Your chances of getting into Cambridge Computer Science, and the TMUA score you need
For 2025 entry, 1,739 people applied for Computer Science at Cambridge and 163 received offers: 9%. Built from the test scores and outcomes of 9,443 past applicants, released by Cambridge.
Your chances
Answer the questions, then see your chances
- Your estimate from the scores and outcomes of 9,443 past applicants
- Adjusted for your grades, school and where you apply from
- A likely range, with each step that moved it
- What would change your odds, and a card to share
- Applied, 2025
- 1,739
- Offers
- 163
- Offer rate
- 9%
CS selection in 2025
How many reached each stage in 2025. Your own chances appear here once you have answered.
| Stage | Students | AVG | You |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apply | 1,739 | ||
| Offer | 163 | 9% | ? |
How the offer rate rises with TMUA score
Show as a table
| TMUA | Offer rate | 80% confidence range |
|---|---|---|
| 4.0 | 1% | 1% to 1% |
| 4.5 | 2% | 2% to 3% |
| 5.0 | 5% | 4% to 5% |
| 5.5 | 11% | 11% to 12% |
| 6.0 | 23% | 22% to 24% |
| 6.5 | 32% | 31% to 34% |
| 7.0 | 40% | 39% to 42% |
| 7.5 | 50% | 48% to 53% |
| 8.0 | 52% | 50% to 56% |
| 8.5 | 58% | 55% to 63% |
| 9.0 | 63% | 58% to 70% |
Why you can trust this
9,443past applicants
3 yearsheld back in turn to test the curve (2023, 2024, 2025 entry)
98%of their score bands inside our range
Method and sources
Applicants are ranked by TMUA score within each year, so a year with lower scores does not distort the curve. Offer rates are fitted on that ranking for 2020 to 2025 entry (9,443 applicants), with recent years weighted most, and the level is set to Cambridge's official 2025 offer rate. Your score is placed among the 2025 applicants' scores, and a later sitting's scale may differ, so if your sitting's scores run higher or lower than 2025's, your real position among applicants will differ from the one shown.
To test the curve's shape, each of 2023, 2024 and 2025 was held back in turn, with that year's overall offer rate supplied, so the test checks how offers spread across scores and says nothing about how many there will be. 98% of score bands fell inside the 80% range, so the ranges needed no widening.
Home and international applicants have separate curves. Cambridge interviews applicants, but its colleges run the interviews and the University holds no interview scores, so the interview is not modelled separately. The estimate is the overall chance of an offer from your TMUA score and grades.
The GCSE, A-level and school effects come from Cambridge Computer Science's own tables: predicted A-levels and home applicants' GCSE grade 9s for 2020 to 2025 entry, and school type for 2022 to 2025 entry. Cambridge's tables cannot be joined to TMUA scores, so the overlap with the score is estimated from an assumed link between grades and test scores taken from Oxford data. The effects are added on top of the score.
- University of Cambridge, FOI-2025-821. Computer Science applicants' TMUA scores, domicile, predicted A-levels, GCSE grade 9s and outcomes, 2020 to 2025 entry.
- University of Cambridge, Undergraduate Admissions Statistics, 2013 to 2025 cycles. Applications, offers and acceptances by course, and Home applicants from UK schools by school type.
- University of Cambridge, Undergraduate Admissions Statistics dashboard, accessed 22 October 2026. Applications, offers and acceptances by route, including 2026 entry, not yet final.
- University of Cambridge, FOI-2026-757. TMUA averages for applicants and offer holders, and Part IA marks by TMUA band, 2022 and 2023 entry.
- University of Cambridge, FOI-2025-940, FOI-2026-610 and FOI-2025-505. Predicted A*s, Further Maths and acceptances with and without it.
- University of Cambridge, FOI-2025-1014, FOI-2025-866, FOI-2026-163 and FOI-2024-997. TMUA averages by school type, the winter pool, the August Reconsideration Pool and IB predictions.
- University of Cambridge, FOI-2026-516. Reply on contextual offers; and the Computer Science course page, entry requirements for 2027 entry.
