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University of Cambridge
From The Student Room(Redirected from Cambridge)
TSR Wiki > University > Choosing a University > University Guides > University of Cambridge  Cambridge is a collegiate university, with its main functions divided between the central departments of the university and a number of colleges. In general, the departments perform research and provide centralised lectures to students, while the colleges are responsible for the domestic arrangements and welfare of students and staff. Colleges provide teaching in the form of supervisions, and are where a student generally lives and socialises. (In Cambridge, “the university” often means the University as opposed to the Colleges.) HistoryColleges
(Those aged over 21 at matriculation are classified as mature students) Choosing a College
AcademiaSubjects and GuidesThe subjects available at undergraduate level at Cambridge are: Arts
Sciences
Libraries http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/ - main university library web-page The Cambridge library system is organised into three tiers. At the top, is the main university library. This is a copyright library, which means that a copy of every [yes, every, non-fiction AND fiction: basically every book with an ISBN number] book published in the UK gets bought and catalogued here. It also, of course, has an extensive back collection of books, periodicals and archival sources. As a student at Cambridge, one is not allowed to actually borrow books until the third year, but one can read them on-site, in the reading rooms. From the outside, it looks like a power station. On the inside (once you get away from the big main reading room), a maze. As a student, you get in with your University card, after you have registered it on the first visit. You can pretty much guarantee that any book, or scientific paper, or whatever, that you are after will be in there somewhere. However, while some books can be taken directly from the shelves, others have to be requested, which can take an hour or more on a busy day. The only way of finding out which to do (that I've found so far) is to have a look on Newton. Newton is the online search facility for all the Cambridge University Libraries. It can be used to search as narrowly as the library of a particular college, or one can broaden the search to take in the holdings of all the libraries in Cambridge Uni. The website can be found here: http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/public_info.html Aside from the main Uni library, there is a secondary tier of departmental libraries. For instance, the Geography department has it's own library with a pretty good range - however I've found that key texts for common parts of the course are very hard to get hold of. Which leads us to the handy fact that by going and registering there, a student can actually borrow books from the libraries of any of the departments, rather than just their own.  The final level is the College libraries. These vary of course from College to College, but will generally offer a good range and less restrictive borrowing than the levels above them. All the libraries offer computing (PC and Mac) and multimedia facilities, and many will have PWF workstations. The main university library webpage can be found here (http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/), and from it one can get to the webpages of all the dependent libraries. In summary, as a student at Cambridge, you can be confident that absolutely any book or article you might want (or have) to read will be available somewhere within the system. It's distributed nature, however, often means a fair amount of trekking back and forth to find a copy if other people are after it too. All the libraries, but in particular the college ones, also offer a quiet place to work, which can be very helpful if you find being in your room means that procrastination through TSR lures you inevitably away from your essay... The University Library also has an extremely nice Tea Room... IT and ComputingCambridge University Computing Service run computing courses and have an extensive library of self-teach packs so that you can learn to use anything you need to. The Computing Service also maintain the University Computer Network (Public Workstation Facility or PWF). When you arrive you'll get a PWF username and password which thich you can log into any computer in your college or faculty. This gives you access to any software you could need. The university will also give you a hermes email account. You will have an email address made up of your initials plus a number @cam.ac.uk. You log on here. Once you leave the university you are given a Cantab email address for life which ends cantab.net. Cambridge Study TipsExamsEssay-Based Subject Study Tips : <--link to some advice given by a Cambridge Director of Studies on how to do well in essay-based Tripos Exams Weekly EssaysTend to stress people more than they need to. Since they do not contribute to your results, the best thing to do with them is to practise writing succinct and clear prose, even to see them as potential revision notes. Remember that your supervisor probably reads through your essay quite quickly, and that it doesn't occupy the same portentious position in their consciousness as it might in yours. Putting yourself in their position should help reinforce the fact that it's not worth stressing too much over, and that a certain of lightness of touch will go down well. This isn't necessarly good practise for dissertation writing or research, but can set you up quite well for the exams themselves. Health and Welfare FacilitiesHealthcareEach college has a college nurse based on site, who sees all freshers early in the first term for an initial