St. John's Cambridge, comments

Hello!

I'm an EU student who has just received an offer for a place at St. John's College (for ASNaC), and I wondered if anyone would care to comment on the advantages and disadvantages of it, either social, academic or whatever.

Hope to hear from you soon!

Reply 1

Juwel

18

Biggest college, one of the richest too. My mate's dad went there and he didn't get in himself. But the guy can't stop banging on about it (i.e. his dad and connections to Cambridge), it gets annoying.

Reply 2

Minta

5

Congrats on your offer! I'm starting ASNC at new Hall this October too! Where are you from? St Johns is a very grand college, with a lovely chapel and the famous Bridge of Sighs, so it's popular with tourists. You should have a great time there.

Reply 3

oldthrashbarg

OP

7

Minta

Congrats on your offer! I'm starting ASNC at new Hall this October too! Where are you from? St Johns is a very grand college, with a lovely chapel and the famous Bridge of Sighs, so it's popular with tourists. You should have a great time there.

Thanks, and congratulations to you too.

I'm from Denmark, but I hope you won't hold it against me :smile:

I didn't really have much to go on when I chose my college, so I "picked" St John's because it seemed to have a nice range of facilities and because it had a member of the department as a fellow.

What made you choose New Hall?

Reply 4

Minta

5

oldthrashbarg

Thanks, and congratulations to you too.

I'm from Denmark, but I hope you won't hold it against me :smile:

I didn't really have much to go on when I chose my college, so I "picked" St John's because it seemed to have a nice range of facilities and because it had a member of the department as a fellow.

What made you choose New Hall?

It's cool you're from Scandinavia; I think there's also someone on UK Learning from Sweden who's starting ASNC at Girton this year. To be honest, I chose New Hall firstly because I thought I'd be most likely to get in there, and also because the accomodation is really nice and modern. The college cat might have swung the decision too!

Reply 5

Helenia

20

ZJuwelH

Biggest college, one of the richest too.

Trinity is the biggest actually, although Homerton, surprisingly, is challenging that. And John's is rich in terms of endowments, but is running at a fairly large deficit at the moment.

There is also a song "We'd rather go to Oxford than to John's," so be warned, oldthrashbarg, you'll be hearing that a lot!

Reply 6

oldthrashbarg

OP

7

Lol, yes I've heard about that song but I can't quite make out whether the animosity towards St John's has a rational basis (which would worry me) or whether it is simply that its nice to have someone to pick on (which is fine).

Besides, I'm almost immune to that sort of thing now, I've been reading law for 2.5 years :smile:

.

Reply 7

Radagasty

ZJuwelH

Biggest college, one of the richest too.

Apparently, John's had by far the biggest deficit of all the colleges last year, well over the deficit of King's, although it seems more people know about King's plight. The deficit is worrying, actually, as it probably translates to high rents, etc.

Reply 8

Helenia

20

oldthrashbarg

Lol, yes I've heard about that song but I can't quite make out whether the animosity towards St John's has a rational basis (which would worry me) or whether it is simply that its nice to have someone to pick on (which is fine).

Semi-rational. St. John's does have a scarily large number of Blues players, and tend to dominate sports events. Or at least they like to think they do. Apparently there is a general perception that John's people, especially the rugby team, are very much up themselves. I'm sure this isn't true for most of the students there, but that's the reputation - most of the colleges have rep of some sorts, and John's is the one we all love to hate!

Reply 9

KaiserSoze

1

Congrats on getting into john's, its a great college and its supposed reputation is really just an excuse for poking fun at us - its fairly good natured. Were you interviewed for asnac by Dr. Ni-unpronouncable? (maiohnaigh - sp?!?), she's nice but despite her being our tutor (for law) we still don't know how to pronounce her name - don't suppose she told you? :smile:

Reply 10

Minta

5

KaiserSoze

Congrats on getting into john's, its a great college and its supposed reputation is really just an excuse for poking fun at us - its fairly good natured. Were you interviewed for asnac by Dr. Ni-unpronouncable? (maiohnaigh - sp?!?), she's nice but despite her being our tutor (for law) we still don't know how to pronounce her name - don't suppose she told you? :smile:

Lol, I think someone else was saying excatly that a while back! I believe her name is pronounced nee-mi-vway-nig. Could be wrong, of course, but I very much hope not as she's going to be my ASNC DoS in October!

Reply 11

oldthrashbarg

OP

7

KaiserSoze

Congrats on getting into john's, its a great college and its supposed reputation is really just an excuse for poking fun at us - its fairly good natured. Were you interviewed for asnac by Dr. Ni-unpronouncable? (maiohnaigh - sp?!?), she's nice but despite her being our tutor (for law) we still don't know how to pronounce her name - don't suppose she told you? :smile:

Yes I was interviewed by Dr. Ni...Ni... - the person we were talking about. She was very friendly but she didn't spontaniously start out with telling me how to pronounce her name, and I certainly didn't ask!

Mind you, she did ask me how to pronounce mine (In a very natural and tactful way) so I suppose I rather let everyone down by not seizing the opportunity to ask her back.

Reply 12

Suzy_vet

Apparently its on a deficit of 2.4 million, so its rent prices are high and they sting you for other stuff. you should check this out, im sutre you can find out. ultimately though you'll like whichever college you go to! Im sure its very nice there :smile:

Reply 13

RetiredAccount89

18

Suzy_vet

Apparently its on a deficit of 2.4 million, so its rent prices are high and they sting you for other stuff. you should check this out, im sutre you can find out. ultimately though you'll like whichever college you go to! Im sure its very nice there :smile:

Catz is one of the richer colleges you know? apparently they're very good at investing in stocks and shares. (read it in varsity lol)
J

Reply 14

bluemonkey

Helenia

Semi-rational. St. John's does have a scarily large number of Blues players, and tend to dominate sports events. Or at least they like to think they do. Apparently there is a general perception that John's people, especially the rugby team, are very much up themselves. I'm sure this isn't true for most of the students there, but that's the reputation - most of the colleges have rep of some sorts, and John's is the one we all love to hate!

so which colleges do people think best of?

Reply 15

Suzy_vet

Emmanuel of course!

(now youve started a debate)

Reply 16

bluemonkey

Suzy_vet

Emmanuel of course!

(now youve started a debate)

that was the general idea...

Reply 17

Helenia

20

bluemonkey

so which colleges do people think best of?

Depends a lot on personal opinion, and of course, what college you're at!

As a combination of factors (location, academia, reputation etc) Clare, Emma and Pembroke are pretty popular. All the colleges have their own good points though, I guess.

Reply 18

RetiredAccount89

18

Helenia

Depends a lot on personal opinion, and of course, what college you're at!

As a combination of factors (location, academia, reputation etc) Clare, Emma and Pembroke are pretty popular. All the colleges have their own good points though, I guess.

PEmbroke and clare? my arse.
As far as the student population as whole goes, Emma is the top college to be at.
J

Reply 19

Helenia

20

foolfarian

PEmbroke and clare? my arse.
As far as the student population as whole goes, Emma is the top college to be at.
J

Like I said, it depends where you're at :tongue:

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