Advantages: High scholastic standards. Many are beautiful
Disadvantages: Very competitive

...The University of Cambridge, one of the most famous and renowned universities in the world has a long and illustrious history, and is organised on a collegiate system. Many well known figures in history are graduates of Cambridge including Wordsworth, Bertrand Russell, LOrd Keynes, and former Indian prime minister Mr Nehru and nobel laureates such as AK Sen. What follows is a short round-up of some of its well-known colleges and their famous former students. Clare Clare College, is the second oldest college, originally founded in 1326 as University Hall. In 1338 Lady Elizabeth of Clare refounded the college calling it Clare Hall, it was renamed Clare College in 1856. It is one of the most beautiful colleges and is hugely popular. Famous alumni include Hugh Latimer (Protestant reformer), Siegfried Sassoon, Lord Cornwallis... Read review

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Advantages: central with good quality communal facilities
Disadvantages: expensive for the quality of bedrooms

...As many Ciao regulars know I have just got married and this is my first, and possibly most boring (!), review since then. It was always my dream, from a young child (1) to get married and (2) to go to university at Cambridge. I am now proud to say that I have managed both! What is even better is that as a result of studying in Cambridge I was able to get married there. Although I got married in Sidney Sussex, my old college, commerciality being what it is I was unable to hold my wedding reception there as the "might get a conference booking for that weekend" (clearly more lucrative than a wedding reception)! Still, I was determined to get married in college and so set about finding a suitable reception venue. +++ Location +++ Cambridge City Centre itself is pretty compact and so almost all of the major hotels... Read review

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Advantages: Campus university, nice city, varied degree programs
Disadvantages: can be disorganised

...Well for starters, the university is now called Anglia Ruskin University. Why did this happen? Well i believe it was to remove the "polytechnic" from the name and to help change the image of the university. As to whether this worked or not... The jurys out. So whats Anglia like? It is made up of campuses and regional colleges, with the main two campuses at Chelmsford and Cambridge. I went to the Cambridge campus and this is what this review is based on. The cambridge campus is on the new side of town..ie. not with the cambridge university colleges in amongst the old bricks. Within a 5 minute walk is a VUE multiscreen cinema and the Grafton Centre Shops (offering most things), and a 10 minute walk takes you to the old town where more shops are and generally most of the nightlife. Between both sides of the town, everything... Read review

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Advantages: The best university in the country.
Disadvantages: None!

...So you are not a rich public school educated toffy nosed ponce? So? Neither am I, nor are my friends. I went to a northern comprehensive, lived in a semi on a housing estate, and like to go and get plastered in my local on a friday. And I am at Cambridge. After the whole Laura Spence thing, Oxbridge has basically got a bad press, being misrepresented as a finishing school for public school leavers. It is not. It is a great university, with both a great education and a great social life on offer. The courses are really good and very interesting, and the workload, though heavy, is managable and still leaves plenty of time to go out on the razz. The nightlife is cool, especially if you like cheese, with loads of clubs and colleges having parties and events on all the time. Also, there are millions of societies, and whatever you like... Read review

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Advantages: friendly people, hundreds of clubs and societies to join, good welfare support system, excellent lecturing and tutoring, unique opportunities, formal hall, good accommodation, great atmosphere
Disadvantages: nightlife is not that great compared to some other UK cities

...I have just graduated from Cambridge, after doing a three year degree course. The thing i was most nervous about before going was whether i would fit in or not - would it be full of eccentric people, or stereotypical public school types? I needn't have worried. Whilst everyone is obviously intelligent, i found everyone i met to be nice and normal, ordinary people. They all go down the pub, to the cinema, out clubbing and so on. Just like my friends from home. In fact I do not think i had one bad incident in all my time there - so do not worry about the company. You will fit in. The great thing is that there is a niche for everyone. I doubt there are more clubs or societies at any other university, there really is something for everyone, whether it be a sport, journalism or something else completely. The opportunities are endless... Read review

