Mathematics at Cambridge

Can anyone who studies maths at Cambridge tell me what the workload is like or how it varies between colleges. I’m thinking of applying for Peterhouse, Sidney Sussex or Catz especially if anyone is at any of these colleges. Thanks

Workload will be pretty much identical between colleges but will depend on your choice of courses: Your first year is the only one without choice so you can use it as a benchmark. For this, you do 8 courses: 4 per term for 2 terms with Easter term reserved for revision and exams. Each first-year course has 24 lectures and 4 example sheets spread over 8 weeks. This works out to about 2 example sheets per week and 12 lectures (which are about 50 minutes to an hour) per week. Example sheets can take some time, it's hard to say exactly as a lot of it is going over stuff in lectures and many of the questions are fairly approachable once you understand the content, which can take more time than actually doing the questions, but between 4-12 hours per sheet would certainly describe most of them. Often, the last example sheet bleeds over to the next term as you need some time between completing the necessary lectures and doing the problems.
In later years, you can choose fewer or more courses but expect to have a fairly similar workload. In second and third year, there are also 16 lecture courses with 2 lectures per week and 3 example sheets per course; in the second year there are 12 lecture courses with 2 lectures per week (they don't run for the last 2 weeks of term) and 2 example sheets per course. You can see on the schedules exactly how many lectures each course has. I think the majority still have 24 lectures and work as in first year.
In the second and third year, there is CATAM, which is the computational coursework. It is technically voluntary but is set up such that almost everyone does it in the holidays.
Regardless of college, you will attend the same lectures, have the same questions on the same example sheets and do the same coursework. Your supervisions will be organised by your college but, especially after first year, will often be done by supervisors from other colleges and be pretty much the same as those who attend other colleges. That is to say that your workload won't meaningfully differ between colleges.
I am, however, at Sidney Sussex and I'm happy to answer any other questions about it. I have some experience with Catz also, though not too much with Peterhouse.

Thanks for this it makes a lot more sense now. Do you stand by Sidney Sussex and is it a good college to apply to in your opinion, thanks

Thanks for this it makes a lot more sense now. Do you stand by Sidney Sussex and is it a good college to apply to in your opinion, thanks

Peterhouse is a great college... especially for math's. But when looking for a college you should choose one that fits you, what are you looking for in a college? Close community? Cheap Food? Sports? Societies? Good accommodation? Onsite accommodation every year?

I would love a close knit community but I would join a couple of clubs to try and get to know more people through that anyway. Cheap food would be good and as for sports if they have a gym that’s pretty good anyway. Do any colleges have college-specific drama societies or is it all done at adc theatre? Good accommodation would be good I’ve not seen much from Peterhouse but I have from Sidney Sussex. Accommodation guaranteed on site is amazing but I know some of Sidney Sussex’s is about 5 minute walk away (as long as it isn’t like Caius’ first year accommodation far away that’s fine) Does this sound more like Sidney Sussex or Peterhouse?

This wasn't a reply to me but I thought I'd pitch in for Sidney since from I gather you're considering it too.
Sidney does have a gym which I have never been to (as is the case for any gym since PE lessons in secondary school). I don't know of any colleges that have their own drama societies but that's not massively my scene either and a lot of it does seem to be done at the ADC or other university-wide theatres like the Corpus Playroom (not in Corpus Christi). We are also really near the ADC. I think Christ's have a 'theatre' but it's more like a lecture or presentation hall rather than for drama.
If you want to look at exactly where our first year accommodation is, it's called Cromwell Court and it's a ~250 metre walk from Sidney's main site using Blundell Court as a reference, which is on main site and has the King's Street gate. (It seems not to come up on Apple Maps but does seem to come up on Google Maps; if not compare Efes Restaurant to d'Arry's, which is just outside them both respectively). I think as of this year even more of our first-years are on-site, as was the case for me.

Thanks for this reply, I think downing might be the only college where there is a drama club because of their theatre but I’m not sure. Do you know if I can attend the open days as a year 11 as I’ve been round before but never had the chance to talk to any students irl but we finish GCSEs after you finish for summer so you’ll all have probably gone home, thanks

Quite possibly, to be honest I didn't even know they had a theatre until just now.
You can absolutely attend open days as a Year 11. Many of the colleges are literally just open doors. Sometimes they'll have things you sign in for but if you just want to look around and talk to students, open days are a good chance to do so.

Ok great thanks for that wasn’t sure if they’d allow me. Icl student room need to start paying u ur doing more work on here than I have been this week for GCSEs 😂

I would love a close knit community but I would join a couple of clubs to try and get to know more people through that anyway. Cheap food would be good and as for sports if they have a gym that’s pretty good anyway. Do any colleges have college-specific drama societies or is it all done at adc theatre? Good accommodation would be good I’ve not seen much from Peterhouse but I have from Sidney Sussex. Accommodation guaranteed on site is amazing but I know some of Sidney Sussex’s is about 5 minute walk away (as long as it isn’t like Caius’ first year accommodation far away that’s fine) Does this sound more like Sidney Sussex or Peterhouse?

I think most colleges have a gym and decently priced food, with some outliers like queens who have ridiculously cheap food.
Peterhouse has both a gym and decent priced food, and has an amateur dramatics society called the Heywood Society. Peterhouse has a variety of accommodation, all on site or a house right next to the college, which you have the option of living in or not. Freshers have the choice of ensuite accommodation in a tall building or they can live with the other freshers in nice accommodation, which have sinks, very large bedrooms and sharing a bathroom and kitchen between 3-4 people.
Sydney is good with a cheap bar and is very close to the clubs and busy parts of town. Both are very nice with good architecture and chapels, whilst Peterhouse has most accommodation in Georgian buildings or older, a lot of Sydney accommodation is in a modern building at the back. Sydney is also much larger ~115 undergrads a year compared to Peterhouse which has 75-80 in a year.
On the open day I would have a good look around both colleges (go on a guided tour of both) and make an informed decision and ask questions. Other things to consider is location of your department, whether you like to live centrally but on a busy street with tourists (Sydney) or prefer to be close to the city center but just outside the tourist areas (Peterhouse).
I would also consider other things that they offer that you might not be interested in but will affect the kind of people that apply to both (e.g. sports teams at the college will mean very sporty people, high Tomkins table ranking will mean people that are hyperfused on studies and may not socialize very well, which is a problem in Christ's, and high private school intake will mean rich people (rich people can be good or bad depending on whether you want to go to their summer houses or not))

On top of this, Peterhouse has its own theatre which it hosts their plays and has a specific yearly 'freshers only' play in Lent (second) term, which is good fun and helps you meet and bond with people