- Grade equivalence: Ofqual, grade standards for new GCSEs (2017); Cambridge International, A guide to A*-G and 9-1 grades (2025); Ecctis for the IB, MYP grade comparisons with the GCSE (2021); University of Cambridge, Computer Science entrance requirements.
This estimate cannot see your college, personal statement, reference, CSAT score or interview. The A-level effect reads your best three subjects, so a fourth A* is not counted. How closely GCSEs and test scores move together is set partly from one Oxford file. Predicted and achieved grades are treated the same, and the GCSE, A-level and school effects come from separate tables, so they may overlap slightly.
Cambridge Computer Science admissions statistics
What the numbers Cambridge has released say about getting into Computer Science: how many people apply, how the TMUA score sorts them, and how the odds differ by where you apply from, your school and your grades. Cambridge's colleges run the interviews and the University holds no interview data for the course, so the interview is not covered.
1 in 11
applicants got an offer
More detail
163 offers from 1,739 applicants for 2025 entry (9.4%). The offer rate has been between 8.5% and 10.3% every year since 2019.
81%
of offers went to the top quarter of TMUA scores
More detail
721 of 895 offers over 2020 to 2025 entry, with each year's scores ranked on their own. In every year the share was between 74% and 85%.
95%
of A-level offer holders were predicted A*A*A*
More detail
96 of 101 for 2025 entry, against a minimum offer of A*A*A. Only 5 of the 624 applicants predicted A*A*A got an offer over 2023 to 2025.
99%
of A-level students accepted had Further Maths
More detail
289 of 293, for 2022 to 2024 entry. Cambridge asks for it if your school offers it.
Cambridge Computer Science acceptance rate
For 2025 entry, 1,739 people applied for Computer Science at Cambridge and 163 received offers.
That is an offer rate of 9.4%, or about 1 in 11.
Cambridge's own published success rate counts those who took up a place: 128 of 1,739, or 7.4%, for 2025 entry. The course page's "applications per place" figure (14) divides applications by those same acceptances. This page uses offer rates throughout.
- Applied
- Offered a place
Applications more than tripled, from 521 for 2013 entry to a peak of 1,863 for 2024 entry. Offers rose from 117 to 131 a year in 2014 to 2017 to between 147 and 168 a year since 2022.
So the offer rate fell from 20.4% for 2014 entry to between 8.5% and 10.3% in every year since 2019.
Some offers come from a college other than your first choice. Of the 163 offers for 2025 entry, 15 came through the winter pool, and over 2023 to 2025, 68 of the 726 applicants placed in the pool (9.4%) received an offer that way.
Cambridge's dashboard for 2026 entry, whose figures are not yet final, shows 1,652 applications and 160 offers (9.7%).
Show the data as a table
| Entry | Applications | Offers | Offer rate | Took up a place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1,739 | 163 | 9.4% | 128 |
| 2024 | 1,863 | 168 | 9.0% | 141 |
| 2023 | 1,583 | 147 | 9.3% | 121 |
| 2022 | 1,625 | 151 | 9.3% | 136 |
| 2021 | 1,658 | 141 | 8.5% | 130 |
| 2020 | 1,465 | 140 | 9.6% | 119 |
| 2019 | 1,330 | 137 | 10.3% | 116 |
| 2018 | 1,157 | 167 | 14.4% | 133 |
| 2017 | 867 | 131 | 15.1% | 105 |
| 2016 | 719 | 124 | 17.2% | 99 |
| 2015 | 642 | 117 | 18.2% | 91 |
| 2014 | 583 | 119 | 20.4% | 101 |
What TMUA score do you need for Cambridge Computer Science?
A TMUA score of about 6.6 gives a 1 in 3 chance of an offer across all applicants, and about 6.0 for home applicants.
Every Computer Science applicant sits the TMUA. The calculator above estimates your overall chance of an offer from your TMUA score and grades; the interview is not modelled separately.
Across all applicants our estimate reaches a 1 in 3 chance at a TMUA score of 6.6. For home applicants that happens at 6.0, and for international applicants at 7.2.
