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Clare College, Cambridge
From The Student RoomTSR Wiki > University > Choosing a University > University Guides > Cambridge > Clare College, Cambridge
Location Old CourtClare's Old Court is situated on the Backs, tucked behind King's Chapel and next door to Trinity Hall. Old Court contains around 50 rooms for students (mostly 3rd years) as well as the Master's Lodge, the Chapel, Hall, Buttery, the Bar, JCR and MCR, as well as some function rooms and supervision rooms. From the back of Old Court you can walk out onto Clare Bridge, reputed as one of the most romantic locations in Cambridge, and across the Backs through the lovely Fellows' Garden to Queen's Road.  Memorial Court"Mem Court" lies across Queen's Road, directly in front of the University Library, which is very convenient! It is also very close to the Sidgwick site, making it ideal for lazy Arts students. It is possible to get up at 8:55 for 9:00 lectures! It's also very useful for returning library books and the like, there's not such a long trek. All first years live in Mem or the associated Ashby and Thirkill, along with a smattering of international graduate students and 2nd/3rd years (V staircase in Thirkill is commonly where 4th-year Linguists end up). The college library (Forbes Mellon Library, or FML) is also in Mem. Court, beneath which are music practice rooms and the LCR (see below). The ColonyThe Colony is the least beautiful area of Clare. It is a disparate collection of buildings on Chesterton Lane, ranging from converted Victorian townhouses to 60s concrete monstrosities. Most 2nd years and some 3rd years live here. It is further from all academic sites, but these are still easily reachable by bike in 5-10 minutes. Despite some buildings being less-than-beautiful, the Colony has a good community feeling. AccommodationFirst yearAs already mentioned, all first years live in Memorial Court. A large number of these rooms are en-suite sets (a living room and separate bedroom) with others having a bathroom shared between two single bedrooms. There is, however, other accomodation on offer, from sloped-ceiling attic rooms (a lot of space for a very cheap rent) as well as sociable shared ensuite rooms- one bathroom for two rooms. Parents can be reassured that all price ranges are catered for, so to speak! The sets are wonderfully spacious, but rents are naturally higher on these. It is possible to request an en-suite, or to ask for a cheaper room, along with many other possible requirements. Once students have recieved confirmation of their place at Clare, they are sent a form detailing their accomodation requirements; are size and facilities more important than cost is one typical question. This is aimed at allowing first years to obtain a room within their price and comfort range. All rooms in Mem are being refurbished with new carpets, curtains and furniture, if they haven't already got them. There are traditionally at least two "Musical Staircases" (normally S and T) on which everyone plays instruments, not always at civilised hours. The staircase arrangement of Mem is great for developing a group of friends, and tea parties will soon be distracting you for hours!  Mem court is used a lot for conferences/interviewees, and so you will have to move out fairly promptly at the end of term. However, for those international students and those keen to revise or work, Clare are very accommodating and it is generally possible to have accommodation over the holidays. Possibly the only drawback is the building of Clare's New Court (imaginative name!) next door, which means during the day students living on the right side of Mem have to put up with building noise and an unattractive view of the building site from their window. Still, it's not as if there aren't libraries nearby to work in, and it's a small price to pay for what is overall excellent accommodation. You will appreciate it even more once you start inviting friends round from other colleges whose rooms are literally a third the size of yours... 2nd and 3rd yearAll accommodation at Clare is chosen by random ballot, there are no scholars' rooms. The random numbers are allocated for choosing 2nd year accommodation and reverse for the 3rd year, so anyone with a bad 2nd year choice could end up with an Old Court palace for their 3rd year if they should so desire. There is a range of shared accommodation, mostly at the Colony, which can be balloted for in groups of varying sizes (between 4 and 6). There are also some shared sets in Old Court. If you don't wish to go for shared accommodation, or your group is unsuccessful, you can ballot individually. Both group and individual ballot have their share of nice and nasty rooms. Rents are on the increase but remain reasonable compared with other colleges. The Colony is only used in the summer for conferences, so it is possible to pay for a 9 month lease and stay in your room from October to June. Even if you don't have a 9 month lease, you can usually leave things in your room over the holidays. Graduate AccommodationMost graduate accommodation is on or near Chesterton Road, either in St Regis House or in houses nearby. The exception is for clinical medics, who get special houses on Queen Edith's Way (near Addenbrooke's) to keep them out of the way of everyone else. Unfortunately graduate accommodation is not available to undergraduates on 4 year courses, who have to find their own place. The college is in the process of building a new block of accommodation on the side of the Memorial Court complex, some of which will also be for graduates. If you do choose to live out (or in the case of 4th years, have to) college pays a rent subsidy of half the difference between your rent and an average college rent, up to a maximum of £50 a month. Social SpacesGardensClare gardens are well known for being beautiful and well-kept. We even grew bananas in them recently! The Scholars' Garden, immediately on the left after leaving Old Court, is small but lovely for eating lunch in during the summer, and is not open to the public. The Fellows' Garden is open to the general public in the summer, is the main display garden, and is perfect for relaxing on the riverbanks while failing to revise.  