Which are the best colleges to study modern languages?

I am currently in Year 12 and applying next year to do MFL. Do any of the colleges have a better reputation than others for for teaching this subject?

Reply 1

Doones

21

Original post by Bunters

I am currently in Year 12 and applying next year to do MFL. Do any of the colleges have a better reputation than others for for teaching this subject?

Colleges at Cambridge are only responsible for an aspect of teaching (supervisions), all lectures and seminars are provided centrally by the faculty/department. And even with supervisions it's likely that particularly in year 2 onwards you may have supervisions on some topics at other colleges.

Colleges are more similar than different. Have a read of this:
http://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/colleges/choosing-a-college

That said you can use http://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/apply/statistics to see which colleges have the most students for a particular course (nb. it will vary slightly each year but will give you an idea).

So Trinity, Clare, Girton and John's had the most MMLers last year. But don't forget Trinity and John's are the largest colleges overall anyway.

Reply 2

Paralove

21

MML student here (Newnham). As above - they are more similar than different.

Supervisions for the language-side of things will most likely be in your college, but this will depend on your chosen languages, and the number of people doing said languages at your college. Sometimes, they're in department but they've been organised by your college with a staff member who's linked to your college - this was the case with Spanish for me.

As for the literature (and this would apply to linguistics too), the supervisions are again, usually organised by college but as you move into second year and begin to specialise, you're much more likely to be mixed with people from other colleges in your supervisions (whereas first year the papers are all compulsory and you don't have choice in that).

The one thing I would say to consider is, at the least, MML-specific travel grants. These do vary by college, at times considerably, so if this is something you're interested in I'd do some research. As for number of supervisions, these are mostly similar across colleges.

Reply 3

blakefrench

3

Original post by Paralove

MML student here (Newnham). As above - they are more similar than different.

Supervisions for the language-side of things will most likely be in your college, but this will depend on your chosen languages, and the number of people doing said languages at your college. Sometimes, they're in department but they've been organised by your college with a staff member who's linked to your college - this was the case with Spanish for me.

As for the literature (and this would apply to linguistics too), the supervisions are again, usually organised by college but as you move into second year and begin to specialise, you're much more likely to be mixed with people from other colleges in your supervisions (whereas first year the papers are all compulsory and you don't have choice in that).

The one thing I would say to consider is, at the least, MML-specific travel grants. These do vary by college, at times considerably, so if this is something you're interested in I'd do some research. As for number of supervisions, these are mostly similar across colleges.

Hi!
I'm considering applying to Newnham for MML when it comes to it, and I'd love to hear about your experiences studying there! I realise that this thread is very old so I may not get a response, but I'd be curious to know how you found it in terms of women-only living and what the course is like! I would be applying to study German & Spanish most likely, although perhaps Portuguese later on.

Which are the best colleges to study modern languages?

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