Economics

• Why study Economics at Christ's?
• Course content and structure
• Teaching
• What do our students think?
• How to apply
  • Subject requirements: what do you need?
  • TMUA (pre-registration required)
  • Written Work
  • Interviews
  • Offers
• Helpful resources
• Open Days and Online Events
• Want to know more?

Why study Economics at Christ's?

As well as top-class teaching, you’ll find a friendly student community of around 20 undergraduates and 10 graduates in Economics each year. This makes it easy to get to know everyone, especially as we host regular lunches, dinners and drinks during the year. Our students tend to work together – a key factor in their exam success and satisfaction with Cambridge – so many keep in touch after graduation and return for social events.

Christ's has been an intellectual home to many successful Economics scholars, including Nobel Prize laureate James Meade (1907-1995). Amongst other events, our bi-annual Meade Lectures in Economics bring world-leading economists to Christ's, and students often have the opportunity to enjoy an informal lunch with the speakers.

We are lucky to have students from all over the world: alongside British nationals our current group of Economists includes students from China, Denmark, Hungary, Malaysia, Poland, Singapore and Spain. Our students' performance in economics has been consistently outstanding. Over the last ten years Christ's students have achieved on average the highest scores for economics across the University.

Some of our graduates move on to further study at top universities across the globe, including, most recently, the LSE, Stanford and Yale. Many join management consultancies (Goldman Sachs, UBS, KPMG Strategy&, Bane) investment banks (Deutsche bank, Goldman Sachs, Macquarie) and economics consultancies (RBB, Frontier Economics). A number of students go on to work in governments, central banks and international organisations.

Course content and structure

The Economics course (or ‘tripos’) is a three-year degree. From second year on you can study particular areas in greater depth, and in the final year you write a dissertation on your chosen topic.

Please visit the University website for full details of the Economics course content and structure.
 

Teaching

Teaching in Economics at Christ's is traditionally very strong and maintained by our academic economists:

• Professor Sanjeev Goyal, FBA, Social and economic networks.
• Dr William Peterson, Applied econometrics, macroeconomic modelling, input output analysis and energy economics
• Mr Alexandru Savu, Political Economics, Development Economics
• Dr Julia Shvets (Director of Studies) Applied microeconomist

As well as lectures organised by the University, you have weekly ‘supervisions’ at the College arranged by Director of Studies Dr Julia Shvets. These small-group tutorial sessions give you the advantage of personally-tailored tuition and guidance. 
 

What do our students think?

Read about the experiences of Martin, Sanchit and Luke who recently studied Economics at Christ’s.

If you’d like to hear from other Christ's students, please watch the Christ's student Q&A film, and visit our Student Profiles page.

How to apply

Visit How to Apply for full details and a timeline of the application process. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and school types, all over the world. If you're applying from outside the UK, please read our international students section.

Subject Requirements

Economists have found that mathematical modelling provides a useful tool in analysing trade-offs faced by individuals and societies. It allows us to precisely articulate the assumptions we make about people's behaviour, and to test our hypotheses on data. Hence, the central requirement for admission to Cambridge's Economics programme is fluency in basic mathematical and statistical methods. At Christ's we will require an A* in A-level Mathematics, a Grade 7 in IB Higher Level Mathematics (Analysis and Approaches), or an equivalent performance in other Mathematics qualifications.

In addition, we at Christ’s consider Further Mathematics a highly desirable background for applicants doing A-levels. If your school doesn't offer Further Mathematics, you may be able to get support from the Advanced Mathematics Support Programme. If it’s not possible for you to study Further Mathematics to the full A-level, we encourage you to self-study AS level Further Mathematics or to take as many extra mathematics modules as possible. A number of our international candidates (from countries where you study a wide range of subjects at school in the final two years) take part in Mathematics competitions as a way to focus on extending mathematical knowledge and ability, and applicants from Scotland should see this page.

We do not require candidates to have studied Economics at school. However, applicants should have a vivid interest in Economics as a discipline and the questions it poses about individuals, organizations and societies.

