The Student Room Logo
Applying to Uni for 2024? Find your Uni here and chat with others! >>
Applying to Uni for 2024? Find your Uni here and chat with others! >>
Applying to Uni for 2024? Find your Uni here and chat with others! >>

The Big 'Which Cambridge College?' Thread

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1640
Avatar for Noble.
Noble.
17
chaz1992
Went Downing college and fell in love. What a place to be. Wasn't to found of the engineering department. Loughborough have more and better wind tunnels and more facilities.

I read they don't accept people who retake their A Levels. Does this mean I cannot retake the C3 Maths module because I misread the question, or is one module allowed?

Also the admission tutors at all the colleges I went to, except Pembroke and Queens, said they'll at least pool you if you get over 90% in all your AS exams without retaking. Pembroke said 85%. Queens don't guarantee anything. Downing also want an A* in further maths. I have to say, I don't believe a word they say though.


What exactly do you mean by this?
Noble.
What exactly do you mean by this?


The admissions tutor said to get into Downing, one of the admission criterias will be you get an A* in further maths. I looked on the website and it says in either Maths or Physics, so am unsure.

I've e-mailed them, hopefully i'll get a reply soon.
Reply 1642
Avatar for Noble.
Noble.
17
chaz1992
The admissions tutor said to get into Downing, one of the admission criterias will be you get an A* in further maths. I looked on the website and it says in either Maths or Physics, so am unsure.

I've e-mailed them, hopefully i'll get a reply soon.


For engineering? So they want A*AA, with the A* in FM?
Noble.
For engineering? So they want A*AA, with the A* in FM?


Yep. That's what they told me. FP2 is quite easy (polar coordinates and stuff) so far, not as hard as what people say. Hopefully I'll get it.
Reply 1644
Avatar for Noble.
Noble.
17
chaz1992
Yep. That's what they told me. FP2 is quite easy (polar coordinates and stuff) so far, not as hard as what people say. Hopefully I'll get it.


FP2 is very easy, compared to M4/M5 anyway.
Noble.
FP2 is very easy, compared to M4/M5 anyway.


Luckily i'll only be doing upto M3. I heard M4 has a lot of SHM in it?
Reply 1646
Avatar for Noble.
Noble.
17
chaz1992
Luckily i'll only be doing upto M3. I heard M4 has a lot of SHM in it?


Not SHM, but forced and damped harmonic motion.
Tbh, i'd rather do M4 than S2. I like challenging topics as that's where I excel. Have you applied to Downing College?

The rooms there are amazing and cheap!
I didn't understand that poll. It's 50p to walk on the grass at Downing college.
Reply 1649
Avatar for theths
theths
12
anyone here go to jesus?
Tom Wells
I didn't understand that poll. It's 50p to walk on the grass at Downing college.


Seroiusly? Thats a very stupid charge, is the 50p on off, our for every time yoy step on it? :eek:
cpdavis
Seroiusly? Thats a very stupid charge, is the 50p on off, our for every time yoy step on it? :eek:


Not true at all, don't know where Tom Wells got that from :facepalm: We have a massive stretch of grass (the paddock) which is freely walkable (as well as bits of grass you can't walk on).
Having read a fair amount of literature on the colges on this site and others I am still not really any the wiser as to which college would be best for me! I'm looking to apply for (physical) NatSci this year, points I'm looking for are something like:

Mid to small sized
Good accommodation (i.e. good value and w/ en suite if possible)
Decent food
Lack of pretentiousness

I'm not musical and not massively sporty (so a relaxed/fun sport scene would be good) and an on site gym would be a plus but not that important.

I've looked 'round Clares, Pembroke and Downing so far. I liked Clares a little more than the other two I think - it seems to match up reasonably to my criteria. Downing seemed maybe a little too big/open and Pembroke didn't seem to do that much for me.
Any thoughts?
Reply 1653
Avatar for Noble.
Noble.
17
Blackspur
Having read a fair amount of literature on the colges on this site and others I am still not really any the wiser as to which college would be best for me! I'm looking to apply for (physical) NatSci this year, points I'm looking for are something like:

Mid to small sized
Good accommodation (i.e. good value and w/ en suite if possible)
Decent food
Lack of pretentiousness

I'm not musical and not massively sporty (so a relaxed/fun sport scene would be good) and an on site gym would be a plus but not that important.

I've looked 'round Clares, Pembroke and Downing so far. I liked Clares a little more than the other two I think - it seems to match up reasonably to my criteria. Downing seemed maybe a little too big/open and Pembroke didn't seem to do that much for me.
Any thoughts?


Sounds like you've partially described Downing to me.
Noble.
Sounds like you've partially described Downing to me.


Queens! It may be a bit bigger than you want, but it has a michelin starred chef on the team and is generally awesome.
Blackspur
Having read a fair amount of literature on the colges on this site and others I am still not really any the wiser as to which college would be best for me! I'm looking to apply for (physical) NatSci this year, points I'm looking for are something like:

Mid to small sized
Good accommodation (i.e. good value and w/ en suite if possible)
Decent food
Lack of pretentiousness

I'm not musical and not massively sporty (so a relaxed/fun sport scene would be good) and an on site gym would be a plus but not that important.

