Student Blogs

When you first get there:

• Navigating college
  • You will most likely be dropped off in front of the Porter’s Lodge of your college when you first arrive in Cambridge.  There, you will pick up your keys and any other necessary information - make sure they give you a map!  Some students spent a considerable amount of time wandering around trying to find their accommodations, so use your map and don’t be afraid to ask for help.  The porters are almost always extremely nice and happy to help!
• Stocking your room (buying sheets, etc.)
  • Some colleges will offer a “bedding package” that includes a pilliow, a duvet, and sheets.  This is usually pretty inexpensive, but not of great quality.  If you’re worried, go ahead and invest in the pack, but you’ll eventually end up going to get new sheets and a better pillow.  The best place to buy these things is probably John Lewis.  You can usually find relatively inexpensive bedding materials.  If you’re looking to buy everything you might need for your room (decoration-wise, as well) in one place, John Lewis also has an assortment of other trinkets.  You will probably want to buy some hangers and whatnot.
• Finding a GP
  • All students are required to be signed up with a GP (General Practitioner).  Don’t worry, this is easier than it sounds.  Most students sign up with the same two GPs (Trinity or Trumpington Street Practices).  If you just show up at the practice in the first few days of school, you will have to fill out a little bit of information (be sure to have your school address!).  They may take your height, weight, and blood pressure, though they may just ask you for these if you already know them.  From then on, they should have you in the system should you need to visit.
  • Things to keep in mind for later:
    • Appointments are sometimes difficult to get and tend to fill up when the phone lines open in the morning.  If you want to schedule something, try to call as soon as the practice is set to open.
    • If you have a semi-emergency, go in to see them - they will likely be able to give you an appointment within a few hours (obviously, if you have a real emergency, go to Addenbrooke’s hospital).
• Whether or not to buy a bike
  • This is really a personal decision depending on how far away you live from your lectures and what extracurricular activities you’ll be doing.  If you live in say, Girton, and you are going to the New Museum Site (see a map...it’s far), you’ll probably want to buy a bike.  In addition, if you’re serious about rowing and don’t feel like running to the boat house in the middle of winter, you may also want to invest in a bike.
  • Keep in mind, if you do plan to buy a bike - get a good lock!  Apparently there is a ring that steals bikes in Cambridge and then sells them in Oxford.  As many of the MIT Police Officers say “U-Lock it or you lose it.”

Living in Cambridge:

• Food/groceries
  • For the most part, you will most likely be eating in college on a regular basis.  This is the most social place and where students tend to meet up after lectures or before going out at night/hanging out at the college bar.  Most of the dining halls (on non-formal nights) are “a la carte” - essentially, you pay for what you eat.  You may have to pay then and there or you may have sort of a credit system where you will be charged for your food at the end of the term along with your accommodation and other fees.
  • However, if you would like to buy food, there are several grocery stores throughout Cambridge (keep in mind that some of them may close quite early).  Some of the main ones include: Sainsburys (across from Sidney Sussex), Sainsburys Local (open later, but it’s smaller - right by Parker’s Piece), M&S (aka Marks and Spencers - in Market Square).  There is also typically a farmer’s market type event in Market Square on a daily basis - some of the vendors sell fruit, fresh bread, etc.
• Best restaurants
  • This is a completely arbitrary list of some of the places we liked going last year: The Mitre (pub), D’Arry’s (no particular cuisine), La Tasca (tapas), Pizza Express, The Eagle (pub), The Bath House (pub), The Cow (pizza), Don Pasquale (Italian), Fitzbillies (bakery)
• Fun stuff (clubs, movies, etc.)
  • Each of the colleges has their “favorite place to go out” as well as the night(s) that they typically go out during the week.  Some of the main clubs to go to are: Fez, Cindies, Life, and Spoons, all of which are pretty much in the center of town.  This is more something that you’ll pick up when you get there.  There are also a number of bars that stay open later, such as The Fountain, that students typically go to when the pubs close.
• Shopping (where to go for what)
  • Market Square is attached to Lion’s Yard, which is a pretty good shopping mall.  Those two places will pretty much have everything you need in terms of clothes, toiletries (go to Boots pharmacy), or anything you might need for your room (go to John Lewis).  Explore a little bit to find those places that you like the best.
  • Also in this area are WHSmith and Rymans, where you can pick up any school supplies you might need.  Be sure to show them your university card - you can get a 10% discount.
• Having a job
  • At Cambridge, students are technically not supposed to have out-of-college jobs.  Sometimes at the end of term, the libraries will take a few students to help out if they need.  Otherwise, you can sign up to work at different May Balls at the end of the year - those will typically get you about 40-75 pounds depending on the college and your particular job.

