Cambridge-MIT Exchange: Matriculation to Cambridge University

Saturday October 3, 2009 was official Matriculation into Cambridge University.

[Fig. BEST - Matriculation Dinner, 03 Oct 2009, King's College, Cambridge University]
[[taken from 1st floor balcony during dinner]]

matriculate

/məˈtrɪk.jʊ.leɪt/ v. [I] formal

to be formally admitted to study at a university or college

(from Cambridge Dictionary)

Anyway, this entailed getting to the chapel by 10:30am, signing a book of all past King's students, and listening to speeches by our Senior Tutor, Robin Osborne, and someone else (lay dean?). The dress was "smart casual" which meant collared shirts for men, no jeans, and by special request of the JCR president, no Ugg boots. lol.

Then, we lined up here (right outside our college bar/dining hall) to take the Entering Class of 2009 picture with 130ish Freshers, standing alphabetical by last name.

[Fig. 1 King's College, Great Court]

By chance, Nate Sharpe (MIT '09) was also starting his "Fresher" year at Cambridge (King's College) this year for grad school, so we were right next to each other in the picture! So we mused about the Brit system and how overly complicated they were making the whole lining-up process. Talk about small world + MIT people everywhere you go. (Rane Nolan MIT '09 is also starting grad school here, but at Trinity Hall, a different college. But I ran into him in the market square my second day in Cambridge!)

Anyway, then we had an assortment of Matriculation Day activities including a book discussion, blah blah ... until that evening, the night of Matriculation Dinner!

Now just to set the stage:
-Cambridge has been around for 800 years
-They follow tradition like mad
-Harry Potter was modeled after Cambridge/Oxford
-My entire college campus consists of chapels and castles

6:30pm Pre-dinner drinks with your DoS (Director of Studies)
Everyone has a DoS within college, who is basically the fellow who takes care of all your academic issues/registration - think MIT advisor. These are assigned according to major. So, at 6.30pm, all the fresher engineers + me + Notre Dame 3rd year exchange student (Bart Dear) enjoyed wine, cheese, and crisps (chips) in our DoS's room (in college).

7:30pm Matriculation Dinner
We had tables set out for each major/department, where we found our nameplates and silverware laid out for us:

[Fig. 2 Place setting at Matric Dinner]

[Fig. 3 The Engineers' Table]

[Fig. 4 Part 2 of 3-course meal]

[Fig. 5 The Historians' (?) Table]

At the end of dinner, during dessert, we had a serenade by King's Voices, the college mixed choir (which I am now a part of!) from the tier looking over the entire dining hall. It was ridiculous, like whoa. Like, wow, we are sitting in The Great Hall with candles, wine, good food, in dresses and suits, with a choir singing to us, welcoming us formally into the Cambridge University community.

[Fig. 6 King's Voices performing during dinner]

Post dinner, basically all the freshers joined the rest of the college in our college bar (yeah, each college here has their own college bar. King's is the best.) and it was packed. We had bands playing and just general socializing.