The lawns within and to the front of Memorial court are also usable in summer, and can be hired for garden parties. Dining/HallClare charges all students a Kitchen Fixed Charge (£102 in 2007-08) which subsidises food in the Buttery and pays for the small gyp rooms on each staircase. Normal meals are served in the Buttery, below the Hall, are paid for using your swipe card and added to your bill at the end of term. The cost of a main meal is around £2-3, although prices have just gone up. Quality of food is...interesting. Mostly edible but quite often less than healthy (large amounts of oil/grease) and with limited vegetarian options. The buttery staff seem to have an obsession with fried potatoes, and various types are availble every day. As a result, the lunch served in the Hall above (soup, salad, sandwiches) tends to be more popular on weekdays. The hot puddings are particularly nice. Formal Hall is on Monday to Thursday for undergraduates and currently costs £5.50 for Clare students and £6.75 for guests, payable using your buttery card. Pennying is allowed if not too raucously carried out but the wine limit of half a bottle means that there are few total disasters in hall itself. Students will often book formal for birthdays, or prior to nights out drinking. The food is variable in quality, and vegetarian options often unimaginative - veggies will probably find themselves receiving the same salad starter and mushroom filo parcel several times a term (not that I'm bitter or anything). A Latin Grace is always said by one of the Fellows at the start of the meal, but don't let this put you off - we are encouraged to view it as part of studying at a place with traditions, rather than an overtly religious move on the part of the college staff! No one understands the Latin, anyway... A popular translation is, "may you leave knowing a little bit more than when you arrived". Small Hall is, as the name suggests, a smaller version of hall just opposite the main one. It can be hired out for private dinners for special occasions or society annual dinners, which usually cost around £15-20 a head depending on the menu. BarClare Bar is student run, and has some of the lowest prices in Cambridge. It is situated in the crypt underneath the chapel and is wonderfully atmospheric as well as being (like the rest of the college) very friendly. JCRThe JCR (Junior Combination Room) is attached to the bar, and is mostly known as Clare Cellars. On weeknights, it is mainly used for socialising and drinking before going out, or relaxing after a hard day's work. There is a large screen TV put up for important matches or sometimes just for TV. There is a smaller TV next to the bar itself. On the weekends, Clare Cellars is used for ents, featuring a range of acts and DJs, and attended by students from the whole university. As well as normal ents, there are also Jazz, Comedy and Open mic nights throughout the term. Of these, Clare Jazz has established a great reputation on the circuit. Clare Comedy is perhaps the highlight of events. Typically compered by Matt Kirshen, professional stand-up comic and Clare Alum, it features students in the first half and a pro comedian in the second. LCRThis is a small room within the library building, where there are coffee and tea making facilities, daily papers, a TV and occasionally vending machines. The latter two function somewhat sporadically, but in exam term there is usually a large crowd of people who gather every day to watch Neighbours before scurrying back to revision. Aside from that it's just a nice place to take a break from work and chill for a bit. There is also a growing collection of light fiction books, for something altogether lighter to read. MCRThe Middle Combination Room is for graduate students, though undergraduate 4th years such as linguists, engineers and part III natscis are also allowed in. It is in Old Court, at the bottom of E staircase (opposite the entrance to Hall). It has daily papers, a selection of magazines, a small computer room and comfy sofas. The bar is open every Friday after MCR formal hall and, while it does not have the range of "normal" drinks that the JCR does, it has an excellent selection of single malt whiskies, mostly at only £1 a shot. MCR formal usually has slightly better food than undergrad hall, has 2 glasses of wine provided with dinner and there is no wine limit. Despite this, it remains mostly civilised. Normal tickets are around £5.50, but the first guest ticket is only £2. Colony Common RoomThis is a larger room in the rather unlovely Castle End building. It has a TV and DVD player as well as a chocolate machine (essential for exam term!) Other Rooms in ClareThere are a few other rooms in college which, while not used for everyday undergraduate activities, can be booked for parties or society events such as rehearsals for plays or concerts. These include the Blythe Room, the Latimer room and the Gatehouse. The Hepple Room in Old Court D staircase contains a PC and a Mac, as well as a small fiction library, the daily and weekly papers, and lots of comfy armchairs for students waiting to go to a supervision, or who just generally want to chill somewhere that's quiet. Library and ComputingLibraryThe Forbes Mellon Library is, as already mentioned, in Mem Court. Open from 8:00am to midnight (2am during exam term), it is well-stocked for science students, with multiple copies of most major texts, and able to get most requests quite quickly. Arts students, particularly those in their final year, may have to spend more