Planning your vacations:

• Short or long contract
  • Personally, long contract may be a bit more expensive, but it will make your life so much easier.  In between terms, students on short contract are required to remove all of their belongings from the rooms (often, the rooms are used for conference guests while students are home).  Most colleges have an area for international students to leave their belongings - however, if you’re on long contract, you can leave all of your stuff in your room and not worry about it.  Also, if on long contract, you do not need to leave college and can stay through the vacations if you don’t plan on going home.

• Budget airlines
  • Book early, pack light, and show up on time.  Budget airlines are great, but fees can go up quite a bit once you start bringing luggage you need to check.  Keep in mind that some of these airlines don’t fly into the major airports, but may fly into smaller airports that are slightly outside the city.  This is good news when you’re flying out of England, as Stanstead airport is a 30 min. bus ride away from Cambridge.  However, when you’re going to other cities, you should know that you will probably have to take additional transportation to the city center if that’s where your hostel is.
• Places to stay
  • Go on hostelworld.com - it’s incredibly easy to find inexpensive places to stay.  However, be sure to read the reviews and make sure the places have a high “location” rating - that way, you’ll be sure you’re staying somewhere safe that’s also near the sites that you want to visit.  For your vacation, make sure you print out your documents and reference numbers in case you have any problems.
• What to bring
  • If you’re flying on a budget airline, pack light and in layers.  Boots has a lot of travel-sized toiletries as well, so don’t bother bringing the large stuff.  Be sure to bring a good pair of shoes, as you will most likely be doing a lot of walking.  Try to bring something that you can hide/stash your passport it - preferably something with a zipper that you can tuck into your jacket or a place that is not easily accessible.  And my personal opinion - always bring a camera!
• What you shouldn’t miss
  • Some of the highlights from last year: Prague during the holidays (only need to go for a few days to get the full effect, but it’s beautiful), Dublin, Istanbul (FANTASTIC), Italy (devote a lot of time here)
  • Places in the UK: Bath, Oxford, Edinburgh, St. Andrews, Dartmouth, Bristol
• Finding time to study (especially during Easter)
  • Bring some of your lecture material with you during Christmas break.  Even if you don’t want to start making revision notes and redoing examples sheets, it’s a good idea to go over your notes and some problems just to make sure you have an understanding of the Michaelmas material.
  • We all want to travel, it’s understandable - you’re abroad!  However, you do need to study and should probably devote at least 3-4 weeks before your exams to revising.  This should give you at least a week or so during the second break to travel (possibly more if your exams aren’t at the beginning of Easter term).

Exam term:

• What to expect
  • You will be stressed, but you’re probably all used to that after being at MIT.  The best thing you can do it prepare is to do past Tripos exams - possibly until your hand bleeds (just kidding).  Doing past Tripos exams will prepare you mainly for the type of questions you should expect.  Make sure you time yourself in at least a few of them - if you’re understanding the question, that’s great, but if it takes you five hours to complete a Tripos (they’re usually ~3 hours), not so great.
  • Most exams (in engineering/sciences/etc.) tend to be given over a period of 1-2 weeks, similarly to how it’s done at MIT.
• How to plan your time (dependent upon Tripos)
  • Engineering students will have exams at the beginning of Easter term whereas some other students (e.g. Chemical Engineering) will not have their exams until later in the term.  As stated above, make sure to give yourself at least a few weeks before your exams to devote to studying.
  • From my own experience, I found that I could complete about 1-2 Tripos exams per day before getting a little burnt out.  I wasn’t always timing myself, but usually spent about 5-6 hours studying per day, with breaks in between and a little more free time on the weekends.

