The Big 'Which Cambridge College?' Thread

(I realise this is an old conversation, sorry).

The graduate fee listing notes the 'minimum maintenance cost' of my intended course of study as £9,150. What is the number referring to if accommodation is such a comparatively small cost? Is this number vastly inflated, or is there a cost I am missing?

If anyone could explain this, I would much appreciate it!

See above. People really underestimate how much they need for uni, and Cambridge is a pretty expensive city to live in to boot!

It's living costs. Food, books, transport, phone, insurances, clothes, stationery, leisure. £6000 a year is easy to get through.

Dear all

I am applying for a PhD in East Asian Studies at Cambridge, in the application form I need to demonstrate college preferences. After searching information for a couple of days, I still feel it necessary to seek suggestions here.

Because a PhD is basically supervised by the department rather than the college, the factors I am considering are as follows.

1. Accommodation: I want to live in a comparatively modern room, en suited is better; trinity hall's Wychfield site is a good place to me, but seems to far from my department and university library. Robinson is a nice college, which provide great graduate accommodation, but it is too expensive. I am looking for a accommodation, not too far from my Department (at Sidgwich Road near Newham college, which is near University Library as well). Not sure a PhD student need to go to department frequently, so I need to consider the location. Also I hope my room is near to certain shops and markets, so that it is convenient to but goods.

2. Sports facilities: I like swimming, jogging, tennis, billiard... So I want a college with good sports facilities, it is better if the accommodation is near sports site!

3. Academic reputation: this is not that important at least to me, but it will be better if a college with good graduate accommodation with rational price and sports facilities have comparatively better academic reputation as well.

So, this is all I am thinking about, 1. a good room with a good location (it will be better if college guarantee a 3-year or more accommodation for graduate student). 2. good sports facilities. 3. Academic reputation (not very important to me actually)

Looking forward to your suggestions

Thanks

Thanks for the replies; I should note that I'm an M.Phil applicant, who has, consequently, already spent three years at university. I am glad there isn't a hidden expense I was not aware of, but I would really question the moral credibility of obliging students to prove having £6000 solely for quotidian costs (food and leisure) as a precondition to entry. That equates to £166 per week; who on earth spends that much..?

I would think £166 a week is pretty easy to get through including accommodation, as accommodation is easily £110-130 a week, then another ~£40 for food, and other things.

I have just seen your post ( I know it was a while ago) and Corpus does jump out at me as fitting your requirements. The grad base is at Leckhampton which is opposite Selwyn, so close to Sidgwick. Sports pitches are on site (Tennis courts, football pitches, rugby pitches, cricket in summer, swimming pool in summer!) I'm not sure if accommodation is guaranteed for three years, but a fair amount of the accommodation has been recently built or refurbished,

Leckhampton seems really a nice place for graduate students, especially the lasted student accommodation Kho building, However I have no access to detailed accommodation especially the charges, since they need an account to log in, Do you know the price, or maybe I should contact the accommodation office, Thank you very much for your information, really helpful.

Any recommendations on College choice would be hugely appreciated.

My two primary preferences are:

(i) Cheap accommodation
(ii) Self-catered (motivated by my vegetarianism and expense)

A third, and much weaker, preference is:

(iii) With the top half, or second to that middling in, the Tompkins table

Thanks!

I'd say Pembroke meets two of those three criteria, and while it doesn't meet the third it shouldn't be problematic anyway.

Our accomodation is some of the cheapest in the university, with even the most expensive rooms being under £110 a week. My room this year is costing me less than £1000 a term...

Academically, we came second in the Tompkins Table last year, so we're not doing bad on that count.

The only place Pembroke doesn't meet your requirements is on the self-catering front - our 'kitchens' are rather naff, at least the ones in college rather than in hostels. But the upside of this is that Pembroke's food is widely renowned as more or less the best in Cambridge. We have five 'main meal' options a night, of which at least one is guaranteed to be vegetarian (and it's more commonly 2), plus loads of other options like soup, pasta etc that are always there. And it's not expensive either - the college sinks quite a lot of money into its food, plus we get lots of people from other colleges coming to Pembroke to eat - so the college are able to fund a 35% discount for Pembroke students on what were already pretty low prices. I can normally get what I'd say was a decent 'dinner' meal for under £4.

