St John's, Clare, Pembroke - Which to pick?

Thank you pamplemousse for your response, but I am not looking to go to an all girls college.And thank you Sparticus515 that was really useful, I really enjoy performing arts so I was wondering whether St Johns has a good drama society. Also does the college throw any weekly events/parties like I know Clare college has Clare ents?

Yes I was originally going to apply to Clare. However once I checked the admission statistics I realised that Clare has a low acceptance rate compared to these other colleges. About 0.1 compared to 0.15-0.20 for the other colleges I mentioned. So I didn't know whether to be a bit strategic and apply to another college that has a higher acceptance rate. But another thing, I really like the colleges on the river, I know that Johns and Clare are both on the river but Clare has such lovely gardens! There are so many factors I'm considering so I'm really confused but I only have until Friday to decide.

Yes I was originally going to apply to Clare. However once I checked the admission statistics I realised that Clare has a low acceptance rate compared to these other colleges. About 0.1 compared to 0.15-0.20 for the other colleges I mentioned. So I didn't know whether to be a bit strategic and apply to another college that has a higher acceptance rate. But another thing, I really like the colleges on the river, I know that Johns and Clare are both on the river but Clare has such lovely gardens! There are so many factors I'm considering so I'm really confused but I only have until Friday to decide.

Yes I was originally going to apply to Clare. However once I checked the admission statistics I realised that Clare has a low acceptance rate compared to these other colleges. About 0.1 compared to 0.15-0.20 for the other colleges I mentioned. So I didn't know whether to be a bit strategic and apply to another college that has a higher acceptance rate. But another thing, I really like the colleges on the river, I know that Johns and Clare are both on the river but Clare has such lovely gardens! There are so many factors I'm considering so I'm really confused but I only have until Friday to decide.

The complication arises in "I kind of want to go to super competitive college X but I also like medium college Y". A really good applicant who applies to X and just misses out, will be the first taken out of the pool. Who takes people out of the pool first? The least popular colleges who are struggling to make up the numbers [that year].It may seem controversial, but if you 100% want to go to X but 100% want to avoid certain unpopular colleges, you're probably better off applying to college Y which you like maybe 10% less than X. That is my super-safe view on the matter.

Ohhhhkay be careful about mentioning acceptance rate.

One of the big University policies is that admission success/failure is not affected by your choice of college. I think to a certain level this is true, and if anything it might be that popular college application acceptance rate is higher after you consider the pool.
Furthermore, it's difficult to predict how popular a given college will be. Numbers fluctuate quite considerably. And what's more important is that the quality of applicants vary a lot also. There is no statistic for how many applicants were "unrealistic" applicants. A college could have a "50% admission rate" but if everyone who applied was near-perfect, it's insanely competitive. Similarly, a "10% admission rate" college could be full of unrealistic applications by people who will "give it a go" despite poor grades and shaky enthusiasm and commitment. This isn't as silly as it sounds, I think certain colleges are magnets for weaker applicants.


BUT (and this is a big but), admissions statistics are somewhat relevant, it just depends on where you want to go and what your exact preferences are.
If you want to go to a less competitive college, then that's easy and you just apply there.
If you want to go to a medium-ish college, again you just apply there.

The complication arises in "I kind of want to go to super competitive college X but I also like medium college Y". A really good applicant who applies to X and just misses out, will be the first taken out of the pool. Who takes people out of the pool first? The least popular colleges who are struggling to make up the numbers [that year].It may seem controversial, but if you 100% want to go to X but 100% want to avoid certain unpopular colleges, you're probably better off applying to college Y which you like maybe 10% less than X. That is my super-safe view on the matter.

I would only follow this line of logic if you are a bit unsure about your application, and also if certain colleges have MASSIVE downsides. e.g. Girton but you can't cycle or [a college without squash courts] when you really really love squash or [a college without XXXX] when you really want XXXX. I think for most applicants, this isn't a problem and they are happy wherever - in which case they should just apply to the college they like the most. Also if you have a disability (e.g. wheelchair or something) then I am sure this will be factored in, so those kind of concerns aren't part of this.

It's never a good idea to play the numbers game - you are trying to play game theory against several hundred or thousands of applicants and second guessing their actions is unlikely to work. The best thing to do is pick the college you like and trust your own abilities.

And then you get an offer from college Y and think, hmmm... I wonder if I would have got that offer from my preferred college X in the first place. Oh well, now I'll never know for sure...

Or you apply to college Y (to avoid college A B or C) and get pooled to A B or C, or rejected outright anyway... and then you notice that applications to your prefered college X were down this year because it was oversubscribed the year before...

Nope, don't bother trying to double-think all this. Apply to the college you prefer at the outset but don't fret too much over it one way or the other.



PS. I note you are at John's. Was that your first choice college?

Well honestly, everyone likes whatever college they go to (or at least, almost everyone). I also think after 3 years that colleges vary a hell of a lot less than people think.

But, in my experience, some factors are relevant. I know people who have moved college because of the hassle after being pooled.

John's was my first choice of college yes. Personally, I drew up a list of things that I definitely wanted before choosing a college. IIRC:
-Accommodation guaranteed for 4 years and for grads
-A large pool of fellows in the subject I was interested in
-Active in a number of sports teams, particularly rugby and rowing
-A very good college library, and active college music rooms and bands, etc.
-Fairly central (although tbh I didn't care massively about that)
-Large (I went to a small school and didn't enjoy that part of it)
-Plenty of money and funding for grants, prizes, etc. but also for putting on big events like matriculation, may balls, etc.
-I wanted a bit of a cambridge experience, so being old and large and stooped in tradition did appeal to me
-I was interested in doing well, so I was mindful of the Tompkin's table, but much more so how each college was doing and had done historically in the subject I wanted to study

Having that list pulled up a shortlist of places. IIRC, it was essentially Trinity, John's, Emma, Pembroke, a few others. In the end, I really liked the latter 3 (Trinity didn't "feel" right). After looking at the statistics, John's received the least over the last few years by a factor of about 30-40%. That was what pushed me to apply there. Because I really didn't want to go to certain colleges.


I honestly disagree, certain factors in certain colleges would have turned me off. Perhaps not enough to go to Imperial or Durham instead, but I think I would have enjoyed my degree a lot less at certain colleges. I was a good applicant, but I was extremely disinterested in what I'd seen from certain places.

And yet many would see John's as highly competitive (because it's a "famous", "rich" college) and by your thinking decide to apply elsewhere...

What year did you matriculate? Notice the unpredicability of the number of applications at a college level for a specific course:

The most important and concise advice from a former Christ's AT, now @Murray Edwards Admissions, from the link above......