BMO & Trinity college

I don't know if it's expected as such, but I thought I should add, as a Cambridge Maths student, why are you so sure on Trinity?

If you apply post A-Level, with your grades achieved at A*A*A or greater in Maths, Further Maths and Physics, then the STEP papers would need to 1,1 or even S,S to be guaranteed an offer.

I have been to a couple of the colleges in the past, and the one that stands out the most to me is Trinity, mainly due to both the general atmosphere for maths and the campus itself. From what I have heard, they are very good for maths and typically produce stronger mathematicians. I have been to a couple others such as Trinity hall and Kings, and to be honest, it is also down to gut feeling, I just kind of like it more if that makes sense, I was curious though, as you have brought it up, how else would you suggest picking the college to apply for? My college focuses more on the how to get in rather than the where, so I have had to decide on my own so there could be flaws in my judgement, so I am open to suggestions regarding whether I should look at any other colleges/how I should pick

The campus I can understand if you like a larger, older college (though King's and St Johns are also like this) but in terms of the Mathematicians they produce, it won't make a difference - the teaching is all organised by the department, with the exception of supervisions, but even in those the content is the same regardless of college, and frequently you would go to other colleges for supervisions anyway. Trinity does have a very large amount of mathmos each year though and is considered harder to get into, but once you're there, there is not really any difference, and the degree is virtually identical.

If you were interested in other colleges, what sort of thing were you looking for, e.g. size, location, age, reputation for friendliness et cetera?

I think in regards to the college I would choose, I would enjoy one similar to the campus of Trinity, as you said, the appeal of the older colleges, but also one that has a mathematical community which is why I initially started having a look at Trinity because I heard it was what they were renowned for. Location does not matter for me exactly, I enjoy walks anyhow to be honest, and just kind of generally, going to Cambridge would be an achievement in of itself for my family given our general familial history. I think ideally Trinity would be good, but ultimately it is true that they have that reputation for being harder to get into, so it is worth considering my options. I have gone to a couple of the other colleges, most recently Trinity Hall but I went and had a look around a couple others a few years back, and I do think I just love those older style colleges. So in effect on with a larger mathematical/stem community on campus and one of the older ones is what I had in mind, I know a few people from my sixth form have gone there for maths, but something I was worried about potentially is that I recall something about the Cambridge colleges favouring private school kids? It may just be a dumb rumour but it is something I have heard, and being a state school student it is disheartening to hear, but nevertheless, if you have any input I would love the advice!

Something I was also curious about, as I saw you are a student at Cambridge yourself (Which might I say is awesome!) is if 4 A levels is pointless for Cambridge, as my teachers have warned my against it, but as somebody who has gone there, would you say there is any worth to it? Or it is better to get the grades then just get really really good at maths, STEP, etc?

Maths, FMaths + 2 would be pretty common for Cambridge ... [state school]

Something I was also curious about, as I saw you are a student at Cambridge yourself (Which might I say is awesome!) is if 4 A levels is pointless for Cambridge, as my teachers have warned my against it, but as somebody who has gone there, would you say there is any worth to it? Or it is better to get the grades then just get really really good at maths, STEP, etc?

I think in regards to the college I would choose, I would enjoy one similar to the campus of Trinity, as you said, the appeal of the older colleges, but also one that has a mathematical community which is why I initially started having a look at Trinity because I heard it was what they were renowned for. Location does not matter for me exactly, I enjoy walks anyhow to be honest, and just kind of generally, going to Cambridge would be an achievement in of itself for my family given our general familial history. I think ideally Trinity would be good, but ultimately it is true that they have that reputation for being harder to get into, so it is worth considering my options. I have gone to a couple of the other colleges, most recently Trinity Hall but I went and had a look around a couple others a few years back, and I do think I just love those older style colleges. So in effect on with a larger mathematical/stem community on campus and one of the older ones is what I had in mind, I know a few people from my sixth form have gone there for maths, but something I was worried about potentially is that I recall something about the Cambridge colleges favouring private school kids? It may just be a dumb rumour but it is something I have heard, and being a state school student it is disheartening to hear, but nevertheless, if you have any input I would love the advice!

St Johns and King's are both old and large colleges and alongside Trinity make up the big three, but that doesn't make them better than any other college. You can see which colleges have more Mathematicians here: https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/apply/statistics by searching for Maths and checking by college. The ones with the most in the most recent year are, by acceptances: Trinity (32), St John's (17), Churchill (14) and Queens' (13) with most others having around 6-10.

I don't think it's true that Cambridge colleges prefer private school students at all. They actively contextualise against them. That being said, private school students are significantly overrepresented as a share of the Cambridge student population. You can see which colleges have the highest proportion of state school students here: https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/sites/www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/files/publications/ug_admissions_statistics_2021_cycle.pdf on page 10 and Trinity is one of the worst for state school representation. If you want an old college with a relatively large number of mathmos, a good Maths community and good state school representation, I would recommend Queens', founded in 1448 with 13 mathmos last year, its own Maths society (I think, I don't go there) and 75% state school.

I don't know if you meant to respond to me but I'll answer anyway as I am a Cambridge student. I don't think there is merit taking four A-Levels to benefit your application, no. I know plenty of people with three and plenty of people with four. If you can redirect the time and energy towards Maths and STEP study, that will be vastly more useful for your application. However, I did do four A-Levels and I don't regret it at all (obviously this coming from someone who was successful, idk if I would feel differently if I felt it had affected my chances) because I enjoyed all four A-Levels. I had multiple interests and I'm glad I got to study more of them, and I sometimes wish I could have studied more.

Essentially, I don't think it will helped my application studying four, but I enjoyed doing so because I liked my subjects. Hope this helped