Applicant Information 2024

(Information for Period from 15 October 2024 to 22 October 2024)

Completing the My Cambridge Application Form

After submitting your UCAS form, within 48 hours you will be sent a link to an additional online questionnaire, called My Cambridge Application. The deadline for this additional questionnaire is 6pm UK time on 22 October. This is a firm deadline and we will not be able to consider your application if you submit the form late. Our advice is to try and not leave things to the last minute and submit your additional Cambridge questionnaire sooner rather than later. The sooner you submit your UCAS application, the more time you have to submit this additional Cambridge form, so do take this into account. 

A few days after the deadline of 15th October, we will also send an email to applicants who have chosen King's College on their UCAS application. This email will include information on how to submit written work and other documents. Please do look out for this email and check your SPAM folder.

If you have any questions about submitting this firm, please see the link below for information and contact details for the relevant helpdesk.

Submitting an Extenuating Circumstances Form (ECF)

For students who have had their education disadvantaged or disrupted in some way,  the Extenuating Circumstances Form provides additional context against which we can consider a candidate's academic record or, where appropriate, interview performance. This form must be submitted by the applicant's school or college. Further enquiries about the Extenuating Circumstances Form are best initiated by teachers rather than by individual applicants or parents. In rare cases where the applicant's school is unaware of the circumstances, a doctor or social worker may validate the form on the applicant's behalf.

The submission of an Extenuating Circumstances Form will in no way disadvantage an application. If in doubt, we would accordingly encourage its submission. You can find more guidance, including a link to the Extenuating Circumstances Form on the University website, here - https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/apply/how/disrupted-studies 

At King’s, we interview a large proportion of the students who apply to us. For 2024, most interviews will take place in the week commencing the 9th December, however some interviews might take place on the 16 December 2024. Please do block these dates off in your diaries. 

We will let you know if you have been invited for interview around 2 weeks in advance. If you are not invited, we will also let you know in November. Other Colleges may send information at other times. Please do not chase us, if you have heard from someone applying elsewhere that they have already heard about an interview. We will contact you when we have scheduled interviews at King's. If you are not invited, we will also let you know in November.

Interview Format

From 2024 onwards, all applicants, whether they are based in the UK or Overseas, will undertake an interview in-person in King's College, Cambridge. If a candidate knows they would be unable to travel to Cambridge for an exceptional reason they must let us know via the survey that will be sent to all applicants following submission of their application. We are willing to consider remote interviews in these circumstances, but it is up to the candidate to explain why such an accommodation is required. Reasons that may be considered exceptional for this purpose include health/disability, Visa constraints, and/or affordability of travel (although see below for support with travel costs for UK based candidates). Please note: If you are requesting an online interview, you may be asked to submit supporting documentation, such as evidence of household income, or details about the costs of your travel.

The orientation and aims of the interview are the same, regardless of format, and students will not be disadvantaged in any way by the format of their interview. Nor will candidates be disadvantaged in the Winter Pool, by reason of the interview format used by their college of application.

ID Checks

All interviewees will need to present ID at a specified time prior to their interview. The following types of photographic ID are acceptable:

• Passport
• Photo-card driving licence (full or provisional)
• EU photo ID card
• Government-issued ID card
• School-issued photo ID card (in instances where the interviewee does not have one of the above)

Please note: the ID needs to be presented in the Latin alphabet in order to be checked by the Admissions Team

Accommodation and Meals

If you are coming to King’s for your interview, and it is not possible for you to make the round trip to Cambridge in a single day, we may be able to offer you free overnight accommodation as well as dinner (on your day of arrival) and breakfast (on the day of your interview) in College. We are only able to offer accommodation to applicants and not to any accompanying parents, guardians or friends. Candidates who need overnight accommodation should let us know using the reply form included with the email interview invitation. We only offer accommodation on the night before the interview.

Candidates who are eligible for Free School Meals will be able to eat lunch for free, using the King’s servery, regardless of whether or not they are staying in College overnight. These candidates can pick up a voucher from the Students’ Help Desk when they sign in. In addition, our Student Helpers will run daily trips to Sainsbury’s at 12 noon for any student (including FSM students who would prefer not to eat in the servery) interested in purchasing their lunch in advance of interview. These trips will depart at 12 noon from the Porters’ Lodge.

Traveling to Cambridge

If you are invited for an in person interview, you will need to make your own way to Cambridge. We can't provide support in looking for connections or booking trains etc.

There is no parking available at King’s. Parking in the centre of Cambridge is very expensive, there’s a lot of one-way streets and bus gates which could get you fined if you drive down those, so if driving we would recommend using one of the many park and rides around the city.

The entrance to King’s College is on King’s Parade, the postcode is CB2 1ST.

Travel Costs

As traveling to Cambridge can be costly, we are willing to reimburse eligible UK students in respect of travel costs for public transport, on the proviso that students make use of the least costly option. UK students are eligible for reimbursement if they are a UK student and any of the following apply: (i) they are eligible for free school meals, (ii) they are from a family with an income of below £30,000, (iii) they are estranged from their family, or (iv) they are in local authority care. If this applies, the candidate will be able to indicate their eligibility in their interview invitation reply form. You will be asked to submit appropriate evidence, which will be kept confidential from your interviewers throughout the admissions process. Candidates must then send us an online or paper receipt, along with their bank details, and we will reimburse them as soon as possible. We are unable to reimburse travel costs for non-UK-based applicants. 

Interviews and Assessments 

Please consult the below table and accompanying notes for details about arrangements concerning assessments and interviews for each subject. 

King’s College operates the following policy on providing feedback to unsuccessful applicants.

Candidates who are rejected before interview will not be able to request individual feedback on their application.

The Admissions Tutor will provide individualised feedback to candidates who have been interviewed by the College, but have failed to secure an offer who have been highlighted to us through the admissions process as eligible for free school meals, and/or as care-experienced; and general feedback to referees of all unsuccessful interviewees from schools where fewer than five applicants have been made an offer from Oxford or Cambridge in recent years (as indicated by our Low Cam/Ox flag). For details, see: https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/apply/after/contextual-data This feedback will be supplied by the end of February. You do not need to request feedback if you fall in either of those categories.

At King’s, and across the University, there are a finite number of places available. We select candidates holistically, admitting students who demonstrate the greatest academic potential relative to other applicants in a given admissions round. This means that many students miss out on a place simply because, in our judgement, other applicants are stronger. We hope that applicants and their referees will take heed of this, and will not routinely wish to request feedback on their application. Having said this, any particular requests for feedback for applicants who do not fall into the above categories can be made by a student’s referee, using our online form between 3rd and 7th March 2025: https://cambridge.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8J8LG5U3d4W7PF4 . Requests received outside of this time-frame will not be considered, nor will requests not submitted by a student's referee. Requests not accompanied by a valid contact email address will also not be fulfilled. 

We are unable to enter into any further correspondence about feedback, either now or once outcomes have been released; you may wish to keep a copy of this policy for your records.