The chances climb steeply with the score: about 5% at 5.0, 40% at 7.0 and 63% at 9.0, the top of the scale.
How TMUA scores compare across all test-takers is in our guide to a good TMUA score.
- All applicants
- Home
- International
The curve ranks scores within each year, because each year's TMUA sits on its own scale. The estimate reads your score against the 2025 applicants.
The curve was fitted on six years of Cambridge's data (2020 to 2025 entry). Its shape was tested by holding back 2023, 2024 and 2025 in turn, with each year's overall offer rate supplied, and 44 of the 45 score bands fell inside its 80% range.
Cambridge holds no interview scores or interview-to-offer rates for Computer Science, because colleges run the interviews. The estimate is the overall chance of an offer, interview included.
Show the data as a table
| TMUA score | Applicants scoring below | Offer | Likely range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3.0 | 16% | 0% | 0% to 0% |
| 4.0 | 35% | 1% | 1% to 1% |
| 5.0 | 61% | 5% | 4% to 5% |
| 6.0 | 85% | 23% | 22% to 24% |
| 7.0 | 93% | 40% | 39% to 42% |
| 8.0 | 97% | 52% | 50% to 56% |
| 9.0 | 100% | 63% | 58% to 70% |
How much does the TMUA matter for Computer Science?
Offers go overwhelmingly to the top of each year's scores. In every year from 2020 to 2025 entry, 74% to 85% of offers went to applicants in the top quarter of that year's TMUA scores (721 of 895 offers over the six years).
For 2024 entry every one of the 168 offers went to an applicant in the top half. Below the top-quarter cut-off, the offer rate was between 1.9% and 3.4% in every year.
For 2025 entry the offer rate was 1.4% below 5.0 (14 of 1,015 applicants) and 59.6% at 8.0 or more (34 of 57). A top score is still no guarantee: 23 of those 57 got no offer.
Each year's scores sit on their own scale, so compare a score only with its own year. The 2025 scores ran lower, with the average applicant scoring 4.56 against 5.32 for 2024, and 27.1% of applicants scoring 6.0 to 6.9 got an offer for 2025 entry, against 9.0% for 2024.
Offer holders for 2025 entry averaged 6.69 against 4.56 for all applicants. For 2024 entry the figures were 7.37 and 5.32.
Offers to lower scorers are rare: 14 of the 162 offers for 2025 entry went to applicants scoring below 5.0.
Show the data as a table
| Entry | Below 5.0 | 5.0 to 5.9 | 6.0 to 6.9 | 7.0 to 7.9 | 8.0 or more |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1.4% (14 of 1,015) | 10.4% (42 of 403) | 27.1% (36 of 133) | 52.9% (36 of 68) | 59.6% (34 of 57) |
| 2024 | 0.0% (0 of 741) | 1.9% (5 of 258) | 9.0% (44 of 490) | 31.4% (77 of 245) | 62.7% (42 of 67) |
| 2023 | 0.6% (4 of 675) | 3.9% (12 of 310) | 13.1% (49 of 375) | 38.5% (62 of 161) | 47.6% (20 of 42) |
| 2022 | 0.4% (3 of 717) | 5.2% (16 of 306) | 14.4% (40 of 278) | 33.5% (66 of 197) | 58.5% (24 of 41) |
| 2021 | 1.2% (10 of 827) | 5.7% (15 of 265) | 11.4% (27 of 237) | 36.6% (60 of 164) | 61.5% (24 of 39) |
| 2020 | 1.0% (6 of 576) | 5.4% (14 of 257) | 12.4% (29 of 234) | 28.2% (53 of 188) | 40.3% (31 of 77) |
UK and international applicants
International applicants got offers a little more often overall: 11.8% against 8.3% for home applicants over 2023 to 2025 entry (192 of 1,625 and 285 of 3,416).
That does not make the bar lower for them. International applicants score much higher on average, and at the same TMUA score home applicants did better.
- Home
- International
For 2025 entry, 64.3% of home applicants scoring 7.0 to 7.9 got an offer (18 of 28), against 45.0% of international applicants (18 of 40). At 8.0 or more it was 78.6% (11 of 14) against 53.5% (23 of 43).
