A Day in a Cambridge Life

Hi! I'm Em (they/she), and I tutor students in a whole host of subjects. I was fortunate enough to study for my undergraduate degree in English Literature at Christ's College, Cambridge University.

My time at Cambridge was simultaneously the happiest and most challenging three years of my life, and I thought I'd give you a glimpse into a Day in the life of a (potentially over-committed) Cambridge student!

I studied English, and one of the benefits of the Cambridge English degree is that there is no set syllabus, meaning that no lectures are compulsory – you're encouraged to go to what you find interesting or challenging. At the start of term, I would go through the terms' lecture schedule and flag which series I thought would be interesting, which in turn would mean I'd have a good idea of what lectures I'd have in a week. Within the English faculty, lectures also didn't run past 1 pm, to give students time for supervisions and readings.

My days typically started at about 8:30, when I'd drag myself out of bed to get to lectures at the Sidgwick site. I'd grab a coffee on my walk, and just about make it to the lecture halls on time for my 9 a.m. I'd typically have two lectures a day, covering a really wide range of my lecturers' specialist areas. Because there was no set syllabus, lectures were essentially an opportunity for lecturers to geek out about their specialist subject. It was always vastly different on a week-to-week basis about how many lectures I'd have – some weeks there'd be four a day, and I'd have to block all of my extracurriculars off for the week to get my essays written in time, whereas in other weeks I could have only a single lecture for the week!

After lectures, I'd then head to the library at either 11 or 12 and try to make a dent in my ever-growing reading lists! In a week, I'd typically write two essays, one for a PCCP supervision, which took less time, and another for whichever period paper I was studying at the time – at Cambridge, you have to study every period from Middle English to the modern day! I'd always try to read the core texts we'd be studying in the holidays, because my term days are pretty busy! A weekly essay would typically have at least two core texts you'd need to read, and then a bunch of theory, philosophy and critical reading around the texts, so there was always a lot to get through!

More often than not, I'd be working on a show at the ADC Theatre in Cambridge (I did over 60 in three years!), meaning from about 2 pm I'd often have a rehearsal to run somewhere across the city! Rehearsals could run anywhere from 30 minutes to four hours, so it was crucial to squeeze in any reading in breaks and gaps! If I were lucky, I'd have a gap to do some more studying between rehearsing for a show and running back to my college for a choir rehearsal. I was a choral scholar during my time at Cambridge, meaning three days a week I'd also have choir rehearsals and chapel services. We'd rehearse once a week for two hours on a Wednesday evening, and then for longer periods, followed by services on Thursdays and Sundays. Because of my choral scholarship, I got to travel the world in my three years, going on tours to Canada, Belgium and New Zealand.

Choir would run for a couple of hours, after which we'd head as a group to the formal hall: we'd literally sing for our supper in the choir, getting free 3-course meals in exchange for singing the college chapel services! Dinner (and a fair bit of wine) would wrap up at about 9, after which we'd head to the college buttery (essentially a bar) for some more social time and games. At about 11 pm, I'd then choose between heading back to my room to carry on my studying or heading to a choir member's room to carry on the revelry – it would depend on the workload and how many lectures I had that week!

To anyone thinking about applying to Cambridge, I can't encourage you enough to give it a go! I had the best three years of my life, and feel so grateful to have had the experiences I did. It's a lot of work, and you'll have to pull more than one all-nighter in the library, but I wouldn't change it for the world!

Published on 04/01/2026.