My Cambridge Application 2026: What It Asks, When It Is Due, and How to Use the Extra Statement

Submitting your UCAS application by 15 October is not the last form a Cambridge applicant fills in. Within 48 hours Cambridge emails you a link to My Cambridge Application, and for most applicants it has its own hard deadline a week later.

It is not difficult, but it is easy to leave too late, and it includes the one piece of extra writing Cambridge gives you room for. This guide covers the dates, each section, and how to make the optional statement worth reading.

The dates

All of these come from Cambridge's own application dates and deadlines page.

Everyone applying to Cambridge completes the form except applicants to the Graduate Course in Medicine, who follow a separate process.

Why it exists

Your UCAS application goes to five universities and is identical for all of them. My Cambridge Application lets Cambridge ask for things UCAS does not collect in the same detail, especially what you have actually covered in your courses, which matters because interviewers often start from topics you have studied.

One detail for 2027 entry is easy to miss. Cambridge says it will not download or review any additional documents uploaded to UCAS. Anything Cambridge needs from you has to go through My Cambridge Application or to your college directly.

What the form asks

The form is personalised, so you will only see questions that apply to you. Cambridge estimates it takes about an hour, answers save automatically, and you can change them until you submit. You cannot submit until every section is marked complete.

Personal and contact details. Mostly confirmation of what you gave UCAS. If your email address is wrong, fix it in UCAS Hub.

A photo. You upload one as part of the form. A clear, passport-style photo is the safe choice.

Qualifications and topics studied. You list the topics or modules you have studied in each subject. This is the section that takes the most time if you do it properly, so have your specifications or course outlines open. Be accurate: it can shape what interviewers expect you to know.

Transcripts. Some applicants are asked for a formal academic transcript; the form tells you if that includes you. Cambridge's advice is to ask for it as early as possible because getting one can take several weeks. The transcript deadline is also 22 October.

Test scores. English language test results where needed, and SAT or ACT scores if they are part of your qualifications. Admissions tests such as the ESAT, TMUA, UCAT and LNAT are booked and sat separately and the results go to Cambridge from the test provider.

Fee. Applicants from outside the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man pay £60, with some exemptions.

The optional Cambridge-specific statement. Up to 1,200 characters. This is the part worth thinking about.

The optional statement: should you write it?

Cambridge describes three good uses for it:

• to highlight what interested you in the course you are applying to;
• to explain why you want a particular course if it is only offered at Cambridge;
• to show how you are exploring your subject, if your UCAS statement could not cover it fully.

And two things not to do: repeat what is in your UCAS statement, or explain why you chose a particular college.

That makes the decision fairly clear.

Write it if your UCAS statement had to work for four other universities and so could not talk about what is distinctive about the Cambridge course: Natural Sciences' broad first year, Human, Social, and Political Sciences, Environment, Law, and Economics, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, or any course where the Cambridge structure is the reason you applied. It also helps if you have done something relevant since writing your UCAS statement.

Leave it if all you would do is restate your UCAS statement in fewer words. It is optional, and a statement that adds nothing is not neutral: it tells the reader you had nothing more to say.

How to write 1,200 characters well

1,200 characters is roughly 180 to 200 words. That is one argument, not a summary.

1. Start from the course, not from you. Read the Cambridge course page and the first-year structure. What is there that you cannot find elsewhere, and why does it matter to the question that interests you?
2. Add one new piece of evidence. Something you read, did or worked out that is not in your UCAS statement, ideally something recent.
3. Show where it leads. What would you want to find out on the course? Interviewers like applicants who arrive with a question.

Here is an example for Natural Sciences, 850 characters, written for this guide:

What draws me to Natural Sciences at Cambridge is being able to choose between physics and biology rather than having to decide now. The question behind my UCAS statement, how cells sense mechanical force, sits exactly between the two. Since applying I have worked through the first chapters of Phillips' Physical Biology of the Cell, and the idea that a membrane protein can behave like a spring with a measurable stiffness has changed how I read the biology papers I mentioned. It also showed me the gap in my mathematics: modelling a channel as a two-state system needs Boltzmann statistics, which I am now learning alongside A-level Further Maths. In the first year I would want to take Physics alongside Biology of Cells, and I would like to test whether mechanobiology is a question for physicists or for biologists before committing to either.

Why it works: it is about the Cambridge course structure, it adds new reading that is not in the UCAS statement, it admits a gap and shows what the applicant is doing about it, and it ends with a genuine question. It does not mention a college, and it does not say "passionate".

Count your own draft in the character counter before pasting it in.

If your studies were disrupted

Cambridge would rather hear about serious disruption, such as illness, caring responsibilities or bereavement, than not. Most of it should go in your teacher's reference. If it cannot, your referee or another suitable professional can submit an extenuating circumstances form, and Cambridge advises doing that by 22 October so it can be taken into account when your application is assessed.

Common problems

• The email has not arrived. Allowlist applicationhelp@ug.admin.cam.ac.uk and no-reply@apply.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk, check junk, and confirm your email address in UCAS Hub. Still nothing after 48 hours: email applicationhelp@ug.admin.cam.ac.uk.
• The form will not submit. Almost always an unfinished question in one section. Look for the sections without a tick.
• You made a mistake after submitting. Contact your college or applicationhelp@ug.admin.cam.ac.uk with your full name, UCAS Personal ID and course.

What comes next

Admissions tests for most Cambridge courses are sat between 12 and 16 October, with results released to candidates on 16 November. Some courses also ask for written work or set an assessment at interview; check your course page. Interview invitations mostly go out in November, and interviews run through the first three weeks of December.

If you are still working on the UCAS statement itself, our two-week plan and Oxbridge personal statement guide cover it, and Statementory will score your draft and annotate it line by line in about ten minutes.

Related guides

• The 15 October deadline: what is actually due
• How hard is it to get into Cambridge?
• TMUA preparation guide and STEP and TMUA explained
• The UCAS reference explained

Sources

• University of Cambridge, Completing My Cambridge Application
• University of Cambridge, Application dates and deadlines
• University of Cambridge, Tell us if something made it difficult for you to study
• University of Cambridge, Completing your UCAS application