The Cambridge Center For Adult Education

It took me a year to discover this place when I moved to Somerville and I’m so glad I finally did! Interiors and art studios recently renovated and mere steps from the Harvard Sq T station. Discount parking in the area available if you inquire at front desk but I never wanted to risk a ticket with the T station so close.
Its true that not every class I’ve taken has been 5 stars but most are very worth it to me.
Best classes:
Susan’s beginning adult ballet (what a workout! and beautiful music – 90 minutes of sweating but I felt so great afterwards). Susan is a stickler for teaching you proper technique so don’t be shy and just go with it. Ballet is supposed to be hard!
Susan’s Tap Dance: Sixty minutes of low impact fun and fabulous/​diverse music to tap to. Many ppl even wear their street clothes.
Oil Painting 2-​day Bootcamp: ok wow, talk about immersion education. I should have started with the drawing series but now I know for next time and the instructors were GREAT!
Beginning Investing: pretty good intro but instructor 20 minutes late EVERY week… sigh. But, its good get you thinking and listening to what others are doing and reading stocks.
Start your own importing business: some pretty good info (cost/​logistics/​who to contact/​legal stuff) here but you should probably come to the class already having an idea of what you want to import.
Buying a condo: very informative and instructor very knowledgeable; its just an impossibly expensive market in Boston/​Cambridge etc.
Zumba/​yoga: Just ok, depends on the teacher and not great turnout so your class could get cancelled at the last minute.
Beginning piano: I have a friend doing the class and she raves about it.
Olive Oil tasting: two hours of taking/​learning about olive oil… enough said!
Main disadvantages of this place are that they no longer offer a Senior Citizen discount so those on a reduced budget may miss out.

CCAE is right on par with BCAE (Brookline), NCAE (Newton) and all the other Adult Ed programs in the Greater Boston Area. I love, love, love flipping through their catalogues in the Spring and Winter and always look forward to seeing what’s being offered! I recently took «Finance for Non-​Financial Managers and Entrepreneurs» here and was very pleased with the 4-​hr class, which was taught by a really nice gentleman named Mel Epstein (a Stanford business alum!).
The CCAE really does offer a wonderful variety of courses and one-​off classes like the one I took in addition to hosting talks & seminars. The Harvard Square location also makes it quite fun in my opinion (look for the historic yellow house at the end of Church Street!), though if you’re driving, parking is a bummer, of course.
In any case, do check these guys out– it’s a great organization and I hope they’ll stick around for years to come! :) Bravo!

This is definitely a fantastic non-​profit community organization. Whenever I’m picked up a course catalog, I’m always shocked at how big it is and what a wide range of classes they offer. Though I haven’t taken a cooking class here yet, cooking in their recently renovated kitchen sounds amazing. The class I took here was Intro to Grant Writing. It was definitely really informative and well instructed.
I also participated in a community art share that the CCAE sponsored
and it was really fun to get a bag of art every few months. It was definitely a crap shoot and there were a few things that I wouldn’t ever really display, but overall it was fun. Not cheap though, but it does support local artists.

I’m sorry I didn’t read the review by «Nicola C.» about writing classes, because I made the mistake of signing up for the one she described that turned out to have longtime groupies attending, and the first class was so awful that I asked for a refund. It is NOT a real writing class — I’ve taken those. It is a group of ladies of a certain age who seem to have bonded and see the class as therapy/​support sessions for themselves. The materials that the instructor (aka Mopsy…) handed out were dated 1997 (one of the pages was actually entitled «This Just In — 1997»), and it is 2014, making them SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD. Another page says «put a page in your typewriter…» There is no circulation of written drafts, and from what I saw in the first class, no one understands how to do real workshopping. It’s an «attagirl» kind of atmosphere. I was hoping to find real instruction and CRITICISM. I paid almost $ 200 for this POS course. Unless you are 70 years old and want a support group for your childhood memories, avoid this class like the plague. There is nothing wrong with being older, but more diversity would’ve been nice, and because most of the Ladies have been attending for many years, going to this class felt like crashing a different sort of sorority. I’ve only taken a few classes at CCAE, and this most recent one cements my observation that the instructors are, overall, not very good.

I was very excited when my friend told me about the theater program. Although it was a long drive and hard to park area, I decided to take a risk.
The center did offer a parking at a near hotel with a discount, which I thought was great! But what was the point if 2 of my classes had to be relocated since they did not have any classroom available for us!!! ANd even worse, relocated by a generous classmate that found another room. Because the Center did not care enough to find a place for us!!!
They should respect people that pays for their service !!!
At least!!!

