Key facts

Average number of students offered a place per year

15

Average number of applicants per year

107

Our standard conditional offer for this subject is usually A*A*A at A level or 41 - 43 points overall and 7, 7, 6 at Higher Level in IB, in scientific or mathematical subjects.  All Colleges may modify offers to take account of individual circumstances.  Further information can be found here.

Some students reading Engineering have industrial sponsorship, of whom a majority spend a year between school and university in industry and related work.

It is a requirement of the course that six weeks’ industrial experience be completed before Part IIA exams. There is further information about this here: http://teaching.eng.cam.ac.uk/node/64.

Physics and Maths are required subjects for candidates taking A levels or equivalent.  Further Maths at A level or equivalent is strongly encouraged.

If Maths A2 has been taken a year early and A* or A achieved, this may count as one of the offer grades (the applicant would receive a two grade offer).

Fellows in Engineering at Downing undertake much of the teaching for Downing undergraduates, in particular over the first two years. The specialisation in Part II of the Tripos means that a large part of this later supervision is done by arrangement with other teaching and research staff within the University.

In every case, emphasis is placed on securing the services of the best teachers available in each field. The Fellows for Engineering at Downing are Dr Liping Xu, Dr Jie Li, Dr Michael Crisp and Professor Bill O'Neill.

Applicants for Engineering will be required to take a pre-interview assessment. Further information about this can be found here: http://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/applying/admissions-assessments

At present, Engineering applicants receive two 30 minute interviews on the same day, each with one or two interviewers. Both interviews are largely subject-based, although more general questions may also be asked. Background scientific knowledge, particularly from Mathematics and Physics, will be useful, but questions may range over a broad spectrum of topics relevant to engineering, some of which are not commonly covered at school or college. Candidates indicating that they intend to change to the Chemical Engineering Tripos after one year of Engineering will be treated no differently from other candidates in terms of the type of question asked.

Further advice about entry requirements and interviews for all subjects can be found in the Applying to Downing section of this site.

A list of introductory reading can be found on the Faculty site.

Further details about the Engineering course can be found at the University of Cambridge site.

For resources related to studying engineering, and practice questions related to maths and physics, visit www.discoverdowning.com/subjects/engineering