Hello hello!
With a little over five weeks to go, I thought I would talk today about what it’s like to study at the University of Cambridge. It’s been extremely different from my experience at Wellesley – but that doesn’t make it any less exciting, or rewarding!
As I’ve mentioned earlier, academics at Cambridge operates based on the supervision system. The supervision system, according to the Cambridge website, provides “the opportunity to explore your subject more deeply, discuss your own work and ideas, and receive regular feedback”. Most supervisions are one on one meetings with professors, or post docs. Supervisions are not assessed (usually only your work is), so they are great ways to explore ideas and develop critical thinking skills.
I’m taking two supervisions at Cambridge: Philosophy of Mind and Psychology of Language Process and Learning. With each supervision, we (as visiting students) have an option to either 1) write a paper every week, and sit examinations at the end of term OR 2) work on a semester-long dissertation to turn in at the end of the term. Some visiting students in the program decided to write two dissertations…others are doing papers for both their classes and taking two exams. In my case, I chose to write papers every week and will be taking an exam in December for philosophy. And for linguistics, I’m writing a dissertation. My linguistics dissertation is going to be a research project – I’m treating it as my “mini” (junior) thesis. I’m designing the study, recruiting participants, collecting/analyzing data, and writing up what I find in a research project format. I’m very grateful for my Research Methods course at Wellesley last semester, as it’s been so helpful for my own independent work at Cambridge, this semester.
Although it doesn’t seem like much, academics at Cambridge can be time-consuming. Some days, without realizing it, my entire day is spent in the library, working on my philosophy papers, doing a literature review for my linguistics study, or reading dense philosophy of mind texts. It’s not overwhelming though – there’s a good balance here. There’s a work hard, and play hard mentality.
Speaking of playing hard, my crew has been set! I’ve started coxing women’s boat four times a week! We’re working up and practicing for our first novice race in December.
Other than that, all’s well here. Last weekend, I celebrated my 20th birthday here. I spent the evening with my study abroad friends, and overall it was a great time. I felt lucky to be surrounded by such incredible people on my special day.
Next week, I’ll be blogging about a unique U.K. tradition, Guy Fawkes day (which included the most spectacular fireworks celebration I have ever seen!).
Have a great weekend everyone!
Shreya