St John&#x27;s Graduate Hostels

All the Madingley Road hostels are good

Reply 2

Probably should add that the rooms in each hostel are very variable, so you're still taking a shot in the dark when you choose a particular house.

Reply 3

OP

thanks mate

but they're a bit far out of town eh?!

Reply 4

jat

thanks mate

but they're a bit far out of town eh?!

Guess so, but they're still within 10/15 minutes of the centre, and only about 5 mins. from college, so it's not too bad.

Reply 5

jat

thanks mate

but they're a bit far out of town eh?!

Yeah... I was in two minds about listing my preference for accommodation. In the end, I put the Madingley Rd hostels as my first preference: I will be working in the Cavendish Laboratory at the West Cambridge site, so I thought closer to the department would be better, but, this consideration aside, I would have preferred something a little closer to town. A guy I know who did his PhD in Cambridge (St. Catz) urged me to live on-site if I possibly could, or, otherwise, in the town centre.

Reply 6

d750

Probably should add that the rooms in each hostel are very variable, so you're still taking a shot in the dark when you choose a particular house.

Can I ask how variable the rooms are in any particular house? I know you mentioned to me before that the small rooms in the Madingley Rd hostels are 'small indeed', but how small is 'small indeed'? I suppose the first years would get the very worse rooms, no matter which house we list as our preferences. :rolleyes:

Reply 7

OP

Preferences are now

1) 1 Madingley Rd

2) 25 Northampton (Merton Arms)

3) 23 chesterton

4 ) Fossedene

What you reckon - 4 prefs enough?

Reply 8

Radagasty

Can I ask how variable the rooms are in any particular house? I know you mentioned to me before that the small rooms in the Madingley Rd hostels are 'small indeed', but how small is 'small indeed'? I suppose the first years would get the very worse rooms, no matter which house we list as our preferences. :rolleyes:

You won't necessarily get the worst rooms - I think you can still specify the price range for the rooms you want, so just don't go for the cheapest. There are only a few really small rooms, but they just have space for a bed and a desk and nothing else.

Reply 9

jat

Preferences are now

1) 1 Madingley Rd

2) 25 Northampton (Merton Arms)

3) 23 chesterton

4 ) Fossedene

What you reckon - 4 prefs enough?

Why Chesterton? That's miles away!

Reply 10

OP

Is Chesterton that far away? I went to MAPQUEST.CO.UK and typed in 23 Chesterton Road, CAMBRIDGE - it shows up as on the CNr of Chesterton Rd and Hertford St - 5 mins walk to Magdel St?!

Reply 11

jat

Is Chesterton that far away? I went to MAPQUEST.CO.UK and typed in 23 Chesterton Road, CAMBRIDGE - it shows up as on the CNr of Chesterton Rd and Hertford St - 5 mins walk to Magdel St?!

Yeah, sorry, confused it with the hostels actually in Chesterton. 23 isn't any further from college than some of the Madingley Road hostels, I guess, but if your department is in the West Cambridge or Sidgwick sites then it's double the distance. Where's your department, then?

Reply 12

OP

Dept is Computer Science, off Madingley, but I want to have fun too - hence close to town...

1 Mad is looking pretty good

Reply 13

d750

You won't necessarily get the worst rooms - I think you can still specify the price range for the rooms you want, so just don't go for the cheapest. There are only a few really small rooms, but they just have space for a bed and a desk and nothing else.

Hmm... true enough, although I don't think I was asked to specify a rent range. Perhaps I should write to St. John's. Thanks for all your information, d750.

By the way, do you know which graduate hostels are connected to the college network or the internet? I read somewhere that those living in unconnected hostels have their phone bills subsidised, but I should like a fast connection all the same.

Reply 14

OP

NO idea which hostels are connected to the Internet.
That's pretty important

though I guess if you work in CS labs, who cares

Reply 15

Radagasty

Hmm... true enough, although I don't think I was asked to specify a rent range. Perhaps I should write to St. John's. Thanks for all your information, d750.

By the way, do you know which graduate hostels are connected to the college network or the internet? I read somewhere that those living in unconnected hostels have their phone bills subsidised, but I should like a fast connection all the same.

You couldn't get you phone bill subsidised this year, but that may just have been due to the college's temporary difficulties. Wouldn't count on it for next year though. Don't know how many hostels aren't connected, sorry - the two Chesterton hostels and Grange road aren't, but there could be more.

Reply 16

Brown Patrick Bateman

10

Hopefully less dodgy than the grad accommodation at St Johns Oxford, where a shower was found to have a webcam hidden in it... (see tomorrow's Cherwell)

Reply 17

d750

You couldn't get you phone bill subsidised this year, but that may just have been due to the college's temporary difficulties. Wouldn't count on it for next year though. Don't know how many hostels aren't connected, sorry - the two Chesterton hostels and Grange road aren't, but there could be more.

Hmm... perhaps it's for the best, really. I waste too much time on the internet. Just out of curiosity, is there any way at all of connecting to the internet from the graduate colleges that are not wired up? Are there individual phone-lines to each room, for instance?

Reply 18

Radagasty

Hmm... perhaps it's for the best, really. I waste too much time on the internet. Just out of curiosity, is there any way at all of connecting to the internet from the graduate colleges that are not wired up? Are there individual phone-lines to each room, for instance?

Yes, most, if not all, of the rooms have ntl lines and some have bt lines which former residents have put in. So you can always get a dial-up connection.

Reply 19