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The Big 'Which Cambridge College?' Thread

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Thoughts on Queens' and Clare? :smile:

Do either have a nice grassy area where students can study when it's good weather? I like to work outdoors whenever possible!

Clare has some really nice gardens that are open to work in in Easter term, people often sit out on the lawns around Mem Court too. There is a pretty large bit of grass outside Queens though that is a public area rather than college owned, not sure what they have of their own.

Reply 3281

User935047

Original post by hassi94

Choice of college really bares very little to no impact on your studies. Just pick the college you like most (making sure that they don't have any specific rules that you don't fulfill - for example Churchill ask 8 A*s of all Law applicants, there may be something similar for some colleges & economics but I don't know myself).

any more, specific advice??

Reply 3282

Tanmayee

I'd like to know which Cambridge college is the best for an Engineering student, considering the following aspects:
* No 'mature students only' colleges
* Women-only colleges are acceptable
* How many engineering students the college admits every year

Thank you in advance for you help, and any links to useful websites in choosing a Cambridge college would be much appreciated. :smile:

Reply 3283

Lord of the Flies

Original post by Tanmayee

There is no "best college" for Engineering. In fact there is no "best college" for any subject. Also, with the pooling system your chances of getting in barely depend on the college either. Choose the one that looks best to you.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 3284

The Mr Z

Original post by TrysBaldai

any more, specific advice??

Original post by Tanmayee

There is no best college for most subjects, including economics and engineering. Your college is first and foremost where you will live for 4 years, so you should decide which college with this in mind. You want to choose the college where you will feel most at home and comfortable, which you like the most. Even on a purely superficial level.

There's any number of possible reasons to pick one college over another, but they all boil down to personal preference of the sort of atmosphere you'd most like to live in, so if you could think about what sort of place you'd want to live we can point you in the right direction.

Some possible things to consider, to start you off, are;
Size
Number of undergrads per year
Architecture
Location
Sports
Societies
Atmosphere
Political leanings
and pretty much anything else you consider relevant.

Reply 3285

ke95

Opinions on Fitzwilliam, Churchill, Selwyn and Homerton?

Thanks :smile:

Reply 3286

Jammy111

Ok, so I have been told not to look at the statistics when picking a college because if you're Cambridge material they will pool you. However, it makes so much sense to me to apply to a college with a higher percentage of applicants getting a place, for example for Economics: In Lucy Cavendish there was one offer for 4 places, so 25%, however in somewhere like Trinity, you've got 14 offers and 93 applicants, so 15%.

Could one colleges view of a Cambridge student be different to another colleges?

Do colleges have a certain number of offers for each subject or do they just accept the best students despite their subject?

Someone told me that you should pick a college with the most number of people doing your subject, but doesn't that make it harder to get an offer?

Also if anyone has decided on a college, could I get some advice on how to narrow it down and how did you pick yours.

Sorry for all of these questions, I'm just quite confused, any help is greatly appreciated, thanks x

Reply 3287

alli11

hey i would really like to study modern and medieval languages at the university of cambridge (probably french and spanish) but i dont know which college would be best for me. i would really like to go to a college with very beautiful gardens i have a few colleges in mind please tell me which one would be the best for me. my options are clare college, fitzwilliam college, kings college, st catherine's college, selwyn college, trinity college.

i would like to be an undergraduate at one of these colleges. i would also like the college to be beautiful scenic......in a nutshell i want a college with beautiful gardens and buildings thank you for everything :smile:

Reply 3288

username969647

It doesnt really matter what college you choose. Wherever you go, you will get world-class lecturers/etc.
Appaz Catz has a good MML section in the library, but this would be the same for all colleges. Its just that I read that Catz has a particularly good one. Catz is smaller than say Kings (POSH) but still i think its lovely. On its wiki page is a shot of it at night, it looks amazing.
Just research your options on the website/ go to Cambridge itself, which you probably know.

PS I wanna do MML too. But French and German.
:smile:

Reply 3289

alli11

ohh thank you so much

Reply 3290

username969647

there is no 'best' college really (although people there will say theirs is the best of course). many people will say "the feel of the place" when asked why they chose their college.

Reply 3291

alli11

so out of all the colleges i listed above (clare college, fitzwilliam college, kings college, st catherine's college, selwyn college, trinity college) which one is the most beautiful with lovely gardens and is really good in MML....please reply :smile:

Reply 3292

username969647

i have no idea! i dont actually go to cambridge at the moment. i really think visiting will help. :smile:

Reply 3293

alli11

thank you anyways but u see i live in the caribbean but i have been thinkin of goin to cambridge so i cant visit there without spending alot of money :/

Reply 3294

username969647

You can always use the internet (type cambridge university into google and click on the colleges section, each college has a website link) or alternatively there is a TSR article called cambridge college pros and cons.
All your options would be good for MML anyway. It's Cambridge, world class professors/lecturers etc.
Obviously money is an issue, so the internet is a really useful tool.
Bear in mind that often you can't walk on the grass. But that doesn't affect the beauty in any way. Kings is impressive, but this means there will be a lot of tourists. Trinity is also pretty big.

http://www.cam.ac.uk/ (this is the uni website by the way)

There is also a section on the website for international applicants. Hope this helps!

(edited 11 years ago)

thank you

With your example, the only offer given was through the Winter Pool, so in fact none of the direct applicants to Lucy Cavendish were given an offer -- a chance of 0%!

It's impossible to play the statistics. The Winter Pool works in mysterious ways: if you apply directly to a less 'competitive' college, it doesn't substantially increase your chances of getting in, it just means that a higher proportion of those admitted were admitted through the pool. And furthermore, again as illustrated with the Economics at Lucy Cavendish example (and the other subjects and colleges), the proportion of offers given fluctuates year on year with no demonstrable pattern. Take Selwyn for an example; the chances of a direct applicant for Economics getting in (to Selwyn) are 14.5%, 19.1%, 10.1%, 8.2% for 2008,09,10,11, respectively. How are you meant to infer a pattern like that, when in 2009 you had twice as good a chance as in 2011?

You should apply to a college because you want to go there, not because you want to maximise your chances of getting in, (a) because playing the statistics game doesn't work, and (b) because you don't want to end up in a college you don't like because you thought you could.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 3297

Hippodamos

Look at linguistics, for example. In some years, colleges had 0% success rates, taking none of the applicants. Subjects like architecture have very low success rates in general. Others like land economy or classics are higher.

It's a great way to torment yourself, looking at those numbers and thinking of them as "the chance of me getting in". In reality, all they represent is "the percentage of applicants that year for that subject who were made an offer by that college".

Reply 3298

illusionz

Just apply to the college you think you like the most. If you get pooled you'll realise you made a horrible mistake and the college you got pooled to, is in fact the best.

Reply 3299

With an Accent

Original post by Jammy111

The University is insistent that their research shows that candidates of equal ability are not disadvantaged by college choice, due to pooling.

The question is whether or not to believe them. If I were in charge of admissions, I would make sure that this was true, and I don't think they have a reason to lie, but who knows?