Ranking Cambridge colleges as a postgrad (MPhil)

Hello there! I'm trying to decide on how to rank colleges as I apply for my MPhil in Public Policy. I definitely prioritize having a strong postgrad community and that classic, historic "Cambridge-ness" (formal halls, etc). I was hoping for any advice on colleges that might be a good fit for me? It seems Clare might be good; beyond that, Pembroke and Corpus seem like they may combine certain elements (though I'd be a little concerned that the latter would be isolating, given PGs live off-campus) and, of course, I'm very drawn to the history of colleges like King's and St. John's. But is there any chance those *aren't* already filled up at this point in the admission cycle--and are they too big to have a strong PG cohesiveness?

Thank you in advance!

You probably need a more sophisticated view of Colleges. They all have a strong PG community, is so far as any group of humans that changes membership massively from year to year has any continuous measure of quality. And they all have formal halls. It depends whether you want to be able to walk on the grass (only in modern colleges), have modern plumbing (mostly only modern colleges), have rules that prefer students that prefer fellows (guess the correlation there?). The PGs in Corpus live in their own PG mini-college on the Leckhampton site, it's a purpose-made PG community.
Be realistic, lots of the PGs in your year probably won't be wanting to be part of any PG community in College, their focus will be in their department, their course or their sport/society. So hunting for some imagined nirvana of total college community is pointless, it doesn't exist. You will find your group somewhere, and you will be part of making that group, because the turnover of PGs is so high.
Look at things like location v your department and hobbies, on or off the tourist trail, are you going to want to regularly go to the railway station, do you want to be near a sports facility, can you live in that colour of scarf/sports kit etc.

Hi! I’m at Cambridge now as a member of Pembroke, we have formal halls every other day and plenty of formal swaps with other colleges. From what I’ve been told, it’s hard even for Kings students to get formal tickets for their formals. Also, I think St John’s only does formal swaps with Kings and Trinity (though this might not actually be the case! If anyone else knows otherwise please correct me!)

Thank you so much!! Are you enjoying your Pembroke experience? I really appreciate you!

Of course!! The college decision can be so confusing and overwhelming so I love to help! I'm really enjoying the community at Pembroke, although I will say I have a lot of complaints about the housing administration/maintenance and how it's handled. If you live in single rooms in college or near it (at Dolby Court), the housing experience seems to be pretty nice, but if you're in any of the farther out postgraduate housing by Granchester/Newnham, it seems there's a lot more maintenance issues and it's a lot harder to get them addressed by Pembroke. Pembroke also doesn't offer a lot of financial aid (e.g. with medical issues, for example) for their students, which I've been led to believe is not the case at all Colleges. So if you expect that you'll need a lot of College support for whatever reason, you may have a more difficult time with that.
Otherwise, the postgraduate community is extremely friendly and involved -- we have weekly activities such as yoga, tea and cake, and post-formal parties! All my closest friends at Cambridge are fellow Pembroke postgrads. I certainly love Pembroke as a community and the College grounds are gorgeous and cozy, but if you expect to tangle with administration/Housing often, expect it to be a bit of a headache!

You've made it official, I'm about to apply to Pembroke. Thank you *again* -- so nice to think that are people as kind as you I could be meeting if I'm lucky enough to attend Cambridge. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!