The colleges in Cambridge bear some resemblance to American college dormitories, but they are more. I frankly don't understand all the ways they are different, but it appears that students who want to attend Cambridge University have to be accepted by a college for a particular subject. Somehow lecturers for that subject are based in the colleges. The college we lived in, Westminster College, is actually not a part of Cambridge University. Instead, it's a part of the Cambridge Theological Federation, which is made up of colleges where people train to be ministers or study theology or religion.
Our friends who live in London visited us in Cambridge a few days before we left. Their grandson was to interview at one of the colleges, Gonville and Caius College, a few days later. So I'll start with a few photos of that college, because we walked through it with our friends.
Many of the colleges charge admission to walk through or are simply closed to visitors. Several let visitors walk around in them. In the case of Gonville and Caius, we looked it up on Google Maps and saw that it was arranged around several courtyards, as are most colleges. We went with our friends to the gate (the "porter's lodge") and told the porter that their grandson was going to interview there and asked if we could look at the first courtyard. He told us to look around at all the courtyards if we wanted, but just not to walk up any of the staircases (which lead to the students' rooms).
Here are a photos of a few other colleges.
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| St John's College |
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| St John's College Chapel |
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| St John's College Chapel inside |
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| Christ College |
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| Pembroke College |
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| Clare College gate with King's College Chapel in background |
