Blog by: Sarah

The end of Lent Term is drawing ever nearer. The Cambridge term names are yet another Cambridge eccentricity – Michaelmas, Lent and Easter.

So as Lent Term draws to a close, Easter and the chocolate fest draws nearer, the fruits of which I am hoping will get me through exam term… But the less said about exam term the better. Rather than looking into the future and the exams that come with it, it is far nicer to look back at the excitement that a Cambridge term encompasses and the things that have happened this term.

As ever, this term has brought with it lots of excitement and new experiences. Becoming president of my college’s student union has brought lots of new responsibility which I have been really enjoying. I have also got much more involved with another society this term: Giving What We Can.

Giving What We Can (GWWC) is an organisation which recommends which charities to donate to according to their effectiveness. It helps people to make educated decisions about which charities to donate to, so that their money can work as hard as it can for others. Along with this, GWWC encourages people to take a pledge to donate at least 10% of their income to the most cost effective charities. The GWWC chapter in Cambridge organises talks about effective altruism, the umbrella term for effective and efficient charitable decisions. I have found the talks really interesting, and they have made me think about how we can address the huge problem that is world poverty. The most recent talk I went to discussed the relationship between photography and poverty. It raised the message more generally that we should always be critical of the images the media present to us, to be inquisitive rather than accepting. I love the fact that Cambridge is full of this message: to be curious, to question, to wonder. An interest in learning, about your course and more broadly, is characteristic of all Cambridge students – it’s what makes it such a stimulating place to study. It also makes the short 8 week terms even more intense, as everyone tries to fit in all their other interests alongside their work!

Until next time.

The college system makes Cambridge a really special place to study. Your college becomes your home, your social life and your place of study. You do of course meet people from other colleges but your college is the family that you always know is there to look after you.

Each college has its own student union, often called the JCR. The JCR runs parties, looks after the welfare of students and represents student population at a college and university level. The great thing about having a student union for the university and then many, many more for individual colleges is that you have greater access to the support and social events they offer.

The JCR is made up of students at the college who stand for a position on the committee and then are voted in by the other students at the college. I feel very privileged to have been elected as president of my college’s student union for the upcoming year. I hope that the committee and I can continue to make studying at our college a wonderful, unique experience!

I think it’s really exciting that students get to have such a huge say in what life at university is like. But student union activity is just one of the many things that there are to get involved in, and like I said in my previous post, there are just too many things that I want to do and not enough time!

One of my favourite Cambridge traditions is ‘formal’. ‘Formal’ is a formal (surprise!) dinner in the college hall that involves wearing gowns, getting together with friends and having a great value meal. People go to formal for all sorts of reasons: to celebrate birthdays, to start a night out or to pretend they’re in Harry Potter. Last week I went to ‘Half Way Hall’ in my college, a particularly special formal.

‘Half Way Hall’ is a celebration/commiseration of the fact that you are half way through your degree. I had a fantastic evening, surrounded by people that I love in a place that I never want to leave. But it was a bittersweet occasion. The cliché that time flies when you’re having fun has never felt truer. The realisation that I am half way through my undergraduate degree is a scary one. It was a fitting reminder that I need to do the many things I want to do in Cambridge now, before I find myself in my furs at graduation bemused by the fact that the second half of my degree flew by as fast as the first.

Looking at the week ahead, I have only one evening that is not booked up, and it seems like I may be keeping to my ‘second half of my degree’ resolution to make the most of it while I can.

One of the benefits of being a student is the long holidays. One of the benefits of being a Cambridge student is the even longer holidays! Technically, I think we are meant to think of them as ‘study breaks’… or in other words, holidays.

The Christmas holiday is 6 weeks long, so only 2 weeks less than the length of one term! I always start the holidays thinking ‘6 weeks?! How will I fill all that time?!’ But, as always, I am sat here as the Christmas holidays draw to a close, and there are many things I thought I would get round to doing this holiday that won’t be ticked off the to do list. Luckily, the list mainly features films and TV programs I wanted to watch so it’s probably not such a bad thing!

Catching up on TV took a backseat to many more exciting things that happened this holiday. This Christmas was most memorable for my trip to Rome with friends. One of things I love about studying at Cambridge is that you get to meet people from all over the world. We stayed with a friend who lives in Rome, and were also visiting another friend who is taking a year out living and working there. It was great to have a Cambridge reunion out of the bubble, and in such a beautiful place. Staying with friends who knew the real, ‘local’ Rome really was the best way to explore the city. We had huge, delicious, and incredibly cheap meals at restaurants that were full of Romans (we had a lot of debate about whether you can call people who live in Rome Romans without suggesting they wear togas and go to watch gladiator fights, I think you can). I was also very lucky to be travelling with two classicists, one of whom does stand-up comedy in Cambridge, who really brought the ancient past of Rome to life through their funny, intelligent, stories.

The Christmas holiday has also been filled up with Christmas (naturally), New Year and catching up with friends from home. It has been lovely to see the people from home that I have missed, but the big drawback is that I have missed being in Cambridge. I have missed the people, the busyness, the beautiful city, the fact that bicycles pose far more danger than cars, Sunday brunch and formal hall. And I have also missed the work. I didn’t think I would be saying that when I came home last term, but it is testament to my subject and the teaching that I am looking forward to getting back and learning more! I wonder how long it will take for that to wear off once the library sessions start up again…

So I had better get on with finishing off my holiday work and maybe start to think about packing up my stuff for another term in Cambridge. It already looks like it’s going to be a busy term and I can’t wait to get started!