So yeah, Pembroke is great!

Firstly, this thread isn't about the current application cycle. I'm in Year 12 and will be applying in the next cycle; I know this is a bit early but I'd like to get organised.

I've been looking at the official Cambridge prospectus as well as the alternative versions and the articles on TSR but I'm still unsure as to which colleges would be suitable for me. I have absolutely no interest in traditions and I really don't really like formal events, so I initially completely disregarded the older colleges and looked at the more modern ones (specifically Churchill because of the large rooms and the fact that it has a big emphasis on the sciences). However, someone I know at Cambridge says that the modern colleges are very social which is even worse for me. I have Asperger's and it's very important for me to have a quiet college and I know this sounds weird but the more unsociable it is the better. I don't care about the college's history or how it looks like and whilst it would be good if it were closer to the science faculty buildings, it's not a must. I'd prefer to attend a college which isn't too formal, but the biggest priority is that it's quiet and calm.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

Firstly, this thread isn't about the current application cycle. I'm in Year 12 and will be applying in the next cycle; I know this is a bit early but I'd like to get organised.

I've been looking at the official Cambridge prospectus as well as the alternative versions and the articles on TSR but I'm still unsure as to which colleges would be suitable for me. I have absolutely no interest in traditions and I really don't really like formal events, so I initially completely disregarded the older colleges and looked at the more modern ones (specifically Churchill because of the large rooms and the fact that it has a big emphasis on the sciences). However, someone I know at Cambridge says that the modern colleges are very social which is even worse for me. I have Asperger's and it's very important for me to have a quiet college and I know this sounds weird but the more unsociable it is the better. I don't care about the college's history or how it looks like and whilst it would be good if it were closer to the science faculty buildings, it's not a must. I'd prefer to attend a college which isn't too formal, but the biggest priority is that it's quiet and calm.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

Firstly, this thread isn't about the current application cycle. I'm in Year 12 and will be applying in the next cycle; I know this is a bit early but I'd like to get organised.

I've been looking at the official Cambridge prospectus as well as the alternative versions and the articles on TSR but I'm still unsure as to which colleges would be suitable for me. I have absolutely no interest in traditions and I really don't really like formal events, so I initially completely disregarded the older colleges and looked at the more modern ones (specifically Churchill because of the large rooms and the fact that it has a big emphasis on the sciences). However, someone I know at Cambridge says that the modern colleges are very social which is even worse for me. I have Asperger's and it's very important for me to have a quiet college and I know this sounds weird but the more unsociable it is the better. I don't care about the college's history or how it looks like and whilst it would be good if it were closer to the science faculty buildings, it's not a must. I'd prefer to attend a college which isn't too formal, but the biggest priority is that it's quiet and calm.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

X

Y

Thanks a lot! This is really reassuring and makes my life a lot easier (:

I...

Firstly, this thread isn't about the current application cycle. I'm in Year 12 and will be applying in the next cycle; I know this is a bit early but I'd like to get organised.

I've been looking at the official Cambridge prospectus as well as the alternative versions and the articles on TSR but I'm still unsure as to which colleges would be suitable for me. I have absolutely no interest in traditions and I really don't really like formal events, so I initially completely disregarded the older colleges and looked at the more modern ones (specifically Churchill because of the large rooms and the fact that it has a big emphasis on the sciences). However, someone I know at Cambridge says that the modern colleges are very social which is even worse for me. I have Asperger's and it's very important for me to have a quiet college and I know this sounds weird but the more unsociable it is the better. I don't care about the college's history or how it looks like and whilst it would be good if it were closer to the science faculty buildings, it's not a must. I'd prefer to attend a college which isn't too formal, but the biggest priority is that it's quiet and calm.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

I may have met you last term... :O