“I've been a beneficiary of outreach. It helps students with the ability to go to Cambridge, see Cambridge as a realistic option for them,” says Maddie Wills (HSPS 2023).
“It has been an issue in that there's a lot of very well qualified students who would perform very well at Cambridge and their school either has very low progression to university, full stop, or they just think that Cambridge is completely out of their reach.
“With the power of outreach in, for example, organising visits, practise supervisions, people start to realise that they could get on very well in a Cambridge system.”
Maddie has a clear example of encouraging potential applicants in her younger brother, who is now an offer holder at another college.
“I knew he could do well, but he’s a little bit more doubtful of himself,” she adds.
“When you talk to him, he can't shut up about ports or coastal erosion. And I've sat through so many long conversations about rocks that I don't really understand, but he clearly loves it. I said to him if you love your subject this much, you will be a good candidate in an interview. You have the grades for it, apply. What’s the worst that can happen?”
Maddie grew up in St Albans, Hertfordshire and attended Sandringham School, a highly regarded non-selective comprehensive. Encouraged by excellent teachers and her grades, she attended a residential at an Oxford college, and found the small group teaching to her liking.
“I don’t think I’d have realised if I hadn’t done it on a residential,” she adds.
Maddie applied for Politics through her UCAS application, with the exception of Cambridge. She matriculated to read Human, Social and Political Sciences in October 2023. She now specialises in Social Anthropology.
Her uncle read Law at Ӱҵ College “about 50 years ago”, and Maddie felt she had to visit on the open days.
She says: “I worried it would be full of people I wouldn’t get on with. My tour guide had bright blue hair; as did I at the time!”
She has been the Ӱҵ Students’ Union Class Act Officer, advocating for widening participation, and has been publicity officer for the University Fashion Show.
Maddie acknowledges some apprehensive about applying to Cambridge have concerns over finance, which she tries to quell.
A recipient of the Cambridge Bursary, a College rent bursary, and as a student who has accessed College grants, Maddie says: “It’s probably a bit daunting to be advised not to have a job. You just have to give practical advice. Terms are so short there are opportunities to work outside of term. And there are opportunities to work in term if need be, like in college bars. Financial support is really good – the bursary system really makes a difference. Colleges offer good support and make it easier for you to exist in Cambridge.”
She also points to accommodation costs at other universities, where students enter the private rental market and year-long rental contracts, a contrast to the possible term-only deals in Cambridge.
Maddie lives in College accommodation off Mill Road, a thriving thoroughfare east of the city centre.
“I spend a lot of time on Mill Road because it feels like it's the real city,” she says. “Don't get me wrong, I do like living in Cambridge, it's very beautiful. But sometimes I do just want to go to where there are real people and there’s stuff going on.
“There are real people pubs. I like the Cambridge Blue. The Free Press does the best Sunday roast I’ve ever had in my life and is a really great pub.”