assessment, and is available for information and advice on any medical worries. They also usually have free condoms available. As well as registering with the college nurse, you will also need to register with a GP in Cambridge (often the college nurse will arrange this or the college will give you information about the nearest GPs when you arrive). Remember to bring your NHS card if you have one! There are a good number of central GPs and there are pharmacies in Boots and Superdrug for prescriptions. For your teeth, there is the University Dental Service located at number 3 Trumpington Road (near the intersection of Trumpington Street and Lensfield Road). They provide NHS dental treatment for students. The local district hospital is Addenbrooke's Hospital which is a huge place on Hills Road. The good news is that Addenbrooke's is a very good hospital, receiving excellent ratings from the Healthcare Commission. It's quite easy to get to, and any local person (and medics) should be able to give you directions. The C1, C2, C4 and C7 busses all go there, as do the Park and Ride buses. If you cycle all the way down Hills Road you'll get to it eventually. This is where you will end up if you need A&E for any reason. It is a national and regional centre for cancer services, liver transplants, organ transplantation, neurosciences and genetics. You can also go down there to give blood if you want to (though there are lots of opportunities in town too).   WelfareLife at Cambridge, as at any other university, can be stressful. The pressure of essay deadlines, chaos of trying to make new friends and maintain relationships, and the whole new lifestyle that is living away from home, can lead to all sorts of problems. The good news is that Cambridge has an extensive welfare network. In your college you can talk to the college nurse, chaplain, the JCR women's officer/LBGT rep or your tutor (each student is assigned a tutor on arrival at the college who is an academic not normally in the subject you are studying who is responsible for your welfare during your time at the college). If you prefer to seek help out of college then CUSU have an extensive welfare service, ranging from mental to sexual health and lots in between. They also have a sabbatical officer who can be contacted on welfare@cusu.cam.ac.uk who, as well as individual case work, is involved in improving services for all students and representing concerns to university authorities. They also train the college welfare officers - you'll meet them at the lovely sexual health talk in Freshers' week, who are usually the first port of call for any concerns. CUSU also has a part-time Mental Health officer.On top of CUSU and the range of people available to help in college, there is also professional help available from the University Counselling Service. This is free and completely confidential. ShopsSupermarkets:
Markets:
Book Shops in the City Centre:
Shopping Centres/Roads:
Charity Shops: Lots of charity shops in Burleigh Street (next to the Grafton Centre), 7 on Mill Road, a couple on Regent Street and an Oxfam Book Shop on Sidney Street. RestaurantsIt is difficult to talk about restaurants, given that the student population tend to prefer to eat in college butteries, formal halls, and often from take-aways, so I'll discuss all of the places in which foodstuffs can be acquired. First and foremost is Gardies (the gardenia) on Rose Crescent. This is the hub of late-night Cambridge life. There is always a queue, the food is greasy but great, and if you're drunk enough they take a photo of you and put it on the wall (in exchange for a lollipop). The food is relatively pricey, but worth every penny. The competition for Gardies is the van of life and the van of death. Both of which offer cruder food, but are popular given the lack of a queue. That's take-aways done. Other popular sources of culinary delight are sandwich shops. These come in the forms of Nadia's (great cakes), Peppercorns (great sandwiches), Sainsbury's (great big issue sellers), and the infamous UL tea room, which is possibly the greatest restaurant in the entirety of the Cambridge bubble. Also Sam Smileys deserves a mention, especially for those at Corpus. These are all useful if you just want to pick up a snack, and usually the food is fresher than chains like Starbucks and Nero. A further category is the pizza restaurant. While Gardies sell pizza's they are not really worth it. If you really want a good Pizza then head to the cow (brb, by the corn exchange) on a Tuesday for two for one pizza. Also popular is pizza hut all you can eat 11am-3pm. The latter is particularly popular with science students given its proximity to Downing and New Museums sites. The final category is curry houses. There are two popular ones in town: Curry Mahal (on mill lane) and Curry King (by the baron of beef, just before Magdalene bridge). The King has an excellent meal offer for a tenner, and is very nice for larger parties. Oh yeah, one more place - Dojo's (also on Mill lane) is also a great studenty place, with nice cheap noodles based food. La Galleria on Magdalene Bridge does an excellent range of food, both British and continental. It doesn't come cheaply but is not overpriced. Sit outside on the balcony on a summer evening for a specially lovely night. The Maharajah on Castle Hill is a slightly classier curry establishment than the normal student haunts, but is still reasonably priced and a meal will cost you less than £15. They also do takeaways. The Thanh Binh on Magdalene Street is a lovely Vietnamese restaurant. Fairly reasonable price and as it doesn't have a liquor license it's handily a bring your own wine place. Can get a starter, main and have your wine for less than £15 per person. Ask on Bridge Street, and Pizza Express on Jesus Lane both offer slightly higher quality pizza than Pizza Hut, as well as some nice pasta dishes and yummy desserts. Expect the same from them as you would of any of their other branches. Takeaway
