Maths at Trinity College

That wittles my shortlist down to St. John's, Queen's and Trinity (maybe). I'll go back and visit those and hopefully I'll then have a clearer idea about where to apply.

St John's is good for Maths - lots of our mathmos get Firsts, sometimes even beating Trinity on that front.

I applied to John's because although I wanted a big, central college with a fair number of mathmos, I though trinity would be a bit too big and have a few too many mathmos and I could sense that there was a 'thing' about it and a 'thing' about being a trinity mathmo etc and I didn't really fancy dealing with these issues. Having convinced myself to apply for Cambridge maths - convincing myself to become a trinity mathmo was one step (pun definitely intended) I felt didn't need taking.

Now, I feel like either John's or Trinity would have been fine...whether it's easier or harder to get in to Trinity is not a question that can really be answered in satisfactory fashion and like everyone else, you don't want to get rejected or pooled to a lame college (sorry lame colleges - just trying to make a point). I won't advise you either way, though.

Good advice. Upon reading all your opinions, and various other things about all the IMO team members normally applying to Trinity, I've decided against applying there and ruled it off my shortlist, basically on the preconception that I won't be good enough. Rather than just hoping to get pooled, I will apply to college that I have a reasonable chance of getting in, which leaves me with: ...

Argh! There are probably 4 IMO team members, on average, who will be applying to university each year. Trinity has about 160 applicants, gives about 60 offers, and admits about 40. 4 out of 40 is not a lot. I fail to see why the calibre of the average applicant at Trinity would be much greater than that at any other college.

Who's to say that all the best applicants want to go to as large a college as Trinity, anyway? Rule out Trinity because you don't like its size, its atmosphere, whatever, but don't rule it out based on that awful reasoning.

There is a certain grandeur to studying Maths at Trinity which you cannot ignore. By assumption, this reputation attracts the very best Maths students. Invariably, the young elite Mathematicians i.e. UK IMO team members will want to apply to the best. Refer to the following link for a table of IMO university destinations:

http://www.imo-register.org.uk/#stats

There is a fairly clear trend. Sure, it would be nice to study there, but there must be a reason why Trinity is the favourite college of IMO team members.

There is a certain grandeur to studying Maths at Trinity which you cannot ignore. By assumption, this reputation attracts the very best Maths students. Invariably, the young elite Mathematicians i.e. UK IMO team members will want to apply to the best. Refer to the following link for a table of IMO university destinations:

http://www.imo-register.org.uk/#stats

There is a fairly clear trend. Sure, it would be nice to study there, but there must be a reason why Trinity is the favourite college of IMO team members.

That's odd. None of them have gone to Robinson college ! Damn them all!

Perhaps they weren't good enough to go to Robinson?

I just can't believe that even when you get into Cambridge, some colleges are still supposedly cleverer than others. It's like you walk up the highest mountain in the world, and when you get to the top, there's another mountain on top of the first one!

Well, me and Muffin Man are going to kick some serious Trinity arse if we get in!

Robinsonians Unite!

We'll show those Trinitarians that Robinsonians come first for a reason other than alphabetically (again, if we get in ).

I just can't believe that even when you get into Cambridge, some colleges are still supposedly cleverer than others.