h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The University Director of Admissions is currently in Toronto, conducting interviews for Canadian applicants. He reports that the weather there is grey and damp, contrasting with the Canadian-style weather currently being experienced by much of the UK. He suggested that we might want to put messages on our website to tell applicants that if they can't make it to Cambridge next week, we would try to fit them in the following week, or in January.

Cue a little rush of emails from colleges which had already started interviewing, reporting that the vast majority of applicants had managed to turn up on time, and not wanting to start a panic (a few had already had phonecalls from parents anxious about interviews on e.g. 13 December!).

Then an academic currently conducting interviews in Hong Kong pointed out that in the decade or so he has been carrying out interviews in the Far East, applicants have managed to get there despite typhoons, earthquakes and civil unrest - he thinks that we should not give in faced with a few inches of snow.

So that is going to be our policy - get here if you can. If you can't (trains/flights cancelled, driving too dangerous), let us know as soon as possible and we'll see what we can do: this could be a re-scheduled interview (in December/January) or one via Skype.