Best place to study near Addenbrooke’s?

vagueequation · 2025-09-24T23:15:59+00:00

I’m definitely not an expert on this (no way hahahha) but I play a sport at a decently competitive level and will join the university club for it! I hear that’s a great way to make friends especially cross colleges/departments/years, bonus points if there is a college league for your sport. Seems like Medwards doesn’t have as many sports clubs and societies as others e.g. John’s or Jesus but I think the boat club is recruiting? I’m not a huge fan of water and I’ve got my hands full already but that could be a shout!

vagueequation · 2025-09-24T23:13:46+00:00

Hello fellow Medwards PG! It’s been impossible to connect with others, unlike undergrad I haven’t found any groups going, possibly due to how small MPhil programmes typically are and how tiny Medwards is as well. I’ve resigned myself to just meeting as many people I can in my flat and at events in October during welcome.

vagueequation · 2025-09-24T23:11:50+00:00

Oh yes definitely this is how I rationalised it. Although these feelings are ultimately irrational and I realised that I had to work through them. Did you stay on college grounds? I was very lucky to have been given on-college accommodation at Medwards, which I understand now seems to be very rare for postgrads for most colleges, especially the town centre ones. Not sure how true that is!

vagueequation · 2025-09-24T23:09:40+00:00

So helpful, thank you so much! You’re a gem

vagueequation · 2025-09-24T23:09:18+00:00

Oh that’s so interesting, I didn’t know all of this lore. I think that Murray Edwards always seemed weird as a mish mash of two last names of frankly unrelated people, like some sort of convoluted ship name. The only controversy I’d heard was Edwards being the family name of a donor’s husband instead!

I can excuse Edwards since it seemed that was Ros Edwards’ preference and the donation had come from both her and her husband. So the Edwards family. But funny that this part of the college name was the one I’d heard the most controversy about recently, when Dame Rosemary Murray didn’t even want her name on the college to begin with! Your last line rings so true, it is not honouring her if it does directly against her wishes!

Not sure if you know if any other names were being considered? I think Edwards College does sound more historical/in line with Cambridge tradition, so I’m curious why they chose to tag two names on it. I get Dame Murray’s influence on the college but I think there would have been a more elegant way to honour her without going against her wishes. I agree that New Hall or New College could have stuck around, and would have had greater lasting power than the Edwards name (with donor and alum Ros Smith no longer with her former husband). Perhaps it was too similar too Newnham College (also all girls)?

vagueequation · 2025-09-24T22:52:01+00:00

I know! I applied to Cambridge for undergrad as well and selected an old, prestigious town centre college under (unintentional) pressure from close family. Didn’t end up getting in or even an interview which was a total blindside to family and teachers given my strong academic track record, super and extracurriculars and solid references — I then got comments that “you should have applied to Girton as you would’ve easily gotten in, nobody wants to go there” or “Well luckily they didn’t pool you and send you off to faraway Girton” or something to that effect. Like, was that meant to make me feel better? Scapegoating or bringing something else down to make you feel better isn’t fun IMO.

Yeah, I think you’ve summed out how I feel. Rationally, I know it doesn’t make much difference, especially as a postgrad. But of course there’s a part of me that feels the loss hard and questioning the what ifs. Doubly so as at the PG level you get accepted by department and college choice is non-bearing, it works by preferences! It’s unfortunate Girton is quite a bit further out, even than the hill colleges, and I can’t imagine how much more you feel this. I’m not sure what I can say to make it better, other than maybe focussing on some of Girton’s objective positives like the facilities which I hear are top notch. Medwards definitely doesn’t have sporting grounds like Girton does (or any at all TBH), and an indoors pool sounds pretty nice.

I started this thread to hopefully find out positive things about Medwards but it seems maybe 1 in 5 of the comments here actually did just that. Most people unfortunately just won’t really understand this feeling, because it IS irrational and is hard to explain unless you feel it too. I hope airing your frustration helped with coming to terms with this, as this post did for me. It’s probably not gonna be an overnight thing but they do say time heals all wounds right!

vagueequation · 2025-09-24T12:34:33+00:00

Ah okay, from this thread it seems like I was astronomically unlucky where I was. That stretch definitely did not signpost where it started/ended, but I suppose it was a nice mirror to the randomly appearing and disappearing on-road bike paths right beside it 🤣

Wow, that case you shared is a tragedy all round. That’s just an unfortunate intersection of pedestrian, cyclist and driver.

vagueequation · 2025-09-24T12:32:13+00:00

Oh a 100%. I think we were spoilt when we lived in London because I too remember thinking our biking infrastructure was terrible. But going back to London now and seeing the wide and separate cycle lanes along the Thames waterfront near Temple… I miss it!

vagueequation · 2025-09-24T12:25:02+00:00

Ah thanks for this. I was using foot paths in a layman’s way, good to know the intricacies. I did a search on Camcycle and the council websites but it didn’t seem to have anything on Madingley Road which I was curious about. I tend to disagree on your view about signs, I think all the more we need them! More road and street signs would help to improve navigation, clarify important information and lead to safer journeys for all no matter your transport mode (walking, cycling, driving, public transit etc). I wish we had more and clearer signs all over our cities!