BanksThere are banks everywhere, in the city centre, at least. HSBC, Barclays, NatWest, you name it, its within two minutes of wherever you happen to be. Clearly the city wants students to have lots of money on them, always. TransportCambridge is not really a large city, but for most people living in the centre, anything beyond Parker's Piece to the South or Castle Hill to the North might as well be a deserted wasteland. Most departments are within fairly easy walking distance from most colleges. However, as lie-ins are always popular with students, the added time in bed that using a bike gives you means that 8:55am is a scary time to be on Trinity Street! A top of the range bike is by no means necessary. In fact, since bike theft remains a problem in the town it is much better to have a less attrective bike. As long as it has two wheels and a functioning chain it will probably do. There is a one-way system in the centre of town, though watch out for pedestrians. Equally, pedestrians, learn to look for bikes, which are harder to see than cars! Undergraduate students are not normally allowed to keep a car; special permission must be sought from the University Proctor, and is unlikely to be granted unless there are special reasons for having one. Even so, parking is sparse and the one way systems/bollard systems mean town-centre driving is nearly impossible. There are as have already been described, a range of local bus services which are all fairly regular. These are most popularly used for going to the train station and Addenbrooke's, though of course they do go to other places too! The Citi 4 bus, formerly free to university card holders, and travelling from the West Cambridge site through town to Addenbrooke's is sadly no more. The train station in Cambridge is to the south of the town, about a mile from the centre. It can be walked to in around twenty-five minutes, or can be travelled to by bus (such as the Citi 7) in around five. Fast trains to London King's Cross are regular and take 45 minutes, with some slower stopping ones taking longer. Trains to other destinations are less efficient. The CrossCountry Bimringham New Street - Stansted Airport service passes through Cambridge, offering direct connections to Peterborough (for trains to the North East, Leeds, and Scotland); Leicester (for services to Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield, and Nuneaton (for Virgin West Coast services to Liverpooland the north-west); and, of course Birmingham. Many services call at Ely, where one can change to board trains to places such as Ipswich, Norwich, and other areas of Norfolk. The station is run by National Express East Anglia (formerly "one"). Careers serviceThe Careers Service has a building in town, but also has a very useful website ([1]) which lists current vacancies. They also organise events for people who have an interest in working in a specific area. They also have a rather annoying habit of sending unsolicited emails. Part-time jobsThere are many part time jobs around Cambridge. To find out about them, try the Cambridge Evening News. The Grafton (centre) website also has jobs on too. Bear in mind, however, that it is forbidden to take a job during term-time. And even if it weren't, most people find that there simply isn't time to while away the hours in the 'Real World'. Save it for vacations. Having said that, if you're finding it finanicially necessary or desirable to consider taking part-time work, your college will probably help you out; they generally want nothing to stand in the way of your academic progress. Religious facilitiesCambridge is a great place to join with others and share your religion. Almost all colleges have a chapel (mostly Anglican) and a chaplain with regular services (~ 3 x a week). There is Great St Mary's the university church next to Market Square, and the city centre has plenty of churches spare, too. Your soul will never feel deprived of love and attention. The Sidgwick Site contains a reasonably-sized, easy to access Muslim prayer room. There is also a Mosque, a Hindu shrine and a Baptist church on Mill Road. Most colleges have a Christian Union. Whatever your religion, there will be a university society which organises meetings and activities for you to join in. Christian Societies include CICCU (Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union) (evangelical Christians), CU Chinese Christian Fellowship, MethSoc (Methodists but open to anyone of any denomination or none), CU Christian Orthodox Society, Taize Worship Group, Christian Graduate Society and Christians in unity (an umbrella group to foster communication, understanding and support between the different Christian groups). Other religious societies include Buddhist Society, Jewish Society, Hindu Cultural Society, Islamic Society, Sikh Society and the Bahai Society (this list is not exhaustive). SocialPubsCambridge has an unbelievable number of pubs! Expensive but nice places like the Eagle; the Anchor and Granta have nice riverside locations; King Street has the Champion; Maypole, &c. ClubbingSeveral of the colleges put on regular 'Ents' with DJ music and dancing. King's and Clare Cellars are particularly popular with the students. The Cambridge Union has regular 'Shut up and Dance' nights, also with DJ's. In addition, the town has a variety of active nightclubs. CUSU Ents co-hosts student nights with the clubs around town. Cindies / Ballare Nightclub (26-29 Lion Yard CB2 3NA, Fan Website here) Cindies is actually called Ballare but all the students call it Cindies. It is associated with Cheese and is highly popular throughout the week.