I signed up for a beginning oil painting class for fun. I got there and the teacher, Denise, was rude. She did not make me feel welcome at all. It seemed like the 4 other students had all taken the class before it had experience. She told me «this isn’t a kindergarten class.» How demeaning! You also have to buy all your own painting materials and bring them to class with you. They are not included in the $ 236 you pay for the class. I got a refund, but they still charged me a $ 10 processing fee. I asked at the registration office about what qualifications the teachers have to have to work there. They said it depends, but in some cases they’ve just taken a couple of classes themselves and that’s it. Not worth the money.

I took two writing courses, with two different instructors and they were a grave disappointment. In one class the teacher would get fixated on the most irrelevant point of the story, he would purge all the art and ambiguity out of the story and when he read his own work, he showed himself to be the worst writer in the class. In the end he passed out his business card to try to elicit some business as an editor for hire so he had an ulterior motive (for which work he was sadly unqualified).
The second course was a hoax. It was a woman’s support group for women who want to shore each other up about the sad tales they can write about their lives. They were kind, lovely people but writing badly was as good as writing well to these ladies who have taken this very same course together for up to ten years. I’m not exaggerating. When asked for leads on what publications to submit either fiction or nonfiction, the teacher told me she had «No idea.»
There may be a good writing teacher at CCAE somewhere but I spent almost $ 600 and several weeks NOT finding one.

My wife and I took a Wordpress class here and were generally satisfied, although we both think the teacher spent a bit too much time on basic background material aimed towards people who have no idea how the Web works. That sort of stuff could be covered in a handout/​email for people to review before the class started and would allow class time to be spent much more productively.
Nice facilities that were clean and neat. No real complaints, pretty good experience all around.

Having left the classroom, I was longing to find a way back. Cambridge Center for Adult Education was the great solution and I easily signed up online for a ceramics class with Stephanie. I got to pair something I hadn’t explored since high (which made me feel ancient) and something that was low pressure. Stephanie had different projects each week for us to learn and paired that with plenty of free time. I came away from the class with a lot of ceramic pieces! She coordinated with another teacher when I wasn’t able to make it to another class.

not worth the money and time.
I took some sewing classes at this center and was more like a joke really. All the teacher did was to show us how to sew by commercial patterns… really!!! They have a long way to go. Second level more like first class in kindergarten. Dont waist your money and learn at home.

No. No, no, no, no, no!
Based on looks alone, I would never step foot in this place again. This is the sketchiest looking place known to man. I’ve been to the Boston Center for Adult Education many times, and this one is NOTHING like it, so don’t make the same mistake I did and think that it is.
I show up, and the class is canceled. Why? Not enough people enrolled. Did they notify anyone? No. Why? Because they didn’t have a phone number or e-​mail address on file. Uhhh, how is that possible when you have to register with an email address in order to purchase a class? You know what… nevermind. Bye!

I have taken many classes here over the years and I have just now realized that I have never reviewed this place (??)
Need a public speaking class to get over your shyness — done
Want to learn more about grant writing — have it
Always wanted to brush up on your cello playing — boom
Fascinated with the art of the banjo and want to see if you have the talent — bam
Going abroad and need a Russian refresher course — thank you
Need a gift for a 40^th birthday and hope they use it for that stained glass class they are always taking about — yes, ma’am
Learn to dance the standards and then move on to the tango with the significant other who is now your hubby — hello
These are just a sampling of what I have taken over the years. The most recent one was a couples massage class. It was done with about a group of 5 other couples and very tastefully executed. I really learned a lot and bonus points for the hubby for humoring me (he said he liked it too :)

I love languages. I’ve been wanting to learn Chinese for a while and was saving up the money to take it at the Chinese Institute in Chinatown. Then I had some sort of epiphany that this place existed. I’ve often received their quarterly brochures in the mail but really never gave them a thought until this past fall. I’ve been in grad school for a number of years. Finally I had the time and the cost of language classes here are about $ 200 for a 10 session course.
I enrolled (am currently taking) beginner Chinese. Our first class was cancelled though I’m not quite sure that CCAE will be making up the class. I assume that we will. But other than that I’m completely satisfied with the course so far. Our teacher is also a professor at UMASS and the textbook we use is a great compliment to the in class instruction.
Even though our full class of 12 has whittled down into a sharp 5 – 6 people half way through we’re still progressing. Our teacher comes in every week ready to go over our lesson. She also e-​mails us supplementary notes for the chapter we’re studying. And does conversation drills in class. She also teaches us proper etiquette and 3 different ways to say things. So far I’m very pleased with my Chinese learning experience and would definitely consider taking another language course here.

