St John’s offers all subjects available from Cambridge University for study at undergraduate level, and it’s worth considering the details and entry requirements of any courses you’re interested in before you begin your application.
The University offers helpful general guidance on choosing a course as well as an A-Z of courses where you can discover what Cambridge has to offer in the subjects that excite you most.
Undergraduate applications to St John’s are made online via UCAS
The application round closes in mid-October each year (including for applications for deferred entry), so be sure to check the University’s application dates and deadlines for the year in which you’re applying.
For most applicants, the deadline for 2027 entry (or deferred entry in 2028) will be 15 October 2026 (6pm UK time).
Bear in mind that you can only submit your application once your chosen referee has added your reference to it, so you’ll need to ensure your referee has time to do this before the deadline.
When applying to Cambridge, you use a Campus Code to nominate your chosen College. The St John's College Campus Code is X.
Once your UCAS form is submitted, correctly and on time, you will be asked to complete My Cambridge Application. This is an extra form just for Cambridge applicants which requests additional information that is of interest to the College, but is not asked for by UCAS. Once you have submitted your application, we will correspond with you via email using the address you provided in your UCAS application. Please ensure your email account is not rejecting .cam.ac.uk emails, and you check all your folders regularly.
If you have any questions about your application, please email us, putting your name, UCAS personal ID and the subject you have applied for in the subject line.
Your UCAS form includes a personal statement: this is an opportunity to give specific information about yourself that you feel it’s important for us to know.
Your statement will cover why you want to study your course, how your current studies have helped you prepare, and what else you have done outside of your school or college to get ready for your university learning.
If you’re invited to an interview at St John’s, our interviewers might use your personal statement as a basis for discussion. General advice on undergraduate personal statements is available from UCAS and the University also offers specific guidance on what Cambridge is looking for in a personal statement.
In addition to your UCAS personal statement, My Cambridge Application allows you - should you wish - to write a short statement just for Cambridge, specific to the course you are applying for here.
Some applications may require you to submit additional materials or to meet slightly different deadlines from those outlined on this page.
Please read our further applicant information page if any of the following apply to you:
Applicants to some subjects are required to complete a written admissions assessment as part of their Cambridge application. A list of these subjects and the type of assessment they require can be found on the University website.
Be aware that some subjects require you to register and pay for an assessment in advance of submitting your application to UCAS, so it’s important to read the information carefully on the University website.
Other subjects require applicants to complete 'College assessments' after being invited to interview. You do not need to register for these assessments in advance – we will contact you to let you know what you need to do, and there is no charge associated with taking a College assessment.
The following subjects have additional requirements for applicants:
These subjects require you to submit two examples of written work in support of your application, so we can get a sense of how you write. Architecture and Design require one example of written work and submission of a portfolio (see course page for details).
You can find more information on our course pages but, to summarise, submissions should be from the course of your regular school or college work (e.g., essays or pieces of coursework), marked by a teacher and no longer than 1500 words each. This should not be written specifically for your application.
Apart from Modern Languages, if you do not write in English at school, then you will need to provide your original work and your own translation of that work into English, verified as authentic by a teacher.
Each piece of work requires a cover sheet, which should be merged to create a single multi page PDF, containing all pages of your documents. Once we have received your application, we will be in touch via email to advise you of the next steps.
St John’s is committed to meeting the needs of all applicants during the application process, and will make reasonable adjustments and arrangements for applicants called to interview.
If you have a disability, a specific learning difficulty (such as dyslexia or dyspraxia), or difficulties associated with long-term illness, we will send you a Request for Adjustments form to complete.
If you have experienced personal, social or educational disadvantage, you should liaise with your UCAS referee so they can report the details and the impact upon your education in their reference (which has a specific section to supply this information). This will ensure that all your target universities are advised of your circumstances, not just Cambridge.
If your circumstances are exceptionally sensitive or severe, such that they need explanation beyond that on your UCAS reference, then your referee is welcome to contact our Admissions Office after the submission of your application.
Cambridge interviews need not be daunting. For information on what you can expect from the interview process at St John’s and how you can prepare, read our detailed interviews guide
Decisions on which candidates will receive an offer of a place are made on a holistic basis.
All Cambridge candidates are informed of the outcome of their application via UCAS by the end of the January following the application cycle.
A summary of possible outcomes is outlined on the University website.
Owing to the number of applications we receive we are unable to provide individualised feed back to applicants or their supporters. However, we provide unsuccessful applicants with contextual information about the application round at the point of outcome to help them understand our decision.
Applicants with any concerns during or about any aspect of the admissions process is required to contact the Admissions Office immediately, no later than 5 working days after the matter of concern. This is particularly important if you observe a serious procedural error to have occurred, which has the potential to form grounds for an appeal or complaint. Do not wait until after the outcome of your application is known to report any such concerns. Be aware that any concerns that are not reported contemporaneously will not be considered at a later stage (e.g. after the outcome of application is known).
If direct contact with the Undergraduate Admissions Office does not allay your concerns, please follow the procedures outlined on the University website.
By applying to St John's College applicants give consent for their data to be processed in accordance with the University of Cambridge's guidelines on data protection.
Applicant information is retained by the College and University for as long as it remains relevant.
In the case of unsuccessful applications this normally means that personal information will be destroyed on the 1 September in the year following the application, following research and statistical analysis.
