Cambridge colleges - any advice / experiences please?

[Zahra1]

Hello, I was wondering if anyone might be able to provide any insights into the various Cambridge colleges as DS is thinking of applying, as open days don’t really start until June. Just thinking ahead, but it’s all a bit bewildering! Specifically -

• I know Cambridge state your chances of a place are equal regardless of which college you apply to (or not in the case if an open application), but csn this really be the case?

• What are the reputations of various colleges (if any)?

• DS was thinking of applying to Kings, but noticed they take about 85% from state schools every year. Fair enough obviously and in line with national statistics, but, in his case, would he have more chance elsewhere if applying from an independent school eg. St John’s, where the balance is more 50/50?

• Are some colleges eg Trinity and Christ’s considered more academic than others and therefore the bar is higher for entry?

• Do the further out colleges, ie Girton and Homerton, receive less applications and are they therefore easier to get in if you apply to them?

• How can the “pooling system” work effectively when colleges interview differently and some require you to send in some essays prior to interview, while others don’t. How can it be as standardised as they claim?

Does any of this makes any difference to anything? Any advice welcome?

I’ve no idea about HoS yet, but will look into this. Thankyou for all the advice. The Geography dept is in Downing, by the look if it.

I wonder why they seem to be dropping the HAT test this year? Maybe they were getting the bulk of applicants with similar scores so it seemed like a lot of admin for not much additional information? Or maybe they felt some schools were practising for these tests and it gave an unfair advantage?

I wonder if Oxford might do the same?

It’s possible they might incorporate a written text into the interview instead?

DS strategically chose Homerton and absolutely loves it. He would hate being in the throng of tourists and cycles to see his many friends in the other colleges. Homerton is quite beautiful too, and rooms are modern.

He's second year law.

Departments are all separate from colleges, so it won’t be in downing. Might be near!

DD is reading Geography and spends a lot of time over at the Downing site for lectures, computer/ lab work etc. She's in one of the 'hill' colleges (love that phrase, hills in the Fens ) and a bike has been a godsend (for getting to sports practices too). They all seem to manage just fine, wherever they're based x

Ahh, just seen the news about dropping the GAA for Geog admissions - DD will be envious, it took up a lot of practice time over the summer holidays before Yr13!!

Yes, I can only imagine they're either not happy with correlation of performance in test vs undergraduate performance (although I'm not sure they have enough data for this), or they've determined that interviews, pre-reading, submitted work are a better indicator. As for prepping, DD certainly had no assistance from school however there's no question that with more practice, the scores improved. But as you could argue that for any aptitude test across the courses, I'm not sure . Interestingly Oxford has been toying with admissions tests for Geography over the past few years (I think they re-introduced for this last cycle).

Finally, some colleges also send out pre-reading for the basis of one interview.

Hope that helps!

It wouldn’t surprise me if they give them some kind of multi-choice paper at the exam instead. Or maybe some colleges will and others won’t. I do think it would be helpful if they standardised any changes across the colleges though. I’m sure this would help the university as a whole, not to mention applicants.

Just to clarify that the Downing site is next to Downing College on land that the college sold way back when. The departments are separate to the colleges but geographically, if that's where Geography is based, you can't get much closer than Downing.

I studied Land Economy and used to walk through Pembroke to get to lectures, which always seemed very lovely. I totally agree with the PP who said that some of them you just feel more at home in.