Chapel Court

I joined Jesus in 2011 to read Computer Science. At school I had done a lot of mathematics, so the theoretical nature of the Cambridge course appealed to me. As well as a strong theoretical grounding, however, the course gives a thorough introduction to many practical aspects early on, such as chip design and a variety of programming languages. There are plenty of opportunities later in the course to expand on these, and the result is an education that is both wide ranging and in depth.

I took a particular...

I chose Linguistics at Jesus College, having really enjoyed English Language at A-Level, because I wanted to study topics like child language acquisition and the history of the English language in greater depth. The Linguistics course more than lived up to my expectations; there are so many more areas to study than you realise when you first apply. I especially enjoyed conducting my own experiments in the phonetics lab – it was great to be able to learn practical, as well as theoretical, aspects of Linguistics.

My final year dissertation...

When I arrived at Jesus for my interviews, I fell in love with the beautiful, unique architecture. The open spaces and green areas made me feel at home, and I was determined not to let the opportunity to live and work here slip through my fingers. Our library has one of the largest Classics sections of any College library; it’s right in the middle of College and accessible 24/7.

Classics is a small subject, and only a few universities offer it at the highest level - I chose Cambridge because...

I knew straight away that Jesus College was the one that I really wanted to go to. It is a beautiful and old College steeped in traditions and everyone I have met here has been lovely and supportive, which makes all the hard work so worthwhile. Classics here is really strong, with a number of eminent scholars teaching us on a regular basis who all specialise in different fields. I feel very privileged to be learning from them.

Classics is such a varied degree because it incorporates languages, history, art...

Before applying, I thought it was far out of my reach, that Cambridge was only for naturally gifted geniuses, but after I started studying I realised that couldn’t be further from the truth.

The vast majority of people here work hard and love their subject, by far the most important factors for making the most of studying your subject at university. Jesus has a really strong contingent of historians sitting a range of papers, so we all give each other help and advice as well as learning from academic staff...