Website with pics! [2] Fez Nightclub (15 Market Passage CB2 3HX ).
Life/22/The Place Nightclub (22 Sidney Street, CB2 3HG). Set in a basement.
Kambar (Wheeler Street, CB2 3QB)
The Soul Tree (1-6 Corn Exchange Street, CB2 3QF)
Po Na Na Nightclub (The Basement, 7a Jesus Lane, Cambridge, CB5 8BA) Good sized bar area and dance floor down the corridor. The Junction Nighclub (Clifton Road, CB1 7GX - In Cambridge Leisure Park, out of the city centre) Bars
EventsMay BallsThe stuff of legends. Truly decadent - the biggest party you're likely to get the opportunity to attend. Most balls actually take place in June. They are organised by students and you can get some fantastic experience by joining your college May Ball Committee and helping to organise a huge event with a massive budget. Black/white tie. Expect fairground rides, champagne, chocolate fountains, live music and general extravagance. At the end of the ball, everybody gathers for the huge 'survivors photo'. Balls normally cost about £90 for a single non-dining ticket. If the ticket price is too expensive, there are plenty of opportunities to work at the balls. Often the deal is that you work for half the night and then get to enjoy the party for the rest of the time. Some colleges have smaller balls called 'events' which are cheaper. Clubs and societiesThere are societies to cover just about any interest area. There are various rowing clubs, for each college and for the university as a whole, clubs for most sports, from rugby to lacrosse and ultimate frisbee, subject societies, music societies, theatre etc etc. Cambridge offers fantastic opportunities to try new sports and activities or to train and perfect those you already practice. Cambridge UnionOne of the most famous societies is the Cambridge Union The Cambridge Union is a debating society, and is the oldest in the world. It holds weekly debates such as "This House belives that God is dead" or "This House believes that gentlemen prefer blondes". These debates often have big names in them, such as politicians, comedians, jornalists, businessmen and so forth. Theya re preceeded by an emergency debate which is done by students. Students can take part in the debate by attending the debating workshops held on a weekly basis. People can get involved in the main debate when, after the first two speakers on both sides have finished, the debate is opened to the floor. There you can speak in favour of the proposal, against or in abstention. At the end of the debate you choose a door to leave from depending upon which side you fall. There is a door for ayes, nays and abstention. The Cambridge Union also holds regular speaker events. Speakers are often big name politicians such as the president of Iraq, or people famous for other reasons such as activists or celebrities. These events are free to members. Finally, the union holds events such as Ben and Jerry's night, Shut up and Dance night and balls. Membership is £120 for life, or £50 annual membership. Student TheatreAnother Cambridge society which is well known outside Cambridge is the famous Footlights comedy club. Footlights put on a fortnightly one-night comedy revue called the Smoker, which invariably sells out, and which anybody can audition for a slot in. They also put on a number of full-length shows including a spring revue, a national summer tour show and a pantomime. Even though Footlights can have a reputation for being a little too unusual in their humour, they are well known for having kick-started the careers of many of today's well known names. Other groups exist to promote improvised comedy, the most exclusive of which being Alcock Improv. For those who wish to persue more serious drama, the Amateur Dramatic Club puts on several shows at a high standard each term, as do the many college drama societies. The Musical Theatre Society, Gilbert & Sullivan Society and Marlowe Society also put on a couple of (higher-budget) productions a year. Annual tours visit several venues in the UK, continental Europe, the USA and Japan and offer unique challenges for actors, directors and technicians alike. The centre of student drama in Cambridge is the ADC Theatre, owned by the Amateur Dramatic Club but hired to (and run by) the university. Although small, the theatre boasts many facilities for flying and lighting normally found in professional theatres as well as a well equipped workshop for set building. The theatre has a packed programme with two student shows sharing the stage each week during term and looks forward to major rebuilding work in summer 2008 to upgrade backstage facilities. The Corpus Christi playroom, in St. Edmund's passage, is jointly run by the college and the Arts Theatre. It is much smaller, being a converted house, and is unique in shape with seating on two sides of the stage. Smaller productions tend to play here, and the venue presents a number of directorial and technical challenges. In addition, most colleges have a venue that hosts a show or two each term, and some student shows manage to obtain slots at the Cambridge Arts Theatre, a fully professional venue. List of University Dramatic Societies:
