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Emmanuel College (Cambridge) Students and Applicants

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Reply 180

JohnStuartMill

South court rooms are exclusively grades 3&4 - all the 3s are identical as are the 4s. This is the 60s building which also houses the bar.

North Court rooms range from grades 1 to 6 (although very few 5s and 6s will be available for first years) and are more variable. You go through an underpass from the main site to get there. Rooms facing inwards over the court are lovely, those facing outwards look over a building site or the bus station and can be noisy as a result. Inward facing automatically means a higher grade so grades 1&2 are almost exclusively outwards facing. Some nice grade 4s facing inwards and one immense grade 3 that is obviously a mistake as it is huge.

I chose north court as I hated the fluorescent lights in south court but south court has nicer showers and toilets.

South Court you know what you're getting, north court you don't (although they do try to give you the grade you request but if it is 5-6 then it is unlikely and you normally end up with a 4). If you want a grade 4 it might be an idea to apply for a 5-6, that's what my girlfriend did even though she knew there were no 5-6s in South Court. Equally, I did that and got a grade 4 in North Court. Applying for grade 3-4 is more likely to land you with a 3, particularly in North Court.

Just to note, the works on the building site stop during exam term and I don't know of any freshers overlooking the bus station.

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Reply 181

fizzbangzip

Ok... got mine a few days ago. I think that I may go for North Court... don't really know why, just attracted to it more. Anyone else going to put that?

Reply 182

the_crow_road

I think I'm going to apply for South Court, I really liked it when I stayed over for interview. Does anybody know just how noisy the building is, since even the official website says that it's a problem?

Luke.

Reply 183

parallelduck

There are actually one or two grade 5s in South Court, so there's a chance you would get it if you applied for one. Small chance though, and it's not worth it at all really.

Noise is southcourt travels. I never have any trouble sleeping because of the noise (I never do usually, but I hardly ever go to bed before 1 so it's usually me making the noise...). It's possible to hear people talking in the staircase and the room next to you. You can sometimes hear the music from the bar in my room depending on the night (Funk da bar, I'm thinking of you!) and I'm 2 floors up. You can also hear when your neighbour turns the taps on - I have now stopped washing up at strange times in the night due to comments from one of my neighbours!

So, the basic gist is South Court is noisy. I still wouldn't switch it for a north court room at all! South Court is nearer the bar, everyone seems to end up there and you avoid the cold walk back to North Court at 3am. Plus the firedoors are fun!

Reply 184

JohnStuartMill

Where are the south court grade 5s? They in L2 and M2? I've never actually been in a room on that side of south court.

Reply 185

ad absurdum

I picked South Court, mainly due to bar proximity.

Reply 186

EconLou

Anyone who is on facebook who hasn't done so already please join the group... http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2229208913

Reply 187

doodles123

There are loads of freshers looking out onto the bus station JohnStuartMill, mostly in T and X staircases, and it is near impossible to have your window open ever due to the sheer noise (the buses park about 4 feet from the window, with a little black metal fence in between).

North Court is a lot more aesthetically pleasing on the oustide than South Court, but South Court has the better rooms really. However the insides of South Court look much worse than the staircases of North Court. I'm in North and I wouldn't want to change that, having seen South Court now. But I know South Courters who think the same thing.

If people have specific questions about subjects I'm sure there are a lot of us here who can help, we all pretty much get to know the wordloads of a lot of subjects given how pretty much all first years know each other.

Reply 188

EconLou

Are there any current emma economists on here?

Reply 189

doodles123

There are 3 in the first year, 3 in the second year, and 4 in the third year. One of the first years is switching at the end of the year so there will only be two in the second year by the time you get to emma. I am one of the two who will be in the second year doing economics next year.

Edit: ok so that didn't answer the question at all. As far as I know I'm the only one of Emma's 10 economists on here.

