CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE

Our lively community of scholars and students is located near the main university and city centre, just minutes from the main lecture halls and libraries. We’re justly proud of our beautiful medieval buildings and extensive facilities both at the ‘Old House’ in the heart of the city and at the Leckhampton site on Grange Road where most postgraduate students live, but it’s the supportive community that makes Corpus a wonderful place to live and study.

ACCOMMODATION AND FACILITIES AT CORPUS

The ideal base for your Cambridge adventure

Becoming an undergraduate at Corpus opens the door to a huge range of amenities. Most of our accommodation is central, and we offer fantastic athletics facilities and playing fields just 10 minutes away at our Leckhampton postgraduate campus.

All you need for work and play

Scholars from across the globe flock to our?Parker Library?with its famed collection of medieval manuscripts. Together with the award-winning undergraduate?Taylor Library, it forms the beating heart of academic life here. Away from the books, Corpus has a rich tradition in choral music and is one of the only Cambridge colleges lucky enough to have its own theatre, the Corpus Playroom.

Live somewhere truly special

At Corpus, you’re guaranteed accommodation for the whole of your undergraduate studies. And whatever your taste or budget, we have somewhere to suit. Fancy waking up in historic 14th century surroundings? Make our magnificent Old Court your new home. Alternatively choose a view over the rich green lawn of New Court – or opt for rooms in the modern Beldam Building next to a legendary Cambridge pub, The Eagle.

Make yourself at home

We usually group first-year students together on the main College site or very close by, so it’s easy to get to know others at the same stage in their studies as you.

All student rooms are single, furnished with a bed, wardrobe, chest of drawers, desk, lamp and an easy chair or sofa. We provide pillows, duvets and mattress covers; you bring bed linen and towels. Some rooms are ensuite and most have a washbasin with shared bath/shower nearby.

Flexible?affordable living space

Corpus offers two types of lease: a 30-week short lease (use during term-time only) and a 39-week extended lease (continual use from end September to end June). Rooms cost from ￡110 to ￡180?per week, based on their size, position and proximity to facilities. All college rooms are connected to the University Computing Network via an Ethernet cable or wifi connection, with free and unlimited data. You’ll find printing facilities in the undergraduate Taylor library and we offer excellent IT support in College if you ever need a hand.

Keen to move in?

Come and see some of our rooms and facilities in our 360 degree virtual tour. You can also visit our?Fees & Finances?section for more information on room costs.

HEAR FROM OUR STUDENTS

Silas, 2nd Year, Geography

My first experience of Corpus was when I took part in the CUSU Year 12 Shadowing Scheme back in January 2016 and stayed in the college for a few days. The experience I had not only assured me that I wanted to apply to Cambridge, but also that I wanted to pick Corpus as my chosen college; I never even visited any of the others at the University open day later that year!

The small size appealed to me as it felt comforting to know that despite becoming a ‘little fish in a very big pond’ I would have a close community of recognisable faces that I would see regularly and get to know quickly. Compared to some of the larger colleges, I liked the possibility of having things such as the Library, Hall and JCR close together, and the compact size of Corpus certainly gives it a cosy, but never cramped feel.

I was also sold on Corpus’ super central location in town which is perfect for being close to anywhere that a Humanities student could need to go; most lecture theatres are less than a 5-minute walk away and even less on a bike!

To this day I still find myself in awe of the ancient buildings every time I walk through college. The experience of being able to live and study in such historical surroundings is something that I will forever be grateful for long after I leave Corpus.

Maverick, 1st Year, MML (Italian and Russian)

Hey everyone, my name’s Maverick, a first year MML student. Corpus is a fantastic college, full of great people, and it has an outstanding location in the centre of Cambridge. I am particularly fortunate for Corpus’ travel grant system, as it is helping me to go to Florence over the Easter break in order to improve my Italian. Corpus’ travel grants are extremely beneficial as they allow us to further our study and our interest in places which we may have otherwise not been able to reach.

Another thing that is particularly great about Corpus is our contact between year groups. As we are a relatively small college in terms of student numbers, it’s lovely that people are always keen to socialise, no matter what year group they are in.

Outside of our studies, multiple Corpus students engage in a variety of extracurricular activities, which range from sport and theatre to music and dance. Whatever you want to do, you’ll almost certainly be able to do it here at Corpus.

Isaac, 1st Year, Natural Sciences (Physics)

Hi! I’m Issac and I’m from Leicester (the existence of the midlands is a heatedly debated topic here, which I found rather funny). I’m a first year studying Natural Sciences (or “natsci” as we like to call it around here) and I did Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry at A-Level. You’d think that this combination of subjects would be the most popular choice, but my friends here at Corpus did a variety of different subjects – despite applying for the same course. I thought university would be an excellent opportunity to get involved in wider activities outside my course. I picked up rowing (probably the most infamous sport here in Cambridge) and Ultimate Frisbee (very underrated, if I’m being honest). I compete at the college level, which means I play against students from other colleges. I would recommend having at least one extra-curricular hobby, no matter what level you play at, to get away from work every now and then.

