AIBU to ask which is the best Cambridge College for Economics

[SophiaLorenxoxo]

DD is hoping to apply to Cambridge to do Economics next year. It seems that several Colleges within Cambridge offer Economics and you have to apply to the specific College you want to go to. What are the factors that need to be taken into consideration? We have no knowledge whatsoever about the Oxbridge system.

Thanks for any advice.

@Ginuwine

Mumsnetter on very trivial topic where they want to cause intrigue... "Name change in case outing"

Oxbridge Mumsnetter when topic of admissions comes up

"Here's my college, time period I was there" etc

Am just being playful but it's always funny to see.

For avoidance of bitterness accusations, I went somewhere that's always ranked top 5 worldwide for unis, but yeah.. The Internet

I love sharing my experience. I was the first person in my family to even go to university. My mother had me when she was very young and it was a big deal that I was excelling academically as the unplanned daughter of a teenage mother (not a wealthy one either!) and especially when I was accepted to Oxford from my state school where 1 person a year typically got in. If people are on here asking about anything Oxbridge, they likely are not from a family with a history of Oxbridge attendance, so I want to help because I believe in making Oxbridge as accessible as possible to anyone who wants to apply.

@Watercoloursky

Thanks for the mythbusting. Trinity here (state educated and first in family to uni, before you all jump) and it had so many students that if you wanted to miss the Etonians ( the few I knew were in fact perfectly nice and very, very bright) it wasn't hard. Poster you quoted seems to have arrived with a pre-prepared chip on their shoulder and doesn't understand the context of a silly song which is actually about boat club rivalry and sod all to do with class.

OP: DD should visit widely, talk to current students and decide where she'd be happy to live.

@leafinthewind I'm certain. Never.

“Note: at the time of writing I am still not Prime Minister”

I know...the current PM does not have the grace or self-awareness to admit when he’s being an arse . In turn, I’ll acknowledge your original point has some truth to it

I’m glad you clicked with your college, and agree there is luck involved as well as judgement, whether you are pooled or not - there are plenty of things (good and bad) that I only learned about my college once I arrived.

@Ginuwine
Yes, how dare anyone have and share relevant experience about their university with someone specifically wanting to know? As for your attempted disclaimer, I can only say

The course and lectures will be the same and is run by the University. Sometimes supervisions (face to face teaching) are college based, but this depends on the course.

Colleges are where you live and mainly socialise. Some colleges are more interested in all-round candidates, rather than those that are purely academic (these are also the colleges you'll have more fun at).

Apply to a college based on the fact that it will be your home. If you're more likely to want to socialise and play sport, don't apply to Trinity. If you're from a state school and love Jeremy Corbyn, you might want to apply to Kings. Some colleges are small, some are much bigger.

[quote Palavah]@leafinthewind I'm certain. Never.[/quote]
Ah.

Certain, but certainly wrong

The dictionaries disagree with you. Perhaps most pertinently, the Cambridge dictionary disagrees (dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/don): "don [noun]: a lecturer, especially at Oxford or Cambridge University".

[quote toconclude]@Ginuwine
Yes, how dare anyone have and share relevant experience about their university with someone specifically wanting to know? As for your attempted disclaimer, I can only say[/quote]

Roll your eyes at my genuine lived experience? Very Mumsnet.

This is the Internet. We might all be Oxbridge grads or we might all be liars. Funnily enough my admissions story is real, but never mind - you carry on troll hunting

I think the dictionary is wrong. Dons are Oxford; fellows are Cambridge. Why it matters I have no idea.

[quote toconclude]@Watercoloursky

Thanks for the mythbusting. Trinity here (state educated and first in family to uni, before you all jump) and it had so many students that if you wanted to miss the Etonians ( the few I knew were in fact perfectly nice and very, very bright) it wasn't hard. Poster you quoted seems to have arrived with a pre-prepared chip on their shoulder and doesn't understand the context of a silly song which is actually about boat club rivalry and sod all to do with class.

OP: DD should visit widely, talk to current students and decide where she'd be happy to live.[/quote]
I think I was the poster quoted and while the song was a bit tongue in cheek, my experience of Johns (and, to a lesser extent) Trinity was as I wrote it. Maybe this is something particular to the fact I was studying Natsci and it might just have been bad luck but first impressions are powerful. Consequently, everyone from Emmanuel, Clare and Pembroke I met were lovely.

There really was no pre-arranged chip either. I knew nobody who studied at Cambridge before I went and I was actively discouraged from applying (which infuriates me and is a different debate). I knew virtually nothing about them, other than looking at the stats of NatSci students and state school % before I visited.

