Downing College International Exploratory Program

Downing calls the program highly competitive and selects students through a written exam and a short interview, both held online, so nobody has to travel to Cambridge to apply. It doesn't describe the exam or publish how many students apply or how many places there are.

The rules go a little further than the age range suggests. You can't be a UK citizen, you must be in education now, and you have to be 15 to 17 for every day of your session, which means turning 15 before you arrive and not turning 18 until after you leave. Teaching is in English and so are all essays and assessments, which is why the interview checks your English as well as your interests.

• The form

  A parent or guardian completes it online with your academic details, their own information and a short personal statement, and Downing takes the £200 application fee at the end.

• The interview

  Ten minutes online with a Cambridge academic tutor, who talks with you about the subjects that interest you and checks your English.

• The offer

  Successful students get an unconditional offer by email with a payment link, and the offer lapses if the fee isn't paid within four weeks.

Downing says its tutors are University of Cambridge Fellows, lecturers and researchers with extensive teaching experience, although it doesn't name who teaches which subject or publish class sizes. You pick the STEM or the Humanities pathway and then study all four subjects in it, each through four 90-minute classes, so check which subjects your pathway covers before you choose. That comes to about 24 hours of subject classes across the two weeks (16 classes of 90 minutes), alongside academic skills work and subject field trips.

Each subject's Course Director grades your written work, oral presentation or both. The program is run by Dr Kamran Yunus, Downing's Director of International Programmes, with mentors who organize the evening and weekend activities.

Every session costs £7,000, which covers your teaching, a college room with bed linen, towels and cleaning, full board, evening socials, accompanied day trips to London, Cambridge outings such as punting and the Rowing Tank, and a formal hall dinner after graduation. Downing takes a £200 application fee when you submit the form and says it comes off the final fee.

Flights, personal spending and travel and medical insurance are extra, and Downing requires the insurance. Airport transfers are sold separately, and any visa or travel authorization fee depends on your nationality, so check it with the UK government.

The full fee is due within four weeks of the offer. The big catch is cancellation. Under Downing's terms, if you cancel before the start for anything short of a serious event such as a natural disaster, epidemic or war, you lose the whole fee, and a student sent home for misconduct gets nothing back either.

You leave with a graduation certificate and a grade for each subject, on Downing's scale from A (excellent) to D (lowest pass), presented at a closing award ceremony. It isn't a formal qualification or university credit, and Downing's own visa guidance tells students to describe what they'll get as "summer school". Downing doesn't say the program plays any part in Cambridge undergraduate admissions, so treat it as a way to test your interest and study habits, not as a route into the university.

Every student gets a single room in college accommodation, and Downing's fee includes continuous academic and pastoral support, with mentors running evening and weekend activities and staff accompanying the London day trips. Downing doesn't publish a staff-to-student ratio. Students live under Downing's college rules, and Downing can send home anyone whose conduct breaks them.

Travel needs planning. Students under 17 from Mainland China must travel with a guardian or join group flights, where a counselor from a partner school travels with the group, and Downing asks other students under 18 to confirm their travel requirements with it. Families also need to tell Downing about any dietary, physical or educational needs at least four weeks before the start, and Downing warns that rooms aren't secure, so valuables should be insured.