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University of Cambridge
From The Student Room(Redirected from Cambridge University)
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:
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 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 FacilitiesSportsA 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. 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. CUSU have an extensive welfare service - http://www.cusu.cam.ac.uk/welfare/, 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.   Counselling ServiceMore information at [1] HealthcareEach college has a 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. Doctors' SurgeriesThe college nurse will arrange for registration with a GP in Cambridge after your first assessment - remember to bring your current NHS card if you have one! Most of these are fairly central, and there are pharmacies in Boots and Superdrug for prescriptions. DentistsThe University Dental Service is located on Trumpington Road. For more details, go to http://www.cam.ac.uk/cambuniv/studenthandbook/welfare/healthcare/dental.html Addenbrooke'sThis is the local district hospital. It's a huge place, on Hills Road. 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 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. Clinic 1aThe place to be if you catch the clap with your crazy fresher partying. Clinic 1a is part of Addenbrooke's, expect a long waiting list ShopsAll incredibly expensive, which is deeply unfair. 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. 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; 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 ([2]) 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 facilitiesAlmost all colleges have a chapel, mostly Anglican, and these have regular services (~ 3 x a week). 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 on Mill Road. SocialPubsWhy has no-one written this bit yet? Expensive but nice places like the Eagle; the Anchor and Granta have nice riverside locations; King Street has the Champion; Maypole, &c. Bars and clubsRight. I'm going to start by naming the venues Cambridge has to offer, the type of music and people you will expect. Everyone else can fill in as I am skewed in my opinions. Cindies/Ballare/*insert name here* Cindies is popular throughout the week. Weekly run down is: Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Website with pics! [3] People: Music: Prices: Rating: Live/22s Fez Po Na Na Junction Light Bar La Raza B Bar Ta Bouche EventsClubs 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 ultimate frisbee, subject societies, music societies, theatre etc etc. 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 £99 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. May BallsThe stuff of legends. Truly decadent. Actually take place in June. Normally cost about £90 for a single non-dining ticket. Black/white tie, expect fairground rides, champagne, chocolate fountains and general extravagance. Student unionWith no central union building, CUSU (Cambridge University Students' Union) suffers somewhat. Not to be confused with The Union, the university's debating society. However, the University Centre on Mill Lane has a nice cafe. 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. EnvironmentArchitectureThe architecture is brilliant, of course, ranging from bits of Peterhouse built in 1284, totally over-the-top King's Chapel and beautiful old colleges in the town centre, to less-nice newer colleges on the outskirts. Local areaFor most Cantabrigians, the notice stuck to the lamppost on Parker's Piece saying "Reality Checkpoint" is all too pertinent. Teaching qualityApplicationsPersonal Statements used for applying to Cambridge. Other Cambridge ArticlesWhy not read these other Cambridge Articles?
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