About the university:

• So the first thing that surprised me was the free alcohol at official dinners ... just one of those things that doesn't happen at MIT
• My first impression of the University itself was that it was hopelessly disorganized, just because it's so decentralized. It was really annoying that the answer to (almost) all our questions in the first days were "It depends on your college (and I'm not in your college so I don't know)". I'm trying to remedy that with the links at the bottom of The Colleges page. Now that I've been here, I guess the University actually functions alright even though it is mired in "this is how it's been for the past 800 years."
• Having about 10 (or so) different computer accounts and passwords to set up is annoying. I tried to set all my passwords to the same thing and I still ended up with 3 different ones.
• Cambridge is much less connected than MIT. The only wireless Internet access I have heard of is in the Kings bar, which doesn't help most of the University. Also, I have a static IP address at my college, so I haven't been able to connect my laptop to the Internet in the Engineering department even with an Ethernet cable (this might just be me being computer-illiterate ... help, anyone?).
• Living in one of the outlying colleges isn't that bad ... I get to see more of Cambridge. I know some people still haven't ventured up to New Hall yet ...

About academics:

• Yeah, Cambridge isn't "no work," which I think is what we all heard before coming here. It's practically no work, compared to MIT, but there's still work to do, and doing it by myself takes much longer.
• I thought it wouldn't be that hard to keep working together on stuff like we do at MIT, but it is definitely more of an effort. First, we all have supervisions at different times, so we don't have work "due" at the same time. Second, it's pretty difficult to find a place to work collaboratively here. The colleges don't have lounges or common areas (except for the bars, which is not ideal for studying), and we're supposed to be quiet in the library.
• Signing up for labs at the beginning of term is a royal pain. Instead of having the signup sheet available at the lectures, where all the students are already there anyway, they put the signup sheets in all different labs, not even necessarily in the lab where the experiment will be completed. Also, labs completed early in the term are useless - nobody really understands what's happening because the class hasn't learned the relevant material yet.
• Apparently all the lecturers change in the middle of the term ... that was another surprise for me. A lot of them don't even bother introducing themselves, they just start lecturing.
• Stuff I wish I'd brought from the States: mechanical pencils that don't have lead that breaks every three words and peanut butter.

• For planning school supplies, I wish I knew that all the lecturers hand out notes with gaps to fill in - we don't really need notebooks (at least in my engineering classes).
  I must say, I do enjoy having time to try different societies and spend time with new friends, without always worrying about work and feeling guilty for any time spent not working.

   

Cambridge is similar to MIT in almost as many ways as it is different. Let me explain what I mean by that. When I first came over from the States, I thought the UK would be almost no different, but there are a lot of different things that do take getting used to. These include:

• The LOCATION - CU is in the countryside. There are cows at King's College for crying out loud! Granted, Cambidge itself is a little college town, but it really doesn;t compare to Boston. Has a nice touristy area in the middle of town, but this means prices are higher than at stores towards the outskirts. Going just ten minutes out of town will bring you to sheep-laden pastures, green fields, etc.
• The WEATHER - Rain, sun, wind, cold; the UK has it all. And it has all of it within 5 minutes, without any way to predict what is coming next. Get a good umbrella and heavy jacket.
• The EDUCATION - Lectures are very similar to MIT, though notes are given and all one has to do is fill in blanks. Supervisions are much different than recitations and much more like office hours. Can be useful, but more often than not find the supervisors dismissing the questions I ask by saying "Its in the Cribs" or "You should know that from last year." Examples papers are comparable in difficulty in length to problem sets at MIT, but there is so much less collaboration here. A lot more is expected of the individual here.
• The PEOPLE - Can be quite great when you get to know them, but seem to be more reserved (Except when intoxicated) than in the States. Also have found a few to work with on examples papers, but it is much more difficult than at MIT (And also less useful). Very work-driven during the week, but also know how to have fun.
• The SOCIAL LIFE - All right, going to be brutally honest here. It does revolve around alcohol in the form of pubs, clubs, and room parties. While this may be frustrating at first, one does find other ways to socialize, including sport, movies, plays, and just going to a room party with a bunch of drunk people. Finding that the MIT students tend to cluster because they enjoy doing more touristy / less typical collegiate things (ie travel).

All in all, I am learning a lot about myself and what I can and can not handle here in Cambridge. Frankly, I think I have slightly overloaded myself, what with four engineering modules, an SPS module, a fourth-year project, and two sports, but I am enjoying it for the most part. Feeling like the Cambridge system will steam roll me with the Tripos in the soring, but this seems to be a common thread among MIT students. Have travelled around in the UK and will be travelling for a significant portion of the Christmas break.

