Trinity Hall -Cambridge.

[NewTimeComing]

My DC has been pooled here. Not one we had looked at but obviously very happy. We’ve looked at their website but wondered if anyone had any feedback. It looks a tiny site next to the massive Trinity college.
already casting my mind ahead to the logistics of moving in day in such a car free city

any tips or feedback gratefully received.

IIRC I used to cut through it as a shortcut to my own college - and always envied the gardeners, who looked so much less stressed (and richer) than I felt.

But it’s too long ago for me to offer anything useful, I’m afraid - so this is just bumping.

They'll have moving in instructions nearer the time, I'm sure, but I imagine you could park on the Backs (literally the road along the back of several of the colleges -- King's, Trinity, T Hall) and trundle a case or a trolley over the pedestrian bridge.

Lovely college, plenty of people’s first pick from what I remember! Your DC has done well. College/Porters will give you plenty of advice on the moving in - everyone in the same boat. Well done to your dC.

I went to T*t Hall a looong time ago. It's absolutlely lovely. I'm sure 100+ people manage to move in and out each term, I expect they still have the same enormous trolleys.

Thanks! I guess they will have got moving in down to a fine art and we will get instructions on that.

I wondered if anyone had any more general information though.

it seems to be a catered hall. In that I don’t think a kettle and microwave constitutes self catering. That’s if you’re in the main bit of college. I wonder how much food costs. Trying to work out budgets and allowances.

Your DC wll be matched up with a "parent" (current student) who will be able to answer practical questions. On the central site three meals a day are served in the hall, you only pay for what you eat but IIRC I usually made my own breakfast and lunch. Some nights are formal Hall (gowns), IIRC there was a quick supper served beforehand on formal nights. The other college acommodation has better kitchen facilities for self catering. Downside of living in cutesy historic buildings is lack of ensuite and modern catering but it's still a great atmosphere.

My daughter (state school and first in family to study at university) had a wonderful time there. Due to the size of the College- compared to Trinity , for example, it’s easier to become part of the College community and not to feel like a very small fish in a large pond iyswim.
First year was fully catered but other options available in subsequent years.
Really helpful porters.
We had a designated time slot for dropping off kit at the beginning of the year.
Able to part right outside College and was given a pass to show to council workers who lowered the retractable road bollards (only normally available for buses and taxis to use.)
We opted for the cheapest room, which was a fantastic size (at least three times the size of my son’s first year accommodation at Nottingham) which also had a sink. Shower room just along the corridor.
Couldn’t recommend highly enough!

I posted this a couple of weeks ago on the Oxford thread about unloading. I’m not Tit Hall but a nearby College.

I went to Cambridge rather than Oxford but I was in a very central college so similar issues. We would do as following:-

1.We found a street on the outskirts of Cambridge that was free to park in and would park in it. Walk the mile or so into Cambridge. Pick up keys, find room, check they worked.
2.Go and have lunch in the pub. 😂
3.Walk back to car and drive to side gate of College where parking wardens generally looked the other way as long as you were quick about it. Unload very quickly.
4.Mum then drives back to special outskirts parking space and walks back to College
5.I would move all my stuff firstly into College (propping open the ornate but very heavy gate), then from the door to the bottom of my staircase (luckily close by) and then up the 2 steep flights of stairs. Mum would usually find one box still at the bottom of the staircase, one box half way up and me collapsed on my bed saying “can’t climb any more stairs” 😂

And then do it all in reverse 8 weeks later. 🤣

There were also wagons that you could use but only about 4 of them and hundreds of us and so I never actually got one.

extra info

www.whichcambridgecollege.com/trinity-hall/

www.trinhall.cam.ac.uk/study-with-us/undergraduate-study/fees-and-finance-overview/living-costs/

My general experience (not specific to Tit Hall, although I do know that college) is that accommodation and catering is cheaper at Cambridge, and they all have a way of getting the students in, even in the central colleges. You are right in the centre there. Beautiful college.

Depending on room location you can either unload on the double yellows at the front of college or, at least some years ago, for the right room you would maybe be allowed to drive down the lane to the side of the college and unload inside college in the court near the river. The college has open sided trolleys to help move stuff.

The backs are a fair way with a steep bridge, so better for parking than unloading.

On central site there are kitchenettes (think fridge, a couple of rings and hopefully ovens by now) shared between say 4-7 students on a floor of a staircase. So you can cook yourself, but eating in hall in 1st year is a good social time. (More self cooking likely later as you tend to live out for at least 1 maybe 2 years, and that accommodation has bigger kitchens.)

What would ‘being pooled’ mean?

Broadly considered strong enough for the course by your first choice college, but they had more people in that position than offers they have space to make.

That gets you into the pool. If there are colleges who are short of strong candidates they can look in the pool and make offers, perhaps after another assessment.

Thanks, I hadn’t heard that usage before.

Thanks for all this really useful info. I shall pass it on. Now to worry about getting grades! It’s just one thing after another. Will they get an interview? Will they get an offer? Then will they make the grades? Once they are there I will be worrying about whether they’re coping with the workload.

That’s why I would rather they had catering. At least for first year until they found their feet. I think i saw somewhere they were doing building works at the main site so some first years would be at another self catering site.

but apparently there is an offer holders day so we must try and get to that!

good luck to everyone else on this journey

I think the alternative location is only a short distance from college so people can always cycle/walk over for meals. Anyone in college can eat in the Hall/cafeteria, whether they live on central site or not. It's useful if you are in college anyway for a supervision or to use the library etc.

If you think about it, NumberFish, it's very unlikely that every college would find it has the exact number of strong candidates that it wants for each course. One year, 20 strong candidates might choose Trinity Hall for a course that takes 4 students, while only 5 pick Peterhouse; the next year it might be the other way round. So there's plenty of reshuffling.

(Wouldn't it be nice if the Oxbridge colleges asked all applicants to make an open application but list, say, three preferences, so a student could broadly ask for trad/modern, self-catering/catered, in town/miles away? Probably everyone would faint from excess cooperation and lack of tradition.)

@PuppySnores perish the thought! 😂

My daughter started there 2017. On the day of moving in, you are allowed to park right outside the porters lodge on Trinity Lane (which is normally closed to traffic). You can fetch a trolley from inside the college and unload. Then park your car in Queens road, a short walk to get back in.

@elizawest
thanks. That sounds not too bad although I saw on the trinity hall freshers page the convoluted route you had to drive through the city centr to get there!

Fantastic! Well done them