Chances and feedback for acceptance into Cambridge

Applying to College
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Hi Everyone!

I’m a rising senior currently at an international school that teaches the US curriculum in the UK. I’m intending to apply for PBS (Psychological and Behavioral Sciences) this fall and was wondering if I would be considered a competitive applicant.

My stats are:
Freshman + Sophomore Year: No APS (My school did not allow me to take any)
Junior year: AP Lang (5), AP Psychology (5), AP CSP (Self study, 5), AP Human Geography (Self study, 5), AP Calc AB + AP Physics 2 (4)
Note: the reason I received 4s on both AP2 and Calc was as I did not take any of the prerequisites. I went into them not having taken AP Physics 1, physics, precalculus, Algebra 2 or Geometry and self-taught myself all the required material.

In my senior year I will be taking AP Bio, AP Stats, AP Environmental Science and AP Literature (All predicted 5s). My school has banned me from self-studying any other APs.

I currently have an ACT at 32, but intend to study this summer to achieve a higher score.

My supercurriculars are (I know they don’t place much weight on these): Attended a course in cognition at Cambridge, extended science research project, received Microbachelors in Neuroscience from Harvard university, ranked nationally in debate (my team runs psychoanalytic theory), started a nonprofit for Neurodivergency and started a business with around 60k+ annual revenue.

Note: I have extenuating circumstances (for an intercontinental move, changed schools four times, was in inpatient for medical complications for a semester, was a defendant in a trial and others)

I welcome any feedback and comments! If my chances at cam are low, I would also appreciate other colleges with similar layouts to Cambridge (low class sizes, colleges, tutorials). Thank you!

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Thoughts? @MYOS1634 @collegemom3717 @twoin18 @HazeGrey

OP What is your college budget? Are you looking at US schools as well? Are you a US citizen?

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Standard offer is A* A* A with an A* in either math or bio. Even if a 5 is earned on AP Bio this year, I think the 4 in AP Calc AB (combined with the 4 in Physics 2) will be hard to overcome, particularly with no AP Calc BC this year.

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Would you recommend OP take AP Calc BC instead of AP Stats then?

And APES and AP Lit unlikely to be helpful for Cambridge PBS admission (but could help with admission to other schools?)

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Yes I think AP Stats needs to be switched to Calc BC to be a credible applicant. Stats is not going to be helpful. And OP should really have a foreign language. That would be more highly regarded than APES. Both APES and Stats are pretty fluffy APs, and Geography and non-Calc Physics aren’t so highly regarded either. What is considered most important are the core of math, science, English, foreign language and social studies (usually history), since that is what any U.K. applicant would have covered as a minimum in their GCSEs.

I also have the impression that the SAT is thought of more highly than the ACT in terms of standardized tests. Remember you’ll need to report all scores. And that any Cambridge offer will be conditional (at least on bio and math) so you’ll need other options.

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Agree on switching AP Stats to AP Calc BC if possible, but OP made it sound like self-study is only option for BC and HS would not be supportive of that.

FWIW, my son applied to Oxford with ACT only but had a number of SATII score results to supplement (Physics, Math 2, USH) on top of having all necessary AP scores in hand.

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If the school objects then it would be advisable for OP to email a Cambridge admission officer at their first choice college and ask them to confirm in writing that they need Calc BC (they might say “strongly prefer” instead of “required”). I would expect that to help, I can’t imagine a U.K. school wants to prevent its students from applying to Oxbridge.

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I have a dual citizenship for us+uk, no budget. I’m only looking at uk for undergrad :slight_smile:

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Isn’t stats used highly in psychology though? I most likely can only take one

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Thank you sm! I will do that.

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AP Stats isn’t calculus-based. That’s why it is a fluffy AP (like non-calc Physics 1 and 2).
The stats that is taught at Cambridge (I expect even as part of a Psychology course) will be calculus-based: that’s why they require math A level (which is equivalent to Calc BC). So it is important to have the grounding in calculus and AP Stats isn’t really much use.

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