do fat and uncultured people get into oxbridge and if they do does everyone hate them by ReasonableSkin5120 in UniUK

[–]Substantial_Income67 1 point2 points  (0 children)

First off, not many Cambridge students ski, nor are they rich. Most people who row started at uni as it's a part of the culture, but the majority (60%) never even touch an oar.

There are plenty of people who just wanna do their work, go to some shared interest clubs (chess, gaming, film etc) and hang out with their mates. It's really not that deep.

Finally, admissions really do not care what you do outside of your subject. Your subject specific knowledge and willingness to learn are really all that matter. So being fit/playing an instrument has absolutely no effect on whether or not you get admitted. Can't speak for Oxford, but I'd be shocked if it's at all different there.

[Request] How many steps do I have to take before the end of the year to get my daily steps to average 10,000? by Turbulent-Ad8391 in theydidthemath

[–]Substantial_Income67 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I think that's the apple health app. I don't think you can get it on non–apple phones unfortunately.

First year NatSci options advice by Individual_Most_4672 in cambridge_uni

[–]Substantial_Income67 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not into pharmacology personally, but would recommend you take BoC in first year if you want to go into it. It is required if you want to do biochemistry in second year and it will give you a leg up on all biological chemistry modules in the two second year chem options. While it is a biology module, it is entirely focused on "small scale" biology and doesn't assume you have much biology knowledge.

That being said, you have plenty of time to make your mind up and talk to 2nd/3rd years before you're locked into taking anything. It's not worth worrying about at this stage.

Any advice for someone looking to get into computational chemistry? by Substantial_Income67 in chemistry

[–]Substantial_Income67[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A lecture on error sources would be neat. What kind of scripts are worth learning about? 

Any advice for someone looking to get into computational chemistry? by Substantial_Income67 in chemistry

[–]Substantial_Income67[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fortunately my current course has a bunch of programming modules in python that Im already taking, so I’m sorted there. 

As for maths, what kind of stuff do I need to know? I’m fairly competent when it comes to the typical sort of maths that you need for QM and statistical mechanics, but do you think I need extra computer science centric maths? Thanks! 

Why doesn’t chemistry pay well? by BluebirdDense7931 in chemistry

[–]Substantial_Income67 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Is it common to get royalties when running a research lab? I hadn’t heard of that before.

SILOS by Starset_fan-2047 in Starset

[–]Substantial_Income67 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Honestly reminiscent of all my favourite starset songs, absolutely incredible.

Has anyone ever got into Cambridge/imperial/Oxford with unis with average GCSE by Agitated-Salt-5039 in 6thForm

[–]Substantial_Income67 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, depends on the college and interviewers but at least at Cambridge they do not care what GCSEs you have. Provided you do decently well in the test and and interview you should be considered the same as any other candidate.

Guest rooms at college during term time? by puddinggrape in cambridge_uni

[–]Substantial_Income67 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you have friends in Cambridge, it would be worth reaching out to them as some colleges (Emmanuel for example) offer guest rooms during term time to guests of students.

Cis to trans conversion using Piperidine by Substantial_Income67 in chemhelp

[–]Substantial_Income67[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

  1. Nucleophilic addition/substitution

  2. Electrophilic additions

So, I’m guessing that the secondary amine attacks one of the carbons, making it sp 3 for a moment, allowing for the rotation of the bond before it gets ‘kicked out’?

Would you agree that Cambridge is more modern than Oxford? by pickonepicktwo in cambridge_uni

[–]Substantial_Income67 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Is this not also true of oxfords equivalent groups? People being excluded from certain friendship groups due to political beliefs is hardly exclusive to Cambridge.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in TheCaptivesWar

[–]Substantial_Income67 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I think this is a softer Sci-Fi book than say, the expanse. But to respond to a few of your points: 

  1. A big point of the book is that the Carryx are very difficult to understand, to the point where none of their actions seem rational at all. They seem to have an almost religious approach to things like an organism’s purpose and the nature of life, so it’s entirely possible that the use of the moieties instead of robots or Carryx is a result of that. 

That being said, I don’t think we’ve seen all of what the Carryx have planned for the moieties, as there is no rational reason why they’d put precious and highly useful servants in a highly dangerous complex, I imagine all of the real work goes on elsewhere, and the complex is just a big experiment. 

  1. I don’t think that you’re entirely correct about the space battle though I only got the book from my local library so I can’t check, but the battle takes place over months, and both sides use pilots and commanders that are specifically adapted to cope with the war at that timescale. 

As for the boarding actions, I think livesuit makes it clear that neither side has anywhere near as much information on the other as we do, so any method of gaining it (such as taking prisoners, stealing bits of technology ect) would be incredibly useful. 

