<p>My honest personal experience.</p>
<p>Like you, I was very concerned about choosing the “right” college. Especially as I had never been to Cambridge before I applied there. I felt like everyone else must know exactly why they choose one special college - an I hadn’t a clue!</p>
<p>A very small number of people choose a college because they have some personal connection to it. Usually a parent or teacher went there and recommend it.</p>
<p>Pretty much everyone else uses the following method</p>
<p>1) College is opposite department where lectures will be held, so students there will only have to get up at 8.55am to make it to lectures by 9.</p>
<p>2) I saw college on TV/in a movie (this may increase your chances of being “pooled” to a different college because 300 other people will have applied to the same college because they also saw it on TV)</p>
<p>3)PANIC! All the other applicants must KNOW the perfect college for them. I will quickly pick one from the prospectus which looks pretty.</p>
<p>I chose my college using option (3) and was then “pooled” to a college I had never heard of (about 1 in 5 admitted students end up at a different college from the one they applied to I think). But it was all ok in the end! Everyone thinks like this. All college have good and bad bits. I’ve never heard of anyone who really hates their college.</p>