Several people have asked me for advice on deciding whether or not to apply to/take part in the Cambridge-MIT Exchange. Here's a compilation on some of the most important points I've been repeating. Hopefully, whoever you are, this can give you some insight into the differences/experience/etc. and help you with your decision!
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* On Classes:
Classes are not rigorous. They do not do continual assessment (the only thing that counts is the final exam - and your "psets" are only reviewed at "supervision" -think office hours- for "helpful review" rather than being graded) so honestly the workload is really light compared to MIT. I'm sure I will be stressed when finals come around (in late-April for every class regardless of which term you took the class - trimester system, first two trimesters are classes, last trimester is final exams + projects) but for now I feel like it's a breeze. And when the stress finally does come around, it'll be about 1/100th of the type of stress you feel at MIT. You'll get a 5-week vacation wherein you can study/review however much you want for your exams. Think about the 72 hours you get to prepare for MIT's finals week. Now imagine that being spread over 5+ weeks where you don't have classes, other distractions, nada (seriously, even athletics and other clubs get put on hold!), to study for exams.
* On life at Cambridge:
It is a totally different pace (slower) that you'll have to adjust to. To be honest, when I first got here, I was kind of depressed for a while - probably 4-5 weeks. It was really weird for me to feel because I am usually someone who, out of all my friends, is the person who most loves adventure, doing new things, meeting new people, going new places, etc. so it was startling for me to feel depressed about Cam life. I realized finally that it's because MIT is incredibly -almost disproportionately, compared to other American universities, let alone European ones where the academic:extracurricular focus ratio gets even higher- spontaneous, creative, dynamic, and almost spastic, lol. Everything is always changing and exciting things are happening everywhere around you. Since Cambridge is on the college system (you live in "colleges" kind of like what you see in Harry Potter), you largely spend your time within your college grounds - wake up, lectures, come back to college for lunch, go back to your department for lectures, come back to college and work in library/room, go to hall for dinner, go to other college for university society (club) meeting, go back to room to study and/or hang out with people in your college common areas (bar - that's really the only common lounge area in your entire college campus, aka oversized dorm). I probably felt a bit suffocated at first due to this routine, but afterward, I really got into the groove and have a group of really good friends so now I am very very happy about it.
* My courses:
Getting credit this year for 2.002, 2.004, 2.671, 2.672, 2.96, 14.02, 14.11, and 24 units of HASS elective. The transfer ratio (for the course 2 department) is 1 MIT class per every 2 Cambridge engineering modules taken. In the engineering department, we can take additional language classes, so I took two Spanish classes for 24 units HASS. I'm also taking an economics class (full year class) for 24 units of course 14 credit for 2 classes that will complete my HASS concentration. So I'm walking away from CME with 9 12-unit classes worth of credit, which is great. Side note: Cam students don't get to take classes outside of their major. Doing what I'm doing and taking engineering with the engineering students in the engineering department
and taking an economics paper with the econ kids in the econ department ... you'll be an odd ball there. But coming from an American background, I appreciate the balance and the chance to learn anything I want.
* Would I do it again?
Yes. Though that's more a "yes" at 80% than a "YES!!!" I still think that MIT is more active, spontaneous, passionate, etc. but I really appreciate the opportunity that studying abroad has given me to see beyond the MIT world and experience a different culture, a different college lifestyle, and just see
The College Experience from a different vantage point. My personal opinion is that it broadens perspective and is teaching me/making me more aware of the countless little nuances distinguishing our cultures. It's without a doubt a huge benefit to experience more than one university during your college years, and seriously, who would turn down a chance to study at BOTH freaking MIT and University of Cambridge within one college career!? I also love meeting all these new people and having a circle of Cambridge friends who I really like and can visit/know forever. It's awesome to be able to travel Europe while you're here (in December, I went skiing on Cambridge+Oxford's annual trip 2,500 students to the French Alps for a week, then to Switzerland, Paris, London, Vienna, Paris again, London for New Year's, then Amsterdam, Munich, Venice, and finally Spain, Dublin, Kerry just this past month) and also just to understand a different definition of "college."