The gap shows in every year from 2020 to 2025 taken alone. For 2024 entry, home applicants scoring 7.0 to 7.9 converted at 40.6% (43 of 106) and international applicants at 24.5% (34 of 139).
In every year from 2020 to 2025, the middle international offer holder scored 0.6 to 1.1 points higher than the middle home offer holder. For 2025 entry it was 7.3 against 6.2.
These are raw rates. They do not separate home or international status from grades, colleges or the rest of the application. Home applicants from UK schools received 100 of the 163 offers for 2025 entry (61.3%).
Show the data as a table
| Entry | Home | International |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 8.9% (100 of 1,121) | 11.2% (62 of 555) |
| 2024 | 7.9% (98 of 1,246) | 12.6% (70 of 556) |
| 2023 | 8.3% (87 of 1,049) | 11.7% (60 of 514) |
| 2022 | 9.6% (97 of 1,009) | 9.8% (52 of 530) |
| 2021 | 7.5% (71 of 944) | 11.1% (65 of 588) |
| 2020 | 8.5% (66 of 772) | 12.0% (67 of 560) |
State and independent schools
Among home applicants from UK schools, about four in five come from state schools: 79.5% of applications for 2025 entry.
State schools got a slightly smaller share of offers, 77.0% for 2025 entry. In every year from 2018 to 2025 their share of offers was 2 to 9 points below their share of applications.
- Share of applications
- Share of offers
Over 2023 to 2025 that works out at about 8.1% of state-school applicants getting offers against about 9.4% of independent-school applicants. The counts are rebuilt from rounded shares, so treat both as approximate.
Among home applicants, those from state schools averaged 0.4 to 0.7 points lower on the TMUA in each year from 2022 to 2025. Their offer holders averaged 0.3 to 0.5 points lower from 2022 to 2024 and about the same for 2025 entry (6.25 against 6.16).
Cambridge says it does not use contextual offers. Over 2023 to 2025, home applicants from the areas with the lowest university participation (POLAR4 Q1) got offers at 9.4% (22 of 233), against 8.1% from Q3 to Q5 areas (229 of 2,817).
Applicants flagged by Cambridge's deprivation measure (IMD) got offers at 5.8% (56 of 968), against 9.3% (229 of 2,462) of the rest. These are raw rates, which do not allow for scores or grades.
Show the data as a table
| Entry | Applicants | Offers | State share of applications | State share of offers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1,114 | 100 | 79.5% | 77.0% |
| 2024 | 1,237 | 97 | 79.5% | 76.3% |
| 2023 | 1,032 | 87 | 78.9% | 77.0% |
| 2022 | 1,018 | 97 | 79.1% | 71.1% |
| 2021 | 955 | 71 | 80.3% | 74.6% |
| 2020 | 784 | 66 | 82.4% | 78.8% |
| 2019 | 643 | 78 | 82.0% | 73.1% |
| 2018 | 602 | 84 | 79.2% | 76.2% |
Do GCSEs and A-levels matter?
For 2027 entry, Cambridge's minimum offer for Computer Science is A*A*A at A-level (IB: 41 to 42 points with 776 at Higher Level). It asks for Maths and, if your school offers it, Further Maths.
In practice, offer holders are predicted higher. 94% to 95% of A-level offer holders each year from 2023 to 2025 were predicted A*A*A* in their best three subjects. The published minimum is the grade you need to meet an offer, and the prediction that wins one is usually higher.
Over 2023 to 2025 entry, 10.7% of applicants predicted A*A*A* got an offer (277 of 2,577), against 0.8% of those predicted A*A*A (5 of 624).
Four A*s help further. For 2025 entry, 14.2% of A-level applicants predicted four A*s got an offer (70 of 492), against 5.7% of those predicted exactly three (23 of 402). Four A-levels are common among applicants who also take Further Maths, and these raw rates do not separate the fourth A* from Further Maths or the TMUA.
