Student Testimonials
"The CME experience means a whole number of things to me. Before I left for my year at Cambridge, I had hoped that it would be a time to be truly independent, an opportunity to try something completely new and to experience another culture, and a chance to get out and see the world. While I did discover these things, I also found a group of great friends, a strong educational experience, and an even deeper appreciation for MIT.
The first thing that anyone who arrives at the University of Cambridge will notice is its overall beauty and sense of history. In contrast with MIT’s sometimes-stark modernist style, Cambridge is a warm collection of structures built over the last 600 years. The cobblestone streets and stone stairs have deep grooves worn into them from hundreds of years of 
students’ footsteps. The old town center is full of people at all hours of the night and day selling everything from local fruits and vegetables to kebabs and chips with curry. As a student at Cambridge, it is easy to feel like a participant in the history of this ancient place. My residential college was founded in 1437 (Pembroke College), and the relics of this heritage were everywhere from our Georgian library where I studied to the Christopher Wren Building where I performed music on a weekly basis.
The education I received in Cambridge taught me how to be an independent scholar. Cambridge students do not just study history or law, but instead from day one they are considered historians and lawyers. The importance of individual achievement in academics at Cambridge is completely different than the emphasis on collaborative experience at MIT, where projects are done in groups and problem sets are often a team experience. At Cambridge, I learned how to approach a topic as an independent scholar, including how to search through books and other resources on my own. Also, because homework was not graded, I decided how much work was needed to learn the material to what I considered a satisfactory level. Even the essays I wrote were solely for my own benefit. I found this self-directed approach to work an interesting experience. By the end of the year, I felt that I was able to step back and say, “What do I want to get out of this assignment?” This experience gave me a new appreciation of the purpose behind homework and the learning process as a whole, which I was not able to realize at MIT where I felt I needed to focus more on grades than the learning process.
Besides helping me grow as a student, every experience during my year in the UK helped me grow as an individual. I learned how to navigate a new banking system, acquire visas, and plan trips around the entire continent of Europe. By the time I completed my year in Cambridge, I felt that I could backpack anywhere with little fear of getting lost or being taken 
advantage of, despite my inability to speak a language or read street signs. But what I will remember most from my time at the University of Cambridge is the friends I made and the experiences we had. My time abroad was not only a great time on its own, but it also has enhanced my overall MIT experience through my new enthusiasm for learning and my new way of looking at MIT. Since my return from Cambridge, I have come to one conclusion: deciding to participate in the Cambridge-MIT Exchange was the single best choice I made since attending MIT"
