The most Instagrammed colleges in Cambridge

It’s time to settle the popularity contest once and for all – we found out which colleges were Instagrammed the most (and of course, the least)!

In case you’re interested in our methodology (although let’s be honest, you probably just want to see who came first), we’ve used hashtags to see which college is tagged the most. For the most part, we’ve used the most popular hashtag relevant to each college, but in some cases (explained below) we’ve had to change things up a bit. Of course, this isn’t the most accurate of rankings…but it’s hard to be accurate with social media, and I’m sure all you want to know is where your college places on the list.

That’s enough about how we found our results, here are the results!

27. Lucy Cavendish

#lucycavendishcollege starts us off with 1,043 posts – the least of any Cambridge college. You could say they haven’t quite worked through their growing pains yet – the college took on male students for the first time this year, and only began accepting non-mature undergraduates in 2020. We’ll give them some time to catch up to the rest.

26. St Catharine’s

#stcatherinescollege is up next with 1,260 posts, although one or two of these are for a college of the same name somewhere else. Now, before you get defensive, yes, I did look under “Catzcollege” and many other variations of St Catherine’s before settling on this one. 

25. St John’s

Seems like being named after a saint doesn’t necessarily make you a god of social media. St John’s trumps Catz by a mere 111 posts under #stjohnscam.

24. Christ’s

With 1,476 posts, #christscollegecambridge features perhaps the most food-themed “overheardatoxbridge” posts of all the college hashtags. Check out the hashtag to hear about protein shakes, over-flavoured fish (is there such a thing) and of course, upper hall potatoes.

23. St Edmund’s

Seeing as the #stedmundscollege only has 104 undergrads, it’s got an impressive 1,574 posts on Instagram. Personal favourites include the Chinese New Year’s feast and the cream puffs/profiteroles via @chef_mcphee, but I won’t tempt you with pictures in case you’re starving (as, let’s be honest, most of us probably are by this point in term).

22. Corpus Christi

This one’s a bit of a guesstimate. While #corpuschristicollege had 3,200 posts,  #corpuschristicambridge had only 192.  There’s a Corpus Christi at That Uni Which Shall Not be Named… Let’s just assume half of those posts are for Cambridge, shall we?

21. Sidney Sussex

Of the 1,870 posts under #sidneysussex, only one enraged me. That’s right, enraged (okay, maybe not, enraged but it produced a similarly dramatic emotion of shock). Sidney had a bouncy castle for freshers’ week! Why is that not a university wide policy? To whoever with power is reading this right now, I would very much appreciate a bouncy castle, thank you very much.

20. Murray Edwards

#murrayedwards comes in 20th with 1,900 posts – mostly of their gardens via @gratefulgardener, but there are a few other things sprinkled in there as well.

19. Queens’ College  

In 19th place is #queenscollegecambridge with 2,077 posts. I’ll let you guess how many of those are the mathematical bridge (no seriously, guess, because I didn’t count).

18. Hughes Hall

Unfortunately for Hughes students, they can’t claim all 2,100 posts under #hugheshall. There seem to be various residence buildings at other unis called Hughes Hall… But hey, it’s a great effort from Hughes nonetheless!

17. Wolfson

#wolfsoncollege narrowly takes the win for mature undergraduate colleges – with just 78 more posts than Huges Hall (though as we know the Hughes’ number isn’t exactly accurate).

16. Fitzwilliam & Homerton

#fitzwilliamcollege and #homertoncollege tie for 16th place… Perhaps it would’ve been more poetic if Homerton had tied with Girton, but either way it’s clear that being so far out from town centre doesn’t help with Instagram-ability.

15. Jesus College

With 2,410 posts, #jesuscollegecambridge is up next. There are pictures of the art, the architecture, and the greenery, but most  of the recent posts under this hashtag are talking about the college’s historic return of Benin Bronzes earlier this year.

