Double opportunities as Cambridge Sutton Trust summer schools increase capacity

All costs are covered, including transport to and from the event, meals, accommodation and all activities. Applications are now being taken for the 17 subject-specific residential courses - and those from applicants who most closely match the Priority Criteria are especially welcome.
The Priority Criteria include: -

those who’ll be the first generation in their family to attend university
those who are eligible to receive EMA (Educational Maintenance Allowance)
those whose schools or colleges have little history of sending students to research-intensive universities
those who’ve achieved at least five A or A*s at GCSE
 

The summer schools offer a unique opportunity to find out what living and studying at Cambridge is like. Participants stay in single-room student accommodation in a Cambridge College and benefit from a combination of lectures, seminars, discussion groups, practical work and of course, equally important in many respects, the social activities that university life at Cambridge offers.
 

Joe Fitzpatrick attended a Sutton Trust Summer School at Cambridge in July 2007 while a student at Luton Sixth Form College. He went on to successfully apply to Cambridge, and is now studying Music at Pembroke College. As a disabled student, he had particular concerns about how he’d fit in which the summer school helped him address:

“The opportunity to meet current students, lecturers and other prospective applicants in the same predicament as me really showed me at first hand that I had nothing to worry about. Everybody involved was really supportive and friendly and I met some great people who I am still in touch with today. When I went on the Summer School I was very undecided about which subject to study at university. The chance to spend a week experiencing the content and the style of teaching of a university degree in music was extremely useful and undoubtedly played an influential role in my ultimate decision. The only bad thing about the week was that it made me want to study at Cambridge way too much!”

Chloe Stott was a student at Oldham Sixth Form College when she went on a Physics Sutton Trust Summer school. Now she’s studying Natural Sciences at Peterhouse, one of Cambridge’s oldest Colleges. She found the summer school really helpful in giving her a better understanding of Cambridge and university life generally, as no one in her family had any experience of Higher Education:

“I was a bit nervous about whether I'd fit in, but after the summer school I was sure I wanted to apply! All the students I met were lovely, everyone running the summer school was really nice and although the work was hard it was also fun and it gave you confidence in yourself when you managed to do it! We were all looked after really well - lots of food, lots of activities to do out of classes (punting, tour of the observatory, finale dinner) and the current undergraduates were approachable if you needed help with the set work.”

Several new subject combinations are being offered for this year’s Summer Schools, including Theology and Religious Studies, with Philosophy. Applicants are encouraged to consider thinking of subjects they might not have previously had the opportunity to study, such as Archaeology and Anthropology, or Psychology and Sociology. A full list of the subjects offered and further information on the Sutton Trust Summer Schools at Cambridge is available through the links at the side of the page.
 

Places on each subject-specific summer school are limited. Priority will be given to those who most closely match the Priority Criteria and the closing date for applications is 12th March.