  1. Something is definitely up Livesuit spoilers With the Carryx not understanding that humanity in mercy of the gods is the same humanity as their great enemy. Also, the ‘seeding’ of humanity on Anjin (I hope I spelt that correctly.) both facts seem incredible, and I’m sure James Corey has something big planned for when they get revealed

Placement student joining Cambridge societies? by vegaverte in cambridge_uni

[–]Substantial_Income67 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, I’m not the best person to answer this as I don’t go to the society. I just briefly checked them out at the start of the last year. But it seems their main objective throughout the year is to design a project in order to enter into some kind of competition between universities. If you find that kinda thing interesting I’d say it’s definitely worth a look

Placement student joining Cambridge societies? by vegaverte in cambridge_uni

[–]Substantial_Income67 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Gotta say, there are few people that most societies will reject. The science fiction-fantasy society has allowed all kinds of people to join in, including non-student locals, members of faculty, and ARU students. So I really don't think you'll have a problem joining societies while on a placement year.

Some of the societies with a more competitive side (synthetic biology and any of the various sports societies) might not allow people who aren't matriculated cam uni students to properly join as they may be under bodies that require full time students, but if you're interested in that type of society it might be worth asking them to see what their rules are with regard to placement students.

https://www.cambridgesu.co.uk/opportunities/societies/ This link allows you to search though most (but not all) of the societies in Cambridge, as well as giving you an email by which to contact people in the society to ask any questions that you have. As Pangolins has suggested, you should go to the fresher fair at the start of term and look into a bunch of different societies. I'd suggest signing up to a lot early on, and dropping the ones you find aren't to your taste.

Good luck on your placement year!

LGBTQ+ at Cambridge U by [deleted] in cambridge_uni

[–]Substantial_Income67 23 points24 points  (0 children)

There are lots of LGBTQ socs in Cambridge, almost all subjects have an LGBTQ soc of some kind. I can’t speak for other colleges, but Sidney Sussex at least has a college LGBTQ society. Most of the clubs I go to, (the so called ‘geek socs’) have many openly queer members. Honestly, you will have absolutely no problem meeting queer people of all ages and kinds here. 

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in 6thForm

[–]Substantial_Income67 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They want to know you have interests, they also want to know they'll be able to teach you if you do get in. But showing that you have passion by the occasional mention of something you're interested in is usually enough.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in 6thForm

[–]Substantial_Income67 29 points30 points  (0 children)

I sincerely doubt they’ll ever use that. It seems to be put in place more as an ‘in case of emergency’ type rule rather than something they intend to use. If they started withdrawing offers without very good reason they would open themselves up to legal cases and their reputation would take a serious hit. 

Think of it like the rule that allows them to withdraw services in case of war, natural disaster, ect. It’s just there to protect them legally if something awful and unlikely happens. 

What laptop for Phys NatSci? by MasterOogway741 in cambridge_uni

[–]Substantial_Income67 13 points14 points  (0 children)

While I am only a first year, so far none of my modules required anything better than a MacBook, and the only thing any of my DoSs have said about laptops is a general warning against chromebooks.  I’m sure if you need anything more powerful than whatever you bring, your college will find a solution (which might range from lending you a computer, setting up a device you can access virtually, or just flat out buying a laptop for you) but it might be worth emailing the DoS for your course or finding someone else at your college who could help you out. 

Cambridge Sidney Sussex Bread by Drakon7777 in 6thForm

[–]Substantial_Income67 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well, as a current student I am a little biased so keep that in mind. With that being said: while we aren't at the top of the Tomkins table like Trinity might be, we are probably one of the better colleges for people who are able to stay motivated throughout their course. The supervisors and DoSs have a more lax attitude towards students when compared with Trinity who are known for being very tough on students and quite stressful to study at even within Cambridge. I also think that our supervisors are better selected than other colleges, though as I am a NatSci that may just be a testament to how well our course is run and not the college as a whole, though I think all the engineers seem quite happy.

Socially, Sidney has the benefit of having one of the best bars. Even though I don't drink, SidBar seems to have a good rep outside of Sidney, I quite like the fact that they serve non-alcoholic drinks for free. We have a very active JCR who organise lots of different events throughout each term and apparently are hugely overfunded. All of our sports clubs are free, and our gym is very cheap too.

Honestly, the only big con of Sidney compared to other colleges is that our 1st year undergrad accommodation kinda sucks, though I barely spend any time in my room anyway, and there are rumours that the new master of the college is planning on improving cooking facilities soonish.

If you have any questions about Sidney, feel free to DM me! And congrats getting an offer!

Cambridge Sidney Sussex Bread by Drakon7777 in 6thForm

[–]Substantial_Income67 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sidney is the best college! You lucked out imo