The Big 'Which Cambridge College?' Thread

I thought it was known as the Sainsbury's college? :colone:

Or is that Selwyn?

I believe Selwyn is the furthest undergraduate college from a supermarket, so probably not :P

(Newnham and Robinson, as well as Catz's St Chad's site, have plausible claims towards that title as well...)

Reply 4001

Tortious

16

Original post by lp386

I believe Selwyn is the furthest undergraduate college from a supermarket, so probably not :P

(Newnham and Robinson, as well as Catz's St Chad's site, have plausible claims towards that title as well...)

Apparently there's a Co-Op near Newnham, although I've never managed to find it...

EDIT: What about Fitz/Churchill/Girton? I'd have thought the nearest thing to them which could be described as a "supermarket" (ahem) would be a petrol station's shop! :lol:

Reply 4002

lp386

12

Original post by Tortious

Apparently there's a Co-Op near Newnham, although I've never managed to find it...

EDIT: What about Fitz/Churchill/Girton? I'd have thought the nearest thing to them which could be described as a "supermarket" (ahem) would be a petrol station's shop! :lol:

It's quite a distance - it's on Queens' Road, beyond the road you turn down to get to the Engineering Faculty (near where the play area is). I wouldn't say it's exactly near! I think it worked out as about the same distance from Sainsbury's, and it's tiny. Really tiny - two and a half cramped aisles. Has a decent selection of biscuits though...

(Not as bad as the Tesco Express near where I'm going to work, which is a single narrow aisle, widening just enough for a desk with two checkouts to be put in diagonally.)

Fitz and Churchill have a Lidl nearby (behind the petrol station) and Girton is quite close to a Tesco, I believe...

Reply 4003

lp386

12

Original post by Tortious

Apparently there's a Co-Op near Newnham, although I've never managed to find it...

EDIT: What about Fitz/Churchill/Girton? I'd have thought the nearest thing to them which could be described as a "supermarket" (ahem) would be a petrol station's shop! :lol:

It appears to be pretty much a dead tie between Churchill and Robinson, according to Google Maps - both 0.8/0.9 miles from a supermarket. I'm going to call it for Robinson, since Google Maps doesn't account for the ability of Churchill students to walk through John's...

Newnham Co-Op is closer than I remember (0.6mi from Selwyn, 0.7 from Chad's), assuming we're counting that as a supermarket. But if not, we'll have to reevaluate Girton and Homerton, both of which have mini-supermarkets quite close. Clearly close examination of the cake section will be necessary...

Reply 4004

Tortious

16

Original post by lp386

It's quite a distance - it's on Queens' Road, beyond the road you turn down to get to the Engineering Faculty (near where the play area is). I wouldn't say it's exactly near! I think it worked out as about the same distance from Sainsbury's, and it's tiny. Really tiny - two and a half cramped aisles. Has a decent selection of biscuits though...

(Not as bad as the Tesco Express near where I'm going to work, which is a single narrow aisle, widening just enough for a desk with two checkouts to be put in diagonally.)

Fitz and Churchill have a Lidl nearby (behind the petrol station) and Girton is quite close to a Tesco, I believe...

Ah, I only know about it because Pembroke has houses near there (Selwyn Gardens). I've made it as far as the Red Bull pub, and also to a Post Office/newsagent which Google Maps gave as its location - but unfortunately I never managed to pinpoint it. Interesting to hear about the others though! (I was aware of the Lidl, although I'd forgotten it since I associate it with being "near Lucy Cavendish".)

This level of interest in supermarkets almost makes it worthy of a position in your sig. I see you've updated it though - too many PMs about good hot chocolate? :holmes:

Reply 4005

lp386

12

Original post by Tortious

Ah, I only know about it because Pembroke has houses near there (Selwyn Gardens). I've made it as far as the Red Bull pub, and also to a Post Office/newsagent which Google Maps gave as its location - but unfortunately I never managed to pinpoint it. Interesting to hear about the others though! (I was aware of the Lidl, although I'd forgotten it since I associate it with being "near Lucy Cavendish".)

This level of interest in supermarkets almost makes it worthy of a position in your sig. I see you've updated it though - too many PMs about good hot chocolate? :holmes:

It's more that I'm supposed to be house-hunting but would really rather do anything else! (Also, I have a mentee report to write, but I've been procrastinating on that as well.) No PMs about hot chocolate, I think I just ran out of space...

Reply 4006

azns

Where did the whole "rather be at oxford than St. John's" come from?

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 4007

Veni Vidi Fugi

17

Original post by azns

Where did the whole "rather be at oxford than St. John's" come from?

Posted from TSR Mobile

The perception that people from John's tended to be smug, overprivileged and unpleasant.

