Clare vs pembroke... (history)

pembroke seems to have a slightly higher concentration of rahs, if that bothers you.

you *can* have accommodation in college for all 3 yeas but most people live out (in hostels) for at least 1 year

Reply 3

Pembroke has lovely people and pembroke has non-lovely people.

Reply 4

JohnStuartMill

8

Pembroke is very competitive for history if I recall correctly, I have a friend going there, lovely college, excellent for history and if I could I would apply there, unfortunately my friend has a deferred place and so it would be unlikely they would take two from the same school for the same subject in the same year. Excellent reputation for history, Director of Studies a very nice and friendly guy who specialises in Early Modern European History and has some interests in China I believe, had a chat with him about the rise of China at the open day.

Beautiful college too, I'd suggest going to the open day to see.

Drawback is the food is not supposed to be very nice though it is improving, when I went for an open day it was alright, not great though.

Reply 5

Drogue

19

Formal hall and sunday brunch is lovely there, but that's all I have experience off. Sunday brunch includes sticky toffee pudding and is legendary.

They have just appointed a new head chef though, and my brother says the buttery food has improved.

Reply 6

Hall is mankadelic, i never go there

Reply 7

homoterror

I don't think mem court (across queens road) can be counted as out of college to be honest =P The college has the avenue going through. And things like the library, law reading room, laundry, a common room are there.

Also, clareites would probably tell you Clare is far more central than pembroke. But then Cambridge is rather uniform in the stretch from emma to kings, and I think both Kings and Emma could claim to be very central colleges, yet they're on the opposite sides of town. It's far easier for me to goto say sainsburys, or senate house than someone from Pembroke. But it's far easier for someone to goto new musums site from Pembroke than Clare.

Reply 8

homoterror

I think the colleges are noticeably different in their sort of people and attitudes. It's hard to put your finger on it though, well it's hard to do it without completely insulting both of them =P

Reply 9

crana9

Hall is mankadelic, i never go there

You shall not dissing my hall! :mad:

Reply 10

Um, yeah, the above post is a good example of why you shouldnt come here. it contains people liek him.

Reply 11

Wasp39

crana9

Um, yeah, the above post is a good example of why you shouldnt come here. it contains people liek him.

I had exactly the same two shortlisted when I applied. I went for Clare in the end because it was more central, felt slightly less claustraphobic than Pembroke (there seems to be a lot of college on a very small area!) and also because of its reputation for music.

N.B. I'm not putting Pembroke down in any way here, because it is a really nice college - i'm just stating why I chose Clare over Pembroke.

Reply 12

Ticki

8

JohnStuartMill

Pembroke is very competitive for history if I recall correctly, I have a friend going there, lovely college, excellent for history and if I could I would apply there, unfortunately my friend has a deferred place and so it would be unlikely they would take two from the same school for the same subject in the same year. Excellent reputation for history, Director of Studies a very nice and friendly guy who specialises in Early Modern European History and has some interests in China I believe, had a chat with him about the rise of China at the open day.

That's Paul Warde - he's very good. Also fluent in German. Pembroke is indeed very competitive for history. The best history candidate at my school was rejected by Pembroke and ended up at New Hall. They seem a bit more public schooly in terms of the interview tactics, e.g. picking objects from a table and having to speak about them in an historical context for 2 minutes. Personally, I loved the grounds but the college itself felt a bit intimidating. It's also highly academic.

This post is somewhat biased as I didn't look at Clare at all so can't compare it with Pembroke in terms of its feel and its academic approach. Clare is a very popular college so it has a high number of applicants too. I get the impression from my friends at Clare that it's better at coping with students who have outside interests (rowing, politics etc.).

Reply 13

White_redrose

1

crana9

Hall is mankadelic, i never go there

I thought it was really nice when I visited! :confused:

Reply 14

White_redrose

1

Ticki

That's Paul Warde - he's very good. Also fluent in German. Pembroke is indeed very competitive for history. The best history candidate at my school was rejected by Pembroke and ended up at New Hall. They seem a bit more public schooly in terms of the interview tactics, e.g. picking objects from a table and having to speak about them in an historical context for 2 minutes. Personally, I loved the grounds but the college itself felt a bit intimidating. It's also highly academic.

This post is somewhat biased as I didn't look at Clare at all so can't compare it with Pembroke in terms of its feel and its academic approach. Clare is a very popular college so it has a high number of applicants too. I get the impression from my friends at Clare that it's better at coping with students who have outside interests (rowing, politics etc.).

Paul Warde does seem nice, from my brief interview experience (he was my third interviewer). I don't know whether Clare is different, but I was expecting a general interview on the day alongside an academic-based one, although I ended up getting three academic ones with three different interviewers. I didn't experience any public schoolesque *invents random words* tactics in my interview there though - they all (except the second one) seemed to make an effort to put me at ease and I didn't have to discuss any objects in context or anything like that for mine.
Jess1269 - I can't comment on Clare really as it was never on my shortlist of colleges, but (and I'm not at all biased in any way of course :p:

) Pembroke is lovely, very pretty grounds, and has a great history rep. It's up to you, obv, but I think (from the vague snippets of info I have about Clare) Pembroke is far nicer. Whichever one you settle on, good luck with your application! :smile:

Reply 15

Ticki

8

White_redrose

Paul Warde does seem nice, from my brief interview experience (he was my third interviewer). I don't know whether Clare is different, but I was expecting a general interview on the day alongside an academic-based one, although I ended up getting three academic ones with three different interviewers. I didn't experience any public schoolesque *invents random words* tactics in my interview there though - they all (except the second one) seemed to make an effort to put me at ease and I didn't have to discuss any objects in context or anything like that for mine.

That's cool - we applied in 2002 so I'm glad to see things have changed. My friend was totally baffled by the objects thing!

Reply 16

White_redrose

I thought it was really nice when I visited! :confused:

its probably better if you eat meat because you get more of a choice. its much more expensive than cooking for yourself too.

Pembroke = dont come here.

Reply 17

crana9

its probably better if you eat meat because you get more of a choice. its much more expensive than cooking for yourself too.

Pembroke = dont come here.

Why don't you love me? Why? Why? Why? Why? :bawling:

[narator]This is the very reason why shouldn't come here. If you do, you'll simply be tortured by your tutor and DoS day and night until you become one of the sleepless... just like our case study here. He was a charming young boy before he set his foot into the garden of pembroke. What you see in the garden isn't really a garden. It's simply what the devil uses to lure the young and innocent into his trap. Unfortunately, our case study fell for it. And now? Look at him. What a pathetic nerd.[/narator]

Reply 18

Alaric

10

Camford

Why don't you love me? Why? Why? Why? Why? :bawling:

[narator]This is the very reason why shouldn't come here. If you do, you'll simply be tortured by your tutor and DoS day and night until you become one of the sleepless... just like our case study here. He was a charming young boy before he set his foot into the garden of pembroke. What you see in the garden isn't really a garden. It's simply what the devil uses to lure the young and innocent into his trap. Unfortunately, our case study fell for it. And now? Look at him. What a pathetic nerd.[/narator]

Camfo' get a grip man.

Clare is lovely. The only person I've talked to a lot from Pembroke kept having run ins with College about stuff. Getting deaned etc, so in my mind it's a bit more authoritarian than Clare.

To be honest though, I don't care where you go! :smile:

A.

Reply 19