Cambridge pre application open day - how important?

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I wondered if anyone with DC at (or applying for) Cambridge could share how important their DC found the pre-application open day? DS is planning to apply in the autumn, but will soon have to make a decision about a significant musical opportunity which clashes with the Cambridge open day in July.

The degree course he’s interested in isn’t music, but the opportunity is something big that he’d love to do.

I work at a university and have run over 50 open days in my time, and am genuinely torn about how critical the Cambridge one might be. The set up with the tripos system and colleges is so unlike anywhere else that it seems to be to be worth visiting, because you might not know what you don’t know until you get there.

On the other hand, I know we need to be careful not to say things at open days that can’t also be found on the webpages, so on that basis it shouldn’t matter if he misses it.

Just wondering if anyone else has any open day opinions to share, as it would really help us to help him make the right decision. Thanks in advance!

Not.

They go to a lot of effort to put info out there. The different colleges do have very different feels to them but you won’t get that from an open day.

We went and had a look round Oxford on a non open day and directly contacted a couple of colleges to look round.
I think you don't get the atmosphere of an open day though or a feel for the other candidates.
DD didn't apply. But we appreciated the open and friendly attitude from the colleges.

They have another day in September anyway?

I've got two applying. One didn't know that she was going to do so until she got her A level results in August. The other just did the open day in September (or might even have been October) of y13.

Oh and oldest child didn't do any open day (didn't get in, mind!).

If the significant musical opportunity involves performing or attending a masterclass / workshop I wouldn’t miss it for a pre-application open day.

As a pp says, there’s another open day in September - this is more of a “colleges” open day, where the focus is on looking round the colleges and choosing which to apply to.

https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/events/cambridge-open-days

The July one will have more info about the particular course, and also about colleges but there’s too much college stuff to cover all that in the same day.

There are also quite a few recorded webinars about the different Cambridge processes, applications etc.
https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/applicant-webinars

So I think these might cover most of it - the main thing you’ll be missing is the specific course talks.

The downside with just the September open day really is the short time between that date, and Cambridge application deadline - there won’t be a lot of thinking time in the gap. Maybe head over there to spend a weekend in the city, and as long as it’s not over exam times, lots of the (less touristy) colleges are usually happy to let prospective students in for a walk around- though this would be all about getting a feel for the city and a few colleges, rather than the course info.

Does your DC know anyone there who could put them in touch with a student on the course already?

Thanks everyone, this is really helpful. We don’t know any current students, but could visit ourselves on another weekend.

DS is interested in Natural Sciences so it’s a complicated course to get your head around from the website alone. Thanks for all your thoughts!

I think the colleges open day is probably the most important.

In terms of NatSci I think anyone will be able to explain even at the Colleges one if necessary.

I bet there are lots of parents on here who have kids doing natsci, or who did it themselves, who can talk about it if that helps? I did myself, but it was over 20 years ago so some things might have changed (perhaps!!)

Found this on their website too: https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/events/he-fairs-and-ucas-exhibitions
You might be able to catch up with them at one of these kind of events? Good for questions in person.

Also this webinar in Feb might be useful, I think you need to sign up
https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/events/deciding-your-course-stem-cambridge

Lots of other info in their calendar here: https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/events-listing?page=1

Natural sciences is an unusual course. It’s also a large cohort, so getting further info and improving understanding of how it works through a college open day is perfectly realistic.

Basically, you pick 3 diff sciences in y1, plus an appropriate maths. In y2 you pick 3 options as well, but some of the options are double, eg if you want to end up doing chemistry in y3 and 4, you’d likely pick chemistry a, chemistry b, and another science.
In y3 (and 4 if you do it), you’re usually 100% in your chosen subject.
There are going to be variations on this, but that’s a basic illustration.
I went there wanting to be a chemist.
I took chemistry, materials science and earth science in y1 (“part 1A”).
Then it turned out that chemistry was in fact Hard Maths, and earth science was the greatest thing ever.
So in y2 (part 1B) I did earth sciences A, earth sciences B, and one of the chemistries.
In y3 and 4, I did all earth sciences.