The first exposure many students have to Cambridge is their interview. The ominous Cambridge Interview has long been mythologised, rumours and stories are all over the papers about what takes place and the questions that are asked. I’m going to share a secret with you all: the rumours aren’t true. Interviews at Cambridge ask you questions about your subject and want to find out the way you think by exposing you to new material. Simple as.

I stayed on for an extra week at the end of term to help out with the interviews that were being held at my college. I chatted with interviewees and showed them around college, helping them to find their interviews. So the first thing to note when you come up to interview is that you won’t be on your own – there will be people there to show you the way and to answer any questions you may have.

As you would expect, lots of the interviewees were pretty nervous on their interview day. Nerves are to be expected, but as I told them, the interviewers are not trying to catch you out. The interview is actually an opportunity to talk about a subject you are probably really passionate about with someone that loves it even more than you! My top tip would be to try and think out loud: if you are unsure about how to answer a question, verbalise your thought process out loud so that the interviewer can see the way you are approaching the question. The focus is not on the answer, but the thinking behind it.

I really enjoyed working for interview week. It meant that I got to stay in lovely Cambridge for a bit longer without work on my mind, but most of all I got to meet some really lovely people. The students coming to interview were so friendly and interesting, and I wish them all the best of luck with their applications, I can’t wait to see some of them in college next year!

Returning to Cambridge for my second year has been a very different experience from arriving in Cambridge last October! Last year the work, the people, the place were all new. As the first two years in a History degree are essentially the same, this term has just felt like home away from home. This has meant that I’ve had lots of time to work on that crucial work life balance, so here are a few highlights from Michaelmas term 2012 so far (not including the many work ones of course!):

Benjamin Francis Leftwich concert

I had my first experience of The Junction, one of Cambridge’s main venues for hosting visiting artists. Admittedly it is not the biggest venue I’ve been to, but this gave the gig a great, personal atmosphere. Benjamin Francis Leftwich’s music is really beautiful and relaxing (worth a listen to on YouTube if you haven’t heard it), and was a great way to escape the madness of the Cambridge bubble. Thanks to the more intimate venue he even did a couple of ‘unplugged’ songs without the microphone, something that I have never heard in concert before.

Installation of the new Master

So each College at Cambridge has a Master (or Mistress), a role that I guess is comparable to a school Headmaster. My college welcomed a new master this term, cue lots of ceremony and pomp. I love the weird and wonderful traditions here, they make Cambridge such a unique place to be living and studying. All of the fellows of the College promenaded through Great Court in full academic dress, furs, hats and everything. What made it particularly special was that we were even allowed to walk on the grass! A rare treat, but it does mean that the grass in college is extra especially green and tidy. Obviously, this is the main reason to study at Cambridge.

Kid’s Birthday Party

When people think about what makes up a social life at uni, the first thing people think of is going clubbing. Of course, Cambridge is just like any other uni and students here love going out, but it is not the only thing people do in their free time.   It was one of my close friend’s birthdays this term, and to celebrate we had a kid’s party in her kitchen. Tablecloths, party hats, balloons, bunting and sweets were bought from the pound shop. We drew on the table, played pass the parcel and raced chairs around the kitchen, singing along to Madonna all evening. If you’re worried that coming to Cambridge means you have to be mature and adult all the time, don’t!

Running my first competitive race

Sport here at Cambridge is great: talented athletes can train and perform at a really high level. I am not one of these talented athletes. Despite telling my mum for many years that I hated running, I have to swallow my pride and admit that she was right and that actually running is great. Over the last six months I have got really into my running, and thankfully have also got better at it! In a moment of cockiness I decided to run my first race here in Cambridge. It was a lot of fun, really muddy and I slipped and slid my way to the finish line. I’m not going to mention where I finished in the league table, but let’s just say you should rest assured that you will not be seeing me in the Olympics any time soon. My less than impressive sporting tale is meant to demonstrate that whatever sport you enjoy, and whatever skill level you have, Cambridge will give you the opportunity to indulge your passions.

As you can tell, life at Cambridge is pretty varied and there are so many ways of spending your time here.  Tomorrow, I am going to visit ‘the other place’ (Oxford) for a few days, which I am really looking forward to. Fitting in the work around my visit will be a bit of a challenge, but I will report back on how it goes soon!

Over and out.

I am now in my second year studying history here at Cambridge. It feels strange to write that, I can’t believe that I have been here for over a year already! It is not hard to remember leaving home and those first few days in this beautiful, if not at first slightly intimidating, university city. One of my main concerns then, and still is now, was making sure that my life at Cambridge was about far more than my studies. Of course, I love my subject and I am honored to have the privilege to study it in such an inspiring place. But, as everyone tells you, going to university is a life experience not just an academic one. In the last year, my interests have widened and my confidence has grown, and I have had the time of my life.

So I invite you into my world, as I continue in my quest for that precious balance between working hard and playing hard too!