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Content in her part-time job at Marks & Spencer in a provincial market town, Neve Mumford (English 2023) had no intention of applying to university. However, less than two years on, she is completing her first year at ������ and the University of Cambridge.

Neve is a first-generation university student from Yeovil, Somerset, and has recently been voted into the position of Access Officer for the GCSU (the ������ & Caius Students’ Union). Neve attended Preston Academy, Yeovil for her secondary education and The Gryphon Sixth Form in Sherborne, Dorset, for A-Levels. Sherborne and Yeovil are just six miles apart.

Cambridge seemed geographically accessible to Neve as she has family in north Essex, and in the summer of 2022, at the end of Year 12, Neve took part in Caius Explore, an essay competition, and visited Cambridge for the open day in July.

“I wasn’t going to apply to university; I was planning on staying in my job at M&S, and moving onto the management training programme there, but I won the Caius Explore essay competition for English, in July 2022,” Neve says. “I found the Caius Schools social media and the outreach programmes which encouraged me to think about applying to university, and then specifically to Cambridge and Caius.

“I feel like I owe a lot to outreach, which is why I stood for the position of Access Officer for the GCSU. I knew I wanted to contribute towards what the College does to support people from under-represented backgrounds, and it feels like a great honour to further the programmes that enabled me to get here, and to work alongside our fabulous outreach team. I knew I wanted to further this work, as I didn’t want to get here and feel as though I had pulled the ladder up behind me.”

Her experience has surpassed her expectations.

She adds: “Before arriving at Caius, I wondered whether I would feel out of my depth; but I’ve never felt like that here. It’s important to try to challenge perceptions that people from under-represented backgrounds won’t fit in. There are far fewer divisions – financially, socially – than I was expecting. Whatever differences there may be outside of Cambridge are forgotten once you’re here. I feel equal to everyone else on my course and I am treated that way.”

As part of winning the Caius Explore competition, Neve was invited to the College for a winners’ open day and lunch. However, even after that experience she waited before completing her application. She was weighing up considerations including the more well-trodden path of full-time employment, but she ultimately decided to go for it.

She adds: “There was a lot keeping me rooted in work, rather than university. University is more a delayed gratification, going into debt before recouping the ‘outlay’. I saw getting a job as a safer option. 

“I ended up applying to Cambridge a day or two before the deadline, which was about a month after the Caius Explore lunch. Over that month I did a lot of thinking and I had to decide very quickly if I was going to apply. At the last minute, I thought ‘yeah, I want to apply’.”

Her family and friends are understandably proud of Neve, who applied to, and received offers from, other Russell Group universities, but in reality her decision was “Cambridge or nothing”. She adds: “I knew I would be happy here, especially at Caius.”

Neve, who took part in last September, likes Caius’ first-year, ensuite accommodation and the Minimum Dining Requirement, which means many meals a week are part of the College bill, supporting her budgeting, and she likes the social aspect of dining too.

She has advice for anyone in Year 12 deliberating over whether to apply.

“The main reason people don’t get into Cambridge is because they don’t apply. You have nothing to lose!” she says. “If you are considering it, however, I would suggest that you start making preparations – academically, mentally, financially, etc – as early as you can so that you’re in the best possible position when you start your time at Cambridge.”