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

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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

These are good reasons for choosing a college. (but not Tomkin's. That table uses very simple methodology, it doesn't really reflect the real strength/weakness of colleges.)
But using those statistic data that's available on the website is not.

Because I really didn't want to go to certain colleges.

This brings back to your first comment.
Original post by R T
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.

^^^ this.

I know several people who were pooled to colleges they wanted to avoid. And everyone of them were happy and glad they were pooled there.
So......

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.

You never know because you've never been in that position. :wink:
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by R T

I respectfully disagree. How much statistics have you studied so I can give you the most appropriate response given your background?

If the answer is none, then politely I'd point out that before my 2013 application, I did run statistical models on many courses at colleges which would exceed ~50 applicants and the truth is that numbers are predictable. This is not surprising given that people do not randomly choose a college, and nor do people actively seek to play the numbers game (and even if they did, this would also be something reasonably consistent in the population group). Whilst individuals are not predictable, certain consequences of how people think are. Group dynamics and statistics is a very large and important subject. Colleges very near certain departments are consistently more popular for example.

LOL you mean my background in the financial market?
Yes, your argument is very persuasive, especially the underlined part. :biggrin:

Oh, I don't know...... To be really perfectly honest, what you're saying has always been at back of my mind.
But the most important point, I think, remains the same, which is, the university created the system to ensure they get the most able students and/or the ones with the most potential among the applicants regardless of which college they applied to. It's now a perfect system and they're the first one to admit it, but still it's been working quite well.
And given the fact that almost everyone at Cambridge is happy with their college and most are furiously patriotic about the college even if they were pooled there, I've always thought and still think very firmly you don't really need to spend too much time agonizing which college to apply to.
Whichever you choose and wherever you end up at, you'll be happy. So, you (I mean, applicants) really don't have to worry about it too much. :smile:


btw, you said someone moved a college. I've never heard such a case.
What was the situation and how did it happen?
Original post by R T

I respectfully disagree. How much statistics have you studied so I can give you the most appropriate response given your background?

If the answer is none, then politely I'd point out that before my 2013 application, I did run statistical models on many courses at colleges which would exceed ~50 applicants and the truth is that numbers are predictable. This is not surprising given that people do not randomly choose a college, and nor do people actively seek to play the numbers game (and even if they did, this would also be something reasonably consistent in the population group). Whilst individuals are not predictable, certain consequences of how people think are. Group dynamics and statistics is a very large and important subject. Colleges very near certain departments are consistently more popular for example.

LOL you mean my background in the financial market?
Yes, your argument is very persuasive, especially the underlined part. :biggrin:

Oh, I don't know...... To be really perfectly honest, what you're saying has always been at back of my mind.
But the most important point, I think, remains the same, which is, the university created the system to ensure they get the most able students and/or the ones with the most potential among the applicants regardless of which college they applied to. It's not a perfect system and they're the first one to admit it, but still it's been working quite well.
And given the fact that almost everyone at Cambridge is happy with their college and most are furiously patriotic about the college even if they were pooled there, I've always thought and still think very firmly you don't really need to spend too much time agonizing which college to apply to.
Whichever you choose and wherever you end up at, you'll be happy. So spend the time on strengthening your application, so that you'll be good enough for Cambridge, rather than spending too long time trying to decide which college to apply to.
And this is my absolute bottomline.



btw, you said someone moved a college. I've never heard such a case.
What was the situation and how did it actually happen?
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 23
Original post by vincrows
... It's now a perfect system and they're the first one to admit it, but still it's been working quite well.


Just to say, I think you mean *not* :wink:

Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by jneill
Just to say, I think you mean *not* :wink:

Posted from TSR Mobile


I blame the fault auto-correct. :tongue:
Corrected.
Reply 25
I would be happy applying to my second favourite college, as I do not want to increase my chances of being pooled to an all girls college on the outskirts of the town. Because personally, I know that I wouldn't be happy there and probably wouldn't accept the offer.

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