Scheduling

Lecture timetables are found in a special October issue of the University's official weekly
journal, Cambridge University Reporter. (This is also where they annually publish marks from
exams, but don't worry; CME students aren't included on these lists.) The course schedules are
also available from the respective departments. Final exam schedules are printed in a special
issue of the Cambridge journal after the Easter vacation. In the middle of Lent Term, you will be
given a form to fill out, identifying which Tripos exams you will be taking. After this is turned
in, a yellow sheet will be given to you detailing your final exams, namely when and where they
are. The edition of the Cambridge journal containing lecture timetables will be is available in
your College library or online at http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/reporter/.

Which courses you take at Cambridge may or may not be free for you to decide, depending on
what department you are in. Most Cambridge departments offer classes according to what year
students are in. For example, second year math majors must chose what lectures to attend from a
list predetermined by the department. On the other hand, all chemical engineering students in
the same year take exactly the same classes, with no choices to be made. As an MIT student,
you do not fit exactly within the Cambridge system, so these rules can be bent for you. In the
past, MIT students in various departments have split their classes between different "years"; i.e.
they've taken some second-year courses and some third-year courses. (Note though that this is
not possible in all departments.) To figure out what classes you will be taking or what freedom
you have in deciding, the best thing to do is talk to the CME contact person in your department at
MIT or just try the CME office. If you do have the freedom to choose what classes you take, you
should think about what you want to take before arriving in Cambridge, but you will not be able
to tell for certain what classes you can take until the issue of the Reporter with the lecture
timetables becomes available in the beginning of October.

As you have a HASS graduation requirement, you may want to try to take a HASS class (or
classes) at Cambridge so as to lighten you load when you return to MIT. Bette Davis and the
HASS office should provide you information about taking HASS classes during your year
abroad. Like MIT, Cambridge has a very large course list, so it is advisable that you
independently decide what classes or types of classes you are interested in, instead of searching
through the entire course list. As explained below, if you are an engineering or science major,
your taking a HASS class will be out of the ordinary. As such, you may run into some
difficulties, one of which is scheduling. You will probably find that most lectures are given
during the morning, including those within your department and the HASS lectures. As
mentioned before, you will have to wait until the lecture-timetable issue of the Reporter is
available before you can tell for certain what courses you can take without a conflict.