The Cambridge Interview

Ever since I was a little girl I have had my sights set on going to Oxbridge for University. After years of positive reinforcement from my teachers, family and friends about how intelligent I am, it was always something I just expected to happen. However, after a rocky few years and a huge drop in my own self-esteem, I was very close to not even putting them down as a choice on my UCAS application. It was a very last minute thing, as I decided to put an application in for Cambridge for Modern & Medieval Languages (French & Italian) only a couple of weeks before the early applicants deadline. I hadn't spent ages tailoring my personal statement to impress them so I wasn't really expecting much, but I knew if I didn't apply that I would be disappointing little 7-year-old me. 

 

You can probably imagine how surprised I was to get an email from Queens' College asking me to send over 2 essays for them to read, and then a few weeks later another email inviting me for interview there! It didn't feel real and I was so shocked I had made it this far into the application process.

So, on a cold Tuesday in December I made the 5 hour train/tube/train journey from Cardiff to Cambridge with my mum. We checked into a hotel and then went straight out to explore the beautiful city as darkness fell. We walked up to Queens' and had a little snoop around, and the lovely porters let us go inside the college grounds. It felt absolutely magical! On the way back we had the most gorgeous dinner in a fancy Italian restaurant, which really finished the evening nicely. 

I slept really badly the night before my interview and woke up tired with a bad back and I had also caught a cold! It really wasn't the ideal situation for one of the biggest days of my life. We got a taxi up to Queens' and signed in, then waited for my first interview.

I had two interviews, one for French and one for Italian, and then a test in which I had to write an essay in French and one in English. As I will be studying Italian ab initio, the interview was mostly about languages in general and why I am interested in studying them. The French interview was more difficult as I had to talk for a short while in French and analyse a French text. However, I came out of both interviews feeling I had done my absolute best and could do absolutely nothing more. The written test was quite difficult as I hadn't known the topic prior to it and therefore didn't have all of the vocabulary I needed, but it still went alright. 

When I left I was absolutely wiped out and almost fell asleep in the taxi back to the hotel! We then had to go through the 5 hour journey all the way back home, which wasn't very pleasant at all. I felt an overwhelming sense of pride that I had survived the interview stage of the Cambridge application process without any tears or mental breakdowns, as it is known for being particularly grueling.

Now it's just a waiting game until January to see if I have been successful in getting an offer to study at Cambridge! Those words feel so weird to actually type, it feels like a dream!

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