How to choose a Cambridge college - factors to consider

Choosing a college is often one of the most confusing and difficult parts of the Cambridge application process. There are a very large number of different colleges at Cambridge, each of them with their own reputations, characteristics, specialities and facilities. There can be big differences between colleges which can make the decision process of choosing a college even more difficult for applicants.


In this post I am going to give a couple of my top tips to consider when choosing a Cambridge college. These are not the only things you should consider when choosing a college at Cambridge but they are a good start.

Big vs small

One of the broad differences between Cambridge colleges is the size of the college. Here I am referring to size in terms of student numbers. The number of students in each year at a college can vary greatly, from under 100 to over 150. Small colleges such as Corpus Christi will have a very different feel to larger colleges such as Trinity. At smaller colleges, you will know a large number, if not all of the other students by name. This creates a different college atmosphere to at larger colleges where you will know a smaller proportion of the students there. I do not think that the size of the college makes that much difference but I would broadly favour larger colleges over smaller ones.

College location

Another key factor to consider when choosing a college is the location of the college. This is important and varies greatly. There are quite a few central colleges which are right in the heart of Cambridge such as King's, Caius and Trinity. These will likely be very near to your lectures which is very convenient. They are also near to all the local Cambridge town shops and amenities which is useful. In contrast, some colleges such as Homerton and Girton are far out from the city centre. These are not as convenient although some people might not mind being far out of the city. If you go to one of these you'll probably end up doing a lot of cycling to get to lectures or if not then you'll end up getting the bus. This is not as convenient and creates a different sort of environment where you have to commute in for lectures then leave to go back to college in comparison to central colleges where you can go in and out of the city in a few minutes very easily. I would say it is definitely preferable to be at a central college to a far out one. However since central colleges are on the whole more popular with applicants, they might be more difficult to get into which you'll need to take into consideration when choosing a college.

How to choose a college at Cambridge (reader question)

One of the main difficulties people have when applying to Cambridge is in choosing a college. Most universities don't have the college system and it can be quite confusing and difficult to tell the differences between colleges and decide which college to apply to.


In this post I'll be answering a message I recently received asking about how to choose a college:

Hi, I was just looking @ your blog and it looks really good and wondered if you could give me a bit of help about college choice - I'm stuck between 3.
My main +'s is the accomodation as I will be spending alot of time there, and lovely gardens, food - + good supervisors, apparently have fellows within the college is better (PPS), rather than being shipped off to another college you do not have any?
The three are Sidney, Downing and Jesus.
Sidney plainly because the gardens are lovely but the accom is (N) and not en suite which I really want and apparently the food is not good.
Both Jesus and Downing have en suite which is brilliant but jesus says on its website that its the best and all have received the top grades with scholarships. Downing's accom is slightly better and the food too as it rents out a lot, but only has 1 DOS and no fellows which means moving me around, as Jesus has all of them on site - college fellows.


So I'm a bit stuck :/ What would your advice be?

Thank you so much :)

Thanks for the question, this is my advice:

Choosing a college is difficult. It’s good that you’ve managed to narrow it down to 3 already.

Having more fellows in college for your subject is generally better as they’ll probably supervise you. However the main thing you need is for your college to have a director of studies in your subject. You might be supervised by your DoS and just because there are not fellows does not mean you’ll necessarily have to go to other colleges for supervisions as you might be supervised by PhD students in college.

I wouldn’t worry that much about there not being fellows since you might have to be supervised at your department off site anyway and Cambridge is really small so moving around for supervisions is not that much of a big deal. Obviously fellows in college is preferable but doesn’t matter that much.

Regarding food, both Downing and Jesus ranked highly in a student survey of food quality (Sidney weren’t included in the rankings) so they’re both a good bet for good food (click the images below to read the full student survey on food quality at different colleges).



Downing and Jesus both have nice, large grounds as well although they’re mainly grassy.

You mention Jesus might be tough to get into. Looking at how difficult colleges are to get into, I’d have a look at the application statistics for PPS if that’s what you want to apply for. I’ve had a look and over the past 4 years, the average chance of getting into the college you applied for has been:

Jesus: 12%
Downing: 22%
Sidney: 13%

The over chances of getting in are (this includes, say applying to Jesus, getting pooled and getting another offer from a different college):

Jesus: 17%
Downing: 25%
Sidney: 17%

As you can see, you have similar chances statistically of getting into Jesus or Sidney, but significantly higher at Downing. I strongly advise taking admission statistics into account when choosing a college although the “official” advice is not to. How much weighting you give to the statistics would depend on how confident you are of getting in. If you go to a good school or are very confident of getting in you don’t need to worry about statistics as much, however if not (this is the majority of people) then I'd advise thinking about them.

It seems to me that you’re torn between the 3 colleges. They all seem like they’d be a good fit for you. However, since your chances statistically are significantly higher at Downing, I’d recommend going for that one. Ultimately you want to maximise your chances of getting into Cambridge and since you seem to like all 3 colleges similar amounts, I’d go for the one that gives you the best chance of getting in which is Downing - good food, good accommodation, nice grounds and a better chance of getting in.


It's great receiving questions so if you have any, leave a comment below and I'll try to answer them.

College differences

In a previous post I talked about how much college choice mattered when applying to Cambridge. In this post I'll be giving an overview of some of the differences between colleges.

There are 31 colleges at Cambridge from which to choose where to apply. However you can rule out Darwin and Clare Hall as they only admit post graduate students. Three are women only (Murray Edwards, Lucy Cavendish, New Hall) and four are mature students (over 21) only (St Edmund's, Wolfson, Hughes Hall, Lucy Cavendish).

