I can't sum up my experience in one line Past Review
By A student (None) - abroad from 07/06/2015 to 08/02/2015 with
Oxbridge Academic Programs: Cambridge - The Cambridge Tradition
Well, I've been including it in every resume and personal statement for universities and scholarships, so in that sense, we’ll see if it helped! Other than that, I absolutely loved spending my time at Cambridge, and I thought it was possibly the best academic experience I’ve had so far.
Review Photos
Personal Information
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 0-2 weeks |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
I have never been to any summer camps or out-of-school academic programs before (and my general educational experience has been…well… let’s just say the schools I’ve been to could really consider a lot of improvement, but that’s a story for another day), but I think that any other program would have to try very, very hard to be better than this one! The teachers I had were excellent. The courses were adequately challenging—I’m an IB student, so I’ll just say that it wasn’t pulling-your-hair-out-, crying-tears-of-midnight-snacks-challenging, it was reasonably challenging (and the experience I had showed that there was little room for procrastination) :) |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
I’m going to be completely honest—I don’t really know what this section is supposed to be about, but I’m assuming that it’s referring to the people running the Program Office. They were helpful, and there was Wi-Fi. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
I had a room all to myself in Chapel Court... It was really clean (except on the first day, the bathroom smelled a little curious, but that was quickly fixed with a tiny bit of air freshener and opening the windows… it was either gone in a few days, or I had gotten used to it). Opening the door was a bit of a struggle, because there was an interesting lock system that I wasn’t really used to. But the actual room was nice, quite a bit smaller than my bedroom at home, but it wasn’t cramped. The bedders (I think that’s what they’re called, I can’t really remember) came and changed the bedding once a week, and emptied the trash cans every day (except for weekends). So, very low maintenance on the part of the student, and if it were a hotel, I wouldn’t have a problem staying there. |
| * Food: |
At the college, for breakfast, the food was the same every day (petit, except there were 2 or 3 days where a full English breakfast was served. For dinner, there was something different every day, and each day, there were 3 or 4 choices. There might have been 3 times where dinner was not as good as usual, and out of those 3, there was one day where I started questioning why I chose that meal in that first place because gorgonzola was my least favorite type of cheese (so it was more of my fault than anyone else’s), but that really depends on what you choose. But I’d say that for the most part, it was restaurant-quality food (not fast food, I mean the usual type of restaurant)—maybe not a 5-star, extremely expensive restaurant, but a “reasonably priced” restaurant. There were plenty of restaurants nearby to eat at for lunch. I admit that I ordered chicken nuggets at McDonald’s and I was greatly disappointed when I went home and ordered chicken nuggets at McDonald’s and attempted to compare them (the ones in Cambridge actually tasted and had the consistency of chicken nuggets, and I didn’t feel like my sodium levels spiked, while the ones I ordered at home… I really don’t want to describe them, it was that bad). The general restaurant food quality in the area was quite good—it was a little more expensive than what I’m used to, but it’s not unreasonable. I thought I was going to lose weight from walking to every single place every day (compared to driving everywhere), but I think I ended up eating so much that I came home and found out I gained 5 pounds. I don’t regret it. |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
I can’t say that I have had any disagreeable encounters with any of the students who attended the program. The people in the town were friendly, too (we had a scavenger hunt through the city, and quite a few of them helped us find the places we were looking for). There were a lot of musicians who performed on the streets (some of them were quite good), which I thought was pretty cool. I think that there could have been a bit more exposure to British culture, which was a little difficult since many of the students attending the program were American—however, there were a considerable amount of students from every continent in the world (aside from Antarctica). The trip to Canterbury was pretty fascinating, but I think the trip to London could have been longer, if possible—after the major-related tour, we only had 2 or 3 hours to explore the city (most of the time spent walking), and London is huge—since my friends and I decided not to take a program-directed tour, we went around on our own (because we heard that the tours just went past landmarks and didn’t stop, but I’m not entirely sure about that). We ended up having to take a taxi so we wouldn’t miss our bus back to Cambridge! But the time we spent in Cambridge was probably a good indicator of what it would be like to live there, so I think it was pretty good overall. |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
I'm just going to give this 5 starts even though there weren't any healthcare-related incidents. |
| * Safety: |
Cambridge gave me the impression of being a very safe city (especially one with a population of 125,000 people)—I felt safer walking around at night there than I do walking around Walmart at home. Just kidding! But I did go out at around 9 or 10 pm to get food (sometimes I was alone) because I was hungry and Sainsbury’s was just 5 minutes away... Though that doesn’t mean that there is no need to be careful when being out alone (obviously, always be careful, and if you’re not used to seeing cars driving on the left side of the road, check before you cross at least twice—it can throw you off if you’re not used to it). There were only two times where I was with a friend at around 10 or 10:30 and there were some drunks wandering around, but if you ignore their existence, they don’t bother you. I think it’s a bit safer than the usual city because the shops close quite early, at around 5 or 6pm, occasionally at 8pm, though Sainsbury’s is open until 11pm. I’m not really sure about that, but it makes sense—most streets are almost deserted at around 7pm, with a few people either walking to restaurants or Sainsbury’s or just taking walks. Usually those people are in groups and are from the program, though, so there’s not much to worry about. |
| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
Yes
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Finances
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* Money: How easily were you able to live on a student's budget?
