Visiting Cambridge

A little over a month ago, I went on a school trip to visit the University of Cambridge.

Cambridge is a collegiate university, meaning that the university operates under a number of independently run colleges which make up the university as a whole. 

The college we went to visit was Gonville and Caius, but to get there, we all decided to venture through Kings College for a little while as it certainly captured our attention the moment we left the coach!

Now, due to the atrocious weather, I was unable to take decent photos of Caius, so instead, I'll tell you some facts about Kings (which I took a lot of photographs off!)

• The College was founded in 1441 by Henry VI, the same man who founded Eton College 
• It's sister college is New College, Oxford
• The College lies on River Cam and faces out onto Kings Parade, which is right in the center of the city, within close proximity to Caius (just a 5 minute walk)
• It has an international reputation for it's own chapel, where every Christmas Eve a service named 'A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols' is broadcast to millions around the world
• It also happens to be (quiet obviously), one of the most beautiful buildings throughout the whole university
• It's alumni include: novelist Zadie Smith, poet Rupert Brooke and the first Prime Minister of Great Britain Robert Walpole  

Bodley's Court

Front Court of Kings

Back Court of Kings, featuring The Gibbs' Building

Scotts Building

After striding through Kings, we made our way to Caius, where talks about the admissions process and all things academic proceeded. We then met current students at the college who spoke about their experiences about studying at Cambridge and had an extensive tour around the College itself. The visit was a real eye-opener, as the University usually has a lot of misconceptions attached to it, but with all myths dispelled, it certainly made some of my friends a lot more confident about applying.

All in all it was a great day! Apart from the horrible rain, I managed to find out a lot more about university life in general.