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).

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 in effect 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.

Universities like Cambridge appreciate evidence that applicants have undertaken super-curricular work, i.e., that they have explored the subjects that interest them, beyond their school or college curriculum.

A genuine and informed interest in your subject which makes you persistently want to investigate it further, is a great indicator that you’ll enjoy studying it at degree level. There are lots of ways to test this and they needn’t cost you any money.

Reading is the best way to find out more about your intellectual passions. Visit libraries, see what’s available in your areas of interest, and dig in. Look for relevant magazines and publications or keep an eye on news media. If you like having something to listen to then subscribe to podcasts or hunt for local talks and public university lectures, whether in-person (if you have a local university) or online. The internet can be a fantastic resource and there’s an ever-growing body of educational videos and other media out there.

Follow lines of enquiry into the areas that interest and engage you most. Pursue these analytically and critically, and don’t feel you have to spend time with material that doesn’t interest you. Hopefully, this should come naturally and be enjoyable – if it isn’t, this might be a sign that you are yet to find the subject that fits you best. Explore what genuinely stimulates you and see where your investigations lead.

The University of Cambridge also provides useful suggestions on exploring your subject.

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.