Rejection from Cambridge for 2011

he can give advice out all he likes

i know some girls at newnham and they don't like it - all were pooled and would much rather have gone to a diff college. girton is practically the same as homerton and the people i know there say it's a hassle. let people give their own opinions on these topics and then the applicants can decide for themselves based on the information given. you don't have some sort of authority on what people think of these places.

we'd all like to say every college is great but at the end of the day...

I don't disagree with this last bit. But I also have found that how people experience colleges is highly subjective. At each college you get people who hate it and people who love it, and people who are indifferent. Everybody develops their own idea of what colleges are like based on their own experiences, rumours that they hear from friends, and the subjective experiences of their friends. This is obviously a very one sided account of what a college is like. From different sources I have heard X college is amazing! And X college is awful!

It is quite damaging to impose your ideas about colleges on other people The reasons for people liking or disliking particular colleges are also not common to everybody. For instance not having a 24hr JCR and college library was a real pain for me. But that didn't bother other people in my college at all.

If you are going to tell people who are not at Cambridge about colleges you should make an effort to give them a neutral opinion, not just make blanket statements based on crude stereotypes. Its really unhelpful and can put people off of applying to places they may have loved. The best thing is to help people work out which factors they should think about and look out for when reading college websites so they can make an informed decision based on their own personal preferences and needs.

The advice of the person I criticised has often in this forum been to make very negative sweeping generalisations about things, which I think is unhelpful and can mislead people who don't have any source of information. My responsibility as a moderator is to ensure that people in this forum are getting help and useful constructive information. I am not censoring his opinion and I haven't used my power as a moderator to punish him. I could have, for instance, removed his post or tried to give him warnings. Instead I disagreed with him simply as another user in the forum, allowing people who read to be able to comment.
I don't think you'd know this about that user's posting history unless you're his dupe, which isn't that improbable given that you have only 14 posts on this forum and already you've made a comment opining that somebody 'should be in the red', which is not typical for new users.

poor bant

man it's fun wasting a bit of time on the internet after term.

2. 'Source of information'? Who comes on TSR to use it as a 'source of information'? As far as I'm aware people come on here to have a banter about anything and everything. If they want a 'source of information' they'll go to Wikipedia.

Some of the posts and replies to threads (not mine) on TSR I have read have been full of swear words, abuse and vulgar suggestions. Why don't you go and have a go at them instead? Seems like your moderating duties are based on your opinions rather than the rules.

And yeah, top grades aren't enough. I learnt this last year when I applied.

Here here!

Out of interest, what did you apply for? And did you get rejected pre-interview?

I also have found that how people experience colleges is highly subjective. At each college you get people who hate it and people who love it, and people who are indifferent.

This is obviously a very one sided account of what a college is like.

It is quite damaging to impose your ideas about colleges on other people

The reasons for people liking or disliking particular colleges are also not common to everybody.

If you are going to tell people who are not at Cambridge about colleges you should make an effort to give them a neutral opinion, not just make blanket statements based on crude stereotypes.

My responsibility as a moderator is to ensure that people in this forum are getting help and useful constructive information.

Yeah of course, but once people know the actual 'facts' about the college, they rely on subjective opinions about the 'general atmousphere' to make decisions. I would imagine they do not rely on simply one opinion, and also if an opinion strikes dissonance with their previous knowledge of the particular college, then I think they would be skeptical of it.

Since an average applicant will be open to a number of differing subjective views, as well as their own experience, formed by visits and knowledge of the facilities of the particular college, differing subjective views will be helpful in forming an overall decision. Considering other people's personal experiences and opinions is, after all, an important source in the construction of one's own world-views.

Hence, I disagree with your following statements (the two immediately below):





___



Concerning the above statement, I would hope people exercise a degree of critical thinking in their assessment of people's personal opinions in order to assess their specific relevance. Generally, people give one or two reasons justifying their like or dislike a particular college. The example of the poster's opinion of Girton is the justification of the college being far away from the city centre. In what way is that not a legitimating factor in forming an opinion?

In short, people typically only take heed of opinions when they are justified with some kind of reasoning. In those cases, the PARTICULAR reasons will be assessed in their importance to the individual making the decision.



Again, I think you're being too lenient upon the applicant (or insulting, depending on how you look at it).

So far I haven't read many factually incorrect or misleading information about colleges. Also from experience, I haven't encountered anyone who feels like they have been 'misled' in to applying to a particular college. Such a decision should be shaped through the applicants own efforts to find accurate information, and RELIABLE opinions.



Fair enough, but conversely, over-moderation can lead to a LACK of helpful personal feelings and experiences, which might be helpful to pursue.

...Sorry for being overly formal and critical. I am in essay mode and feeling very skeptical.

<sensible post re giving opinions on colleges>

I have to say around 90% of engineers there were Chinese.

I had an interview with Dr Guy Williams and Dr Liping Xu first. Both really nice people to talk to, I felt confident, comfortable and happy during that interview.

I then had the interview I messed up on with Dr Bill O'Neill and Dr Jie Li. Dr Bill O'Neill did the physics questions before walking out and coming back in and Dr Jie Li did the maths questions. I worked out the answer to the questions on the train ride home. When the day was over I left Downing and say Dr Jie Li having a cigarette in the corner of the entrace to Downing College

OMG I had the same people interviewing me last year in that order, (got rejected) but I had a similar experience with Neill and Li, Li was the biggest ****er ever, in fact I think I may have let him know...

Did they ask you similar questions or completely different ones?

Someone ended up calling Neill a 'dickhead' after their interview . I guess he was stubborn as he would rather get on with his work- playing with lasers. He did his degree at University of Essex in 1985. I guess he just wishes he was as smart as the interviewees when he was applying for uni.

Neill seemed really pissed off at me for some unknown reason, all the others were nice. I don't know how much of it was the usual 'Good cop bad cop' routine though.

He started off the interview really nice and after that it just went downhill until he left. When was your Downing interview?

7th, you? I really don't feel like I did well enough though, but I will have to wait and see.

Did they ask you similar questions or completely different ones?

Someone ended up calling Neill a 'dickhead' after their interview . I guess he was stubborn as he would rather get on with his work- playing with lasers. He did his degree at University of Essex in 1985. I guess he just wishes he was as smart as the interviewees when he was applying for uni.

7th as well

What time?

I had guy williams at 11 and bill oneill at 11:55.