Engineering at Cambridge University: Information & Advice

[nodek]

Hello ! I come from Poland and a I think seriously about studying at Camgridge in 2 years (2010/2011. Now I collect information . As I `s written in a title - I am interested in engineering. Engineering like that :
http://www.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/courses/engineering/index.html
I live a long distance from UK and I know a little about Cambridge - just from an Internet. Could you tell me something about engineering at Cambridge?. I mean ; what`s a learning level in there?
- Is it very hard to get there?
- How would you describe enginnering at that university?
- How much time do students spend on learning?
- What colleges would you rekommend to me?
Maybe there is a person on this forum who is studying/or used to studying engineering at Cambridge? I`d like to get as much information about it as it `s possible. I am very interested in physics, maths and science .
Thank you
Nodek

 

[mgb_phys]

Could you tell me something about engineering at Cambridge?. I mean ; what`s a learning level in there?
- Is it very hard to get there?
- How would you describe enginnering at that university?
- How much time do students spend on learning?
- What colleges would you rekommend to me?

Hi welcome to PF.
I was a grad student+postdoc at Cambridge - not in engineering but I worked with the eng dept on some projects. So I will try and answer some general questions.

Cambridge has generally high standards, but even 10years ago it was difficult to find enough people who wanted to study engineering to fill all the places. Eng like most science subjects is pretty time intensive, Cambridge has very short terms (8 weeks) so a lot is crammed into the time you are there, including lectures on saturdays!
The eng dept is big enough that it does most of it's own teaching, it doesn't share much with the other science depts. One big advantage is that the first 1-2 years are general so you don't have to decide if you want to do mech/civil/etc until later.

Compared to London (look at UCL/Imperial) Cambridge is a very small town with not much to do outside the university - this might not matter as much to an ugrad.

The college thing is a bit complicated for people not in the system.
in theory it doesn't matter which college you go to. All the lectures/labs etc are in the engineering dept but you will also have tutorials/problem sets with someone (usualy a grad student/postdoc/junior lecturer) in the college.
Some colleges (eg Churchill) have a large proportion of scientists/engineers, so you will have more people on your (or similair) course around you - this might be a good or bad thing!

Because of it's reputation, Cambridge is very international so there will be many different nationalities, including probably other Polish students on your course.

I would also contact them well in advance to check what the various requirements are. Since Poland is new to the EU they might still be working out what are the equivalent Polish exam grades and if you have to take an English test.