I had friends who went there planning to be physicists and turning into biochemists. It’s brilliant because you get to try out sciences you hadn’t thought of before. And understand connections between them. Loved it as a course, especially as it turned me into a geologist.

eta - natsci specific videos on their web page too
https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/courses/natural-sciences-ba-hons-msci

Some colleges offer some alternatives to the main open day, either online or in person. I seem to remember one offering weekly tours with a student - pot luck which subject, though.

If you were to reach out to a college admissions office (either the college that is linked to your geographical region - see https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/area-links - or one that he's keen to apply to), they may well be able to help. If you are visiting Cambridge, particularly in termtime, they might be able to find a NatSci student to show him around. My DD was in two minds post-offer, and the college she'd applied to were only too happy for her to visit again, and organised for a student of her subject to meet with her.

This is all super-helpful, thanks so much everyone!

@Talipesmum Thanks, that’s really interesting about your journey towards Earth Sciences. DS would probably need to choose that as one of his options and he did think (with no knowledge of it!) that it looked really interesting. He’s doing Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Music for A Level, so no chemistry options on his potential list!

It might be worth going if he is deciding between Cambridge or Oxford, or unsure if he wants to apply to Oxbridge at all.
All the other information can be easily found before starting, should he get an offer.
In terms of college it might be just as good to pick one that will work for his application rather than to fall in love with one.

Oh excellent! It’s such a great course. Field courses up in Arran in first year, friendly students, excellent department. You never know, with maths and physics he may end up with an interest in geophysics - plenty of maths in there. Or it’ll be a weird year where he spends time with a lot of people unnaturally keen on rocks. Either way it’s good!

eta - also, it’s a subject that very very few students have actually studied before, so it’s great as an “optional extra” alongside more well understood sciences. The department prides itself on getting converts from other areas!

@Talipesmum Waves to a fellow Sedgwick club member! I was planning to do Physics and I did Physics, Chemistry, Maths and Earth Sciences in the first year. (All the older NatScis recommended Earth Sciences). Physics was really hard. I did manage to scrape through, but I loved the field trip to Aaron and the rocks. Second year I did geology A, geology B and experimental psychology. Absolutely loved that experimental psychology year and probably should’ve done it for my third year but I stuck with Geology. That did involve a mapping project which was five weeks looking at all the rocks in a small area of northern Scotland in the rain and then drawing it in beautiful detail which didn’t really suit me very well but the rest of the course including the Geophysics and Paleontology was really interesting.

Back to the original question about the open days. We went to both this year and the July one is the only one where you can visit the department and have the course talk but there is lots and lots of information online and the webinar series that they put on was so helpful. Some of the colleges have directors of studies available to speak to at the college open day and actually that was probably more helpful than the subject talk (maybe). Because you need to choose a college you do spend quite a bit of time looking at colleges even on the July open day anyway.

Thanks @ArchitectureMum

Sympathies OP. My DS also had a clash with summer open days because of musical duties. And the September one didn’t work either. You can definitely get a bit of an idea by wandering round. Porters will apparently let you in to colleges if you say you’re a potential applicant.

Porters will apparently let you in to colleges if you say you’re a potential applicant.

For some colleges you need to email admissions and ask for permission, then show that email to the porter.

We were able to just drop into:
Fitzwilliam
Murray Edwards
Churchill
Magdalene (particularly nice porters)
Jesus
Caius
Peterhouse
Emmanuel
I think also Pembroke.

St Catherine’s and Sidney Sussex didn’t let us in - cats said no visitors at the weekend, and Sidney Sussex was barricaded and shut looking.

We didn’t try to poke around St Johns, Trinity, Kings - I think you’d need to arrange in advance for those ones. Basically the closer the tourist centre of the town, the more cautious they are letting people in to look around on spec.

This isn’t an official list - just our experience of visiting in early September on a weekend. It was before students had returned as well, which might impact things - they’re definitely more restricted over exam times.

Brilliant, thanks everyone for the intel on college visiting. After many years running open day sessions myself, I’m surprised how stressful I’m finding supporting it from a parental perspective! All your tips and advice are very gratefully received.