This isn't actually true at all (apart from some smugness about how nice some of their rooms are). I think the fact that 'I'd rather be at Oxford than St John's' fits the tune of 'coming round the mountain' kind of helped, as well

Reply 4008

LilyCat

Hi everyone. I'm applying this year for nat sci (physical) and am now deciding on the college. I'm thinking maybe Jesus or St Johns, but nothing is very certain yet! I was looking for a college which
- Has good food, I can't cook very well (I can survive on my cooking for about a week, but after that the repetitivity of my meals begins to annoy me :P )
- Reasonably large, when I looked round some oxford colleges (don't worry, hated them :wink:

) I felt some were really claustrophobic and cramped
- Nice architecture, yeah, I like the pretty, old buildings :P If it has a modern building, as most do, I would prefer it to be reasonably hidden!
- Good accomodation
- Pretty central
Maybe a theatre or something similar, as I love drama too :smile:

Reply 4009

Tortious

16

Original post by LilyCat

Hi everyone. I'm applying this year for nat sci (physical) and am now deciding on the college. I'm thinking maybe Jesus or St Johns, but nothing is very certain yet! I was looking for a college which
- Has good food, I can't cook very well (I can survive on my cooking for about a week, but after that the repetitivity of my meals begins to annoy me :P )
- Reasonably large, when I looked round some oxford colleges (don't worry, hated them :wink:

) I felt some were really claustrophobic and cramped
- Nice architecture, yeah, I like the pretty, old buildings :P If it has a modern building, as most do, I would prefer it to be reasonably hidden!
- Good accomodation
- Pretty central
Maybe a theatre or something similar, as I love drama too :smile:

I don't mean to sound biased, since I'll willingly recommend any college that fits the bill, but have you looked at Pembroke?

You can see the weekly menus here (anything labelled "Buttery" is served daily in the canteen!). The only "downside" is it's officially medium-sized, with 400 undergrads (?) in total - so it might be a little smaller than Jesus/John's. It's certainly not claustrophobic though! :smile:

Reply 4010

Chief Wiggum

20

Original post by LilyCat

Hi everyone. I'm applying this year for nat sci (physical) and am now deciding on the college. I'm thinking maybe Jesus or St Johns, but nothing is very certain yet! I was looking for a college which
- Has good food, I can't cook very well (I can survive on my cooking for about a week, but after that the repetitivity of my meals begins to annoy me :P )
- Reasonably large, when I looked round some oxford colleges (don't worry, hated them :wink:

) I felt some were really claustrophobic and cramped
- Nice architecture, yeah, I like the pretty, old buildings :P If it has a modern building, as most do, I would prefer it to be reasonably hidden!
- Good accomodation
- Pretty central
Maybe a theatre or something similar, as I love drama too :smile:

I think Jesus and John's both fulfil those criteria pretty well. (I'm not sure about having a theatre, they probably don't, but hardly any colleges would.)

Reply 4011

LilyCat

Original post by Tortious

I don't mean to sound biased, since I'll willingly recommend any college that fits the bill, but have you looked at Pembroke?

ahh no I hadnt! Thanks, I do quite like the look of it so far :smile:

I'm going to Cambridge in September just to look around and get the feel of the colleges, definitely putting pembroke on my list!

Reply 4012

sohoscribbler

10

Architecturally, Pembroke College, Cambridge, is quite impressive, although some of the student rooms are quite small. However I would advise you to avoid a UK university because it is almost impossible to raise a complaint effectively, even if the fault is completely outside your control.

Reply 4013

sohoscribbler

10

A lot of UK people are going to the USA and other countries to study, where there is actually a charter for student rights. The UK has nothing like it.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 4014

Natalie21

15

Original post by LilyCat

Hi everyone. I'm applying this year for nat sci (physical) and am now deciding on the college. I'm thinking maybe Jesus or St Johns, but nothing is very certain yet! I was looking for a college which
- Has good food, I can't cook very well (I can survive on my cooking for about a week, but after that the repetitivity of my meals begins to annoy me :P )
- Reasonably large, when I looked round some oxford colleges (don't worry, hated them :wink:

) I felt some were really claustrophobic and cramped
- Nice architecture, yeah, I like the pretty, old buildings :P If it has a modern building, as most do, I would prefer it to be reasonably hidden!
- Good accomodation
- Pretty central
Maybe a theatre or something similar, as I love drama too :smile:

Christ's has a theatre! :biggrin:

.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 4015

DanteA

Hi, I will be applying for Computer Science and I am still looking into which college I want, my criteria are:

Good Food
Not too small
Not too poor
Nice gardens and greenery
Sportsground nearby
Good accommodation (modern if possible)
Theatre/cinema room
Good facilities
(not essential but would love if by the river or has its own punts)
Possibly good self catering

Colleges I have short listed so far are:
Jesus
Churchill
Downing
St Johns (does this place really have a bad reputation, because I don't want to be seen as a spoilt idiot)
Kings
Emmanuel
Queens
(Possibly Clare)

Can anyone give me any info or criteria to help me make my decision, or recommend other colleges?

Reply 4016

DanteA

Hi, I will be applying for Computer Science and I am still looking into which college I want, my criteria are:

Good Food
Not too small
Not too poor
Nice gardens and greenery
Sportsground nearby
Good Location
Good accommodation (modern if possible)
Theatre/cinema room
Good facilities
(not essential but would love if by the river or has its own punts)
Possibly good self catering

Colleges I have short listed so far are:
Jesus
Churchill
Downing
St Johns (does this place really have a bad reputation, because I don't want to be seen as a spoilt idiot)
Kings
Emmanuel
(Possibly Clare)

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 4017

jwlcp

Original post by St. Brynjar