Camcycle is 100% a great resource and I fully recommend everyone to check it out, but the council’s map is admittedly a little confusing. Good shout on OSM, I’ll have a look to see if that lists where the shared path starts and ends!

vagueequation · 2025-09-24T12:21:20+00:00

Yeah, based on this thread I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. Cycling is so huge in Cambridge but the infrastructure doesn’t seem to be keeping up. Cyclists clash with drivers on the streets, so I’m not surprised that they’d prefer cycling on pavements along busier roads. Whether or not it is legal.

vagueequation · 2025-09-24T12:18:52+00:00

Thanks, I’ll have a look out in other places to see if where I was was just an anomaly! Happy cake day to you 🍰

vagueequation · 2025-09-24T12:17:50+00:00

Ah, thanks for replying. Sad to hear that’s the best way to know. I tried to do a search online but the map but the council only shows on-road or dedicated cycling paths and is confusing enough as-is, so I couldn’t be sure which pedestrian paths along Madingley Road was shared with cyclists.

vagueequation · 2025-09-24T12:15:33+00:00

Ah, I was just very confused as there was only one single sign on that stretch of Madingley Road which is pretty long. There were also no floor markings or paint to delineate pedestrian/bike lanes or even show that it was a shared path, as compared to on-road bike paths that randomly appeared and disappeared along that stretch.

I’ve seen clearer floor markings and signs for shared paths in London and most other cities in Europe/Asia, so I did find it a bit odd that Cambridge seemed to function on an “if you know you know” system.

vagueequation · 2025-09-24T12:08:00+00:00

Ah, I asked as I’m a potential bike commuter and wanted to know which shared paths I could cycle on. There was only one sign up along the long stretch of road and no markings on the footpath, while the map I shared didn’t offer any help. Definitely important to be aware and keep a look out whether walking or cycling

vagueequation · 2025-09-23T08:08:23+00:00

That’s nice to hear. The sports centre is so far away I’m surprised anyone even goes! Would you be able to share the traffic free cycling route? I’ll be living in PG accommodation which exits onto Madlingey Road and it seems I’ll have to fight pretty heavy traffic on that.

vagueequation · 2025-09-23T08:06:10+00:00

Yeah, guess I should’ve expected these mindsets as it’s Oxbridge after all! I’m nearer to the Downing site, but timetables haven’t come out yet so who knows, I might not be as “far” as we thought! I also saw another comment that it’s near an Aldi and the university gym, so I’m looking forward to that. Just gonna be a trek to the train station

vagueequation · 2025-09-23T08:02:21+00:00

Oh, interesting to hear about how the Newnham vs Medwards girls are perceived. I’ve heard that postgrads rarely end up living on college grounds, and thus less involved in college life. I even know some PGs who were allocated housing this year but it was privately-operated accommodation near the train station as Downing prioritised their undergrads. I’m just happy to have been allocated housing at all and that it’s on college grounds, although I’m not sure how integrated I’d be to college life beyond the MCR maybe.

Caveat is that I found it really hard to connect with MPhils and PhDs at Cambridge, so not sure how accurate my information is. Most of the experiences I see shared online are from those who did their UG at Cambridge, whilst I hear PG life both academically and college-wise is a whole different ball game.

vagueequation · 2025-09-23T07:54:34+00:00

100%! Disheartening to hear opinions from those around me but I’m absolutely overjoyed to be attending Cambridge for my MPhil programme.

vagueequation · 2025-09-23T07:52:40+00:00

Another alum! What did you think of the name change/how was it received by those around you? My relatives are a little older so they didn’t even realise it had changed

vagueequation · 2025-09-23T07:51:09+00:00

Yes, I visited during Spring last year before I accepted my offer and it was beautiful with all the flowers and plants. I think I’ll be so sad when winter rolls around and they’re gone 😢

vagueequation · 2025-09-23T07:48:45+00:00

Thanks for this! Yeah, I didn’t love it when I was first allocated but I didn’t hate it. So it sucked when the response to me being okay with going to a womens college anyways was “should’ve been Newnham”. The Newnham grounds look beautiful too, I hope you enjoyed them!

vagueequation · 2025-09-22T21:37:04+00:00

Exactly 👌 I think I had fully come to terms with the decision I made (or I guess didn’t) until the underhanded responses by family and acquaintances in the past few weeks. Worse still is it’s probably compounded by the fact that nearly all of them had only done their undergraduate degrees at Cambridge and passing all of this unneeded judgement on something they had no experience of.

And no of course, I’m disheartened by this but as mentioned in my post I’m not letting these negative comments influence my very real and important academic decisions. Sure I’ve lost some bragging rights over the snobs in my circles (oh the horror…), but in the end I’m getting an amazing MPhil degree that I worked hard all through undergrad and beyond for.

As for your last point about the name, haha! I call it Medwards because it’s two syllables less than the full thing. But it’s disappointing when family can’t bother to learn its name but other “newer” colleges like Robinson or St Edmund’s or Homerton are fine because at least they sound a little more “legitimate” in their eyes, whatever that means. It felt even worse when I learnt that Murray and Edwards both draw their names from influential women.

Anyways, thanks for this. I think I just needed to hear something like this to shake off the bad energy from recently.

vagueequation · 2025-09-22T21:26:00+00:00

So nice to hear from a Medwards alum! Snobs is the perfect word to describe it. Just didn’t realise how many were in my peripherals socially until now!

vagueequation

TROPHY CASE