Cambridge St. Johns College Experiences?

Any pros/cons? Would you recommend? (applying for architecture)

Ex Johnian here. I would recommend the college massively.

When applying I took a very pragmatic view on college choice because certain things mattered to me (scholarships, bursaries, rewards (money), facilities for what I wanted to do, positions for further study, college connections, having a "diverse" set of students (good mix of subjects, etc.)) John's stood out to me as by far the best pragmatic choice. When I went to visit on the open day, a few other colleges I was interested in just had a much less friendly vibe (I even asked to look around certain places but was told no). John's was by far the friendliest and most inclusive so that sealed it for me.

After studying there I recommend it even more. The college has a lot of money and spends a lot of it on students and events where it matters. It is by far the most generous college in this regard, and the support is very helpful (support ranges from scholarship awards, (a lot) of extra supervisions, £500 every time you get a first, funding for summer activities if you can justify them as learning experience). The college has pretty much the best facilities and options open to its students (formals almost everyday, rather than once a week, and at a heavily subsidised price, the best may ball, a lot of talks and traditions/activities). It has pretty much every extra circular activity covered, and its central location means you are never too far away from any uni activity. It guarantees accommodation in College-owned rooms for all years of undergraduate study (and basically guarantees it for postgrad also). A lot of things which other colleges make students pay for or work for - John's offers for free (membership for basically every sport/ club, even ones like rowing which include a lot of coaching, also things like punting).

John's also nails a lot of details which I didn't originally think about - stuff like offering free over-summer storage so you don't have to pack&unpack every summer. Or offering car parking space for students to more easily get their things unpacked (this is a nightmare at other colleges). It's got a great team of porters and takes pastoral care very seriously.

I really do think there is no reason to pick another college. John's takes in for every subject. I could only imagine wanting to apply somewhere else for some very narrow reason, or for a very specific personal one (I know for example some people wanted to go to a small college because they have less people in their year, etc. - fair enough. I chose John's because it was a large college, and I knew that with ~180 people in the year and ~30 for my subject, it was very likely I would find friends inside the college - and I did!) I also know some people do not want to be part of the old Grand, traditional stuff (and John's has many very old and impressive buildings, and enjoys a few traditions) and would prefer a more modern setting - again, fair enough.

Reply 2

conarch1

Original post by R T

Thankyou so much for your answer! Just one question, is there always an option for an en-suite like can you pay more to get one or are they just given by the scholars ballot or randomly allocated?

Reply 3

R T

Original post by conarch1

Thankyou so much for your answer! Just one question, is there always an option for an en-suite like can you pay more to get one or are they just given by the scholars ballot or randomly allocated?

I'll preface this by saying this might have changed - I know in my final year, there were serious discussions about changing the room ballot system. (specifically related to making it fairer as randomness isn't necessarily fair on small sample sizes. There was also a lot of discussion about whether or not sharing a double room should be same-sex only or not.).

When I was there it went like this: each year gets set a ballot (completely random) - including would-be first years. Then, the second and third year ballots are adjusted so that everyone with a first went above everyone without a first (but otherwise the order was unchanged).

Then, each year gets to pick rooms in reverse order ( 3rd year, then 2nd, etc.)
(there's a slight complication here that 2nd year have special rules - basically there are limited single rooms in college and you are encouraged to either share a double room with a friend, or live in a college owned hostel on St John's street or somewhere very nearby (none of these are more than 2 minutes walk from college). This also applies because it works out that it means all the first years get to go to Chapel court or Cripps D-G (?) staircases - which is almost definitely intentional).

This means that 3rd and do get dibs on the "best" rooms. However, size/quality do scale with rent price, so not all en-suites automatically go, it's typically just the rooms "in central college" (v. close to the library and buttery no surprise). Your choice of room in 3rd year is basically what you want, even if you don't get a first. 2nd years get a lot of choice, but there's no doubt that getting a first helps anyone going for a double room. People who apply for hostels are relatively unaffected by getting a first or not, and typically get exactly what they want.

1st years fill out Chapel court/ North Court and Cripps D->G. Chapel and north court are popular since they are so central in the college and are 1 bathroom/2 people, but none are ensuite. Some Cripps rooms are ensuite, some are "penthouse" (access to the roof), some are ground floor (easy to walk up), and this largely contributes to their popularity. D staircase is extremely close to the laundry. All the Cripps rooms are recently renovated and nice.

How much choice you get depends on your position in the ballot, but typically North/Chapel court will all be gone about 60% of the way into the ballot, and I would think the most expensive (ensuite) Cripps rooms are probably gone around 25% in. Again, being top of the ballot does not mean someone auto-choses an ensuite though, since the price gap between a basic Cripps room and a luxury one is around £500/term from memory. At the very least, pretty much every single first year gets a room in college, close to other first years - which is a nice bonus. It would suck to randomly live even a 30 second walk away from other freshers.

To answer the subtext question; I'm not sure if any other colleges offer better en-suite ratios than this. Certainly the majority of uni accommodation (at any uni) is pretty ****. John's does a great job in ensuring that even the bad rooms are still properly and regularly renovated and checked that the heating, etc works properly. Cripps is a lot higher than average uni accommodation, and while en-suite isn't guaranteed - I can tell you that Cripp's staircases typically have 1 bathroom between 3-4 people, which is a decent ratio (I never had an issue here). North court/ Chapel Court and all shared doubles are 1 bathroom between 2 people (part of the reason why they are so popular probably). And most hostels house between 4 and 7 students, and will have between 2-3 bathrooms. I would also reiterate; John's does not hang you out to dry, you are guaranteed college accommodation for the whole time (some other colleges do this also, but those that don't are quite harsh and you will quickly realise how expensive (and difficult) it can be to rent somewhere in cambridge).

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 4

R T

I'll throw this in there too: the colleges I would pick if I could not pick John's:
Pembroke, Emmanuel, Clare, Catz, Jesus

Colleges I would not choose (but would still go to the university obviously):
Homerton, Girton, Churchill, Fitz

Cambridge St. Johns College Experiences?

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you