As well as the university-wide societies, many colleges have their own dramatic society. College societies typically produce 3 or 4 plays over the Michealmas and Lent terms, and a May Week play which is usually performed in the college gardens. Students do not have to be a member of the college in order to take part in a college production. They keep an eye on Camdram.net, where all shows and auditions as well as backstage positions are advertised. Some colleges such as Peterhouse and Christ's have their own theatre to perform in. Student DanceThere's a very active dance community in Cambridge and opportunities for whatever kind of dancing at whatever level you are. The best dancers enter competitions and train for the Oxford vs. Cambridge Varsity Dancesport Match. A selection of societies:
SportsA huge range of sports are played at Cambridge, both at university and college level. The University Sport website / www.sport.cam.ac.uk has links to all the various university clubs. These involve a high amount of commitment and training; most teams will play in leagues of various descriptions each week and the culmination for each one is their own Varsity match against Oxford. For the more "mainstream" sports, such as men's rugby, men's rowing, hockey, football, women's netball, pre-university experience to a good standard is required, however for others it is possible to make the Blues team from starting as a complete novice (e.g. men's lacrosse, women's rugby, women's rowing). Most team sports are also represented at a college level, although some smaller colleges have composite teams with another college. These play weekly in league matches, and also have an annual knockout tournament known as Cuppers. For many of these teams, enthusiasm is the main quality required, rather than a vast degree of skill! Check out most college JCR websites for information, or sign up at the Freshers' Fair. Student JournalismThere are plenty of opportunities to get involved in student journalism at Cambridge either just for fun or to get some training for a future career in the field. The university has two free weekly newspapers written and edited by student volunteers. These are Varsity (published every Friday in term time since 1947) and The Cambridge Student (which is also a weekly publication). Most colleges also have a student publication, some of them such as Clare's award-winning Clarification is published weekly, others are less frequent. Student unionCUSU (Cambridge University Students' Union) supports and represents all the college unions and all the students in Cambridge. Unlike other universities, there is no big central union building with a union bar - students go to their college bars instead. However it does provide a wide range of services to students and societies ranging from giving out free condoms to providing vehicle and equipment hire. CUSU produces a number of useful publications including the fresher's guide, the Alternative Prospectus, the CUSU diary and the little Black Book. CUSU co-hosts Student Nights at the Cambridge Nightclubs. It is also active in university Access schemes, for example it organises Open Days, School visits and the shadowing scheme in which 6th formers with little or no school or family university tradition can come and spend three days 'shadowing' a student in the subject they are interested in. The student union should not be confused with The Union, the university's debating society. PricesPrices for drinks differ from bar to bar, with the cheapest places being the college bars. Cambridge is quite an expensive place to live, although not as bad as London. Most events done by the university such as May Balls, the law ball and dinners are quite pricey, but well worth the expense. EnvironmentCambridge and the surrounding area is very flat. The only 'hills' are Castle Hill and odd bridges. This is very good for cycling but not so good if you like your hills. The river Cam runs through the town providing somewhere to punt and row. There are quite a few open expanses of grass such as Parkers Piece and Jesus Green which provide a nice community setting where people kick a football about, picnic and chat. The great thing about the city is that you don't have to go far to get to open countryside. Many students enjoy going to Grantchester which you can get to by walking (or punting) through Granchester Meadows along the river. When you get there it's a tiny village but has several good pubs such as the Blue Ball and the Green Man, as well as The Orchard Tea Garden which is expensive but very nice and steeped in tradition. If you ever get really stressed, taking an afternoon out and going to Grantchester can be good therapy! ArchitectureThe architecture is brilliant, of course. It ranges from bits of Peterhouse built in 1284, totally over-the-top pieces like King's College Chapel and beautiful old colleges in the town centre, neo-classical Downing and less-nice newer colleges on the outskirts. Some people like historical old buildings and impressive courts. Others prefer a more modern feel. Whatever you like you'll find a college to suit your tastes. Local areaFor most Cantabrigians, the notice stuck to the lamppost on Parker's Piece saying "Reality Checkpoint" is all too pertinent. Teaching qualityAlmost all Cambridge departments were awarded 5 or 5* ratings in the last (2001) Research Assessment Exercise. There is extremely high competition for academics to become lecturers at the university and as a result you can expect very high teaching standards. ApplicationsPersonal Statements used for applying to Cambridge. Other Cambridge ArticlesWhy not read these other Cambridge Articles?
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