Current entry equirements to study Land Economy (as an undergraduate) at Cambridge: www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/courses/land-economy
As with all Cambridge undergraduate degrees, your degree classification is determined by the marks you receive in your final year exams (combined with dissertation, if applicable). Am not sure, but is possible that, as with exams, dissertations are totally blind-marked (ie supervisor doesn't get to mark it).
There is such a thing as a "Rower's Third". Doesn't mean boaties are thick, it's a reflection on the fact they're either out on the Cam or in the gym or up at Ely every waking hour. And several when one should not be waking, frankly. All year round, not just in the nice weather, when the river seems to become massively overpopulated...
Cambridge has a pretty hefty international student population. And it attracts rowers. As does Oxford. So they will get applications from people who meet all the academic criteria & perform well in interview & who row. And tbh there probably are still some Colleges that place rowing above other things when they're sifting applicants. Which is shite. But is also mere supposition on my part & I could be doing them a huge disservice. Nobody will be just handed a place because they can row though - and qualified candidates are always going to be turned down because the University is so insanely oversubscribed. They'll even turn down rowers they think only want to row.
But yes. Essentially, it's not about "ooh, you're handy with an oar & can write your own name, you'll do". Not least because to the vast majority of the university the Boat Race is Just Another Tradition. Everyone knows boaties train ridiculously hard, obviously, and we want their work to be rewarded (etc) but building some kind of supereight really isn't what Admissions Tutors are about. Not least because trying to coordinate that across all subjects & Colleges would be utterly impossible...
Obviously am totally willing to believe The Other Place engage in tactics like that. Because GDBO etc. *
(Sorry, realise thread moved on a bit, I had to go & deal with Acts Of Cat...)
- For avoidance of all doubt, very much joking. I have friends - & even family - who went to Oxford. And I like pretending that this in some way actually matters. Am genuinely glad Cambridge won the women's race today though - someone from my College was in the boat. And indeed people from my College were working as commentators.
We get everywhere, we do...