<p>Up to this point, I've confined my college search to the US and Canada. However, a few threads here have got me interested in the UK. Cambridge is simply legendary for mathematics, and studying there would be amazing. I have a few questions:</p>
<p>1) The infamous interview is usually considered a key component of admission. How would one do this from the US? The Cambridge website mentions interviews in Asia, but nothing about North America. I live in Alaska anyway... could I do it over the phone?</p>
<p>2) Cambridge is famous for a large amount of individual work with professors. Can anyone who has attended attest to the truth of this statement?</p>
<p>3) Is Cambridge filled entirely with wealthy kids from prep schools? Or is there socioeconomic diversity?</p>
<p>4) I plan to complete AP Calc BC, AP Physics, AP Stats, and AP Chem (as well as many other non-major-related APs) by the end of senior year. Would I still be far behind students having taken A-levels in these subjects? Could I handle the level of work in Cambridge math or engineering?</p>
<p>Thanks for anything you can answer.</p>
<p>1) Look forward to your visit to Cambridge in December, when it is pitch black and raining (but the Christmas lights are quite nice). </p>
<p>2) Don’t go because you expect to be taught by any specific professor (Stephen Hawking is usually the one people want to meet. I met him in Fitzbillies cake shop once…). What happens is, you go to lectures with everyone else taking your subject in your year. In the first year these lecture classes are therefore usually pretty big (I did Natural Sciences and there was 300 in Chemistry in the first year. Lecture groups get smaller as the years go by because they become more specialised so fewer people choose any one particular lecture course). Then each week you will have a number of “supervisions” which are tutorials with a professor and 1-3 students. At the tutorials you discuss things from the lectures, ask questions, and sometimes argue about stuff. They are actually very much like the interview in fact. The professor will set you questions to do for the next tutorial. You cannot guarentee who the tutor will be. Most likely in the first year it will be a fellow of your college. After the first year in my case I was usually taught at other colleges because my college had few tutors in my speciality. Occassionally I was taught by PhD students or junior researchers (this can actually be quite good. Remember someone who is an expert in their field is not necessarily a good teacher).</p>
<p>3) I am not 100% sure what a prep school is. About 50% of people at Cambridge went to a Private school (the kind you pay for) and the other 50% went to what is known as a “state school” in England, which means a school the government paid for (don’t get into the meaning of “public school”. In England this is basically a very exclusive type of private school which is only affordable for the top 0.1% of people). Very few people went to an American school.</p>
<p>4) I don’t know. Look up some A-level papers on the web and see if you can answer them ( try <a href=“http://www”>www</a>. the student room .co .uk Remove the spaces for the link to work). It’s generally Maths that US students are way behind on compared to the rest of the world. Things like stats and calculus are not taught as separate subjects here. They would all be under the umbrella of Maths A-level.</p>
<p>Whilst i agree with cupcake on point 3, it must be stressed that state schools take many different forms. For example, in my town there are no private schools but many different government funded ones - these range from very selective grammar schools, catholic and church of England schools and of course the urban comprehensive.</p>
<p>Do not assume that because a large amount of Cambridge students come from state schools that socioeconomic circumstances will reflect that, because it wont. </p>
<p>Though of course there are bound to be people from every sort of background, just not many one would imagine.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the good info. I have some things to think about.</p>
<p>The interview is the most important part of the application. I would e-mail a particular college’s admissions office and ask if they do interviews/phone interviews for american students.</p>