14. Selwyn

#selwyncollege’s 2,637 posts were giving me strong autumn Pinterest board vibes, and I do not mind at all. The college’s red brick, sunset lighting and leaves falling… What more could you want? In case anyone’s wondering, yes, both of the Tab’s Editors-in-Chief currently attend Selwyn and as for whether that had anything to do with what I’ve written here, I’ll let you work that out for yourself. 

13. Girton

I was surprised by the lack of indoor swimming pool pictures in #girtoncollege. I mean, you’d think at least one of the first few hundred (because yes, I scrolled through that many) of the hashtag’s 2,875 posts would be about that-thing-that-makes-up-for-how-far-away-girton-is… suspicious?

12. Pembroke

We’re guesstimating again – Cambridge and That Uni Which Shall Not Be Named really need to do a better job of coming up with unique college names! #pembrokecollegecambridge only has 872 posts, while #pembrokecollege has 5,700. Using our even split theory, that gives Pembroke Cambridge roughly 2,850 posts.

11. Churchill

With 3,035 posts, #churchillcollege comes in 11th – the highest of any of the hill colleges. Maybe this can help settle the Churchill-has-horrible-architecture-what-even-is-brutalism debate… (I am very aware that as a Medwards student I can say little about brutalism, so no, I will not thank you for pointing that out.)

10. Robinson

Some of #robinsoncollege’s 3,100 posts are from a similarly named uni in Georgia, but most are of bricks, the river and what looks to be delicious hall food. Nothing too shocking from Robinson, although I’m sure if you look hard enough you can find something terrifyingly funny. 

9. Magdalene

With 3,325 posts, #magdalenecollege is next, escaping the “we share a name with our rival university” dilemma by one letter. In case you still haven’t figured it out, this post will help you pronounce Magdalene the “correct” way.

8. Gonville & Caius

Caius have done very well with 3,463 posts under #gonvilleandcaius. The hashtag seems to have been infiltrated by test-taking tutors and calculus teachers though… Maybe the average Caius student is their target audience?

7. Newnham & Trinity College

#newnhamcollege and #trinitycollegecambridge tie for seventh place – interesting given the Newnham student body’s just over half the size of Trinity’s! If you want to be really picky – Trinity beat Newnham by 13 posts.

6. Downing

With 4,734 posts, #downingcollege students seem to be in love with their college! There’s everything from matriculation pictures to scenic shots… and of course, multiple pictures of the rowers and the Boat Club.

5. Emmanuel College

#emmanuelcollege is up next with roughly 6,000 posts (Emma too shares a name with a foreign college). It seems like Emma’s huge undergraduate population is working to its advantage in the social media world – that is, if you count posting pictures of the “keep off the grass” signs advantageous.

4. Trinity Hall

A very good job by #trinityhall, placing fifth with 6,700 posts. While some of them point out the college’s proximity to the river and others highlight traditional ceremonies, trust us to ignore those in favour of some more “overheardatoxbridge”s. Seriously, what’s overheard at Tit Hall is hilarious!

3. Clare College

Seems like all that construction at Clare hasn’t made it less Instagrammable… or maybe it has, depending on who you ask. With an impressive 7,546 posts, #clarecollege comes in fourth overall.

2. Peterhouse

Just because they’re Cambridge’s oldest doesn’t mean they’re tech dinosaurs! With 8,726 posts, #peterhouse features everything from sports shots and college life to paintings and cat pictures – but really, it’s mostly cat pictures.

1. King’s

King’s is officially the most Instagrammed college of all! With a whopping 15,800 posts, it’s the only college with posts in the double digits. Under the hashtag #kingscollegecambridge, posts show off the architecture – or more accurately random objects/people in front of the architecture. My personal favourite is the “Instaplushie” that posed in front of Kings’ accidental wildflowers last summer.

Remember, how Instagrammed your college is doesn’t define how Instagrammable it is. Rankings could look very different by this time next year… if you love your college enough to post about it like crazy!

Feature Image Credits: Matilda Head, Rosie Smart-Knight and Bilyana Tolomova 

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