(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost) |
That's mainly because I bought so many souvenirs and much more food than I should have! |
| Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? | $70-80 per week for food, there wasn't really anything else I paid for except things to bring back home |
| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | In terms of food, and specifically in the area around Jesus College, there are places where you can spend 5-8 pounds for lunch and get quite a bit of food (such as Wasabi), but there are some other restaurants that cost about the same, but don’t give you as much food (such as the new Japanese restaurant down the street from Wasabi, I forgot what it’s called). Cambridge Crepes is also a good place to go eat, as one crepe is somewhere between 3-5 pounds, assuming you’re not starving (and you can also get a card that gives you a free crepe after buying 8 crepes, or something like that, so if you’re on a tight budget and you like crepes, it might be a good idea). Boost (which is a juice/smoothie place) has pretty good smoothies, but it’s a bit expensive, so I wouldn’t suggest going there regularly (but the juice/smoothie place in the Marketplace isn’t cheap either, though they use real fruit). In the Marketplace, there’s a dumpling stall (it’s right across from Subway and Starbucks from what I remember, and I don’t even know if it has a name) that is pretty good and isn’t too expensive from what I remember, if you like dumplings (the Chinese kind). I basically used the trip as an opportunity to try as many restaurants as I could. So if this is the only time you’ll be in Cambridge, as long as you don’t spend over 15 or 20 pounds on lunch, trying all the different restaurants there is worth it (not very good budgeting advice, but if you think of it from the point of view of restaurants buying your money and giving you food in exchange, it can make you feel less guilty)! Also, for those who may not know this—during the time of this program, many of the stores (clothing stores, usually) have sales, and some of the sales are pretty good, so if you want to shop for clothes for the next school year and you have room in your suitcase, you could consider doing that. |
Language
| * Did your program have a foreign language component? | No |
Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
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* Who did you live with?
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* Who did you take classes with?
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A Look Back
| * What did you like most about the program? |
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| * What could be improved? |
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| * What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? | I should have bought more fudge from Cambridge Fudge Kitchen and Ribena (it's really expensive where I live). I thought I would have time on the last day, and I didn't. Moral of the story: If you try something there that you like and you're fairly positive you won't regret buying it, don't think you'll have time on the last 3 or 4 days to buy it--it's really busy, because of final projects for major courses, or in the case of Drama, a few hours of rehearsals. Get it as soon as you're sure you'll want it, or be able to afford it (unless you think you'll have the chance to come back to Cambridge or the UK in the future). Also, if I had known what I wanted to major in during college at the time, I would have taken the class in the program. Unfortunately, Global Business ended up not being what I wanted to do (it was interesting, but I don’t think I’d enjoy it for the rest of my life), and I never had any future plans for Drama, since it was mainly for helping myself attempt to undo 18 years of introversion :) |
Individual Course Reviews
| Course Name/Rating: |
Global Business |
| Course Department: | |
| Instructor: | Sudesh Sangray |
| Instruction Language: | English |
| Comments: | Since I chose this as my minor class (since at the time, I was considering business or finance as my major in university, but my school didn’t offer a class that was challenging enough), there was much less time spent attending this class than I expected—I thought that 2 hours a day for 3 days a week would be more than enough time, but I was a bit disappointed because it was a very interesting class! The teacher was definitely experienced in business and teaching and each class was very engaging. The course mainly consisted of lectures (there were about 20 students in the class), but we occasionally went on field trips around Cambridge which I thought not only helped explain the subject a bit more, but also exposed us to even more of Cambridge. There was rarely any homework (though I heard from my friends that the major class did have a bit more work, which makes sense considering that it was the major class), and the class seemed to be mostly assessed based off of discussion. |
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Drama |
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| Instructor: | Eamon Haughian |
| Instruction Language: | English |
| Comments: | This class was definitely worth it. Before I took the class, I had no experience with Theatre/Drama, and I wasn’t comfortable with public speaking (and as a result, even less comfortable with acting), nor did I know what to expect of the class. The teacher was obviously very experienced and knowledgeable of the subject, and he was probably one of the most enthusiastic teachers I have ever seen. At first, I wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy the class because of my lack of experience (especially compared to the other students, some who were very experienced actors), but I think that the encouragement of my teacher and classmates helped make the experience all the more enjoyable (which is quite a contrast to the atmosphere of my school at home), though it was still quite challenging. The class itself consisted of learning how to… learn… one of Shakespeare’s plays, learning and practicing many different acting techniques (both physical and vocal), a day of stage combat training, and more physical activity than I expected (I’ll be completely honest—what I originally expected of the class was much less intensive than what I experienced, though I have to say that it was for the better)! The trip to London this summer included a tour of the Globe Theatre (the place that is first visited on the trip depends on what major you’re in), which was quite remarkable. |
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