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The Big 'Which Cambridge College?' Thread

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tsauce
so, what are they? I dont know much about any of the colleges but im curious about:
Clare
Robinson
Emma
Fitz
St. Johns
Trinity

all for medicine *****ease of acceptance (i understand that you should go with your gut feeling, not for whats easiest--i truly am passionate about my subject, but I am applying as an international student from the US so advice would really help)

Thanks!


The TSR Wiki has some good stuff on each one. I wasn't really interested in any of those so I don't know that much, but from what I remember, Trinity and St John's are two of the richer ones.

I think Helenia was a medic at Clare...

Helenia
...
tsauce
so, what are they? I dont know much about any of the colleges but im curious about:
Clare
Robinson
Emma
Fitz
St. Johns
Trinity

all for medicine *****ease of acceptance (i understand that you should go with your gut feeling, not for whats easiest--i truly am passionate about my subject, but I am applying as an international student from the US so advice would really help)

Thanks!


That's quite a range of colleges. Probably the best way to start narrowing it down is thinking about what sort of college you want. Big or small? Old and traditional or more modern? Central or slightly further out? The TSR wiki will help, you also will get more helpful replies in the Cambridge subforum
tsauce
so, what are they? I dont know much about any of the colleges but im curious about:
Clare
Robinson
Emma
Fitz
St. Johns
Trinity

all for medicine *****ease of acceptance (i understand that you should go with your gut feeling, not for whats easiest--i truly am passionate about my subject, but I am applying as an international student from the US so advice would really help)

Thanks!

The best advice that I can give is (if it's feasible, given that you're not based in the UK) to draw up a short-list of colleges that you're interested in (based on size, location, facilities, subject rep, etc.), then visit Cambridge and see each potential choice for yourself.

It's true to say, though, that pretty much everyone ends up loving their college in the end, so you'd be unlikely to be unhappy whichever one you were to end up at. :smile:
coffe_e
I think they are equally hard to get into. Robinson is named the 'car park' - I'd avoid. (allthough I did apply there)

That's complete crap... Robinson students sometimes take the piss out of their own college but we love it really. I have never once heard it referred to by the "car park" (by someone from another college anyway!) TBH we're not even the ugliest, and in all honesty I find it a nice place to live.

Robinson / Fitz - 5-10mins walk from town and modern so no tourists sniffing round your home. IMO Robinson is in a nicer location than Fitz, it's closer to town, has nice gardens and is arguably in a more pleasant area. The other colleges you mention there are in town.

Emma - reputation for being one of the more academic colleges but relatively laid back about it (compared to other "more academic" colleges, say Christs). They have ducks.

Clare - known for having Clare Cellars which has a lot of ents, also supposedly a very good music society if you are into playing instruments!

Trinity / Johns - two very big / rich colleges, they are rivals, very well known, Johns is the college everybody else "loves to hate", "I'd rather be at Oxford than St Johns" etc...
thefish_uk
That's complete crap... Robinson students sometimes take the piss out of their own college but we love it really. I have never once heard it referred to by the "car park" (by someone from another college anyway!) TBH we're not even the ugliest, and in all honesty I find it a nice place to live.

Robinson / Fitz - 5-10mins walk from town and modern so no tourists sniffing round your home. IMO Robinson is in a nicer location than Fitz, it's closer to town, has nice gardens and is arguably in a more pleasant area. The other colleges you mention there are in town.

Emma - reputation for being one of the more academic colleges but relatively laid back about it (compared to other "more academic" colleges, say Christs). They have ducks.

Clare - known for having Clare Cellars which has a lot of ents, also supposedly a very good music society if you are into playing instruments!

Trinity / Johns - two very big / rich colleges, they are rivals, very well known, Johns is the college everybody else "loves to hate", "I'd rather be at Oxford than St Johns" etc...

We all call Robinson either 'the car park' or 'the fort'. Sorry about that! But I do spend quite a bit of time there and the people are actually really friendly. You also have really good playing fields. That said, other than the very nice gardens hidden out back, I really find the brickwork interiors ugly as sin.

Fitz is quite far out, and as far as I'm aware not much really goes on there. Can't say I'd recommend it.

I love Emma a bit, it's got a great bar, and it's right opposite Spoons and Revs. The people are very cool too, both academically and socially.

Trinity and Johns are Trinity and Johns. Can't say I'd fit in there myself, but I was in someone's room at Trinity recently and wanted to cry when I saw how huge it was.
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jcb914
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If you're only worried about ease of acceptance Fitz or Robinson is probably the best bet, but then again the pooling system means that it shouldn't actually make any difference. Pick somewhere you like.

sammyrj
We all call Robinson either 'the car park' or 'the fort'.

