Ask an Admissions Tutor VI,13 April - 8 May

As promised, I am back with a new thread to answer any questions you may have about Cambridge in general or the admissions process. I'll be here until 8 May and then will be back again, as for the last two years, with thread in July and August-September.

How important do you regard the personal statement in deciding whether to give an offer? My subject is maths by the way.

Thanks.



Posted from TSR Mobile

I have a general query about college life. I would imagine that living and working as a college community is one of the aspects of life at Cambridge which makes it so unique. Eating together in college must be a fairly major part of promoting community cohesion and I would imagine most students must eat hundreds of meals in the buttery or at formals over the course of their degree.
In the light of this, I would be interested in your comments about the following FOI request I came across:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/provision_of_halal_meat_to_stude_51#incoming-629953

Looking at the responses of the colleges, the following state that the only chicken available in college is Halal, but is not actually labelled Halal so students are unaware that they are eating meat from animals slaughtered according to Islamic rituals.

Collegeswhere all chicken is Halal but not labelled as such:
Clare
Pembroke
Queens'
Sidney Sussex

Most colleges I then looked at, including Christ's, serve Halal meat on request and any Halal meat is clearly identified (as is special request).

These colleges currently arrange Halal on request:

Christ's, King's, Corpus Christi, St John's, Peterhouse, Churchill, Downing, Emmanuel, Girton, Gonville and Caius, Trinity.
I have not looked at the FOI responses of any others.

Does Christ's have any plans to change its current catering policy and would Halal meat always be identified as such to allow students an informed choice?
Who would have taken the decision to change to a Halal supplier for all its poultry supplies in college, is this something the senior fellows would be consulted about.
Should Cambridge, which welcomes students of all faiths and none, allow any colleges to cater for a minority of students to the exclusion of others, particularly when they are unaware they are eating meat?
For a student who enjoys chicken but would not eat Halal, this could be a serious consideration. It also raises a question of openness and intent to treat all students equally, whatever their background. I would welcome your comments.

Lol it's the same meat, what difference does it make?

Posted from TSR Mobile

You can still do the extra modules even if all of your maths modules aren't the same board. The only slight complication would be overlap and new topics your board wouldn't otherwise cover.

My school did Edexcel for normal A-level maths and OCR MEI for A-level further maths through the Further Mathematics Support Programme. There were only four of us doing it in the school so the FMSP taught us the A-level in FM at a local university and our head of maths organised our exams.

Do not want to start a religious discussion, but thats a silly question...because it clearly does make a different to muslims. And its not the same as it is killed and prepared in a different way.

It makes a difference to Muslims,....and obviously to the one who queries about it.... I guess she doesn't want to eat Halal and bringing a debate to the UK.

Personally, I think there is no good killing and bad killing.

Really dont want to start a controversial debate on here but i agree if she doesnt want to eat halal then colleges should definitely be providing both halal and non halal foods (and making sure it is clearly known which is which)..

I am quite baffled by the way those few colleges are managing their kitchens such that halal is the standard meat (and unlabelleled) and non-labelled available oj request. Surely, those who want to eat halal would be in a minority, so it would make sense to provide normally prepared food to everyone, with halal available on request

I have no intention to start this debate either because I have witnessed how ridiculous it can get.
*Many people who eat Halal ended up finding out that the meat is not halal either!
* Many people thinking that are eating humanly killed animals were horrified to see how it is really done (not Halal or kosher).
* Many who avoid eating pork found out that many products have pork in them...even in yogurt!

Last year in the UK there were so many shocking truths in the News as well.

I don't eat meat for one reason and one reason only, I love animals and any killing is a bad killing as far as I am concerned but I don't try to enforce it on any one else . I am out of this conversation

I have a general query about college life. I would imagine that living and working as a college community is one of the aspects of life at Cambridge which makes it so unique. Eating together in college must be a fairly major part of promoting community cohesion and I would imagine most students must eat hundreds of meals in the buttery or at formals over the course of their degree.
In the light of this, I would be interested in your comments about the following FOI request I came across:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/provision_of_halal_meat_to_stude_51#incoming-629953

Looking at the responses of the colleges, the following state that the only chicken available in college is Halal, but is not actually labelled Halal so students are unaware that they are eating meat from animals slaughtered according to Islamic rituals.

Collegeswhere all chicken is Halal but not labelled as such:
Clare
Pembroke
Queens'
Sidney Sussex

Most colleges I then looked at, including Christ's, serve Halal meat on request and any Halal meat is clearly identified (as is special request).

These colleges currently arrange Halal on request:

Christ's, King's, Corpus Christi, St John's, Peterhouse, Churchill, Downing, Emmanuel, Girton, Gonville and Caius, Trinity.
I have not looked at the FOI responses of any others.

Does Christ's have any plans to change its current catering policy and would Halal meat always be identified as such to allow students an informed choice?
Who would have taken the decision to change to a Halal supplier for all its poultry supplies in college, is this something the senior fellows would be consulted about.
Should Cambridge, which welcomes students of all faiths and none, allow any colleges to cater for a minority of students to the exclusion of others, particularly when they are unaware they are eating meat slaughtered according to the rituals of a religion followed by a minority of students.
For a student who enjoys chicken but would not eat Halal, this could be a serious consideration. It also raises a question of openness and intent to treat all students equally, whatever their background. I would welcome your comments.

Really dont want to start a controversial debate on here but i agree if she doesnt want to eat halal then colleges should definitely be providing both halal and non halal foods (and making sure it is clearly known which is which)..

I am quite baffled by the way those few colleges are managing their kitchens such that halal is the standard meat (and unlabelleled) and non-labelled available oj request. Surely, those who want to eat halal would be in a minority, so it would make sense to provide normally prepared food to everyone, with halal available on request

I'd say the majority probably just don't care. Why would it matter how the animal was killed? It's dead anyway...

Posted from TSR Mobile

Hi. I heard people saying that Christ's gives out EE offers. It that true?


Posted from TSR Mobile