The university publishes statistics on the profile of successful applicants for Economics including the percentage of A level candidates taking Further Maths and Economics. To find these, go to the University Economics course information, click on the entry requirements tab and scoll down to the grey box at the end of the page.

Alongside A-level and International Baccalaureate students, we welcome applications from students enrolled in other programmes. In recent years, we have admitted a number of people who studied for the German Abitur, Singapore A levels, and other international qualifications, and we have a dedicated section for applicants from Scotland and international applicants.

If you have any concerns about the subject requirements for Economics in relation to your school subjects, it would also be a good idea to read Exploring courses: Economics.

• Exploring courses: Economics

TMUA Written Assessment (pre-registration required)

All students applying to the University of Cambridge for Economics sit an admissions assessment called the Test of Mathematics for University Admissions (TMUA). This takes place in your school, college or local testing centre. The same assessment is used regardless of which College you apply to, and preparation information is provided on the website above. The test forms part of our holistic admissions process: there is no set score that we are looking for. When applying, it is important to be aware of the registration and assessment dates:

*Please note that open centres may set an earlier deadline for accepting entries, and it is your responsibility to check if this applies at your centre. There will also be an earlier deadline if you need a modified paper (e.g. enlarged print).

Written work

After we receive your application, we ask you to send us one essay that you feel accurately reflects your abilities and interests. This should be work written during the normal course of your studies and already marked by a teacher.  We recommend you keep a copy for your own reference.

We publish full guidelines on written work in the Current Applicants section on 20 September each year.

Interviews

If we invite you for interviews, these usually take place in early December. For the last three years interviews have been online and students have been interviewed either at home (in most cases) or at school (if easier). Those selected for interview are normally interviewed for 35-50 minutes in total. The aim of the interviews is to try to determine applicants' potential to benefit from the Economics Tripos. The interviews have no fixed format but typically include working through some mathematics problems and a discussion of economic issues. Further, more general information about interviews (including two useful films) is available in the Cambridge interviews section, and it's worth also having a look at supervisions (short film here), as interviews are similar to what you do every week as a Cambridge student.

Offers

You need to be academically ambitious: our typical Economics offer for A-level candidates is A*A*A, including A* in Mathematics, and for IB candidates 42 points overall, with 776 at Higher Level including 7 in Higher Level Mathematics (Analysis and Approaches), but the majority of Christ’s students arrive with higher grades. If you are studying in another qualification system we would expect you to be working at or close to the top of the mark range. The international students section has information about typical offers for international qualifications.

If you will apply after you have finished school, please see our page for post-qualification applications.
 

Helpful Resources

When we assess your application, it will be impressive if, as well as doing well at school, you are developing your relevant skills (e.g. maths) and interest in Economics further by going beyond your school curriculum. Here are a few resources and suggestions which may be helpful, and we recommend that you explain how you have developed your skills and interest in the subject in your UCAS personal statement. 

Open Days and Online Events

Online events: Our open days and events page advertises online opportunities as well as events in Cambridge, and includes College Open Days where you can talk to staff and current students about the course, our regular webinars and Student-led College tours. As part of our outreach programme, we also run an annual Economics Taster Series on James Meade for prospective Economics students who attend a state school (eligibility criteria apply).

Subject-specific opportunities you might wish to consider include Economics events in the Cambridge Festival, Subject Masterclasses organised by Cambridge Admissions Office, and Economics-specific talks in the July Cambridge Open Days.

If you are a UK student from a background where there is little tradition of entry to Higher Education, you can apply to attend a Sutton Trust Summer School in Economics or to shadow a current Economics undergraduate via the Cambridge SU Shadowing Scheme (do be aware that there's a high proporton of applicants to places for both of these last two opportunities, so please don't be discouraged if you are not given a place).
 

Want to know more?

For a fuller picture of what the course involves, take a look at Undergraduate Economics admissions on the University website and read the Faculty of Economics information for prospective students too.

If you have any queries, please send them to admissions@christs.cam.ac.uk and we’ll help however we can.

Undergraduate Admissions main page / Back to the subject list / How to apply / Why choose Christ's? / Economics Taster Day