Read around for more posts on specific Cambridge events, thoughts/feelings/experiences, and such. Hopefully this has been helpful, stay tuned for more.
sign of a ridiculous hangover: light of laptop screen hurts to look at. oouuuch. -LB
doesn't remember anything after the port -JDF
I wish we had guitar hero in the library. -NH
You know Monday night was bad when you have a hangover Wednesday morning -PW
is too drunk to go to a supervision
is practising using his gown
really can't be bothered to go to his supervision
The hardest part of Cambridge is having to put on cufflinks every week
Plan for tonight; Formal, back up to room for a homemade southend special, cocktails at the union then on to Emma (wednesday)
is an exhausted, hungover mess, but SO excited about tonight! [another formal] -JDF
is well chuffed with the discovery of her wonderful array of drunken facial expressions -HB
loves the fact that she got wrecked last night but still made it to lectures and labs, while her mother drank a few too many bacardis with her mate and, as a result, is wagging work.
5:46am. Did Tiananmen make the Chinese intellectual community more independent and vocal? Joseph Fewsmith says 'no', Xu Youyu says 'yes'. -JDF
Entered the library at 7.30pm... it's now 5.30am and I've nearly finished the introduction. I'm the Usain Bolt of essay writing. -KK
Working from bed with mint tea and Yemen books. Lovely. -LL
post-ball motivation fail.
To remove the HAMMER & SICKLE FLAG or not. This is the subject of tonight's controversial OPEN MEETING. Come speak at 6pm tonight!
rihanna.rwanda.coffee.
music, food, alcohol and friends - it's like the fun of a nightclub but in the warmth and comfort of King's library :) -MM
is an exhausted, hungover mess, but SO excited about tonight!
£5... 13 glasses of wine... can't be bad.
has been in the library for nearly 4 hours, and is only just starting her work.. -NH
[MIT Facebook statuses]
I just downloaded 3 gb in 3 minutes on the MIT network :) -JL
gallons of coffee and 12+ hours of various labwork to do? must be friday! -SF
So, maybe my grad student and I get a little overexcited about dorky things. but in our defense, that interface, and those grain boundaries, were absolutely gorgeous. mmm.
3 exams and 4 psets in one week? Really? -SW
haha! The dude that invented the happy meal and the cabbage patch doll (as well as pop rocks) wants to talk to me about Electroplushies. Hilarious! -MS
downloading at 5 Mb/s via wi-fi. Mmmmmmm.
wants better a better metadata UI than _KB.txt files. -KH
got into 24.900 and CMS.100 and has a UROP in CVCL! Which means that he'll be dropping 4.351
feels surprisingly prepared for doomsday tomorrow. Bring it on. -VH
bounce like ya got hydraulics in yo' g-string? hahahaha. -MYL
just found out that laundry view only works for the building you're actually in... I was trying to see if anyone was doing laundry in BC right now. -KB
excerpt from the BEST DESK CALL EVER guy: Can you connect me to the science department? me: This is a dorm, I don't really know how to do that. MIT has multiple science departments, so you'd need to call the main number and be more specific. guy: I was calling to settle a bet between me and my stepdaughter. We wanted to know if the moon is a planet or not. -EJ
is trapped in an infinite potential well. (it's like The Ring, but with more sine functions.) -SF
Op-amps are my new favorite circuit element... especially when they look like little insects. (They even look adorable in circuit diagrams.)
I've finally reached the point where it takes me much longer to format something in Word than it does when I just use Latex. Another questionable MIT milestone.
Dear fluids class - you have made me confuse upper case gamma with the capital letter F. Now the notes from all of my classes are super hard to decipher. -VH
all I want for Christmas is a stream function.
will have time for basic human needs at the end of the week.
is a sine wave for Purim! -DB
spent 3 hours figuring out android virtual machines instead of doing computation theory work. well, at least now today's refactoring nightmare is resolved....