![College Crest](/wp-content/uploads/logo-01.png"){kind=logo}
If you’re interested in finding out more about what it’s like living as a student at Trinity College, you’ve come to the right place. Here you will find details of catering and accommodation, along with insights into some of the more exciting aspects of being a Trinity student!
Accommodation
All undergraduate students at Trinity are offered the chance to live in College, and the vast majority of students tend to live in for the duration of their degree studies.
Most students are required to vacate their rooms during the vacation periods, and this can save a lot of money, not having to pay for a room while you’re home for the break. Special arrangements can, of course, be put in place for students who cannot feasibly return home during the vacation.
We try to locate first-year undergraduates close together, in just a few areas of the College: Angel Court, Blue Boar Court, and the Wolfson Building. You can read more about these rooms, as well as the accommodation available to students in later years on our dedicated accommodation pages.
Catering
The College provides meals in Hall every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Most students eat regularly in Hall, which is great for convenience, allowing more time to make the most of student life.
The best thing about the food here is the variety: getting to eat meals that, as a busy university student, I would definitely be too impatient to cook myself – such as a Sunday roast every week. Formals are also an amazing and unique aspect of the Cambridge experience.
Michelle, Land Economy student
Formal Hall is usually twice week at Trinity, and this offers you the opportunity to dress up (gown and all!) and enjoy a three-course meal prepared by amazing chefs.
Formals are more expensive than regular meals, but still really great value for money considering the quality.
College activities
As a member of Trinity College, you will have lots of opportunities to engage in societies and clubs, play sports, apply for internships, and plenty more.
At Old Field, a few minutes’ walk from the Great Gate, Trinity has its own facilities for football, rugby, cricket, and netball, as well as a gym. Four squash courts, a badminton court, and nine all-weather tennis courts can be booked free of charge. The hockey pitches are at another site a short distance from the College.
The rugby, football, cricket and men’s and women’s hockey teams compete in the inter-college leagues and knock-out competitions and the larger clubs often go on tour during vacations. First-team standards are good, but enough teams are fielded to include anyone who is keen to play.
Basketball, lacrosse, volleyball, women’s rugby, and five-a-side football are also played at College level. A variety of other sports – athletics, cross-country, swimming, golf, water polo, and fencing, for example – are organised on a University-wide basis.
Rowing is one of the biggest sports at Cambridge, taking advantage of the beautiful river which runs through Trinity. Most students who row have never done so before coming to University, and there are plenty of training sessions for beginners, run out of the superb Trinity boat house, which has all the equipment, facilities and coaches required to teach you how.
Many College societies are supported through the Trinity College Students’ Union which maintains an up-to-date directory of College Societies, and it will also support you if you come up with a good proposal for starting a new Society.
Since 2024, Trinity has been running a pilot initiative, TrinityPlus, to provide new opportunities for students to engage in Entrepreneurship, Policy, and Musical Theatre. Read more here.
The College provides support to help you develop your interests outside your degree in lots of other ways. The examples below are a small selection of what’s currently on offer to Trinity students.
A TrinityPlus policy workshop
Internships and Studentships
If you want to do an internship in the vacation, you can apply to our Summer Studentship Scheme. A number of internships are offered working in the College itself – for example, in the library or in supporting our outreach work. But most internships are in partnership with organisations outside the College – for instance, working in research institutes or museums with which we have connections. And, although we have many established partnerships already, if you find an organisation you’d like to work with that offers internships, we can offer advice and consider providing you with funding to support you in taking up such an opportunity.
“Thanks to the Trinity Summer Studentship Scheme I had the amazing opportunity to spend 8 weeks with the National Alliance of Women’s Organisations as a summer intern. I was involved in developing advocacy messages for the annual UN Commission on the Status of Women based around the priority theme of innovation.”
Olivia Young, Human, Social & Political Sciences student
Funding Your Activities
Beyond the world of work, you can be funded by Trinity for all manner of enriching activities.
Two of our most generous funding opportunities are the Dunlevie Fund and the Projects Fund. If you both have a good idea of what you’d like to do during your vacation, then these are the Funds that can help you with the costs.
The Dunlevie Fund
The Dunlevie Fund was established to encourage students to engage in worthwhile activity beyond the academic realm. Depending on the size of the project envisaged, a Dunlevie award might cover the total cost or simply make a contribution toward something a student wants to do.
In recent years Dunlevie awards have been used to fund activities ranging from guitar lessons and ceramics classes, to visiting the Royal Opera House, and gliding.
“I was able to use my Dunlevie award to enrol in aerotow training with the Cambridge University Gliding Club (CUGC) at Sutton Bank Airfield. Not only did I have the amazing opportunity to improve my gliding skills, I am now Captain of CUGC.”
Teddy Ong, Maths student
I thoroughly enjoyed the range of classes available at UChicago: especially as an exchange, since I was able to have a lot of freedom over my class choices. This has helped me to reorientate my career ambitions towards something more quantitative and data-science focused.
Leon Zhang, Economics student
Financial Support
As a Trinity student, you will be financially supported to engage with a range of enriching activities; but you will also receive help with your day-to-day expenses, if you need it. Both the University of Cambridge and Trinity College Cambridge have schemes in place to support students with living costs, if they face financial hardship.
All Home undergraduate students at Cambridge are considered for the Cambridge Bursary Scheme, and students at Trinity who qualify for that bursary are automatically eligible for the Trinity Maintenance Grant which provides further support.
For students from outside the UK, Trinity and the Cambridge Trust provide a range of generous bursaries that can help with the payment of both university and college fees, and support everyday costs if needed.
Please look at our extensive financial support web pages for more detailed information on how the University and the College can provide financial support.