The course
Homerton College currently takes about 38 undergraduates each year to read Natural Sciences. Science students are strongly represented in the College. Lectures, laboratory work and examples classes are organised on a University basis, but additional teaching, in groups of typically just two or three pupils, is organised by the College. These 'supervisions' form a very important part of the teaching. Supervisors are selected from all over the University in order to provide the best possible teaching of our own students.
In addition to wide-ranging provision for supervisions in the Natural Sciences Subjects, the College offers other important facilities for Natural Scientists. Books and computers are essential to undergraduate study and the College Library provides good cover of all basic course material. There are well-equipped computer areas in the College with access to external networks. Access to networks is also possible from undergraduate rooms for those who have their own computer.
In the Natural Sciences Tripos you will take a sequence of stimulating and demanding courses aimed initially to give you a thorough and broad foundation, on which you can then build your chosen speciality. Throughout, the emphasis is on developing understanding of principles so that our graduates are well equipped to understand and initiate the scientific developments that will occur during their professional careers. In all Natural Sciences subjects it is possible to graduate with the B.A. Degree after three years. Four-year courses leading to the degrees of B.A. and M.Sci. are available in Biochemistry, Chemistry, Geological Sciences, Materials Science and Metallurgy, and Physics, subject to appropriate examination performance. There is an examination at the end of each academical year and you must achieve the Honours standard each year in order to obtain an Honours degree. Cambridge's way of studying the sciences allows a great deal of flexibility.
In the first year you have to take three (out of a possible seven) basic experimental subjects and in addition you are required to take an appropriate course in Mathematics. Each of these subjects entails three one-hour lectures, an average of three to five hours' practical work (in the experimental subjects) and one supervision every week. Thereafter a wide range of choice opens up, so that you can follow your own developing interests.
By the third year you will be specialising in one of sixteen subjects, chosen from a list that runs from Anatomy to Zoology and includes Chemistry, Materials Science, Psychology and Physics.
Subjects available within the Natural Sciences Tripos:
In the first year:
Three subjects from -
- Biology of Cells
- Chemistry
- Computer Science
- Evolution and Behaviour
- Geology
- Materials Science
- Physics
- Physiology of Organisms
Plus
In the second year
A larger range of more specialist options from which you choose three.
In the third year
One subject:
- Anatomy
- Astrophysics*
- Biochemistry*
- Biological and Biomedical Sciences
- Chemistry*
- Genetics
- Geological Sciences*
- History of Science
- Materials Science*
- Neuroscience
- Pathology
- Pharmacology
- Physical Sciences
- Physics*
- Plant Sciences
- Psychology
- Zoology
* Fourth year available leading to MSci
