroke Admissions Office.

What are we looking for?

In assessing you, we will try to find out as much as possible about you, from your examination record, your school reference and examination predictions, your personal statement, the interviews, and any written test we set.

Details of any subject specific requirements are given in the subject pages.

Every applicant has at least two interviews: usually one more general academic interview with an Admissions Tutor, or other non-specialist, and one or more with an interviewer who is a specialist in the subject. Interviews are usually conducted by either one lecturer or by a pair of lecturers. Detailed guidance about what to expect at interview is sent to all who are invited for interview.

At interview, questions focus largely on the subjects you have studied at school and wish to study at Cambridge. We realise that confidence in an interview is not necessarily correlated with aptitude for a course. We do our best to assess not only your ability, but also your commitment and enthusiasm for your chosen subject. These will be manifest in hard work for A-level (or equivalent) and in the extent to which you have taken advantage of any extra-curricular opportunities, relevant work experience, more general reading, etc. (though we appreciate that such opportunities vary between applicants). We look for the ability to think through problems and issues when there are not books giving 'the right answer'. We look for evidence that you will contribute, both academically and in other ways, to the life of the College.

For information about how to prepare for your interviews, the University has prepared a series of web pages and videos.

How high are the offers?

A-level offers (which do not include General Studies) will, in general, be A*AA. We also regularly make offers on the basis of the International Baccalaureate, the European Baccalaureate and the Scottish Advanced Highers. Applicants taking other recognised national qualifications are encouraged to consult the Admissions Tutor at an early stage. Further subject specific details about offers can be found in the specific subject information.

Cambridge Pre-U

We welcome applications from students who are either studying towards the full Cambridge Pre-U Diploma or certain Principal Subjects within the qualification alongside A-levels. Conditional offers will be set on an individual basis but are likely to be in the region of D2, D2, D3.

Further details about offers to Scottish applicants and those not taking A-levels are available from the Admissions Office.

We normally ask for STEP II and III for Mathematics.