Cambridge. Things we don't know we don't know.

[Sorenlorrenson]

My son is set on studying maths at Cambridge. We are working class and don't know anyone who went to Cambridge.
I have recently found out that Magdalene and Caius are not pronounced how they are spelt. There must be loads of stuff like this, stuff we don't know because we are poor and common.
If you know something you think we don't, please share.

So many are obsessed with earning potential from their DC's degrees. Then again, not everyone is driven by money. Teachers, medics, NHS staff, social workers and many other interesting careers don't have the eye watering salaries of graduate trainees going into IB or US law firms, but they still attract strong grads.

The professions of people I know from university are fairly broad. Definitely plenty of high earners but also lots of vocations. Plenty of public sector, but not necessarily running the place. I’m not setting the world alight personally.

@Dearover It’s the cost of living and affording a property to rent or getting a mortgage. Great if you can get by not needing any of this but in the real world most people have costs to meet, even young grads. Obviously very few get very high paying jobs. They are the exception but we hear continue angst about affording somewhere to live so some people do want to earn more and it’s great if they can.

If everyone could get a job in a low cost area, great, but it’s not realistic. It’s long been the case that grads expected higher earnings. The grad premium is getting lower and lower so people do need to think of it’s worth it.

There is a reason why many areas have numerous social worker vacancies. Not everyone can afford to do this work and don’t like the idea of it. Can’t say I blame them. It suits grads living at home or mature grads who want a second income.

Around my area there are an awful lot of towns and villages with pronounciations that look nothing like their spellings; sometimes completely different names altogether but other times reflecting older pronounciations of that spelling. These areas are about as far from pretentious as you could find.

There is a pretty high autism quotient amongst the maths department, lecturers and students, at Cambridge (and I suspect elsewhere).

You should be extremely proud. What an opportunity!

Yeah, well I didn't know any of this, I didn't go to university, I didn't know an offer wasn't an offer. I just hope my boy gets in , it's all he wants, he's all about the maths,

Best wishes to your DS. He should make best use of any material available to help with STEP. There will be plenty out there and colleges will genuinely want to recruit those with the most talent. And once there (or indeed elsewhere) he will find others with a similar love for the subject.

Sorry I am late to this thread but just to say Cambridge has loads of international students and none of them know any of this nonsense either (nor would they be expected to) so please don't worry.

When I went to Leicester I didn’t know what a barm cake was! A short drive from me is Wrotham (pronounced Root Ham). Cambridge (as much I have loved learning the lingo) doesn’t have a monopoly on strange words.

Absolutely. I’m the child of a semi-literate and a hospital cleaner and I chose my v trad, v Old Etonian-heavy Oxford college on aesthetic grounds. I wanted to live and learn somewhere incredibly beautiful. It was a completely delightful experience. No one helped me apply. My school barely sent anyone to university, far less Oxbridge. It’s perfectly possible to figure stuff out alone, and there’s now lots of advice online (I was there pre-internet). I wore the same two or three charity shop black dresses to all formal events, and my college had a generous hardship fund.