Student Profiles
Here are two examples of a typical day in the life of a Cambridge student. We have selected one arts subject and one science subject to give you a comparison!
Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic Studies
8:00am – *snooze*
8:10am – *snooze*
8:20am – *snooze* ? you get the idea.
9:00am ? Finally arise, feeling very fortunate to be one of the few students, even within the arts, to have no 9am lectures. Grab some breakfast from somewhere in your room or gyp, and eat whilst checking emails or doing any pre-lecture reading that you can manage to fit in.
9:45am ? Fortunately it?s just a 10/15 minute walk from Corpus to Sidgwick Site. Observe and enjoy the surroundings as you pass through King?s.
10:00am ? Find a seat and exchange updates with your neighbours on reading/essay/translation progress. Spend the first 5-10 minutes of the lecture giving sympathetic looks to late arrivals as they enter awkwardly and glance around in search of the life-saving hand-outs.
1:00pm ? After perhaps another lecture, and some well-intentioned time spent in the library, it?s time for lunch. This often includes coffee, providing you?ve managed to make it this far without. The caf?s on Sidgwick Site can be a great place to catch up with friends from your course or college, or to get your laptop out and sneak in a bit of extra reading, if you?re feeling particularly diligent. Alternatively, head back to college for some Hall, bar, or gyp-assembled food.
2:00pm ? Work time! If hiding away in your room for the next few hours feels a little too daunting on this particular day, head over to the Taylor library, where consolation is provided by the chorus of tapping keyboards, turning pages, occasional sighs, and not-so occasional giggles.
6:00pm ? Confirm with your friends that you shall indeed be convening outside Hall as usual. As Corpus is a relatively small college, a lot of people know a lot of people, so chains of eaters are likely to form down the dining tables, providing an excellent excuse to delay the return to work until that person right at the end of the table has finished eating.
6:30pm ? You may have something exciting planned for the evening. It may sound clich?, but there always seems to be something happening, if not within college, or within the University, then somewhere else in Cambridge! If not, it probably means more work, and as an art?s student, it?s quite likely that this is the time when the bulk of your work gets done. It?s also the time to be thankful once again for the lack of early starts, and wonder how your sleeping pattern became so skewed. Sometimes it feels like the STEM students live in a different time zone.
9:00pm ? Bar at 9 can provide a nice interval in the evening, perhaps as an opportunity to top up on caffeine, or maybe something of the alcoholic persuasion. Post bar, there may be more socialising, especially if you specifically told yourself that you would only allow yourself a half hour break. Otherwise, if you haven?t already, it may be a good idea to transfer your work station to the library. The clunking of the Corpus clock marks an achievement as you make it through each hour, and you can play the game of last man standing, watching the weaklings gradually disperse.
Eve McCormick, First Year ASNaC (Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic Studies)
Medicine
Medicine is a challenging course and really pushes students to the limit to understand difficult concepts and absorb large volumes of factual information. Having said that, the course is diverse and brilliantly structured and I?ve thoroughly enjoyed it so far. Corpus? close proximity to all relevant medical faculties means you are always 5-10 minutes away from all your undergraduate lectures and practicals. The Lewis Society of Medicine is exclusive to Corpus medics and allows us to interact with medics in the years above and benefit from their experience. Alongside our annual dinner and garden party, we have an alumni-networking scheme for undergraduates to take part in summer clinical placements.
7:30am ? Alarm goes off. Press snooze and then try to steal a few extra minutes sleep.
8:00am ? Grab a bowl of cereal and fuel up whilst pre-reading the day?s lectures and practicals.
8:30am ? Cycle to my first lecture (often at lady Mitchell hall at sidgwick or the anatomy lecture theatre.)
10:00am ? Cycle to the anatomy building and the dissection room (DR.) Get into my labcoat and join my dissection group.
NB! By this point, the preservatives of the DR will make you start craving meat!
12:00am ? Cycle down to Lady Mitchell Hall or the Chemistry lecture theatre for my second lecture.
1:00pm ? Go to hall for lunch and catch up with friends from other courses. If you?re lucky, they may have curly fries!
2:00pm-4:00pm ? You will either have a biochemistry or pharmacology practical or head back to your room/the library to review the day?s lectures.
5:00pm ? Go to supervisions in college. This is a great opportunity to go over key concepts and make sure you understand the lecture/practical material
6:00pm ? Head to hall for dinner. Afterwards, go to the bar to play a game of pool or table football and catch up with friends.
7:30-9:00pm ? Try to do a bit more work (maybe an essay for a supervision or revise some previous content. The key to medicine is to pace yourself and do a sustained amount of work throughout the year.)
9:30pm + ? Finished work for the day. Meet up with friends in the bar, join a group and go out for a night in the city or catch up on a few more hours of sleep and have an early night.
Daniel Fernando, Second Year Medic