Your qualifications
The University’s general requirements for your qualifications are outlined below. For more specific guidance, including questions about how your particular subject combinations or alternative qualifications may be viewed, please check the websites of any Cambridge Colleges that you are interested in applying to, or contact their admissions team.
Post-16 Qualifications
If your GCSE scores weren’t absolutely perfect, you can still be a viable applicant: we will still look for evidence that you’ve made progress after year 11
Christopher Burlinson
Admissions Tutor, Jesus College
The typical offer for Law is A*AA or equivalent. Offers are usually based on 3 A levels taken together in Year 13. Taking 4 A levels will not normally give you an advantage.
For the full list of equivalent qualifications, see the University’s website.
The BA Law degree does not have any specific requirements for which subjects you study at A level or equivalent. Many of our students find that essay-based subjects like English or History are good preparation for the critical reading and writing that they will be asked to do as Law students. These are not requirements, however, and many students who have other backgrounds go on to do very well. Law at A Level is not required, and in fact most of our students have never encountered Law in school before coming to Cambridge.
No specific subjects are required by any Colleges at the moment, but please check the undergraduate study pages and the Law subject requirements, and the website of any College to which you wish to apply for that College's guidance.
The University has more generally recommended that English Literature, History, languages and Mathematics are good core subjects: choosing one or more of these can provide a good foundation for your subject combination. Other good choices to combine these subjects with include: an additional language, Ancient History, Classical Civilisation, Economics, English Language, Further Mathematics, Geography, Government and Politics, History of Art, Law, Music, Philosophy, Psychology, Religious Studies, sciences (Biology, Chemistry or Physics), and Sociology.
GCSE Requirements
The University does not have any specific requirements or cut offs for your GCSE level study. Your GCSE or equivalent scores will be considered, to help to form a more complete picture of your academic ability.
Extended Project Qualification (EPQ)
If you have completed an EPQ, this may be a useful way for you to explore your interest in legal ideas, and may give you something to write about in your personal statement or talk about at interview. However, because not all schools offer the option to complete an EPQ, your EPQ will never be part of your formal offer.
Work Experience
Prospective applicants often ask me whether they need to do relevant work experience before they apply to read Law at Cambridge. The answer is "no, you don't"
Dr Brian Sloan
Lecturer in Law
Work experience is not required. The University understands that securing a work experience is often about who you know, which does not help us determine your academic potential to study Law. Work experience is one of many ways that you might explore your legal interests, and we don’t give it any more or less weight than other super-curricular activities that you might pursue.