Sir, I am a dentist, qualified King's College, London 1990. I am also a doctor, qualified Cambridge 2001.

I read Dr Westcott's letter (BDJ 2006; 200: 125) with great surprise. The Cambridge system for the uninitiated is a little complex; I wonder sometimes if your capability and determination to find your way through it may be a part of the selection procedure! However, to say that Cambridge does not welcome applications from dentists is a complete fallacy.

I was in the unique position of being part of two cohorts of postgraduate students while I read medicine; I was, and still am, a keen sportswoman and took time out to concentrate on my sport. When I first started there were, if my memory serves me right, six postgraduate students in my year of about 200 students who started the Tripos (the Cambridge pre-clinicals). Of these three were dentists. In the second cohort I joined there were again six postgraduate students out of 130 clinical students; of these two were dentists. I am sure your readers will agree these are not bad odds given that Cambridge is in a position to pick 'the cream' of postgraduate applicants. It is important to realise, however, that if you want to apply to read medicine as a graduate, and have not completed an undergraduate degree at Cambridge, you need to apply to either Lucy Cavendish (women only) or to Wolfson (men and women), the latter being my old college. These colleges are very restricted on how many postgraduate students they can accept onto the medical course so competition is very tough!

Does Cambridge accept 'other' degrees? If you are expecting to get 'time off' due to what you have done before, forget it. As a graduate student you are allowed to miss out the otherwise compulsory intercalated BSc but other than that you must complete the whole course which is separated into pre-clinical and clinical. In fact one of the postgraduate medics I knew had a first in biochemistry from Oxford but was still required to take the pre-clinical biochemistry course and examination! This may sound strange but it is the Cambridge way – maybe their rationale is that unless you have attained your first degree at Cambridge they do not really know the extent of your knowledge and therefore feel it is better to ensure everyone goes through the complete system to be sure the academic exit criteria are met.

Are Cambridge open to 'unusual' applicants? I am indeed an unusual applicant! I read medicine in order to follow a training pathway in anaesthesia in order to specialise in sedation, having come from a background of dental sedation. I never wanted to be a maxillofacial surgeon and although I do have a masters in dental anaesthesia I do not have FDS; when I looked at other medical schools most required FDS so Cambridge was far more flexible in this respect. I can safely say that the interview process was the toughest I have ever experienced but what the admissions tutor and interview panel want to assess is not just what paper qualifications you have but how you think, and whether you can think and reason 'on your feet'. In this respect they are very 'open' as regards whom they offer places to — in fact one chap in my year who read veterinary science was in his late twenties when he started and had been a commercial diver and a tree surgeon before! Another, reading philosophy, had been a Tornado fighter pilot in the RAF!

I think Cambridge is a wonderful academic institution which offers a truly fascinating and unique experience and would strongly recommend it to anyone wanting to spend time at university. I would also say to dentists wanting to read medicine, do not be put off by the 'unusual' system and the tough competition; from my own experience you actually have a better chance of getting in than most other postgraduate applicants!