Cambridge Acceptance Rates by Subject: Every Course Ranked

Cambridge's undergraduate acceptance rate across all courses was 16.3% in the most recently published admissions cycle: 3,669 acceptances from 22,513 applications, after 4,893 offers were made. That average conceals a wide range between courses, from Computer Science's 7.4% success rate to Modern & Medieval Languages' 50.6%. The figures below cover every course Cambridge admits students to, drawn from the University's published undergraduate admissions statistics for its most recent cycle.

The ranked table below sets out applications, offers, acceptances and success rate for every course in the most recent cycle; the sections that follow explain how offer rates differ from success rates, why raw figures can mislead, and how to weigh both when choosing a course and College. Cambridge notes that, averaged across all subjects, it receives around six applications for every place available, though the ratio differs sharply by course.

How do you read the Cambridge acceptance rates table?

The table lists every undergraduate course with its applications, offers, acceptances and success rate for the most recent cycle, counting all applicants regardless of domicile. Offers combine conditional and unconditional offers made by Colleges, while acceptances count only applicants who went on to hold an unconditional firm place, so an applicant who held a conditional offer but was unsuccessful at confirmation is not counted as accepted.

Success rate is acceptances expressed as a share of applications, and it is the figure worth comparing across courses, since offer rate alone does not show how many offer-holders converted into a place. Mathematics figures in the table include Mathematics with Physics as a single combined course entry.

Which Cambridge courses have the lowest acceptance rates?

Computer Science has the lowest success rate of any Cambridge course, accepting 7.4% of applicants from 1,739 applications and 163 offers. Several other courses also convert a small share of applicants into places.

• Economics: 10% success rate (1,647 applications, 164 acceptances)
• Engineering: 10.3% success rate (3,263 applications, 335 acceptances)
• Architecture: 11.6% success rate (562 applications, 65 acceptances)
• Land Economy: 11.8% success rate (661 applications, 78 acceptances)
• Mathematics: 12.7% success rate (2,032 applications, 258 acceptances)
• Psychological & Behavioural Sciences: 12.9% success rate (611 applications, 79 acceptances)
• Law: 14% success rate (1,654 applications, 232 acceptances)

Which Cambridge courses have the highest acceptance rates?

Modern & Medieval Languages has the highest success rate of any Cambridge course, accepting 50.6% of applicants from 265 applications and 134 acceptances. A cluster of smaller arts and humanities courses also converts a large share of applicants into places.

• Classics: 48.6% success rate (107 applications, 52 acceptances)
• Music: 46.9% success rate (143 applications, 67 acceptances)
• Asian & Middle Eastern Studies: 42.7% success rate (89 applications, 38 acceptances)
• Classics (4 years): 41.7% success rate (84 applications, 35 acceptances)
• Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic: 40.7% success rate (54 applications, 22 acceptances)

Which Cambridge courses get the most applications?

Engineering, Natural Sciences, Mathematics, Computer Science, Law and Economics are the six most-applied-to Cambridge courses, in that order. Natural Sciences is the only one of the six with a success rate above the university average, accepting 21.8% of its 2,644 applicants.

The other five courses in this group all appear among the lowest success rates set out above, so in these statistics Cambridge's most popular courses are also among its most competitive by this measure.

What is the gap between Cambridge's offer rate and success rate?

Mathematics has the largest gap in absolute numbers between offers and acceptances of any Cambridge course: 555 offers from 2,032 applications give an offer rate of 27.3%, against a success rate of 12.7%. Offer rate is offers expressed as a share of applications, distinct from success rate, which measures acceptances as a share of applications. Cambridge's published statistics show the two figures diverging by course without stating why the gap is wider for some courses than others.

A wide gap between offer rate and success rate marks a course where a larger share of offer-holders did not go on to hold an unconditional firm place, compared with a course where the two figures sit close together. Applicants can use the gap as one further data point alongside the success rate itself, though Cambridge does not publish the reasons behind it for individual courses.

Why can Cambridge's acceptance rates be misleading?

Cambridge's published rates measure only applicants who chose to apply, so a course's rate reflects how that self-selected pool performed at interview and assessment, not how a typical sixth-former would fare against it. Course size also shapes the numbers: a small course such as Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, with applications numbering only in the dozens, moves by almost two percentage points with each additional acceptance, while a large course such as Engineering, which receives thousands of applications each cycle, changes far less per place.

A course's overall rate also blends outcomes across every College, though applicants can choose a specific College or make an open application. Because admission decisions happen at College level, combining the figures into one course-wide rate obscures how competition for the same course can vary between Colleges.

How should you use acceptance rates when choosing a course?

Arts, humanities and social science courses had a combined success rate of 19.3%, against 14% for the sciences, so a science course's rate sits against a different baseline to an arts course's rate; comparing a course only against others in its own broad group gives a fairer read than comparing it against the university-wide figure.

Applicants should look up the success rate for the exact course they intend to apply for. Cambridge's university-wide 16.3% figure describes no single course precisely, given how far individual courses range above and below it.

Applicants should also check whether their intended course sets its own admissions test or a College-set assessment, since requirements and preparation time differ by course.

How should you use acceptance rates when choosing a College?

Applicants unsure which College suits them can submit an open application; Cambridge allocates these, after the UCAS deadline, to a College that has received fewer applications per place for the course.

Whichever College considers an application, that College conducts the interview, and a College that interviews an applicant it rates highly but cannot offer a place to may share the application with other Colleges in January, giving a strong application a further route to a place.

Related guides

• Oxford acceptance rates by subject
• Oxford vs Cambridge compared
• Oxbridge application guide
• Oxford and Cambridge admissions tests
• Cambridge interview preparation

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