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Advantages: Great location, nice rooms, friendly
Disadvantages: Parking charge, busy area

...there start from about £110 but you can pay for for the suites with the four poster beds which are lovely. You do have to pay to park as well which is quite annoying, it is £14 a day which is quite expensive but is what you get with hotels in the city. Cambridge itself has lots of great things to do, the shops are good and then of course there is all teh old university buildings to look around, take a trip down the river cam etc. They have a ncie restaurant called 17 which is adjacent to the htoel and there is also a bar as well with excellent big couches that you can slop on and a lovely fire. The rooms were fairly big, all on suite and room service went til quite late. The decor inside is quite oldy world, with lots of dark wood but very nicely maintained. The staff were very friendly and offered lots of advice on what to do during the day. I... Read review

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Advantages: *
Disadvantages: *

...When I stayed at Cambridge University last week with the Sutton Trust, we stayed in Corpus Christi College. This is just one of many colleges at Cambridge university. After arriving at Cambridge train station it was arranged for us to be taken to Corpus Christi by taxi. It took about 10 minutes to get there. We arrived at the Porter's Lodge where people from the Sutton Trust gave us an envelope with our room number and keys. I was staying in the Robert Beldam Building, which was about a 5-minute walk from the main Corpus Christi building. This didn't cause any problems but on the first day it was raining and we had to take our suitcases round (typical - it was sunny the rest of week when we didn't have our cases!) ~ The Corpus Christi Building ~ 'Corpus Christi' means the body of Christ. Corpus Christi College is one... Read review

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Advantages: Fast weight loss
Disadvantages: MIGHT be bad for your health

...I went on the Cambridge diet last summer and lost 3 stones. I was once 12 st 12 & I went down to as light as 9 st 9, which is a really healthy weight for my height (5 ft 5). I'm currently studying at university & since my exams began, I've put on weight again. I put on about a stone! This diet was really good though, but not the healthiest diet so I wouldn't recommend you go on the sole source of the diet unless you SERIOUSLY need to lose weight. What's sole source? You eat virtually nothing. It consists of 3 or 4 Cambridge diets depending on your gender and height (I will explain this later once I've explained what you can eat). One thing that I liked most about this diet is that there are different stages of weight loss. Once you reach your goal, you can go up the stages of maintenance. When I was maintaining my weight, I... Read review

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Advantages: really beautiful if you know where to go
Disadvantages: really shoddy if you don't know where to go

...and the Grafton centre. Both are adequate and feature the high street shops. For better, more unique shops, go for the ones in the alleyways in the centre of town (around Sainburys has a few good ones), but be prepared to pay more. 3. Punting This is really good fun. I suggest get away from the touts who will punt for you. I think that is completely useless because a) punting is easy as pie b) you don't have to listen to nonsense c) what they tell you might be just the stuff they put in guidebooks anyway d) the people who punt for you are NOT cambridge students, so don't pay them to expect a student to punt for you and so they will know all the interesting stories. Cambridge University students are not allowed to work part time during term. There are two main routes to punt - it depends on your preferences and they have their own... Read review

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Advantages: Great reputation, gateway to many of the top legal firms (old school tie still works)
Disadvantages: Less practical than some

...Fancy a challenge? Law at Cambridge has always been highly regarded and it lives up to its reputation. I studied law at Sidney Sussex College and thoroughly enjoyed it. There's no denying the work was hard and, if you asked me whether I would go back and do it again I'd reply "Yes, but without the work". There's a real work hard, play hard mentality in Cambridge - just as well the terms are only 8 weeks long! I came from a comprehensive (and only just obtained the necessary grades) and was worried that I might not fit in. How wrong I was. Cambridge is a place where you can really be yourself, guaranteed there is someone else who shares your interests and your outlook on life. There's no denying, there are a fair few from the "privileged classes" but, in all honesty, comp students often fair better as they are used to having... Read review

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