@Hollowgast ah, not to worry, I wasn't offended at all! I like the song, it brings back all kinds of fond memories ;-) Rather, I was just keen that someone shouldn't be put off at least visiting a college that she might love because of preconceptions about what it's like there. After all, it's not like there's a Harry Potter sorting hat-type situation where all the students at one college have a particular set of personality traits, while all those at another are similarly identikit!

My feelings are very like those expressed by @toconclude - Cambridge (and the Other Place!) needs to be as accessible as possible, and if we put off state school people by saying it's snobby, then that balance of state/private is never going to change. I'll always be glad to share my experiences with people who aren't familar with what it's like/what applications involve. I had a wonderful time there: it introduced me to people who are still some of my closest friends, launched me into a hobby that I continued after graduation and that ultimately introduced me to my fiance, and gave me the space to really grow in confidence and find out more about who I am (besides being the 'nerdy one' at school - how liberating to go somewhere where nerdy was mainstream!).

OP, I wish your daughter all the best with her application - don't be put off by the acceptance figures, someone has to get those places, why shouldn't it be her? :-)

OP, I wish your daughter all the best with her application - don't be put off by the acceptance figures, someone has to get those places, why shouldn't it be her? :-)

Love this: it’s absolutely true. If you’re not in, you definitely can’t win. Very best of luck to your daughter.

Knowing this, if DD gets into absolutely any College I will be delighted!

Quite so!
It really is 'nothing ventured, nothing gained' - the one sure way not to get a place is to not apply. And if they don't get a place, then they're in good company, with 4 other UCAS slots and loads of other excellent unis to choose from.

@leafinthewind maybe in theory but I challenge you to find 'don' ever used at Cambridge to refer to a fellow.

@Palavah I don't think it's the kind of thing anyone self identifies as. I had a cheeky Google and it seems as though it's become a newspaper word: "Cambridge University don wrote erotic fiction about students," "Cambridge don, 72, told students not to debate Uighur Muslims," "Cambridge don quits after outcry over sexual harassment ban"...

When I was there (disclaimer 20 odd years ago!) there were definitely colleges that were more known for both certain subjects and "types" of undergrads. I read music at Clare and applied there because of the Director of Music. It's one of the smaller colleges, but I did struggle to fit in to the college social life - I was from a Northern working class background, and although I did go to a private school, it was a means tested specialist school. I found Clare to be a shock and full of very confident public school undergrads.

I spent most of my time at the Music Faculty and my close friends were all from my course, only one was also at my college.

Definitely do lots of research - it's so much easier to do these days, and go and visit a short list of colleges. I think their outreach programmes are now excellent and there are many facilities for summer schools and other ways to experience Cambridge life.

PS I never heard any fellow referred to as a don, but you have now given me an earworm from Salad Days (oh the things, the mad mad things that are done by a don don don!)

how funny @Palavah you are right- I guess I was subconsciously saying don to avoid saying fellow, and also to avoid saying teacher- became the point of the post was to draw a distinction between departmental teaching from subject specialists, and college affiliation. And I associate a lay understanding of the word fellow with "person that is attached to a college".

But that is slightly reasoning after the fact to make myself look better! In truth I'm surprised at the weirdness of my own brain, because yes I did go to Cambridge, and had kind of forgotten don isn't a word used there. I wonder what else I've forgotten- most of the degree I suspect.

*because the point of the post

[Wanders off muttering about Tabs...]

Neither I nor DS went to Cambridge, but we did study economics.

College choice probably does not matter that much, but economics is a broad subject and it may be worth looking at the academic interests of the fellows (if that is what they are called) within a college, and see if they align with her own emerging interests.

As well as the obvious opportunity to be tutored by someone whose work you find interesting, you may strike lucky. A friend's daughter chose an Oxford college for English because she was interested in the work of one academic, and she was interviewed by her and so more able to demonstrate her informed enthusiasm for the subject. She was offered a place.

DS found his Cambridge economics interview very formulaic with set questions including a number of maths questions, that, for some reason, he stumbled over. Perhaps they were more open ended questions than he had realised, and he did not offer enough. He did not get a place. Back then Trinity used to have a reputation for being very mathematical, and when DS was applying used to require applicants to take STEP. I don't know if this is still the case.

Off topic, but it is worth being aware that economics generally is quite competitive. The more mathematical courses: Cambridge, UCL, Warwick and LSE are all oversubscribed and will reject a good number of qualified applicants. There is a decision to be made about whether to apply to all four and hope one offers a place (and it is perfectly possible to be offered a place at Cambridge, but be rejected by one of the others) with a gap year and reapplication as a fallback, or look at a wider range of Universities first time round.

And perhaps worth considering whether she wants a more mathematical course or something broader. Ie is it Cambridge rather than Oxford, as opposed to Economics as opposed to E&M or PPE.