I’ve taken several classes at the CCAE — cooking, computers, mind/​body — and all of them have been great. They have quality instructors and a variety of fun and interesting classes to choose from.
I took an HTML class over the summer and after 4 weeks, left feeling pretty confident about my new set of skills building a basic website. The instructor really took the time to explain the language and answer any questions we had.
I’ve taken a couple cooking classes and both were a lot of fun. You also make A LOT of food, so be sure to come hungry!

I’ve always wanted to learn Spanish and I’ve finally found an affordable and convenient place to do it!
I took level 1, then 2, and I’m planning on continuing.
To my experience, the quality of the class completely depends on the teacher, and I’ve been lucky so far!
The language classes are taught by native speakers, and you can check their profile on the website before the class starts to look for the ones that have teaching experience.
And the other students are just normal people of all ages!
It’s a great place!

A friend and I decided to take basic Photography classes here — it was so inexpensive and very convenient. The teacher was so knowledgeable and helpful throughout the classes! The class was small and more personable, and there was absolutely no pressure to be the best. I looked forward to going to classes every Monday night because everyone worked and learned at their own pace. The teacher was laid back and knowledgeable about almost everything! She always made sure we were heard we received constructive criticism. I think I did better in this class than in a few creative classes in college!
The only thing I was sad about was that there wasn’t a dark room to use! But I definitely will be taking future classes here. They offer just about everything from wine tasting to art to cooking!

I took a cooking class at CCAE last week (it’s the only class I’ve taken there). The location is great. I can’t comment on the facilities besides the cooking room (I believe there is only one).
I was a bit spoiled by the gorgeous new cooking rooms at BCAE (I’ve taken 2 or 3 cooking classes there), and I thought the cooking room at CCAE was a bit older and cramped. However, they had everything we needed! It was a warm day– about 75÷80− and the room got ridiculously hot with 20 people inside of it, both ovens going, and burner on– and there were no fans or AC in the room. At first I got into the class, but by the end I mostly sat in the corner by the window trying not to sweat. A few other people were in the corner with me for the same reason! That being said, the instructor was super friendly and so were the other people in the class– and all the food was delicious!
I’d take a class here again, but I thought the cooking facilities at BCAE were definitely nicer, and cooking classes were about the same price. But a fan or a window AC would have gone a long way to making the class more enjoyable!

Ah, enjoy the sounds of an adult community education center:
The Spanish class …“Me estás poniendo muy caliente.“
The yoga class…“Breaatthhhhhe! namaste!“
The landscaping class…(landscaping classes don’t make noise, silly!)
and my class, the wine tasting class,…Ah, vintage 2008, aged on oak clearly“
With hearing being the least tantalized sense during my wine tasting class, I learned to fully engage my nose, mouth, and eyes to appreciate wine. The instructor’s knowledge and undeniable passion for the subject really made me understand that wine is not a dull hobby of the pretentious (me? pretentious? could I even fake it?) but rather a very scientific connection to nature. I further learning how to identify the grapes, region, and aging process in a fun and down to earth environment.
But we are not here to review wine tasting in general but rather to review the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. Nestled in little cottage on Brattle Street, everyone I dealt with from the instructor to the front door man were pleasant and smiley. Previously I knew enough to roll my eyes when family drank Zinfandel but couldn’t tell you why and so my brother invested in this class for me as a Christmas present. A busy work and travel schedule forced me to constantly switch classes, and the center was extremely accommodating throughout it all.
Not at all volatile, I’d describe the complexity of my experience with the center as clean, lively, and perhaps just a tad bit nutty! (See. I learned something.)

I’ve taken several classes at ccae and have always been pleased. They have all been in photography but with different teachers. Each teacher knew the subject matter well, and importantly, knew how to give us a breakdown of different shooting techniques, since photography depends on each individual. I’d definitely take more classes here and consider exploring other areas of study.

I took an all day photography class here. It was well worth the $ 125 fee! The instructor was knowledgeable, a great teacher, funny and I learned a ton.
The facility needs some work, it’s a bit dumpy, but I suppose that’s what keeps the prices down. It can be tough to get someone on the phone if you need to discuss your registration with someone. Other than that, this place really has it together regarding the things that matter! The courses are great and the quality of the instructors is too!