<p>Let’s be clear, the University of Cambridge consists of: 31 colleges, various faculty buildings, dozens of libraries, museums, and university buildings. Everyone who attends (or teaches for that matter) at Cambridge will be a member of one of these colleges but a student’s educational experience extends far beyond a college. No college is any more “prestigious” than another - despite various attempts to say otherwise. Your friend’s acceptance at Cambridge is what is prestigious, not his or her specific college. Nobody outside of Cambridge will ask which college you are a member of, and most people end up choosing which college to apply to based upon non-academic factors such as proximity to one’s faculty building or just because they like the “feel” or “look” of it.</p>
<p>Americans (I’m one) have a difficult time understanding this system because we use the term “college” to mean either “university” or a specific academic institution within a university - such as “college of arts and sciences”. But that has NOTHING to do with Cambridge’s use of the term. With a few exceptions, each college will accept students studying any academic subject. And besides your in-college supervisions, your lectures will be conducted in the faculty buildings for the most part.</p>