:ditto: It's referred to as the "car park" here, too.
I'm surprised to discover there are people in other colleges who refer to Robinson at all.
Muppety_Kid
The TSR Wiki has some good stuff on each one. I wasn't really interested in any of those so I don't know that much, but from what I remember, Trinity and St John's are two of the richer ones.

I think Helenia was a medic at Clare...

I was indeed, and would still recommend it.

tsauce
so, what are they? I dont know much about any of the colleges but im curious about:
Clare
Robinson
Emma
Fitz
St. Johns
Trinity

all for medicine *****ease of acceptance (i understand that you should go with your gut feeling, not for whats easiest--i truly am passionate about my subject, but I am applying as an international student from the US so advice would really help)

Thanks!
These seem like a rather random selection - what was your reasoning behind these?

Emma has the biggest intake of medics of that list (I think 16-18 per year), but is very academic and competitive as a result.

Clare is great and everyone should go there. They take 12 in a year.

St John's also takes quite a few; the others all take fewer medics than that but I've no idea what the competition ratios are like.

For Medicine I would recommend Emma and Clare if you are planning to stay in Cambridge for the whole 6 years as they both have excellent accommodation very near Addenbrooke's for clinical students. Though tbh I'd probably have been happy at any of them.
Trinity = tourists
Fitz is the ugliest thing known to man, I have some supervisions there and the architecture makes me want to cry. I don't actually know where Robinson is, I'll be honest... Clare cellars is meant to be good but I hear Clare itself is a little pretentious. Trinity and John's are something else, just because there are swarms of tourists around them and they are intimidatingly beautiful rather than cosy beautiful... can't say I'd ever really feel at home there. Emma is nice, and has the cheapest bar in Cambridge apparently. It's pretty academic and hence competitive, I suppose.

Just my thoughts...
What about Jesus? :smile:
paddy__power
Trinity = tourists

Sadly you are 100% correct about it. I believe I must be in every continent in the world by now, since I inevitably end up in about 10 pictures a day from walking out of Trinity or into Trinity... we just ignore them now.

To the OP, I would highly recommend Trinity. Us medics have a great spirit together, and we have great supervisors as well. However I think you could narrow that list down to fewer since they are a wide range of varieties of colleges.

Edit: Trinity also take 12-13 medics a year

as for John's, you are joking aren't you? :p:
It could be lupus


Edit: Trinity also take 12-13 medics a year

as for John's, you are joking aren't you? :p:

Really? It was only 6-8 in my day, which I never understood given the overall size of Trinity.
paddy__power
Trinity = tourists

lol. try king's = tourists I believe its 10 times more :yep: (and very annoying they are too!)
Helenia
Really? It was only 6-8 in my day, which I never understood given the overall size of Trinity.

Really? I am surprised at that since we are such a large college.

There are 12 medics both in my year and in the year above, though there were 13 of us who got offers this year, but a girl never arrived, though for what reason I don't know.
munro90
lol. try king's = tourists I believe its 10 times more :yep: (and very annoying they are too!)

Probably as your King's is right beside the market so everyone notices its there. However the front of King's is quite wide so it isn't as noticeable as large groups blocking the entrance in and out of Trinity
It could be lupus
Really? I am surprised at that since we are such a large college.
That's what she said.

Nailed it!
It could be lupus
Sadly you are 100% correct about it. I believe I must be in every continent in the world by now, since I inevitably end up in about 10 pictures a day from walking out of Trinity or into Trinity... we just ignore them now.

To the OP, I would highly recommend Trinity. Us medics have a great spirit together, and we have great supervisors as well. However I think you could narrow that list down to fewer since they are a wide range of varieties of colleges.

Edit: Trinity also take 12-13 medics a year

as for John's, you are joking aren't you? :p:


lol. try king's = tourists I believe its 10 times more (and very annoying they are too!)


The only thing I didn't like about Cambridge, and indeed Oxford, were the tourists.

Trinity and Kings had an equal amount when I was there, most of Kings tended to be around the Chapel thingy?
paddy__power
Trinity = tourists


There are a load of tourists outside Great Gate, and in the chapel, but other than that they're restricted to a tiny part of Great Court. It's annoying if there's a big group of them outside Great Gate, but otherwise it's not a problem.
College reputations work on the law that "nothing is true, apart from the lies"

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