Further Maths is close to essential: 289 of the 293 A-level students accepted for 2022 to 2024 entry had it. For 2025 entry, 11.1% of A-level applicants predicted an A* in Further Maths got an offer (94 of 845), against 1.5% (3 of 197) of the rest, who include applicants predicted a lower grade and those not taking it.
GCSEs go with the odds too. For 2025 entry, 18.9% of applicants who declared nine or more grade 9s got an offer (37 of 196), against 0.9% of those with two or fewer (2 of 224), and 2023 and 2024 show the same pattern. Stronger GCSEs tend to come with stronger predictions and test scores, so the calculator scales back the GCSE gap for the overlap it expects with your score. Cambridge's tables cannot be joined, so that overlap is estimated from Oxford data.
Few IB students apply: over 2020 to 2024 entry, 22 of the 154 applicants predicted 45 points got an offer (14.3%). Applicants to Peterhouse and Trinity also sit the Computer Sciences Aptitude Test (CSAT), and the data holds no CSAT scores.
Show the data as a table
| Best three predicted | Applicants | Offers | Offer rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| A*A*A* | 2,577 | 277 | 10.7% |
| A*A*A | 624 | 5 | 0.8% |
| A*AA | 106 | 0 | 0.0% |
| AAA | 30 | 2 | 2 of 30 |
Questions about Cambridge Computer Science admissions
What is the acceptance rate for Cambridge Computer Science?
About 9.4% of applicants got an offer for 2025 entry: 163 offers from 1,739 applicants, or about 1 in 11. Cambridge's own published success rate, which counts those who took up a place, was 7.4% (128 of 1,739).
What TMUA score do I need for Cambridge Computer Science?
No score guarantees an offer. Our estimate reaches a 1 in 3 chance at a TMUA score of 6.6 across all applicants, 6.0 for home applicants and 7.2 for international applicants. Each year's scores sit on their own scale, so compare yours only with the same year: offer holders for 2025 entry averaged 6.69 and all applicants 4.56.
Does the calculator include the interview?
No. Colleges run the interviews, and Cambridge holds no interview scores or interview-to-offer rates for Computer Science, so none are published. The calculator estimates your overall chance of an offer from your TMUA score and grades, and the interview is not modelled separately.
Do I need Further Maths for Cambridge Computer Science?
Cambridge asks for Maths and, if your school offers it, Further Maths. In practice 289 of the 293 A-level students accepted for 2022 to 2024 entry had it. For 2025 entry, 11.1% of A-level applicants predicted an A* in Further Maths got an offer, against 1.5% of the rest, a group that includes applicants predicted a lower Further Maths grade as well as those not taking it. Those are raw rates, and Further Maths students also tend to have stronger scores and grades.
Do I have to take the CSAT?
Only if you apply to Peterhouse or Trinity. For 2027 entry, every applicant sits the TMUA, and applicants to those two colleges also take the Computer Sciences Aptitude Test (CSAT). The data we hold has no CSAT scores, so the calculator leaves it out.
Is it harder to get into Cambridge Computer Science as an international applicant?
At the same TMUA score, it was. For 2025 entry, 64.3% of home applicants scoring 7.0 to 7.9 got an offer, against 45.0% of international applicants, and home applicants did better at that score in every year from 2020 to 2025. International applicants still had a slightly higher offer rate overall (11.8% against 8.3% over 2023 to 2025), because they score much higher on average.
Does the TMUA predict how you do in the first year?
In Cambridge's figures it does, as a pattern. Students who started Computer Science in 2022 with a TMUA of 8.0 to 9.0 averaged 78.1 in Part IA, against 70.8 for 7.0 to 7.9, 65.2 for 6.0 to 6.9 and 56.2 for 5.0 to 5.9. The 2023 starters show the same steps (81.1, 69.2, 62.4 and 56.4). The top and bottom bands hold only 10 to 14 students each, and the figures show a link only: they do not say how Cambridge uses the score.
Keep going
Updated 25 October 2026 · GhostPrep is independent of the University of Cambridge. Figures describe past applicants and are an estimate for planning, with no guarantee of any outcome.