So there are 23 mainstream colleges to choose from. They vary in many different respects. Firstly is age. The oldest college is Peterhouse which dates from the 13th century whereas newer colleges such as Robinson and Churchill were only founded in the 20th century. The age of a college impacts on the architectural style of the college as well as the accommodation style. Older colleges such as Trinity and King's have far more impressive grounds than newer ones such as Robinson however the accommodation in older buildings can sometimes be worse. You are more likely to be able to get en suite accommodation in Robinson than in some of the older colleges.

The age of the college is also correlated with the size of the college's endowment, that is how rich it is. The wealth of a college impacts its students in several ways. Older colleges tend to be richer than newer colleges. For example St John's and Trinity are the richest colleges. However there are exceptions, for example Queens' is 15th century however is not that rich in comparison to the other old colleges.

Rich colleges can afford to give more money to its students. For example there will be more money available in the form of things like travel grants and book grants. Some colleges such as Trinity will reimburse printing and binding costs for things like dissertations, others such as Robinson will pay for students' languages courses (which cost around £100 for students). Colleges also reward students' good exam results with scholarships and the size of these varies greatly between colleges. For example, Queens' gives £75 to people who get a First in their first year whereas Trinity gives £250 and St John's gives £400. The only problem with choosing to apply to an older, richer college is that many people will want to go there and so it might be difficult to get in.

Colleges also vary in the facilities that they have available to students. For example Jesus has its own astro turf sports pitch, most have gyms (although these are poor quality on the whole), some such as Churchill have squash courts, St John's has its own snooker table, some colleges on the river Cam have their own punts and so on. If you are interested in sports, it is worth checking out what will be available at your chosen college.

The location of a college is another factor to take into consideration. Colleges range from being right in the center of Cambridge, such as King's, to 3 miles out of the city (Girton). Girton and Homerton are far out from the city and since no one in Cambridge drives, it means you'll have to walk, cycle or get the bus every day to lectures, which might be quite a distance. I'd strongly recommend applying to a central college unless you have some reason not too. You may want to pick a college near to your faculty or department buildings, where you'll have lectures. For example, Churchill is particularly popular with computer science applicants, in part due to its close proximity to the William Gates Building where 2nd and 3rd year computer science lectures are held.

Overall, I've given an overview of some of the main differences between colleges here but there are more which you might want to look into such as their reputation for your subject, how easy it is to get in, music, arts and drama opportunities, library facilities and so on.

Does college choice matter?

Cambridge make out that college choice is no big deal and doesn't matter that much. In this post I give my views on whether college choice matters when applying.

When you're filling out the UCAS application forms to apply to Cambridge, you'll need to choose which Cambridge college you want to apply to. If you do get in, your college will be where you live, eat, socialise, have supervisions (small teaching groups) and much more. It is a huge part of your life at Cambridge.

When I was applying, I found choosing a college quite difficult since the information Cambridge provide officially is very generic and not that helpful in differentiating colleges. You can read the official line on selecting a college. It's a good starting point but by no means the best advice on how to choose.

The problem is that the university has to remain impartial with regards to colleges. They cannot say one college is better than another for a subject, even though there are vast differences between colleges.

If you read the offical advice, you'll see:

Don’t agonise too long over choosing a College. They have many more similarities than differences and most students quickly settle in and really enjoy their College, wherever they end up!

This is not completely true. Colleges are HUGELY different and make an enormous difference to your time at Cambridge. If you do get into Cambridge, most of your friends will be in your college, you'll eat, sleep and live there and spend the majority of your time there. Although this does not help with choosing a college, you need to be aware that it is a much bigger decision than the university like to let on.

Since the university has to remain impartial to all colleges, it can be very difficult to tell the difference from the website and prospectus. If you go to a school that sends a lot of people to Cambridge, you'll be able to get the scoop on different colleges but if you don't you might not be able to tell the differences.

On the official advice site you'll see:

How NOT to choose a College

Based on application statistics

* Many applicants think, or are advised, that choosing a College that attracts fewer applications or making an open application will increase their chance of getting an offer. In fact, careful analysis of our admissions statistics shows that, for equally well qualified applicants, College or open application choice does not affect the chance of being offered a place at Cambridge. This is because we have rigorous procedures in place to compare all applicants for each subject before selection decisions are finalised.
* Also, Colleges would rather admit a strong applicant from the pool than a weaker applicant who applied directly to them. Through the pool, strong applicants who’ve been squeezed out by the competition at their original College can be made an offer by another College.

That is they say you shouldn't choose a college based on how many people applied there in previous years for your subject. This advice is not that helpful and the statements below are not completely accurate. They mention "careful analysis" of admission statistics showing that college choice does not make a difference, but give no explanation of the analysis carried out. It also doesn't explain what the "rigorous procedures" are. In fact this is not true because before pooled applicants are made offers, other people already get offers so all applicants are not compared before selection decisions are made.

On the second point, whilst it may be true that colleges prefer to take stronger candidates from the pool than weaker direct applicants, the fact is that colleges must make decisions on their direct applicants before they can see the pool. They do not turn down direct applicants, look at the pool and then go back and make offers to rejected people because the pool was worse than they expected.

So in summary, yes, college choice matters a lot if you care about getting in and your Cambridge experience if you do get in. The main points to remember are that college choice is an EXTREMELY important part of your application. It greatly affects your chances of admission and will determine your complete university experience if you do get in.

In future posts I'll explore the differences between colleges, admission statistics and how to go about choosing a college.