College Choice

**Moony** · 05-05-2007, 12:46 PM

Hi, I'm thinking of applying to Cambridge for medicine for 2008 entry. I'm unable to make the official open day in July, but I thought I'd still ask individual colleges whether I can come up one day and take a look. The trouble is I don't know which colleges to ask! The choice seems rather overwhelming and I don't really know where to start. So far my criteria for choosing are:

- Central location (not Girton)

- State school & ethnic minority friendly (all colleges claim this, but do some colleges have a reputation for being more public school than others?)

- Not ubercompetitive (I was told to avoid Emma, Caius, Downing, Trinity and Christ's, don't know if that's true?). I know competition is basically similar everywhere but I don't want to apply to a really competitive college, get rejected and always wonder "what would have happened if I had applied to a less famous college?" etc.

- Mixed college (so I was told to not put in an open application as I was likely to end up at Newnham or New Hall)

- Good food (not sure how I should judge this one, from anecdotal evidence I was told the food at Sidney for example was on the bad side!)

- Medium~large size (I'd want somewhere that's got a big intake on med students & large overall. Unfortunately those seems to be the same ones that I had heard as being ubercompetitive like Caius!)

- Appearance (not hugely important, but Robinson from the prospectus doesn't appeal to me for example)

Could anyone suggest where I could look? I was thinking perhaps Queen's, St Catharine's, Sidney, Pembroke, King's, Jesus, Clare? Anyone offer me any advice, please? Thanks!

**usmed** · 05-05-2007, 02:02 PM

Any of the ones you listed are good. Kings has a reputaion for admitting State School applicants although, in truth, the Dons admit based on your quality as an applicant. School type makes little difference. YOu might want to look at Trinity Hall

**sbailey** · 06-05-2007, 04:15 PM

Have you considered St Johns? It's quite competitive but not as competitive as Caius, Emma, Downing, Christ's or Pembroke. (By the way, I don't think Trinity is as competitive as those ones, either! Who told you that?) St John's has one of the largest medical intakes, a central location, good food, the largest central site, beautiful buildings, and is mixed. It has a bit of a rep for being public school, which I think is quite unfounded (it was probably true about 20 years ago).

**psychic_maniac** · 06-05-2007, 04:29 PM

Yeh, St. John's was my fave too.
Also, I went to Queens' open day and was informed by one of the teachers that practically all of the people they pooled get offered a place at another college, so that might be an advantage too...

**usmed** · 06-05-2007, 07:27 PM

Originally Posted by psychic_maniac

Yeh, St. John's was my fave too.
Also, I went to Queens' open day and was informed by one of the teachers that practically all of the people they pooled get offered a place at another college, so that might be an advantage too...

Thats just luck of the draw. It just shows an unusually high number of good people applying to Queens. It could also show that they rarely pool anyone except the brightest. If you look at the statistics they are no better than any other college.

The only really competitive colleges are (in order): Caius, Emma, Christs.

**mussed** · 06-05-2007, 08:44 PM

The best advice when choosing Oxbridge colleges is to go and have a look around. The pooling systems *should* guarantee good applicants get in somewhere (although how well that works...). Remember the university always counts as a community and you'll find like-minded souls everywhere, and picking a college based on the "type of people" it produces is pretty random cos you're just picking it for the type of people it's most famous for producing

.
The things you absolutely can't change, and will be obliged to be in college for, are food and accomodation. Put those at the top of your list, steer clear of anywhere you definitely don't want to go to on other grounds, and then if you can go and get a feel for the place that should help with the final decision. I picked my (Oxford) college because the porters were nice to me and they offered accomodation every year, and I've never regretted it; in practice, everyone loves their college when they get there.

**Moony** · 06-05-2007, 11:07 PM

Thanks for the advice guys. Hmm, I don't know why I didn't consider St John's - I think someone told me of it being a bit public schooly, but maybe it isn't. And my teacher told me to steer away from Trinity because it's a famous college and all that, but I guess it isn't really for medicine? And Pembroke is competitive too? (I'm guessing it's related to its proximity to the science area!) All this college picking is really confusing!

**Apollyon** · 07-05-2007, 12:51 AM

St John's have a bad reputation which means that they are somewhat isolated as far as I can tell. Trinity is definitely not overly competitive and although very prestigious they aren't all that fierce in medicine. Pembroke is a beautiful college but they take very few medics per year which is why I chose Caius (when my original choice was Pembroke). Finding somewhere central is very useful as is guaranteed accommodation for the time here. Those 2 should be your top priorities followed by other things since the pooling and candidate number allocation system evens out the competition at different colleges somewhat.

***Liana*** · 09-05-2007, 04:32 PM

Originally Posted by Moony

Thanks for the advice guys. Hmm, I don't know why I didn't consider St John's - I think someone told me of it being a bit public schooly, but maybe it isn't. And my teacher told me to steer away from Trinity because it's a famous college and all that, but I guess it isn't really for medicine? And Pembroke is competitive too? (I'm guessing it's related to its proximity to the science area!) All this college picking is really confusing!

General message to everyone: please ignore the advice of teachers who say 'x or y college is too competitive and you won't get in'. My VI Form teacher attempted to dissuade me from applying to Trinity... I got in anyway.

I am a Trinity medic, and from what I can tell, we're rather un-competitive (amongst ourselves, I mean, not for applying...). I don't know about the years above me, but my year seemed to have formed quite a cohesive group - we're all friends and get on well together. I agree with Apollyon that central location and guaranteed accommodation are definitely something to look for. Trinity's accom is very reasonably priced, and I haven't seen any 'bad' rooms in college so far. Even Burrell's Field, the place a lot of second years go, is hardly very far from the centre of town.

The colleges I think have the best reputation for medicine are Caius, Downing and Emma, so those would be the most competitive for applications IMHO... the stats vary from year to year though, it's almost futile to try and pick a college based on applicant ratios!

As for private school - Trinity's percentage looks bad, but everyone seems really nice here. Among the medics in my year, there are definitely more from state schools. I think only 2 or 3 out of 14 were from private school!

**sbailey** · 11-05-2007, 11:40 PM

Originally Posted by usmed

Thats just luck of the draw. It just shows an unusually high number of good people applying to Queens. It could also show that they rarely pool anyone except the brightest. If you look at the statistics they are no better than any other college.

The only really competitive colleges are (in order): Caius, Emma, Christs.

Going by the % who get 1sts, I would have said you got that order exactly in reverse. However, in terms of reputation for medicine, I agree.