Cambridge College Recommendations?

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good college? I will (hopefully) be a female natural science student and the amount of colleges is a bit overwhelming so any help would be grateful.

I come from a seaside town, so it would be nice to be around a bit of greenery as I don't know how I'd act to city life.

Make sure you check out the admission requirements of each college here as they are different.
Other than that, to be completely honest I don't think it would be the end of the world if you just chose by sticking a pin in a list - each has its own lovely things and character. I think the only thing I really would have chosen differently would have been to look at the relative richness of the colleges and what they therefore offer by way of accommodation.
It will depend which natural science route you are taking as to which side of the city you need to be most, but Cambridge is really small. It's only if you choose Girton (which is DEFINITELY not city-feeling, it's like being out in a village) that some things are a long way away. However, start by looking at the closest to your main dept and see what you think of those.
The more modern colleges with more open space tend to be on the west side. Jesus probably has the best mix of traditional building and open space. I went to a college that was on the Cam and really appreciated that.

Cambridge is in general, pretty green - there are lots of parks scattered throughout town. It's also not a big city, by any stretch of the imagination!

Jesus College may be appealing as it has fairly extensive grounds within it, and is adjacent the Jesus Green (and on the other side of the road, Midsummer Common), two fairly large parks in the city centre. Churchill takes a lot of NatScis, and is on a fairly open set of grounds by the West Sites (where most of the physical sciences departments are - although lectures are in the central lecture theatres for at least the first two years), which are quite expansive (or at least they look it, driving past).

Even the very central colleges have their own grounds (which can be quite extensive in some of them) and are generally quite "green". However the Sidgwick cluster and non-central colleges are obviously a bit further out from the potential city centre crowds. I'd be surprised if there's much difference for any except King's though (as the main entrance to King's is on a major pedestrian thoroughfare and very notable, so attracts a lot of tourists; other central colleges don't tend to have gaggles of tourists standing directly outside the entrance).

Bear in mind there's a chance you could be pooled to another college anyway, so don't stress too much about college choice. If you can't find one you particularly like, you can always make an open application.

Also does anyone know if there's a college that does martial arts?

Ah yeah I was considering King's college as they are quite good for sciences but if it's that busy I'll avoid it. I'm trying to tell myself to relax but it's hard because I just want the best experience... I won't make an open application as it might be nice to pick a more sciency one but I won't be dissapointed if I dont get in.

I have a vague recollection of Queens?
But there are uni-wide clubs for most disciplines.

I would note every college offers Natural Sciences, and they're all equal academically; if they don't have a particular academic in college to supervise for a given course, they will arrange for you to undertake supervisions at another college. The potential academic differences are likely even more negligible in the case of NatSci because a lot of the teaching is arranged centrally by the departments - lectures, and importantly labs, are undertaken out of college anyway.

The only difference might be how many NatScis the college takes each year (i.e. how many other students on your course will be in college), but most colleges take a lot of NatScis just because it's one of the (if not the) largest courses at Cambridge anyway.

I'd note King's is one of the most oversubcribed colleges, so it's quite likely you could get pooled if you apply there anyway. But yes, King's parade is almost always packed with tourists. It's probably one of the busiest places in town most days!

Also does anyone know if there's a college that does martial arts?

Things like martial arts probably don't have a college specific club, but the uni-wide clubs I've found are very friendly and pretty accessible, just look out for them at the freshers' fair and sports fair. Each college will generally have team sports though, they compete with each other throughout term.

If you fancy doing taekwondo, why not join CUTKD? Maybe I'll see you there in the future
https://cutkd.soc.srcf.net/

I'm currently a student at newnham college having just finished first year natural sciences, and i love it so much here. if you're looking for green space the gardens here are some of the biggest and best cultivated in cambridge and all our grass is for everyone to walk on unlike many colleges. the accommodation is also all on the main college site for all three years as opposed to having to live further out from the main college facilities at many colleges which makes it really convenient; if you like cooking all our kitchens also have ovens which is super unusual and i love just being able to put a pizza in the oven after a long day. as mentioned above for a martial arts club you'd want the main university one, but newnham does have a new gym (opened oct 2018) that's really well equipped and is on the roof which is pretty cool.

if you know which first year modules you'd be thinking of taking and whether you'd be a bio or phys natsci i can let you know my experience of the first year supervisors for each at newnham (spoiler they were all great and really supportive)

its important to say that wherever you choose to go, most students end up loving whichever college they end up at, whether they were pooled there or not, and academically there is very very little difference between colleges so you should base your choice on things like accommodation and facilities and atmosphere (if you can visit some before you choose that would really help)

I'm currently a student at newnham college having just finished first year natural sciences, and i love it so much here. if you're looking for green space the gardens here are some of the biggest and best cultivated in cambridge and all our grass is for everyone to walk on unlike many colleges. the accommodation is also all on the main college site for all three years as opposed to having to live further out from the main college facilities at many colleges which makes it really convenient; if you like cooking all our kitchens also have ovens which is super unusual and i love just being able to put a pizza in the oven after a long day. as mentioned above for a martial arts club you'd want the main university one, but newnham does have a new gym (opened oct 2018) that's really well equipped and is on the roof which is pretty cool.

if you know which first year modules you'd be thinking of taking and whether you'd be a bio or phys natsci i can let you know my experience of the first year supervisors for each at newnham (spoiler they were all great and really supportive)

its important to say that wherever you choose to go, most students end up loving whichever college they end up at, whether they were pooled there or not, and academically there is very very little difference between colleges so you should base your choice on things like accommodation and facilities and atmosphere (if you can visit some before you choose that would really help)

I have to admit it's hard to pick modules when they all look so good but I was thinking physics,Physiology of Organisms, and maybe either biology of cells or evolution and behaviour (so the more biology side). Though I don't know what i'll pick out of the maths, probably normal maths.

Your experiences would really help as I was considering newnham college as the gender ratio of women in science there scares me a bit. Having a good gym is also quite important to me but I'm not too fussed on sports except for martial arts.

Does your college limit you on the amount of guys you'll meet? Do you think the fact you go to a girl's college makes you want to socialise with other colleges more? Also were you pooled there or picked, because I heard a lot of people get pooled into newnham... I don't want people to think I didn't get into the college I wanted, or that I detest guys or something...

Also I forgot to add last time, but I don't think they'll let me take all the choices I said so it might have to be earth sciences instead of biology of the cells/evolution and behaviour to meet what they say on the website. If i do that then'll it'l make me a physical person

you're allowed to take any combination you like, there was another phys natsci in my year who took physics, evolution, and physiology, but also earth sciences was my favourite module and it was incredibly well taught so would really recommend it

You cannot take computer science and biology of cells due to timetabling restrictions, but other than that any combination is indeed fair game.