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- no one warned me about the "english breakfast"... beans on toast, etc. Bring lots of immodium.
- my freaking internet doesn't work so there's no way i can edit the page on the wiki that i am currently editing.
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Dawn Wheeler
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New Hall
Course 16
About the university:
- So the first thing that surprised me was the free alcohol at official dinners ... just one of those things that doesn't happen at MIT
- My first impression of the University itself was that it was hopelessly disorganized, just because it's so decentralized. It was really annoying that the answer to (almost) all our questions in the first days were "It depends on your college (and I'm not in your college so I don't know)". I'm trying to remedy that with the links at the bottom of The Colleges page. Now that I've been here, I guess the University actually functions alright even though it is mired in "this is how it's been for the past 800 years."
- Having about 10 (or so) different computer accounts and passwords to set up is annoying. I tried to set all my passwords to the same thing and I still ended up with 3 different ones.
- Cambridge is much less connected than MIT. The only wireless Internet access I have heard of is in the Kings bar, which doesn't help most of the University. Also, I have a static IP address at my college, so I haven't been able to connect my laptop to the Internet in the Engineering department even with an Ethernet cable (this might just be me being computer-illiterate ... help, anyone?).
- Living in one of the outlying colleges isn't that bad ... I get to see more of Cambridge. I know some people still haven't ventured up to New Hall yet ...
About academics:
- Yeah, Cambridge isn't "no work," which I think is what we all heard before coming here. It's practically no work, compared to MIT, but there's still work to do, and doing it by myself takes much longer.
- I thought it wouldn't be that hard to keep working together on stuff like we do at MIT, but it is definitely more of an effort. First, we all have supervisions at different times, so we don't have work "due" at the same time. Second, it's pretty difficult to find a place to work collaboratively here. The colleges don't have lounges or common areas (except for the bars, which is not ideal for studying), and we're supposed to be quiet in the library.
- Signing up for labs at the beginning of term is a royal pain. Instead of having the signup sheet available at the lectures, where all the students are already there anyway, they put the signup sheets in all different labs, not even necessarily in the lab where the experiment will be completed. Also, labs completed early in the term are useless - nobody really understands what's happening because the class hasn't learned the relevant material yet.
- Apparently all the lecturers change in the middle of the term ... that was another surprise for me. A lot of them don't even bother introducing themselves, they just start lecturing.
- Stuff I wish I'd brought from the States: mechanical pencils I wish I knew to bring mechanical pencils from the States - at least I haven't found ones here that don't have lead that breaks every three words . And peanut butter - they don't know how to make and peanut butter here.
- For planning school supplies, I wish I knew that all the lecturers hand out notes with gaps to fill in - we don't really need notebooks (at least in my engineering classes).
Apparently all the lecturers change in the middle of the term ... that was another surprise for me I must say, I do enjoy having time to try different societies and spend time with new friends, without always worrying about work and feeling guilty for any time spent not working.
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Matt Zedler
Churchill College
Mechanical Engineering
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