Christ's

Will

I really love the green areas available in Christ's - Christ's has a Fellows' Garden which all students can go into during the daytime. This is an incredibly nice space which our gardeners put a lot of effort into and is really quite large. Especially during summer it's a great place to have picnics, revise outside and generally relax with friends, but even throughout the year it's nice to walk around to take some time away from the high intensity life at Cambridge!

Yii-Ling

The friendly and supportive people - students across all years, the porters, the staff - and the college cats Finch and Baines also add to this warm environment!

Georgie

My favourite thing about Christ's is how strong the sense of community is within College. Everyone has always been so welcoming and friendly and really helped the transition to University life so much easier.

Will

I lived in a small building, with 10 freshers living in it, on the college site with rent of around £1400 per term. It was a really nice room with plenty of space so people came round to my room to hang out a lot! It had shared bathrooms and showers between the 10 of us, but there was always enough of each for all of us. Our kitchens (which we had two of) were quite small but had hobs, a microwave and a toaster as well as a fridge.

Yii-Ling

My first year accommodation was a small ensuite room, £1,376 per term in Typewriter, New Court (NB: This will change based on inflation, so only true for my first year at Christ's 2021-22). The room was great value for an ensuite, and had a huge desk and lots of storage space in the room and a cupboard outside for storage of some of your things when you move out for each term. I really loved having a balcony - a lovely space to use especially in Summer to read a book/have a picnic!

Georgie

In first year I lived in the Typewriter. The outside of the building might not be to everyone's taste, but I really enjoyed living there for first year. I cooked with my friends most nights and despite the lack of ovens, we still managed to get creative with the meals we were making using the hobs and microwave. Our laundry is all free (with washing powder provided!) and there were a few washing machines and dryers placed conveniently in the building.

Yii-Ling

Food at college is good on the whole and caters to all dietary needs! In Upper Hall where we have our lunch and dinner on weekdays and brunch on weekends, meals are there are relatively cheap (£4/£4.50/£5 for mains, £2.30 for sides without mains, 70p for soup, £1.30 for dessert) and we always have halal, vegetarian and vegan options and best of all we have free unlimited sides from pasta, salad to chips! There's often a themed menu on Fridays. Brunch is great, English breakfast and also waffles and pancakes.   Formal hall food - three course meals - can vary but is generally great. I particularly enjoy the themed ones like Halloween, Bridgemas (Cambridge Christmas) and Pink Week Formal menus.   The Buttery in particular is good for snacks such as sandwiches, paninis, fruit and cakes as well as soft drinks, Costa coffee at a student discount of 20%, tea, hot chocolate, milkshakes etc, and it becomes a bar in the evening! It is also where breakfast is on weekdays. Our buttery staff are great at coming up with lots of exciting new/themed drinks.

Georgie

I really enjoyed the social aspect of cooking with friends most nights, but meals were always served in upper hall, so I could choose to eat there whenever I wanted to for lunch or dinner.I've always really enjoyed the food served in upper hall (especially chip fridays!) and know people that eat there for lunch and dinner every day.

Yii-Ling

Christ's offers a range of support for its students. Students can reach out to their allocated pastoral tutor (or any other tutor) at any time to discuss any matters concerning them. The college also has a free and unlimited counselling service that students can take advantage of, either through their tutor or directly through a counsellor. Porters are always available for students to reach out to if they have any issues.

Georgie

The College Nurse has a background as a mental health nurse and students can contact her on any day to book an appointment or can drop by at her scheduled drop-in times to have a chat. During the exam period there were also drop-in counselling sessions available for anyone to book. There are also two JCR Welfare Officers who hold drop-in sessions and run events throughout term (such as welfare walks and movie nights). It is always easy to find information and help if you do need it and your tutor would always be able to help point you in the right direction.

Yii-Ling

The gym has two treadmills; two elliptical trainers (or cross trainers); an exercise bike; various weight resistance machines; a large exercise ball (also called a stability ball or a Pilates ball).   Our Yusuf Hamied Theatre is a performance space in College and is used throughout the year for both plays and lectures or large meetings in College.It seats a friendly-sized audience of 119 people in the fixed, tiered seats, leaving a flexible space in front of the stage which can either be used either as performance space or to seat additional audience members. It has up-to-date audio visual equipment.   There are around four accessible rooms in college. Two are in New Court and two in second court. In the room ballot process, disabled students needs are considered and get the rooms fitting for their accessibility needs.

Will

If I had to change anything about college I would probably want a bigger library, as our library, although useful as it is 24/7 and our librarians are lovely, is a little small. This isn't usually a major issue as even when we are in exam term there's space with the extra revision spaces opened up in college, and we can always go to departmental libraries anyway, but sometimes I think it would be nice.

Georgie

I think it is a rare thing in Cambridge, but it would be nice to have larger shared spaces in accommodation blocks (larger kitchens with seating or a living room). As I cooked a lot in my first year, it would have been nice to have a larger space to eat, relax and work with friends.