Cambridge college choice - tactical

[eggsbenedict23]

Is there any point looking at admission statistics for Cambridge colleges to see where is more likely to get in?

Is it worth choosing colleges tactically or does the pooling system eliminate this need?

My idea is that for Economics Trinity and Kings would be very very popular choices.

dont you have to cycle up a steep hill at least some of that 2.5 miles? Or have I completely misremembered? I was such a lazy student and had to go once a week for a supervision and it almost killed me - I was in awe of Girtomians!

Hi yes I did mean socio-economically

Apparently, nearly everyone at ME was pooled there. Or they were open applicants allocated there (female of course). But it's still a great college.

Churchill has a high proportion of international STEM students who don't tend to socialise so much (so I'm told).

Kings is the only college to not have gowns for formals or ceremonies.

Homerton is about a mile or so south of the centre, but next to the Education Dept (for anyone studying that), and also near Cambridge Botanic Gardens, the Chemistry Dept and Addenbrookes (for medical students). It is perhaps the largest and most diverse college - rep for being very down-to-earth and friendly. Lord Woolley is popular with students across the uni and often on TV etc.

Gonville is the only college to have compulsory weekly formals.

Jesus is a popular college - huge grounds.

Trinity and St John's are no more 'posh' these days than anywhere else.

Newnham is particularly known for gender politics activism.

Lucy Cavendish was all female until two years ago, but now 50/50 so no advantage to boys applying there any more.

Whetever they go, they end up going in most of the other colleges anyway, depending on modules and social life.

DS probably won't do this but he wonders if applying to land economy would mean it would be easier for him to get an offer.

Was it Magdalene @Marsyas ? If so I broke into your May Ball😆

OP, What type of career does DS envisage?

In no way will a degree in Land Economy help him land a career in the financial sector.

It might have been

@septembersunrise Caius formals are not compulsory and are 6 days a week, not weekly. It’s just a second sitting of hall with a gown (over normal clothes, same food) and aren’t actually formal, so there is super hall which is more akin to other college formals but again no requirement to attend. Caius do require you to pay for a certain number of meals in hall but this could be first hall or formal and I think possibly some other colleges have a similar requirement to pay a certain amount for catering upfront per term.

My DH went to Churchill and didn’t have problems with people socialising but of course depends on who you get at the time. It does have a high proportion of STEM (located next to maths department) and a high proportion of state students.

@Angeldelightful see this is why I think you have to pick the college that is right for you - to a Cambridge local Castle Hill is big and Girton is far away - to someone growing up in the Peaks/Lake District/parts of Wales and cycling that far to school since age 14, it was normal. Unusually flat if anything 😁

Castle Hill is really a feeble hill outside East Anglia!

Investment Banking and then going over to Private Equity

The Oxbridge economics applicants at DS's school do mock it as a lesser degree

Of the 4 land ec grads I know, 2 went into property related careers, one is a solicitor and one works in events. Not to say people don’t go into IB from land ec (they do from pretty much all Oxbridge subjects) but economics is better preparation. Land ec is less mathsy.

So a mathsy subject helps?

I've read stuff about people doing classics at Oxford and then going into finance.

OP, the main degrees people bring to IB are
Economics, Accounting, Finance, Business and various flavours of STEM. Of these, at the UG level Cambridge offers Economics and some flavour of Joint Hons concerning Maths and Finance together with many flavours of STEM. Obviously there are outliers. The core competency is analytical ability.

It helps to be used to dealing with numbers if you want to do a numbers based career, yes. But as I said, people do go into banking from all subjects. Financial services, law, civil service and consulting are the main careers people I know have gone into.

My understanding is that colleges (at least at application/interview/offer stage) don’t know if they were your choice or you applied via an open application …I spent most of my time outside college, and my then bf spent so much time at a different college the porters gave him a pigeonhole!

There is so much rubbish on this thread. When students are pooled mostly they are pulled out of the pool because they fit what a particular college wants, which could be for a variety of reasons, and some colleges pull students out that others would have just rejected but didn't for whatever reason. Sometimes that is v high maths/fm. Sometimes it is that they want a particular demographic, WP or something else. Some colleges will take v high performing students from top public schools because they look good on paper and they choose the "best" candidate on paper. Some years a college will have a weak field and some a strong one. If they can't predict what they will attract and it does vary year by year I don't see why a student thinks they can game the numbers. Choose the college you like, look at rooms, bursaries, meals. Talk to students, think about cycling (always think about the cycle routes) to supervisions. If you don't have a view do an open application. But don't chose because you are more likely to get in. Oh and chose economics if you like maths, modelling etc. choose land economics if you prefer the course.

Except we (private school) got a student in the summer pool a couple of years ago.

There are 2 summer pools - didn’t get an offer but did get the grades, this one is restricted.

Got an offer but narrowly missed - everyone is considered.

Told you I was unfit! Then and now.😂 Ok, let’s say Girton is not only far away (relatively ) from the centre it is on top of the highest hill in East Anglia.

OP, your ds’s friends are right to mock LE - not because there is anything wrong with the degree itself, there isn’t - but because it’s been known forever as the route for the less academically brilliant to sneak in. Does your ds really want to spend 3 years studying something he doesn’t appear to care about or does he own a large estate in Norfolk?

I'm a country bumpkin Girtonian too, I loved it! Perfect college for me, and didn't feel like a schlepp at all. All the cycling kept me fit (though Castle Hill is nothing), and I did loads of drama in town.

Land Economy was known colloquially as "farming", and was assumed to be for meathead rowers to get in, so they could win the Boat Race.

@whereonthestair you are a breath of fresh air and I agree with most of what you say. When I made the first comment about how it would be worth taking a look at statistics I meant it in a lughr, exploratory manner. Nothing like what the thread has become.

However I differ with you on Land Economics. There is only a slim chance that the DS is interested in it. If he is he’s got a problem, because the degree does nothing to prepare you for Investment Banking. The OP has at least one previous thread with questions about Economics programmes.

All we have really been told is that the the DS has PGs of 4 A stars. PGs being what they are, I (a former, very ‘mathsy’ Russell Group admissions tutor) reckon that this information alone means there is about a 50% chance the DS is truly well qualified for Oxbridge. Of those who are, probably most are rejected.

So I wish the OP would be encouraging DS to practise, practise, practise the very creative use of A level Maths that comprises the TMUA (memorising solutions to past papers is of limited value) and to hone his supracurriculars rather than to divert energy into questions about obscure degree programmes etc. Also to realise that not getting Cambridge (or LSE, Warwick, UCL) would not doom the DS she clearly loves deeply to failure.

@poetryandwine thanks very kind of you.

DS has looked at other unis he'd be happy at.

The integrated master's in economics at Southampton is very appealing

That’s great, @eggsbenedict23 I would love to spend four years by the sea! And I do think from what you’ve said that your DS has chances as good as a typical realistic applicant’s. Best wishes to him