FAQs

On Open Days and when prospective students contact us there are some questions that seem particularly popular so we thought we’d put together a brief FAQ page. If your particular question isn’t answered here, or you’d like a more detailed explanation about something, feel free to get in touch with any of the JCR Exec members – see the contact page for more details.

Is Christ's for me? What can you offer?

Christ’s has an excellent system for academic support but, as there is a little bit more on that below, I’ll concentrate on extra-curricular activities here.

There are a huge number of societies within Christ’s, catering for pretty much every possible interest from sport, to drama, to music. A full list of the societies available can be found by clicking the ‘sports and societies’ link.

Musically there is loads going on, from a chapel choir that perform regularly, to a music society with a number of performances throughout the year. As well as the musical performances CADS, the college amateur dramatic society, puts on a number of shows throughout the year and benefits from being one of the few college-based societies to possess its own theatre within college. The theatre has recently been fully re-developed and fitted with top-of-the-range equipment.

In terms of sports a quick glance at the societies list shows that just about every sport is played by Christ’s students. For the more popular sports such as football the college enters multiple teams enabling people of all abilities to take part. Moreover, if there’s a sport you play that’s not catered for you can always apply to get a team going, and that applies for all societies!
However, the one of the best aspects of Christ's is that every one of these societies is always keen for more members, regardless of ability. So if you've always wanted to give lacrosse/rugby/rowing a try, at Christ's you'll have the chance.
And if that isn't your scene then what could be better than a beautiful, 500 year old college that is used to supporting high achievement, located right in the centre of town?

I’ve heard Christ’s is very strong academically, why is that and does that reputation make the college harder to get into?

Christ's has done well in the college league tables (which are assembled from various things, but mostly from the class mark (first, 2:1, 2:2 etc) that final year students get) over the last 10 years or so. This does *not* mean that we get more qualified applicants or that it’s harder to get in.

There's no set-in-stone reason why our college has done well. If there was everyone would do it! It could be due to a number of things

• excellent academic staff
• great college welfare, and an atmosphere of encouragement when people do well
• interviewers being able to select the best candidates
• a fantastic college student union who do loads to help out the students
• good facilities, like a library and computer room open 24-7
• shedloads of non-academic things to do, dozens of sports and societies to get involved with
• a slightly larger yearly influx of international students, who's results as a group are often excellent

I was just wondering if Christ's is super religious as the name would suggest?

Not at all! Many of the colleges here are named in a religious way (like Jesus, Magdalene, Trinity) but that doesn't mean that the college or its students are super-religious! There's a big mix of religions at every college, including Christ's. Many people aren't religious at all.

When are the college Open Days?

Find out here at the Open Days page.

Do I need to separately apply for accommodation, or is it done through my normal application?

Nope, you don't need to apply separately for accommodation - this is done through your normal application. You may well be given a room in the New Court 'Typewriter' building, where many lucky Freshers get to live each year. Due to a major renovation over the last few years, these are some of the newest and nicest rooms in College. If you want an idea what that's like, take a look at the picture here (College Map). It's the grey one at the back! Even better is the fact that so many Freshers living in close proximity means making friends is dead easy – though that’s not to say it’s any harder if you don’t live in New Court, I didn’t and quickly made friends.

I've read that Freshers' week is only a Fresher's 4 days because Term starts so soon. Is this true?

Bah! Freshers week is a good laugh (the JCR here are making sure of it!), and its just that, a week. We at the Student Union here in Christ's have organised things that go on all week , and probably a bit more actually. The University Student Union has organised some events that go on in the second week, so as not to clash with the colleges' events. However - there is a but. You'll arrive on a Sunday, and you may well have introductory lectures on the Thursday and Friday of Fresher's week. This doesn't mean that Freshers' week isn't still going on, its just that you get to find out all about your subject early on.

Does Christ's offer self-catering?

Technically no. Since people live in college for the vast majority of their time at Christ’s there is a canteen that caters for everybody. Reaction to the food is mixed, personally I don’t have any complaints, but some people don’t rate it. What’s great is that you just use your college card to pay for the food (you can use it in the bar too!) and then you settle the bill at the end of term. On top of that the food is very cheap – only a couple of quid for a full cooked meal and a dessert.

There are, however, some basic cooking facilities available on every corridor, and people do make use of these to cook for themselves.