The Big 'Which Cambridge College?' Thread

What course?

Neither of us will back down, that's the thing. Not being arsey but I think based on the fact my UMS is higher I should get first pick. That's at least one way of deciding.

Thanks everyone who posted! It looks like he's gonna choose another one anyway Although i feel kinda bad about pushing him out

That is arsey. No one should get first pick.

I see you've done what I did - manipulate people into favouring their second preference college! It's the only way.

I would avoid it for the social reasons too. For example, a boy at my college also applied to Christ's and didn't get in and thereafter it was really awkward walking through corridors and seeing him. It would only affect your application, theoretically, if you apply for the same course because, I suppose, then there's more competition at that college than there would otherwise have been. That, to me, seems like a silly reason not to apply to that college though.

I don't think it is arsey. If I have UMS that gives at least an average chance of getting in, why should I then have to choose a different college if his lower than average (for Cam) score means he probably won't even get in anyway?

It's not about making a valuation of your candidates and determining who gets priority on that basis. You make the decisions in order that all your candidates will be happy to go to the college they apply to.
You'd be wrong anyway, what you're going by is no more than guesswork, even the schools that send the most pupils to Oxbridge cannot accurately predict which of their candidates will get in.

Also, add arrogant to arsey.

What i'm saying is that there's no fair way to make that valuation. There has to be some way of distinguishing them and UMS seems fairly objective.

In this situation, there was no way either of us was going to be happy by not choosing this college, so your solution just doesn't work.

And while you can't say who will get in, you can with some likelihood operate a UMS threshold below which it is quite unlikely they'll get in. What if he was below this?

I'm not being arrogant, it's nothing at all to do with pride to say I got higher UMS than him, I'm afraid that's just fact. I'm not trying to say I'm a better person than him because of it, but going on what my school has told me about the Cambridge selection process, exam scores seem to be the most relevant thing in this situation. They might be wrong, but that's all I can base my judgement on.

OK, thanks for the info. Its just that our UCAS co-ordinator told us that we should avoid it. Basically there's two of us that want to go to the same college, and she dissaproves



Was that really worth it?

Oh okay. Me and someone else from my school applied to the same college, but i was pooled away. People said afterwards (a teacher actually told this to some pupil) that it was because you can't have two people at the same college... however i assumed from my mediocre interview that was just a myth, i'm sure Eton send more than one person to a college routinely?

OK now I'm not sure as St Edmund's have now given a positive reply as have Downing so I now have 3 colleges to choose from. I really don't know what to do. Everything suggests I should go for St Edmund's with it being a mature college and perhaps "less competitive" than say Trinity and Downing but I did have my heart set on Trinity. Also as far as I am aware Trinity and Downing don't ask for any admissions tests or essays whereas St Edmund's requires the TSA and I'm not sure how I would fare with that. Any advice?

Go for the college you most want to go to, which in your case is Trinity. If you don't get in there, you may be still pooled if you are good enough quality, so I would just pick the college you like most.

I guess the best thing to do then is visit both colleges and decide. Although I guess st ed's being matures only et al might be better placed to accommodate my needs and I'd be surrounded by similar aged people. I do think Trinity is stunning though!