St. John's College 2016 Applicants thread

Does anyone have an average figure of how much accommodation will cost per year? I'm struggling to find anything that's up to date. Just looking for a rough estimate, thanks :h:

Very much something that's down to the student unless you are unlucky with the random ballot. i.e. you can choose.

Cheapest (small rooms in north/chapel court) is approx. 2,500. Most expensive (en suite in cripps) will push closer to 5,000. The majority of rooms (ones which are neither small nor large) will come in around 3,700 at a guess. But they have been slowly pushing prices up, so maybe increase these numbers a bit...

If you choose a room which is used for interview candidates, you get refunded £50-100 or so I think.

Original post by to4ka

Hello, I'm a student intending to apply to Cambridge for Maths and I found the following on St John's college website:...Those invited for interview normally have three interviews, each of 20–25 minutes duration: one with the Tutor for Mathematicians, who will be concerned to find out what you can contribute to the College in addition to your academic skills, and two subject interviews...Can someone say something about this first interview, e. g. what do they ask you?Thanks for the answersPosted from TSR Mobile

First interview is a general interview. This really is not very important at all, I think the major reason they do it is simply to calm people down, and ensure that if anyone does have a major breakdown, it doesn't happen in the 2 more important subject interviews.

Typical questions would be related to your personal statement. e.g. "I see you enjoy chess, would you continue it at Uni?" or "Are you also very interested in another subject". As far as I know, they could probably ask anything within reason. I know a lot of current students who just had a conversation about something quite trivial such as family, sport, a different academic subject or even things like why they think their hotel room might be haunted. As long as you don't come across as a psychopath or come across as immature I think it should be fine. You need to show you're mature and sensible enough that you will fit into university life.

The person who does a general interview is never knowledgable about the subject. So for maths, you'd probably have a Historian or English fellow (for example) taking the interview. In this scenario, they may take the view that you might prefer to talk about maths - and might ask you something they don't know a lot about like "do you think there's a point to infinity". Or they might ask you what a book was like in your personal statement. The two subject interviews will be 99% "draw the graph of [blah] and find the gradient at [blah]" or something similar.

All of the above specific examples are completely random I should mention.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 401

felecita

8

Original post by jneill

Approx £4k per year

https://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/maintenance-costs

Original post by R T

Very much something that's down to the student unless you are unlucky with the random ballot. i.e. you can choose.

Cheapest (small rooms in north/chapel court) is approx. 2,500. Most expensive (en suite in cripps) will push closer to 5,000. The majority of rooms (ones which are neither small nor large) will come in around 3,700 at a guess. But they have been slowly pushing prices up, so maybe increase these numbers a bit...

If you choose a room which is used for interview candidates, you get refunded £50-100 or so I think..

Thank you both! £4k sounds reasonable :h:

Reply 402

to4ka

3

Original post by R T

First interview is a general interview. This really is not very important at all, I think the major reason they do it is simply to calm people down, and ensure that if anyone does have a major breakdown, it doesn't happen in the 2 more important subject interviews.

Typical questions would be related to your personal statement. e.g. "I see you enjoy chess, would you continue it at Uni?" or "Are you also very interested in another subject". As far as I know, they could probably ask anything within reason. I know a lot of current students who just had a conversation about something quite trivial such as family, sport, a different academic subject or even things like why they think their hotel room might be haunted. As long as you don't come across as a psychopath or come across as immature I think it should be fine. You need to show you're mature and sensible enough that you will fit into university life.

The person who does a general interview is never knowledgable about the subject. So for maths, you'd probably have a Historian or English fellow (for example) taking the interview. In this scenario, they may take the view that you might prefer to talk about maths - and might ask you something they don't know a lot about like "do you think there's a point to infinity". Or they might ask you what a book was like in your personal statement. The two subject interviews will be 99% "draw the graph of [blah] and find the gradient at [blah]" or something similar.

All of the above specific examples are completely random I should mention.

Thanks!

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Reply 403

jjsnyder

OP

10

Any mathematicians out there, you are probably finding STEP as daunting as the rest of us (either that or you are crazy!), anyway we are creating a Facebook group chat, PM me with full name if you want to join (please only PM if you are taking STEP this year).

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Reply 404

Doones

21

Original post by jjsnyder

Any mathematicians out there, you are probably finding STEP as daunting as the rest of us (either that or you are crazy!), anyway we are creating a Facebook group chat, PM me with full name if you want to join (please only PM if you are taking STEP this year).

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You know about this thread? STEP Prep Thread 2016

Reply 405

jjsnyder

OP

10

Original post by jneill

You know about this thread? STEP Prep Thread 2016

I actually created it originally believe it or not :P Yeah this is just a chat for Johns applicants :smile:

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Reply 406

Doones

21

Original post by jjsnyder

I actually created it originally believe it or not :P Yeah this is just a chat for Johns applicants :smile:

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Haha, that shamika takes all the glory :smile:

Well good luck with STEP :wink:

Reply 407

jjsnyder

OP

10

Original post by jneill

Haha, that shamika takes all the glory :smile:

Well good luck with STEP :wink:

Thanks, I'll need it! :P

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Reply 408

klegend02

2

Original post by to4ka

Hello, I'm a student intending to apply to Cambridge for Maths and I found the following on St John's college website:

...Those invited for interview normally have three interviews, each of 20–25 minutes duration: one with the Tutor for Mathematicians, who will be concerned to find out what you can contribute to the College in addition to your academic skills, and two subject interviews...

Can someone say something about this first interview, e. g. what do they ask you?
Thanks for the answers

Posted from TSR Mobile

In particular, the general interview at St John's is by Dr Edgley (tutor for mathematicians and computer scientists), who is a neuroscientist. He does know a lot about maths (and computer science), so you can confidently discuss maths-related things with him, but he won't ask you any technical questions.

Reply 409

SchubertLieder

1

*Dusts off cobwebs* anyone got any good news? I'm now in possession of a wonderful and utterly unexpected pair of A* grades so I shall be seeing some of you people on 1st October!!

Reply 410

jjsnyder

OP

10

Original post by SchubertLieder

*Dusts off cobwebs* anyone got any good news? I'm now in possession of a wonderful and utterly unexpected pair of A* grades so I shall be seeing some of you people on 1st October!!