One thing that I will mention is that I was depressed for a few weeks here in Cambridge. Think coming over and trying to merge into the third year is harder to do than I expected. Everyone has friends established already, and I felt like the world back at MIT was going on without me. Also felt far behind on a lot of the material for class. Feeling has changed, but I would like to point out that depression is something I think MIT students have to watch for and be prepared for...

Can't believe lectures are over....

Pros:

• I love russet apples! They look like pears, they taste like pears, and yet they are still crisp and delicious with a taste that just resonates YUM! I will miss russet apples when I come back to the states.
• The market, open 7 days a week, is a wonderful place. I like to buy fresh fruits and veges there; breads/cheeses of all kinds, arts, crafts, nick nacks, and best of all-- the Bike Man can fix just about any cycle problem you might have.
• The history and tradition here runs so deep, it's humbling just to stand in the middle of Trinity courtyard (not on the grass!) or walk along the corridors knowing this is the very place Isaac Newton tested the speed of sound hundreds of years ago.
• I like how the college is so much more than a place to sleep. I tried imagining East Campus with ornate gardens, a fountain, and a library, but that image didn't last long.
• Although I am just as busy as I have been at MIT, I am less mentally stressed because there are no regular exams. However, I still learn a lot, especially during practicals (labs) where often I can discuss concepts with TAs while waiting for reactions to incubate, etc.

Cons:

• Sometimes I really fear for my life biking along those narrow roads when a double decker bus careens past me. More than once it's brushed my shoulder. Helmit, lights, signaling, and checking your blind spot are all very important.
• Before coming here, I imagined supervisions as a time where I could ask lots of questions, but actually there is so much material to cover in one hour (at least for Bio Nat Sci) that often I have to email questions instead. Also, I have met some resistence to asking lots of questions because there is the attitude that one should be able to answer the questions independently by going through reference material.
• Just like colleges, departments are autonomous. As a student, I am not a member of a department; this means I only have limited weekday access to libraries, and must ask permission to enter the doors just to go to lecture. Over time I have gotten used to this system but at first it made me feel unwelcome.

This was the first time I've been out of the country, so of course the past two months have been a major transition period; I spent a significant amount of time getting lost, adjusting to the culture (esp. "are you alright?" yes, why?), the food (mushy peas? toad in the hole?), and the many university traditions. Overall, however, I am very glad to be here. It's a rare opportunity to be able to remove yourself from the US and just absorb an entirely new way of learning and living.

Things to Know:

• There is no Cambridge University Centralized Center. Go to your college for administrative info. Departments for academic info. Porters for all else.
• Internet access is hard to come by initially. Breathe, don't panic, it'll be sorted out. In about a week depending on your college. You may want to get a heavy dose of internet usage before you come.
• This is a biking community where most people have bikes, however drivers, especially lorries and buses don't really excercise much caution on the road. Be safe and aware at all times. There is also a heavy fine for not having lights at night. These cost about 14 quid over here...
• If you want a bank account, start early and have all of your information on hand. All of it. Admissions letter, proof of address, passport, College letter.
• Cell phones (sorry, mobiles). Pay As You Go. Mobile World does NOT work outside of the UK.
• It gets cold. I freeze.

Academics

• Supervisors are your friends. Ask questions, you don't have to get everything on the questionsheets right the first go. Don't not put too much stress on it.
• You are apparently expected to do 40hrs of work a week.
• There will be a lot of holes in what you are expected to have covered. Don't worry, find a friend and get their notes or ask your supervisor for information.
• Outside reading is expected.

After You're Somewhat Settled:

• RyanAir.com! Flights around Europe one way starting at 1p! Sounds good but don't forget to include tax and handing of 15 quid.
• Join a bunch of societies. Go to their equivalent of an Activities Midway. Tons of societies, loads of freebies, and you get to meet a bunch of random people.

Food:

• Hall food varies. New Hall is one of the better ones. However, if you don't really like creams, oils, butters, you want to find another source of food.
• If you like to cook, go to Tesco's for bulk, Sainsbury's for fresh stuff, Asda's for cheap stuff, Iceland's and Aldi's for cheap frozen, preservable stuff.
• Know your floormates. They'll watch out for you, explain the culture somewhat, let you use their laptop if you don't have one, and best of all, they'll feed you!

• You will not find free food often. But there is a lot of free alcohol.

• no one warned me about the "english breakfast"... beans on toast, etc. Bring lots of immodium.
• my freaking internet doesn't work so there's no way i can edit the page on the wiki that i am currently editing.