I had to fill in some forms online together with CV and letters of recommendation. The application was for a BBSRC studentship. There are usually a couple allocated to each department and those then get distributed to students rather than the supervisors. I was invited for an interview day where we were welcomed by friendly PhD students who were very supportive. There were about 16 people for 8 studentships and most of the students were quite nervous. Everyone had two interviews, one general one and an academic one. I had a really challenging interview at Leeds before and compared to that one, the one in Cambridge was a breeze. All the panelists were so friendly and what stood out for me was that they were rather trying to help you show your best rather than picking on weaknesses. So they would , for example, ask what I have done during a particular research experience and I just explained very roughly and showed my enthusiasm for science which I think goes a long way in the Cambridge interviews. The general/ personal interview was really there to get to know the student as a person and one of the panelists even told me that 'this and that' was very impressive. So overall, it was a very nice interview experience. i got the studentship in the end :) Also, it's interesting that far less students seem to apply to Cambridge than some other institutions. And each year after the interviews the panelists say how impressed they were with the high level of the applications.