The Big 'Which Cambridge College?' Thread

Downing College Music Society consists of a large number of who wish to be involved in performing music in and around Downing College . It consists primarily of an orchestra of varying size (depending on the genre performed) and a chorus who join the orchestra for larger scale works. Concerts made up of performances by the orchestra and chorus take place at the end of Michaelmas and Lent terms. In addition to this, soloists are given the opportunity to perform as part of a programme of recitals which are hosted by the Master in the Master's Lodge. Entrance to the Master's lodge recitals is free and refreshments are provided by the master afterwards. Anybody is welcome to participate in events organised by the society, regardless of ability or experience.
Contact: Millie Godlee (cbjg2)
http://www.downingjcr.co.uk/college/societies/
Downing also has a jazz band.

There are also the uni-wide groups so college choice isn't that important. There's plenty on university wide e.g. http://www.srcf.ucam.org/ucpo/ http://www.srcf.ucam.org/cuso/

I row for monmouth school's 1st VIII, i pulled a 6.27 2K last time i did one(when i was 16).

I don't have a clue... but I think you'll have difficulty getting useful responses as colleges choose students on academic not sporting ability, and the turnover of students is so fast that a college that's top of the league can be bottom in a few years' time and vice versa.

While this is true, it is possible to maintain dominance for a long while, and if you are at a bad club, it is unlikely to progress unless they happen to get a few good people to drive it forwards.

For example, there are probably very few people who can remember the last time John's lost a rugby match, and recently Caius were head of the river for something like 6 consecutive years, they had one bad year, but are now back to second.

And colleges like Corpus will always be poor because they are small, for some reason Sidney is terrible at mens rowing (and rugby), despite seeming to have hundreds of novices each year.

A lot of this is funding as well, (Downing boat club apparently had a £100,000 budget this year, perhaps why they had a successful year), so if you take your sport seriously, then it would make sense to go to a college that is successful or has good facilities/funding.

Just wondering how emmanuel, gonville and caius, and magdalene compair for rugby and rowing?

St John's have by a fair distance the best rugby club in Cambridge and probably will continue to do so for some time. Then you have Jesus who are also normally pretty good. Then any of Downing, Girton, Magdalene, Trinity Hall all normally field sides varying from quite good to pretty gash depending on the year. There might be one or two others in this category. Most other colleges either can't put out a team and combine with other colleges or vary between pretty gash and very gash.

Regarding rowing, it's the most popular sport in Cambridge so any college will have a decent first boat and it's hard to pick out any one college that will be good eighteen months from now.

That said, a bigger college will almost certainly put out a competent crew whereas a smaller college like Peterhouse might end up with a catastrophic first boat in a poor year. It's worth looking at the bumps charts- colleges near the top will be consistently reasonable year in year out. Also look at how many boats colleges put out. A college putting out six boats in mays probably has strength in depth and will be good even in the event of injuries. Which school do you row for?

Do you happen to know how good queens are at rugby?

This is a bit of a silly question, but anyway...
I visited St. John's Open Day in June, and immediately knew it was the place I wanted to study; everyone was friendly and helpful, I had a really good feeling about the talk with the Director of Studies and loved the look of the college. But the next day I got talking with a student (from another college) who told me that St. John's 'looks good, but is filled with snobs'. That's really not the impression I got from the place, but then again I've only been there for a few hours...
She also warned me that getting in St. John's is very difficult, and that if I gained a place there was a big chance it would be in one of the colleges 'nobody wants to go to', because there are too many applicants per place at St. John's.
If I had not talked to that girl, I would definitely apply to St. John's, but now I'm a bit uncertain. All advice would be very much appreciated!

You can find out for yourself about statistics here http://www.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/statistics/colleges.html#johns but make sure you've read my post on reading application statistics:


Like smilepea said, it's what you think that is important. St John's has a bit of a reputation (people sing a song with the words 'I'd rather be at Oxford than St John's') but there are actually some really nice people there, as you found out. Also, every intake is different so a lot will depend on who else applies in you year, something that nobody can know yet.

It all depends on how good you are. The best students will get into their college no matter where they apply. If you're a bit lower than that then what you say does make some sense but remember that your standard remains a constant. If you're good enough then even if you get put into the pool you'll be picked out by another college.

I tried another (long) way of explaining it here: