Wow. My college appeared at the top of the 2008 Tompkins Table, an annual ranking of the colleges of Cambridge University (UK) by academic results, for the first time this year. Selwyn College was founded just 125 years ago (very new by Cambridge standards) and has always been one of the poorer colleges.
When I was there between 1993-1997, it was a rapidly improving college both in terms of facilities and academic standing but still ranked at the bottom half of the league of 23 or so colleges. I was a poor student from working class background living off scholarships and Selwyn felt like the best home for me out of the colleges I looked at. Over the last 15 years, the college has focused on attracting the best new entrants from the Top 1% of the UK’s 18 year olds, and providing them with great academic mentorship. The Cambridge system is different from most universities in that students receive three or so one hour "supervisions" where they get to discuss papers with professors, so having great professors is a key to improved results. It also sets students up to do well later in life, as interviews often seem a doddle compared to a supervision with some of the smartest brains around!
To be top of a list that includes many older and better funded colleges is phenomenal. I always think back to Selwyn as being the big break that got me started in life and am very proud of how far the college has come. Go Selwyn!
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The Tompkins table |
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