Pembroke College (Cambridge) Students and Applicants

It's quite a nice place to be - I was in New Court next door and there are fewer tourists at the back of the college. You're also close to two gates for getting in/out (so you don't have to go through the Plodge each time!) and apparently W staircase has an oven (the "Woven", pronounced "wuvven"), the only one outside of Foundress Court. The rooms are a decent size, and you'll have a gyp room and toilet between about four of you.

Wait, Foundress now has ovens?

Erm...I dunno. I thought they did, but I'm not entirely sure. I'm living there next (well, this) year though, so I'll be able to tell you in a month's time.

I'm fairly sure they didn't when I was there, but that was now almost three years ago.

You'll have to come and visit me sometime.

(Whereabouts were you? I'm in CC and I think it smells...erm...different to the rest of Foundress. )

Nope, I had supervisions in there every week and it was always the same - it just smells kinda musty. Mind you, the fact that you didn't notice means that hopefully I'll get used to it over time.

There's a supervision room in CC? Even more news to me...

Well, it was my DoS's set. I didn't think Pembroke even had supervision rooms - where were yours held?

It's quite a nice place to be - I was in New Court next door and there are fewer tourists at the back of the college. You're also close to two gates for getting in/out (so you don't have to go through the Plodge each time!) and apparently W staircase has an oven (the "Woven", pronounced "wuvven"), the only one outside of Foundress Court. The rooms are a decent size, and you'll have a gyp room and toilet between about four of you.

Which staircase are you in?

EDIT: Protip - the rooms are generally numbered starting from the top floor, so if you're in room 1, you might want to think carefully about how you pack your stuff.

Thanks this has made me feel a lot better as i initially said i'd prefer to stay in Foundress Court and haven't seen any other accommodation.

Score i'm in W staircase, an oven is a lovely addition, even know im more of a microwave fiend. Do you know how many people will be in a staircase? And does that mean W2 means i would be on the top floor? Sounds good to me. Cheers mate

And don't plan on relying too heavily on the microwave - in my old staircase (P), the one on our floor was knackered, and there's a £70 fine for setting off the smoke alarm. Plenty of people do cook, but I didn't think that my morning toast was that important to me after the first few fire alarm incidents, so I switched to cereal. Also, you've probably had a freshers' pack from Pembroke by now, but you're not allowed to fry anything, so you might as well save space by not packing a frying pan.

Well, W looks slightly different to the other staircases, but I think it's 12. In the others, the staircase is like a column with three landings of four people off the main stairs (so the staircase is pretty much vertical). In W, the "staircase" is more rectangular - it's hard to describe, but it's like a rectangular "corridor" with stairs at alternate ends as you go up from one floor to the next. This makes the whole thing look a little different, but overall more spacious in the corridor, so it's pretty good.

Yep, W2 is on the top floor. And don't plan on relying too heavily on the microwave - in my old staircase (P), the one on our floor was knackered, and there's a £70 fine for setting off the smoke alarm. Plenty of people do cook, but I didn't think that my morning toast was that important to me after the first few fire alarm incidents, so I switched to cereal. Also, you've probably had a freshers' pack from Pembroke by now, but you're not allowed to fry anything, so you might as well save space by not packing a frying pan.

Thanks for all your help. Would you say theres any disadvantage to being in that staircase rather than Foundress Court?
And how often did you cook for yourself, or is it more common to rely on the food from the Pembroke kitchens? Cereal sounds more than grand to me though

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Would you say that's a fair assessment of Foundress? I thought I should quote you to give bernardaraunguren a more balanced picture.

I guess it's fair enough, but to be honest I would think that it varies a lot by year and by person so it's hard to make such a sweeping assessment about all 100+ people that will be there in a particular year. Having said that, it did happen that in first year most of my friends in college were either my immediate neighbours or living elsewhere also in Foundress. Though if anything I found that those living in staircases outside of Foundress were perhaps more 'cliquey'.

Well, I think it depends upon what kind of person you are. I didn't see my neighbours that much on my staircase, but we certainly co-existed without any bother (there was nobody stealing food or keeping you up at night!). However, I know a couple of friends in staircases who got on really well with their neighbours - they regularly went to each other's rooms and did stuff together in their staircases.

Living in Foundress seems to be a double-edged sword (bear in mind that I'm moving there for the first time this year). On the one hand, the "corridor" layout, which is more like a Travelodge, means that people tend to get to know everyone more quickly and wander in and out of rooms more - generally, there's always something going on there. However, I think that there's the potential for it to feel a bit cliquey - I know a few people from Foundress, but nowhere near as well as they know each other. Mind you, that might just be me being socially awkward. I wouldn't worry about it too much - you'll get to know everyone in freshers' week if you don't mind putting yourself out there and starting conversations.



Would you say that's a fair assessment of Foundress? I thought I should quote you to give bernardaraunguren a more balanced picture.