1. Your Offer
Undergraduate courses: Read your offer letter carefully and if you wish to accept the offer you must do so with UCAS, by their deadline. If there are academic and/or language conditions, those must be met by 31st August. You should also send the College your financial guarantee by the end of June. [Note that if you hold an offer for deferred entry, conditions must be met in the year of application but the financial paperwork will be completed in the year of entry.] Once all offer conditions have been met, including satisfactory completion of the financial guarantee form, the College will be able to confirm your place, and that will appear on UCAS.
Postgraduate courses: You will be notified of your offer and its conditions by e-mail but you can also view these in your CamSIS Self-Service account. Before your admission can be confirmed, you will need to meet any outstanding conditions of your offer set by the University/Postgraduate Admissions Office (PAO). When you have met the conditions of your offer and your admission has been confirmed by the PAO, the College will be in touch.
IMPORTANT - WHILE IT IS USEFUL TO PLAN AHEAD AS ADVISED IN THE FOLLOWING STEPS, YOU ARE ADVISED NOT TO MAKE ANY COMMITMENTS SUCH AS TRAVEL UNTIL YOUR PLACE IS CONFIRMED.
2. Planning Your Arrival
Arrival Date
In order to plan ahead for travel and accommodation, make sure that you know the date by which you need to arrive. As a new student, it will be before the start of Full Term, but the date will depend on your course. The start dates listed account for an induction period, so there is no need to arrive any earlier.
For new Undergraduates and Foundation Year students, the College requires you to be resident in Cambridge from Wednesday 1st October 2025, though for Graduate Medicine and the Foundation Year those courses require an earlier start.
For new Postgraduate students, the College requires you to be here from Saturday 4th October 2025, but check with your Department or Course Organiser whether they require you to be here earlier.
Some part-time MSt students will have mandatory residence periods and your course will have informed you of these dates.
Presence in Cambridge
Cambridge has three - Michaelmas (October to December), Lent (January to March), and Easter (April to June). You are expected to be resident in Cambridge during the period known as "Full Term" and there is a mandatory minimum residency period or .
If you are making plans for travel later in the year we would generally advise that as a minimum you plan to be here during Full Term, though check the requirements of your particular course carefully - for example Master's courses often have teaching and examination periods that are outside term and particularly during the summer, after Easter term.
Visas
If you require a visa to study in the UK you must carefully read the student visa responsibilities information, in particular the University's student visa guide.
The University of Cambridge contains comprehensive pre-arrival information for international students.
3. Accommodation
Residency requirements
Students are not required to live in College accommodation but must live during term-time within 3 miles of Great St Mary’s church (undergraduates) or within 10 miles (other). This does not apply to part-time students.
Availability of Rooms in College
For Undergraduate and Foundation Year students, rooms have been reserved so are guaranteed as long as you apply in a timely manner after you are contacted via email. For postgraduate students, it is difficult to predict as demand varies each year. Certain types of accommodation, such as family flats and couples accommodation, fill up very quickly.
If you are starting in Lent or Easter term, please contact the Accommodation Manager when you receive confirmation of admission. Accommodation is not guaranteed for Lent or Easter term starters, but sometimes rooms do become available at this time.
Applying for Accommodation in College
If you are a new Undergraduate or Foundation Year student, you will be invited to apply for a room in College from around 20th August.
If you are a new Postgraduate student, you will be eligible to apply for accommodation only once your place is confirmed by the Postgraduate Admissions Office. The Accommodation Manager will invite students in order of having their places confirmed, with invitations usually starting to be sent around late July or early August. 
Please do not contact the accommodation manager before receiving an invitation unless you are interested in the couples or family options, or have specific accessibility/disability needs.
Rooms for Part-time MSt Students
If your course has fixed residential periods in Cambridge, you will be invited to book a room during those periods. You will be given the opportunity during the summer to confirm your bookings for the academic year ahead.
Specific Requirements
If you have specific accommodation requirements (for example, due to disability, a medical condition, faith etc), please contact our Deputy Senior Tutor, Tania Davies.
