Hii, my name is Khadeja, and I am a first-year law student at Selwyn College, Cambridge. I’m from East London and am originally from Libya. I studied English Literature, Politics, and Religious Studies for my A-levels and achieved A*A*A in those subjects, and 4A’s the previous year in my AS (with Geography).
Choosing a college:
I applied to Selwyn, which was the college that made me my offer and the offer I accepted, which is the traditional route in comparison to some other students who may have be pooled by a different college to the one that they applied to.
I remember that the main things I was looking for when searching for a college to apply to were location, proximity to the faculty of my subject (law), accommodation, and food/catering; Selwyn ticked these boxes for me.
Location:
- Selwyn isn’t one of the colleges which are central to the city, but this is something I didn’t mind, although it did take some getting used to in the beginning.
- Although it’s slightly further out from the city centre, I like the fact that it’s quieter
- I would recommend making sure you know where the college you are applying to is located because some can be a lot further out than others, and whilst some students may like this, others may find it difficult to adjust
Proximity to faculty:
- Selwyn is extremely close to the faculty which I, unfortunately, didn’t get to go to much this year, other than to do work at the library, because of lectures being moved online
- Alongside Newnham, Selwyn is the closest College to the Sidgwick site. This is where faculties like Music, English, History, Economics, and Law are located.
Accommodation:
- The Cripps court building is where all first years live.
- I love the fact that all first years are guaranteed en-suites (our own bathrooms) because this was important to me
- The accommodation in Cripps Court is grouped into ‘flats/households’, in which the average number of rooms is 8, but there are some with more or less depending on the staircase and floor. This grouping was especially helpful during periods where you had to socially distance from everyone because we didn’t have to do that with the people in our household
- Unlike other colleges, where accommodation sites can be very far from the main college building, all the Selwyn accommodation buildings are either inside or right in front of the college
- I would definitely say that the accommodation is one of my favourite things about the college in general. Although the rooms aren’t massive, I never found myself wishing I had more space
- If you would like to know more about college accommodation, most college websites provide this so you can check the Selwyn website for details and pictures of the rooms
Food:
- Every household in Cripps Court has a kitchen with essentials like a stove, microwave, toaster, fridge, and plenty of cupboards for everyone to store their things
- There was no freezer or oven in our kitchen which was annoying at first, but I could just get a meal from hall for lunch or dinner if I wanted to
- I also like the fact that we have hall, which is the college version of a school canteen, only a few minutes away from my accommodation. As a Muslim, it was really important to me that they catered halal food, which they do, alongside lots of other diets. We will even be implementing a weekly ‘Meat Free Monday’ in hall!
- I would say that I made more meals in the kitchen myself but ate at hall around twice a week on average. I like the fact that we can check the menu online ahead of going to hall, and this can be done by anyone so if you’re curious about the food you can check the menu on the Selwyn website
In my experience as someone who grew up in London, I would say that a college that is more central in Cambridge would have made adjusting to the move easier because of how much more accessible shops are there. Although this was a big adjustment in the beginning, the city centre is still just a short walk from Selwyn, so it was fine in the end.
Selwyn is known as the friendly college and I definitely think that it lives up to that reputation. Everyone is kind and helpful and you end up becoming good friends with the people in your household and the people doing the same subject as you because there usually aren’t very many of you (only 7 in my cohort at Selwyn doing law). The fact that everyone’s friendly made Selwyn’s vibe homely and comfortable in my experience. Staff members have always been available, whether that’s my Tutor (who is in charge of supporting me with non-academic matters) or my Director of Studies (who is in charge of supporting me with my academics).
It is really easy to get involved with decision-making as a student here at Selwyn and I was able to be elected as the Access Officer on the JCR with my friend Ashley in our first term (Michaelmas term). The JCR is the Cambridge college equivalent of a school council that represents the student body. The JCR does a lot in terms of supporting students and ensuring that students are represented when the college is making decisions that would impact them.
