Magdalene College, Cambridge

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	Magdalene College
	Established:	1428
	University:	University of Cambridge
	Address:	Magdalene Street, Cambridge CB3 0AG
	Telephone:	+44 1223 332100
	Website:	http://www.magd.cam.ac.uk/
	Student Union/JCR website:	http://jcr.magd.cam.ac.uk/
	Admittance:	approx 110 undergrads per year

Location

• Magdalene is on the river - beautiful.
• It's slightly out of the centre but everything is easily walkable/cyclable.
• It's a 0.86 mile walk to the Sidgwick Site where all the arts departments are.
• It's 0.26 miles from Sainsburys.
• It's 0.66 miles from the Downing site and the New Museums Site (Arch and Anth, Medics).
• It's one mile from the Chemistry department on Lensfield Road.

Undergraduate Student Statistics

• Total Undergraduates in 2007-8 = 371 (185 men + 186 women)
• Total Undergraduates in 2006-7 = 366 (180 men + 186 women)
• Students admitted to their current course in Oct 07: 116 (49 men + 67 women)
• Students admitted to their current course in Oct 06: 110 (50 men + 60 women)

Source: The Reporter Special Issue: Student Numbers 07-08

Magdalene Application Statistics

• 2007: 469 applications (including 25 open applications); 116 offers (including 14 winter pool offers); 16 offers by other colleges;105 admissions (including 1 summer pool admission).
• 2006: 486 applications (including 59 open applications); 116 offers (including 17 winter pool offers); 17 offers by other colleges; 104 admissions (including 2 summer pool admissions).
• 2005: 398 applications (including 71 open applications); 110 offers (including 23 winter pool offers); 13 offers by other colleges; 98 admissions.
• 2004: 420 applications (including 73 open applications); 129 offers (including 30 winter pool offers); 9 offers by other colleges; 116 admissions.

Source: College applications and admissions statistics

Magdalene Application Statistics per subject See Appplication Statistics

The proportion of state school to private school backgrounds is approximately 50:50 at Magdalene (48% of acceptances in 2007 and 50% in 2006 were from state school students (source)).

Accommodation

In your first year you just get allocated a random room (some are really cool, a separate living room and bedroom, whereas some are really small). Accommodation in Magdalene is really varied-one building is 2 years old and has beautiful en-suite rooms, and some is really old.

Rent is according to the size and quality of your room, but no fresher's room is going to be less than 56/pw (the second from bottom band), and there's not any that are going to be more than 70/pw (although some rooms you can pick in your second year go up to 75 and 79). There's not a huge range in rents, as you can see, but if you feel that you won't be able to afford a higher band, do get in touch with the college - they should be very willing to make sure you get what you want.

Officially you're not allowed to use any blutak etc because it will damage the paint - if there's damage at the end of the year then you'll lose some of your deposit. If, like in my room last year, there are *already* blutak marks all over the walls, just make sure you note it on the room inventory before you sign and give it back at the beginning of the year and then, if you happen to add some more blutak to it... by "mistake"... they won't know it wasn't the damage already there. If you catch my meaning.

How you pick rooms

• Freshers: Rooms assigned at random.
• 2nd and 3rd Years - Ballot drawn up in Lent term of the previous year. The 2nd years (then Freshers) are randomly ordered, and this is placed under the reversed random order of the 3rd years (then 2nd years). So if we call the leaving year X (p people), 3rd years Y(n people) and 2nd years Z (m people), each year is ordered randomly in its first lent term, and the ultimate ballot is, in order of priority: yn, yn-1, ... , y2, y1, z1, z2, ... , zm-1, zm. (with the previous years overall ballot being xp, xp-1, ... , x2, x1, y1, y2, ... , yn-1, yn) As far as I know, 4th year returning MMLers are treated as being in the 3rd year, and it's worked out so that 3rd years get priority over any 4th year part IIIers. Once this ballot is drawn up, it determines the order in which you are called to pick rooms near the end of Lent term, so what you have to choose between depends on the choices of those higher up. People often put up posters and so on in the ballot room requesting people don't choose a particular house and so on, as they're going for a shared house.

You get to keep the room chosen at this point, unless it is designated as a scholar's room (read: a nicer room), in which case anyone getting a first in the summer exams (assuming you have them - hard luck for first year English and History students) can opt to kick you out, should they so choose. This is because anyone getting a first (i.e. scholars) can choose among the scholar's rooms, regardless of who's previously chosen them (unless of course the person choosing the room is also a scholar, in which case they stay in that room and aren't allowed to choose a different scholar's room). If you do happen to get kicked out, you end up in the room that the scholar taking your room chose previously. I think if multiple scholars want the same room, priority is decided by their positions on the ballot, but I'm not sure of this - it may be based on results, but I think this is unlikely. Anyway, this means that choosing a scholar's room is something of a gamble, as you may loose it later on (but will of course get the room of the scholar should you be kicked out). There are a few more quirks on top of the whole scholar's room thing, such as specific rooms given to people holding positions like captain of the boat club and organ scholar, but that's pretty much it.

Formal hall

One of the cheapest colleges for formal hall - it's about £3.95 or something - this does mean it's horrible though, despite all the candles and so on.

Social Spaces

• College Bar
• JCR Room with sofas, Sky TV, magazines and newspapers

Library and Computing

• Computer room
• Computer office with somebody to help if you run into problems with your computer.
• Internet - students have up to 2.5 GB data usage for every 5 days in term. If you exceed this you will have a slower connection (with email notification) before returning to full speed.

Academic Performance

Magdalene's ranking in the Tompkins Table (which ranks 29 colleges by their Tripos exam results): 5th (2008), 13th (2007), 20th (2006), 20th (2005), 22nd (2004), 18th (2003), 15th (2002), 22nd (2001), 22nd (2000).

Sports

Magdalene was declared the 17th sportiest Cambridge College in Michealmas 2009 by The Tab. See The Tab article: The College Cup revealed

Welfare

Extensive information at http://jcr.magd.cam.ac.uk/welfare.php

Atmosphere

Facilities

• Chapel (image 1, image 2, image 3, image 4)
• Canteen and dining hall (image 1, image 2, image 3)
• Benson Hall (for meetings, readings etc) (image 1, image 2)
• The Pepys Library (image 1, image 2)
• 3 Music Rooms
• Weights Room
• Squash Court in Mallory Court
• Eton Fives Court in Mallory Court
• Pool Room with (free) pool table and table football.
• 3 punts for undergraduates to use
• Gardens (image 1, image 2, image 3, image 4, image 5,image 6, image 7)
• Small pet cemetary! (image 1, image 2, image 3, image 4)
• Cripps Court (image 1, image 2) with auditorium and seminar rooms

Magdalene Pros and cons

Student-eye view

• Magdalene Alternative Prospectus written by students
• Look up Magdalene in the Cambridge University Alternative Prospectus.

Other Links

• Magdalene Undergraduate Prospectus Entry
• Magdalene Graduate Prospectus Entry
• Magdalene College Wikipedia Entry
• Youtube clip - Magdalene Walkthrough Part 2/4
• Youtube clip - Magdalene Walkthrough Part 3/4
• Youtube clip - Magdalene Walkthrough Part 4/4
• Youtube clip - Magdalene Choir performs with other college choirs April 2009
• Magdalene bop 9th October 09 and Part 3