Reply 190

ma3eeni

Hey guys, I got an offer from Emmanuel College, and they sent me a form to fill regarding the dorms.
I have two options, the south or north court,
and the grade of the dorm room (1-2, 3-4, or 5-6).
When I went there to the interview I didnt have time to think about it, because I didnt bleieve Ill have a chance there.
What is the difference between the two courts, and the grades.
And what do you advice me to choose.

Rep available. :smile:

Reply 191

ad absurdum

Did you notice JohnStuartMill, parrallelduck and doodles123's posts on this page ma3eeni? Those were helpful for me.

I picked South Court because I don't want to have to walk too far to get back when I'm at the bar. I'm hoping for a grade 3 room and from what I gather it should be quite straightforward to get one in South Court aswell.

Reply 192

Willa

read the posts above, which already discuss the rooms available. A good website to check out is http://ecsu.org.uk/prospective_students/room_photos
which provides photos of some of the rooms in north court and south court. Once you've seen one grade 3 and one grade 4 south court room, you've pretty much seen them all. The north court ones are only a demo of what you might get (the piano in the first set of photos is generally only for a music student).

In summary:

South Court: almost all rooms are either grade 3 or grade 4, with all grade 3's looking pretty much the same, and likewise all grade 4's. The difference between the grade 3 and grade 4 rooms is the grade 4 ones have a little extra space which is about big enought o put your bed or you desk in, whereas the grade 3 rooms are pretty much just a square room.
The bar is also located in south court, and south court is almost entirely first year students.

North Court: Rooms are much more varied, and have more character in general (this can be a good or a bad thing). grade 5 and some grade 4 rooms back on to the courtyard, grade 3 and some grade 4 rooms back on to building sites/bus stations/burger king. It's more of a lottery if you go with North court. It's a mixture of students from all years (mainly 1st and 3rd though).

Reply 193

ma3eeni

Thanks alot all.
That was helpfull.
Am not sure who to rep.
but thanks anyways.

Reply 194

Chumbaniya

I'll probably go for south court. I like to know what I'm getting and I'm not too bothered about the noise because I can sleep through anything and I go to bed late anyway. Plus I think it would be nice to be in the same place as most of the other first years, and being so close to the bar is a bonus.

Reply 195

Tenacious Fi

Hello. Only my second post so still feeling a bit new! :-P

I've got an offer for Medicine at Emma (for deferred entry - starting 08). I was just wondering if the Meds get any work to do over the summer? I'm gonna be half way round the world from March till just before I go to uni next year, and don't want to start my degree having not done the work, since there doesn't seem to be a "breaking-in" period at Cambridge.

Reply 196

Gnoes

I am planning to apply to emma to study Economics but I'm not sure if Emma is my choice. I still have a few other colleges in my mind. I wonder if any seniors can tell me how it is like to study Econs in Emma and why did you choose emma in the first place?

Reply 197

seanw

I heard emma is the best college for Medicine. True or Faux? I cannot imagine why it would be better than any other colleges, except for the fact you get the Barnes man on your side, who seems to know absolutely every single trivial nibblet in modern medicine. Asked him what causes hiccups at a the summer school, then half way through asked him two other questions; not only did he finish a lengthy explanation of the first question he answered the other two without any prompting to the same degree of awesomeness. The man is up there with the ducks.

Reply 198

Munkeey

seanw

I heard emma is the best college for Medicine. True or Faux?

Emma along with Caius and a few other colleges (Jesus/Downing???) does have a reputation for being good at medicine. This may or may not have to do with the fact that they admit a lot of people for medicine. Emma gave out 21 offers for this years application round (second only to Caius' 25). Most people tend to think of colleges that excel at subjects doing so because of self-perpetuating myths (e.g. people think it's better for medicine so better candidates apply, goes round in circles etc etc).

For the most part, lectures and practicals are the same whichever college you attend and supervisions don't tend to vary much apparently. That said, I've also heard that certain colleges are more likely to push their students to get firsts in subjects that the college is renowned for doing well at.