Incoming students each year eagerly await Freshers’ week across the country. Hyped up to be a week packed with nights out, making new friends, and even one-night stands. But does Freshers’ week at Cambridge always live up to such expectations?

I spoke to students at different colleges across Cambridge about their Freshers’ week experiences. Whilst some are emphatically positive about their experiences, others find themselves disappointed. This divergence of opinion, while no doubt impacted by personality or prior experiences, may be up to the college they attend.

Freshers’ weeks are organised independently by each college. Some arrange punting, parties and pub quizzes, with alcohol supplied by the College; other students must settle for a makeshift ‘pres’ in the biggest kitchen available.

While all colleges provide some sort of consent and anti-discrimination workshops, even the quality of these differ between colleges. Trinity hires external organisations whilst Corpus tasks its JCR members with the responsibility. At Pembroke, LGBTQ+, disabled, access and marginalised gender ‘mingles’ are important features of the week. Emma is only this year discussing the introduction of similar safe space sessions.

Even the length of Freshers’ week varies drastically. While the majority of Corpus students have a 4-day Freshers’ ‘week’, Lucy Cavendish and Sidney Sussex provide an additional fully funded ‘Bridging week’ for all students before most students swarm the city in October. Academic tasters, consent and anti-discrimination workshops are followed by afternoons of socialising, pub quizzes or movie nights.

Helen, a second-year ‘Frep’ (Freshers’ rep) at Lucy, reflected that “by the time freshers week arrived, connections had already been made and we could start exploring the city and other colleges.” Helen added that the guaranteed “lack of academic commitments meant you could socialise before being thrown into term.” This is a stark contrast to Corpus, where most students matriculated on the day that they arrived.

“We came back from the club and went straight to the library, still in our clubbing outfits”

It is, after all, not unheard of for supervisors to set work within days of students arriving. On top of juggling matriculation, formals, clubbing, and sports, some are expected to begin their academic studies immediately. A second-year HSPS student at St John’s remembers the two essays she had been set in her first two days at Cambridge: “We came back from the club and went straight to the library, still in our clubbing outfits.”

Whilst this no doubt enabled important bonding and exposed the freshers to the iconic Cambridge experience of a 1am library trip, spending hours over a Hobbes essay is indisputably counterproductive to the main objective of Freshers’ week – forming friendships and orienting oneself within a new city. HSPS students at Emma were luckier – they enjoyed over a week before their first essay was set.

“Colleges are at the centre of student life in Cambridge”

It seems unfair that, depending on college and course, some have more opportunities than others to settle in, make friends and attend events. So, given that it contributes to such vast differences in student opinion and experience of Freshers’ week, is there any advantage to college-level organisation?

Colleges are at the centre of student life in Cambridge. Friends in college become flatmates and supervision classmates. College-oriented freshers’ weeks are important for forming and consolidating these friendships. Aoife, a 2nd year Corpus Frep, described how much easier it was getting to know people when events involved the same 82 Corpus freshers: “I enjoyed the big fish in a small pond feeling.” It is unlikely that this feeling could be replicated at university-wide events.

Helen, expressing pride in the strength of the student community at Lucy, agreed that fresher’s week played a key role in consolidating college friendships. “During Bridging week, the entire year would eat lunch on the grass together and in the evening everyone would ‘pre’ and go clubbing together.” Events that unite the year group in such a way promote college as a safe, familiar supportive space. Freshers gain a feel for aspects of college identity and systems of operation, which may differ at other colleges, and quickly become integrated into the community.

Yet even a Trinity fresher, within a year group of 193, reported that college felt somewhat restrictive. The smaller the college, the more acute this feeling presumably becomes.

Measures are, however, being taken to alleviate the claustrophobia that college-orientated Freshers’ weeks can cause. A hill college sports day, as well as LGBTQ+ intercollegiate swaps are in the works to provide freshers chances to mix with other colleges. Already, small college sports clubs are intercollegiate, and the Freshers’ clubbing wristbands grant access to Abba nights, ‘Glow parties’ and Y2K classics club nights, bringing freshers from across the university together for a taster of the exhilarating nights out Cambridge has on offer.

The discrepancies in experience largely come down to chance. It is not guaranteed that your college will provide the opportunity and time to socialise and settle in before academic work begins. The quality and breadth of information on topics such as consent, unconscious bias and sustainability varies between colleges, despite these being fundamentals that remain relevant across university and future life. Whilst it may not be necessary to introduce a university-wide event agenda, JCRs should consider a standardisation of College Freshers’ weeks.