I've looked 'round Clares, Pembroke and Downing so far. I liked Clares a little more than the other two I think - it seems to match up reasonably to my criteria. Downing seemed maybe a little too big/open and Pembroke didn't seem to do that much for me.
Any thoughts?


You've described Christ's, minus the food part (I am not going to lie. Food is NOT the strong point of Christ's. However, it is edible and can be enjoyable. However, the only college worse than it is Caius so...)

OK, own college bumping over.

If you liked Clare, apply there :smile: It's quite pretty and it has a good bar and good ents so you're onto a winner there.

If you want, you could maybe try Emmanuel (it's the friendly college. It has ducks! :biggrin:) or Sidney Sussex. I don't know about their accomodation and such though.

As for music and stuff, you don't have to be involved if you don't want to. Really, the only way to be 'seriously' involved in a sport is to do rowing because then the boat club owns your immortal soul (well, not really but talking to boatie friends, i sometimes feel like they sold their souls to the boats :wink:) but i imagine every other sport can be done casually.
Reply 1656
Avatar for Ambs
Ambs
7
Hi all!
I'm considering to apply for English, and visited the open days last week to look at a few colleges. I managed to cross six colleges of my list, but would be very happy with a few opinions on my favourite three :smile:

I really liked:
- Magdalene
- St. John's
- Jesus

The problem with Magdalene is that I didn't see much of the accommodation. Does anyone know for how long you get to live on the main site? Are the rest of the rooms far from the main college grounds?
I thought St. John's was incredibly beautiful, and everyone was amazingly friendly. But I've noticed that it's not very popular amongst the other colleges - is there a particular reason for this? I've only been there for about an hour and didn't see anything I didn't like, but I imagine there has to be a reason why so many people seem to dislike the college.
And finally, Jesus: I really loved the look of it, and it seemed like a very informal and relaxed place (except for the dinosaurs, that's just weird!). But I remember reading somewhere (I thought it was on here, but I can't find it anymore) that it is so popular that the chances of getting pooled are way higher than of getting a place. Does anyone know if that's true?

Sorry for the long post, but it's so difficult to choose! I would be very grateful if anyone could answer my questions or give any other information or opinions that would make it a bit easier to choose. Thanks in advance! :smile:
Reply 1657
Avatar for lfvr
lfvr
Can anyone recommend a college? I think I want:
decent accomodation - en suite if poss
old (especially the hall)
able to walk on some grass
sports that you can play with the college without ever having played them before
fairly close to the centre (and preferably not too far from sidgwick site)
I have tried to look, and I've been round quite a few, just wondered if there were any I might've missed
Ambs
I thought St. John's was incredibly beautiful, and everyone was amazingly friendly. But I've noticed that it's not very popular amongst the other colleges - is there a particular reason for this? I've only been there for about an hour and didn't see anything I didn't like, but I imagine there has to be a reason why so many people seem to dislike the college.
And finally, Jesus: I really loved the look of it, and it seemed like a very informal and relaxed place (except for the dinosaurs, that's just weird!). But I remember reading somewhere (I thought it was on here, but I can't find it anymore) that it is so popular that the chances of getting pooled are way higher than of getting a place. Does anyone know if that's true?


Afraid i can't help at all with Magdalene.
In answer to your question about St John's: people dislike it because of a stereotype. Think of the stereotypical Cambridge student: rich, arrogant, stupid etc. That's the stereotypical St. John's student. Don't worry about it - i don't think anyone really holds a grudge because of it (i met a few people from St John's this year and they were all lovely anyway). There's also the fact that they're rich but that's college rivalry which is in jest (e.g. as a Christ's person, i'm supposed to dislike St John's because they took our land in the 1500s) If you like it, apply there. Honestly, apart from one or two jokes, i don't think anyone would hold it against you.

Jesus: that would depend on how many applications it had which wouldn't be easy to predict. As it happens, i know it was true for Christ's in this year's applications because Christ's had the most applications. But that's not true every year. I imagine it's the same for Jesus. Besides, you may as well give it a shot if you prefer it. If it helps, i know a guy who wanted to apply to Christ's but thought he wouldn't get in so applied to Magdalene. He got pooled and picked up by Christ's. No way to tell these things :wink:

lfvr
Can anyone recommend a college? I think I want:
decent accomodation - en suite if poss
old (especially the hall)
able to walk on some grass
sports that you can play with the college without ever having played them before
fairly close to the centre (and preferably not too far from sidgwick site)
I have tried to look, and I've been round quite a few, just wondered if there were any I might've missed


I don't know what sports each college offers (except rowing :p: ) but based on your other criteria:

Jesus
Christs
Emmanuel
Selwyn (closest to Sidgwick Site)

Generally, the further out from the center you go, the newer the accomodation looks. Most colleges have decent accomodation. I don't know which other colleges have areas of grass you can walk on but i imagine most do somewhere - i'm pretty sure the ones i've listed do.
Reply 1659
Avatar for lfvr
lfvr
Thanks very much =) I had a look around Emmanuel, but the accomodation didn't look great...However I did only look around one block. Is there nicer accomodation there?

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Trending

Latest

Latest