Cambridge Week 4 – Classes

Background

I’m taking two classes while I’m at Cambridge – History of the Modern Middle East and Shakespearean Drama. There were some more ‘traditionally’ STEM classes available, but these two classes at least cover my last two humanities requirements at Northeastern. I definitely enjoy humanities classes I take, and I think it’s important to find a balance in what you learn, but it’s definitely a factor for me that these classes compress my humanities requirements into a 6 week period rather than taking up two classes in a ~15 week semester. As an aside, I have had a change of heart about what classes I take in general throughout my first two semesters that lead me to get my humanities requirements ‘out of the way’ here. When I was asking my GEO adviser at Northeastern about what classes I was planning on taking, he jokingly pointed out just how intensely everyone at Northeastern cares about what classes they take – that’s certainly been true, and as a result I’ve been given some great advice that I’m really thankful for early into college. If you are financing your own tuition, be diligent in selecting courses that fit into the requirements of your degree, and nothing extra.

I planned out 8 semesters worth of classes with 3 minors the summer before my freshman year – I had this huge web of classes that would double or triple count for requirements. In my first two semesters, after not particularly learning anything in the required Cornerstone of Engineering I and II, my view on prerequisites and required classes soured a little. After asking around, it became even more clear that it’s not a hard rule that a class being required means that class is actually going to be worthwhile to learning about that subject. I looked back on the classes I laid out for the next 3 or 4 years and really asked myself, am I actually interested in this specific class, or do I just want to jump through the arbitrary hoops for the line “{x,y,z}, minors” on my resume? My approach to taking classes now is much more dependent on if I think that a class will actually be rigorous and teach me skills that will be useful. I kind of wish I had this mindset earlier – I can think back on 4 of the 8 classes I’ve taken so far at Northeastern and pretty confidently say that I didn’t learn as much as I would’ve wanted to. Of course, learning the material and being enthusiastic about the subject is still on me, I don’t want to put any blame on my professors.

So, after that long tangent, that explains my mindset in taking my humanities requirements here. I’m getting them out of the ways early in an optional half semester so I can really focus on classes that are going to directly impact my future plans at Northeastern. Is that going to make me the most well rounded person? Of course not. But I’ll be in a little less debt.

Class Setup

Classes are intense. All classes have the same setup – 12 lectures and 8 seminars. Lectures are nothing particularly out of the ordinary, but seminars are somewhat unique to Oxford (where they’re called tutorials) and Cambridge. Both classes have seminars of about 10 people, and the professor pretty much only serves to point conversation, not generate it – more ‘here’s a topic, discuss,’ which makes it immediately and abundantly clear if you did not understand the readings. Hypothetically.

Readings

Every lecture and seminar has an associated reading. Each lecture and seminar has a reading totaling about 100 pages, which is in stark contrast to the about 0 pages a day average I was reading before starting classes. It’s not uncommon to finish my last class of the day, then read in all my free time up until the first class the next day. I don’t want to make this sound like a bad thing, I’ve wanted to get back into the habit of reading, and this is definitely a baptism by fire.

Exams and Dissertations

It’s important to point out that the last class I had to write a major essay in was probably AP English in my junior year of high school, so saying I’m rusty with writing is definitely an understatement. For people who write much more frequently, I’m sure essays are much more welcome – but personally I’ll take a problem set any day of the week. Halfway through the course, classes release a list of about 10 discussion questions, and you answer 2 in less than 1000 words, due in a week. Doesn’t sound too bad considering these blog posts are ~1000 words, but the prompts are extremely detailed. My draft for both prompts was about 3000 words, and both were cut down to about 950 words each.

Dissertation questions are released early into the course and due in the last week. This is a much more general prompt with a word limit of 2500. I’ve been working on both dissertations, and they’re still very challenging.

Those 3 essays determine your grade for each course, in stark contrast to my experience throughout high school and college where it seems you’re being graded for something every time you blink. I don’t know what system I prefer – at Northeastern I can at least tell if I’m not understanding something early on and correct it, but the system here is much more focused on become very well acquainted with one slice of the class rather than being tested lightly on everything.

Study Spaces

It’s really easy to get work done when there are so many gorgeous places to work.

Pembroke College Library

The library is open 8am-12am, is rarely crowded, and completely silent. I want to pick this building up, destroy Snell, and put it in its place.

Christ’s Pieces

My nightly routine at this point is to get a sausage from a food truck, and read the day’s Shakespeare reading in Christ’s Pieces park. Not great for writing, but any park around Cambridge is super nice to read in.