There is no guarantee that suitable provision will be available, but it is helpful for us to know about any requirements at an early stage - if not possible, we can then let you know so that you are able to make alternative arrangements.
Private Accommodation
Cambridge is well-provisioned with a range of private accommodation options and many students arrange their own accommodation independently. The College cannot assist with this directly but we would advise that you follow the helpful guidance from the .
4. Finance and Funding
Requirements and Costs
Before you take up your place, you must have the financial resources in place required to cover your fees and living expenses. Estimates for the latter can be found at:
https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/fees-and-finance/living-costs
https://www.postgraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/finance/maintenance
Undergraduates will be required to submit a Financial Guarantee Form to the College to demonstrate this. Postgraduates are required to complete the Financial Undertaking Form and upload it to their self-service account
Sources of Funding
All the funding available from Â鶹ËÞÉáµçÊÓ¾çfor Postgraduates is advertised on the College website and listed on the University’s funding search. All students who hold an offer of a postgraduate place at Â鶹ËÞÉáµçÊÓ¾çare considered for any College funding for which they are eligible, and no separate application is required. Â鶹ËÞÉáµçÊÓ¾çfunding decisions are expected to be communicated in the second half of June. Unfortunately, we do not have further funding available.
For Undergraduates, all international-fee status students are invited in January/February to apply to the . Home-fee students should check their eligibility for Student Finance (i.e. via Student Finance England/Scotland/Wales/NI) and apply for appropriate funding at an early stage. Undergraduates studying Medicine and Veterinary Medicine are invited to apply for a scholarship via the Alborada Scholarship. Home fee undergraduates should also check if they will be eligible for a .
Please also read the .
5. Wellbeing, Health and Disability
Letting us know about a disability or important medical condition
The University’s (ADRC) will contact all offer holders who have declared a disability with specific .
If you have not yet disclosed a disability (either a diagnosed disability or a disability you think you may have) or a significant medical condition, you should declare this to the ADRC via their . We strongly encourage you to do this as soon as possible. Engaging with the ADRC before your arrival in Cambridge will make for an easier transition into student life.
Please contact our Deputy Senior Tutor, Tania Davies to discuss any support you may require in College, including any specific accommodation you may need. For further information, visit our support for students with disabilities page.
Vaccines
You are strongly advised to follow the University's advice for incoming students on  (primarily Meningitis and MMR). Due to students being a higher risk group, the  is offered for free by the NHS to all new students under 25 years old who have not previously been vaccinated.
NHS advice is "If you're under 25 and you've not had the MenACWY vaccine before, you should ideally have it at least 2 weeks before starting college or university. Ask a GP about getting vaccinated."
International students: Medical insurance
If you are an international student, you are strongly advised to take out medical insurance for the duration of your stay. See /health-services for details.
Also read the University's guidance on:
https://www.studentsupport.cam.ac.uk/communicable-diseases
6. Offer-holder Events and Reading Prep
Online Events
To help you find out about Wolfson, meet other offer holders and have your questions answered we run a series of virtual sessions for you in June. The details for the 2025 sessions have now been sent. We encourage you to attend as many of them as you can - last year's offer holders found them extremely useful and gave them fantastic feedback.
If you receive your offer later than this, don't worry. There are recordings of the sessions that will be made available to you and all the crucial information for new students is contained in these webpages.
In-person Open Day for offer-holders
Offer-holders have been sent details of this event which is taking place on Friday 18th July. We encourage all those who can easily visit Cambridge to do so, but don't worry if you're not able to - we'll see you when you arrive. If anyone is unable to come to the Open Day but will be visiting Cambridge at some other time, you are very welcome to come and look around the College by yourself - just go to the Porters' Lodge and tell them that you are an offer-holder.
Suggested Preparatory Reading for New Undergraduates
The Faculties and Departments at the University of Cambridge provide suggested summer reading lists for undergraduate offer holders. These will be updated over the summer to reflect the 2025 programmes.