LPN 2023 Cohort - Ongoing Support

A survey has been sent out - everyone needs to complete this by 17 June! See your email inbox. 

Travel Bursaries

Students who meet any of the following criteria are eligible for their travel costs to be reimbursed. This means one return journey to Cambridge from where you live. If a parent/carer is travelling with you please be aware that only your costs will be covered, not theirs. For those driving it will be one return journey (not there and back twice).

1. You are currently eligible for government-funded free school meals, or you are not currently but you were eligible in the last 6 years (i.e. at any stage during secondary school)
2. You are care-experienced (you have spent time in loca authority care, or kinship care e.g. looked after by other family members than your parents) - in the past or currently 
3. You are a young carer and/or have significant caring responsibilities 
4. Your household income is £30,000 per year or less, but you're not eligible for free school meals (household income is the total amount your parents/carers earn before tax or paying for any costs e.g. rent/mortgage/bills)

If you have any questions (.e.g not being sure if you are eligible) or are otherwise struggling with travel costs then please contact Emma at Murray Edwards: emma.bryant@murrayedwards.cam.ac.uk. 

Getting to Murray Edwards

As you will be aware, you will be staying at Murray Edwards College for the return leg night. This means you must factor in additional time to get from your drop off/arrival point to Murray Edwards. 

What3Words location: ///vocab.stews.corner

From the train station (Cambridge [CBG]) including anyone flying to Stansted and travelling to Cambridge via train from there (e.g. Northern Ireland)

All buses toward the city centre leave from the bus stops on the other side of the road to the rail station entrance. The most direct bus is the Busway A bus (What3Words: ///funds.noted.dime), which you can take to the top of Castle Street. Get off here (Shire Hall stop, What3Words: ///loops.miles.grace), and walk 5 minutes to Murray Edwards further up the street. Busway A will say buses toward St Ives.

If you don't take the A, you will need to take one bus to the centre, and then a second bus from there to Murray Edwards. 

Take any bus toward Cambridge city centre including: 1 (to Arbury), 3 (to Fison Road), 7 (Cambridge), or any Park & Ride bus (toward the city centre). Get off at Emmanuel Street/Drummer Street (they're next to each other it just depends what stop it stops at), in the middle of Cambridge near to Christ's.

From Emmanuel Street/Drummer Street take the 5 (to Longstanton P&R) or 6 (to Oakington) bus and get off at the Histon Road corner stop (What3Words: ///slip.grant.woods). You're just round the corner from the entrance to Murray Edwards there. 

The buses accept cash (try not to use notes) or contactless payment including Google and Apple pay.

From the coach stop (Parkside)

Walk down the street toward Drummer Street/Emmanuel Street and take a bus from there as per the above instructions for bus 5 or 6. Or, find the stop on the same street as you're dropped off by National Express Parkside for the Busway A bus (What3Words: ///loaded.party.fallen) and ride it from there to Shire Hall (see above). 

Driving

The postcode for satnavs if being dropped off at the front of the college is CB3 0DD (Buckingham Rd). This is drop-off only, they will not be able to park here. Please note that when arranging for pick-ups, they should park (for free) at a Park and Ride and only come to get you once you have been able to confirm that you are indeed ready to be collected! 

Otherwise, use the Park and Ride (recommended). You will need to get into the centre of Cambridge on the PR bus and switch to one of the buses outlined above. You could also park at Longstanton P&R if coming from the north of the city, get the Busway A into Cambridge getting off at Shire Hall stop and walking from there. 

Alternatively, Murray Edwards is a 35 minute walk from Madingley Road P&R. 

Upcoming Sessions:

Links to register for the sessions you wish to attend have been emailed to you.

Previous Sessions:

24/10/2023 | Session 1: Supercurricular: Exploring Your Subject and Preparing for Competitive Applications. Temporary recording access until end of November - please check your emails! 

We thought we'd add a section to highlight key information/links for this so you can start looking at these in the summer. 

If you are applying for the following subjects, you will need to do a test that requires you to register in advance, and take your test at a test centre (i.e. not at school):

Chemical Engineering & Biotechnology, Computer Science, Economics, Engineering, Law, Medicine, Natural Sciences, Veterinary Medicine.

Each of these tests have their own websites: LNAT for Law, UCAT for Medicine, ESAT-TMUA for the others listed above. Computer Science and Economics use TMUA, the others use ESAT. Spend time now reading the information on these.

You can now create an account ready to book your test once booking opens, and so you can check for your nearest test centre, or apply for access arrangements or a bursary voucher in the meantime. Booking for tests for UCAT begins on 18 June; the others open on 1 August. The tests will cost either £70 or £75 (unless you need to sit them abroad, which will be £130), but the cost will be covered if you meet the criteria for a bursary voucher. Get the voucher ready now, as it can take a little time to confirm and then you'll be ready once booking opens for tests. 

UCAT Bursary; LNAT Bursary; ESAT-TMUA bursary. 

Other Subjects

If your course is not mentioned above then you need to check this webpage - find your course, click the drop-down and see if there is a test. For some subjects, only some colleges may use a test and others will not (it tells you which colleges). There might not be sample papers just yet - but that webpage will have the relevant links at some stage this summer. 

For tests that only some colleges use (rather than all colleges), you should double check the subject page on that college's website, which might have some further information as to the format of the assessment. 

Don't forget you can reach out to us with your questions any time! You have our emails and can reach out to any of us whenever. 

On top of this, you can also make a request for a short call/chat too - we know sometimes this is easier just to talk through a few things for 15-20 minutes instead (or less!). If this is something you think could be helpful whether it's some questions about applications, courses or universities more generally, complete this request form - this will ping us to let us know you've made a request and one of us will be in touch to find a suitable time/date. 

There are a lot of free online opportunities to find out more about various subjects - we'd encourage you to make use of these and wherever possible, attend live, because you typically benefit more from being able to participate and ask questions. Don't fall into the trap of thinking you'll get to watching the recording, more often than not you won't(!). 

Remember the below are highlights, not everything so please check the upcoming events page for everything else. You can still make use of stuff other colleges run even if 

Whilst we won't be running specific admissions information (as this was something covered in the summer school, plus a number of you are likely to get a bit bored of the repetition), there are plenty of opportunities to get this information. Please see the following:

It is not necessary for most subjects to find work experience but we appreciate that many of you will still be keen to get some and that it can help you to better understand different career options, particularly relating to the sciences. We hope the below will be useful to have a look through what sorts of things are out there. Please note eligibility criteria can apply and you'll need to check that first before making applications.

Remember: you don't have to include these in university applications, or have to do something relevant to your course for it to be beneficial for you. This is as much about you exploring post-university options and careers, and can be a valuable exercise/experience regardless to better your understanding of what is out there.

*NB: not endorsing any of these specifically, but thought they look like they might be useful (and, free).

Looking to get your claws into something a little more challenging, or have a go at something different? Why not check out these competitions and prizes. No expectation, and it doesn't matter if you are successful in winning anything - it's all about having a go, learning new skills and trying your hand at something new. 

Lots of competitions don't open quite this early. We'll update as things come up.

NB if it says Year 12 that is in England/Wales - Year 13 in Northern Ireland and S5 in Scotland are the equivalent year groups and eligible to participate. I do try to remind people to list all year group equivalents... 

No questions yet!