time in their departments or the UL - although there is a significant amount of books, that lot can just never get enough! The FML also has a surprisingly good DVD section, with a large amount of comedy stuff donated, very kindly, by Clare Comedy, but there are also artsy and foreign films for the more serious-minded. Lawyers have their own special library (access by University Card only) in J staircase of Ashby (Memorial) Court, donated by the late Professor Lipstein (who unfortunately died recently, still supervising and teaching at the age of 97) and eponymously named the Lipstein Room. Computer SuiteThere are several computer rooms around the college. There is a small room within the FML itself, where the photocopier also lives (used by putting money on your University Card to gain photocopying "units"). Outside the FML is the Neild Room with another 7 or so machines, a mixture of Macs and PCs which can run Windows or Linux. K staircase in Mem Court also has its own computer suite on the ground floor. The Colony has a larger computer room under the Blythe Room in Castle House. Room ConnectionAll rooms on all sites have an optional Ethernet connection which costs around £23 a term. It was limited to 10Mbps at the Colony for various reasons; this is being improved over summer to 100Mbps. In Mem, if you live in a staircase near the FML, you can also borrow the wireless internet from there but the same termly fee applies. WelfareClare looks after its students very well, and has lots of established welfare systems. Each student is allocated a Tutor, who is a Fellow from a different subject, who they can contact about any worries they may have. They are very useful for sorting out financial or academic problems. However, much more commonly used is the lovely College Nurse and the UCS (Union of Clare Students) Welfare Officer. Both pregnancy tests available and there are free condoms available in the Nurse's office, as well as lots of information about all sorts of situations. All Freshers are also allocated college parents, who look after them in their first few weeks, cooking dinner for them on the first night and generally minding them. They also get a college sibling. Some Freshers barely see their parents after Freshers Week, others become great friends or even more... The Union of Clare Students (UCS)Clare's own student body elect the UCS committee to represent their interests to the college. The UCS run the Fresher's Event (it's not even a week long, unfortunately- this says something about Cambridge...) and the several college-only bops (themed cheesy discos) of each term, as well as providing support for academic, social and other aspects of college life. They finance societies and have a number of elected representatives and campaigns, from the Access campaign to the Womens', LBGT and Green representatives. They effectively handle the everyday student representation for you, with a far bigger role in students' lives than CUSU, the university's union of students. The UCS is also nominally responsible for running the college's weekly newspaper, 'Clareification'- although a "gossip ridden scandal rag run off on a photocopier", or "an unholy cross between 'Private Eye' and 'The Sun' on a bad day" are perhaps more fitting descriptions. Full of gossip, amusing quotes, satirical articles and jokes, it is eagerly awaited by students every Friday- if only to ensure that their names don't appear in Clareifornication, the (lighthearted) gossip column.
FinancesStudying at Cambridge need not be any more expensive than studying anywhere else. A major bonus of the collegiate system is the availability of financial help for those in need. Whilst Clare isn't the richest college (Trinity scoops that dubious honour) the highly approachable and friendly tutorial Bursar will enable you to gain whatever financial support you need, whether travel grants, a short-term loan, or a non-repayable bursary. All such conferences are fully confidential. Some undergraduates have found Clare to be more liberal and generous with the financial support than other colleges with similar levels of wealth. AtmosphereClare is a really unpretentious and friendly college, and there isn't a typical "Clare Student" - people just enjoy being themselves! It is a genuinely nice place to work and live, not merely because the students are 'nice', but because it is fairly mixed. There is a good balance of state to private school students. Students are encouraged to work hard, but we are not hot-housed - and students who struggle with personal or academic issues have a wonderful pastoral system to look out for them (the college nurse in particular is a legend!). The pretty buildings and quality of accommodation too helps make sure your time here will be comfortable. SportsClare's performance and participation in sports is between average and poor. Last year the football team scored only one goal in the entire season! Unlike, for example, Jesus, there are no sports pitches on site (save the croquet set in Memorial Court- sometimes it is fun to live up to the stereotype...) but that does not limit participation. Many sports clubs are active at college level, from rugby (mens' and womens'), football, hockey, lacrosse, rowing, and many others. Clare's playing fields are a short cycle ride away in the south of town, and the boathouse is, as expected, on the river. Sports can be played at any level, from absolute beginner to college, BUSA and Blues (university) level. Taking rowing as an example, the college is performing well and has a full training programme in place for those who have never rowed before but who wish to take up the sport, whether for a summer term's fun, for fitness, or for serious competition. Generally, the college sports teams aim to compete in "Cuppers", against other colleges. FacilitiesStudent-eye view |
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