The main reason I applied to Corpus was the size – our year is only around 85 people. Being at a college so small meant that getting settled was pretty smooth. I found it really easy to make new friends since I was always running into other people. The main college site is also pretty small, but don’t let this put you off at all. Corpus is the nicest looking college I’ve ever had to pleasure of seeing. The size does have its own benefits actually: it takes around a minute maximum to get from the front to the back of the site, which is convenient when you have places to be and as a consequence, all the main areas are very close to each other.

I was worried that the size would mean I would run out of people to meet and things to do. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this wasn’t the case at all – everyone here knows everyone else; Corpus is a small community that has been constantly welcoming in every sense! The JCR (a sort of common room for clubs and people to get together) has people in it nearly every night and there’s always someone who’s down for a quick game of pool or table tennis!

The things that led to me picking this college won’t be applicable to everyone, of course. If you’d much rather a larger college, both in size and people, that is equally valid. My main piece of advice would be to actually visit the colleges – they all vary hugely from architecture, food, rent etc. However, I would thoroughly recommend Corpus. I’ve had such a fun experience so far and I couldn’t imagine being placed anywhere else

Kyra, 3rd Year, Law

Hey there! My name is Kyra, and I’m a final year law student at Corpus. I’m Singaporean, but underwent most of my education in Shanghai before coming to the UK for sixth form. I did the International Baccalaureate, and my HL subjects were English Literature, History (Modern) and Mathematics.

I applied to Corpus because I wanted to be in a smaller college near central Cambridge. I did not really do much research into my college choice because a lot of what I read online about choosing colleges ultimately said that most people end up being really happy at whichever college they end up at, and that the academic side of things are dealt with centrally by faculties, so your college choice won’t have much of an impact on your studies.

Studying at Corpus definitely exceeded my expectations. In my first year, I remember being very intimidated by the university’s reputation, afraid that I would struggle with the workload and the difficulty of the course. Though the course is undoubtedly challenging, I have always felt supported by my college, as my supervisors and my Director of Studies are always happy to answer questions, mark extra essays and help in any way they can. It also helps that Corpus has a small cohort of lawyers, with each year having only 4-6 lawyers, making us a tight knit group. Our college law society, the Nicholas Bacon Law Society (NBLS), organises social gatherings every term (both student-only and with our supervisors or fellows), whether that be our yearly Curry Night or our annual alumni dinner, a grand event where we’ve previously had Supreme Court Justices or the Master of the Rolls in attendance!

To end, one major perk Corpus lawyers get is free textbooks for all our core subjects, which are the seven mandatory papers that must be taken to gain a qualifying law degree. As a law student, I also greatly appreciate our Taylor library, which has its own dedicated law area, as our librarians are more than happy to buy any law books we need – if there are four of us taking a given paper and only two copies of the key textbook available, a simple online request is all it takes for the library to suddenly have four copies for us to use. Combined with our library’s ability to allow us to renew our loans online, I’ve found that I’ve never really had to buy any textbooks during my time at Cambridge (bar the statute books we bring into our examinations)!

FUN FACTS ABOUT CORPUS

1. Corpus is the only college in Cambridge established by local townspeople.?Founded in 1352, Corpus was created through the?amalgamation of two medieval guilds,?in response to a global pandemic.

2. Our Parker Library is world famous.?Inside you’ll find the 6th century gospel of St. Augustine, the earliest known depiction of Stonehenge, handwritten letters from Anne Boleyn, and possibly the oldest surviving coconut in Europe.

3. The Corpus Playroom.?Owned by Corpus and run through the ADC theatre, the Corpus Playroom is one of the centres of student theatre in Cambridge. Generations of budding actors have honed their skills here, including Stephen Fry.

4. Old Court is probably the oldest court in Oxford or Cambridge.?Built in the mid 14th century, Old Court is the original building of the college and has been continuously inhabited by students and scholars since.

5. Corpus has a remarkable literary history.?Great? writers and playwrights have studied with us. These include Elizabethan dramatist and spy Christopher Marlowe, noted 20th century novelist and LGBT icon Christopher Isherwood, and contemporary British-Nigerian novelist Helen Oyeyemi.

6. Christopher Marlowe.?Speaking of Christopher Marlowe, Corpus records showed he left a large unpaid food and drink bill with the College when he was “stabbed to death by a bawdy serving-man, a rival of his in his lewd love” at a pub in Deptford.

7. Pelicans galore.?The Pelican is a familiar sight at Corpus, it was believed in medieval times to pluck its breast in order to feed its young.

8. Corpus is Haunted.?Well, probably not, but some students and Fellows swear that they have seen the ghost of Henricus Butts, a Master who met an untimely end during a 17th century outbreak of the plague.

9. Corpus has two sites.?In addition to our central buildings, we have also have the 7-acre Leckhampton site which is a 15-minute walk away. Here you’ll find the college sports grounds, an outdoor swimming pool, beautiful gardens, a gym, ?as well as squash and tennis courts.

10. The Corpus Bridging Course.?Launched in 2019,?the bridging course?has created up to 10 new places for undergraduate students from underrepresented and disadvantaged backgrounds.

11. Notable Scientists.?Many distinguished scientists have found a home at Corpus. Among our alumni you’ll find two Nobel Prize winners – physicist G.P. Thompson and Richard Henderson, who won the 2017 Chemistry prize for developing the cryo-electron microscope.