Imperial College - Gateway To Hell. (Imperial College, University of London in general)

Member Name: raydowner_uk

Product:	Imperial College, University of London in general
Date:	13/12/00 (2137 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: hmmmmm.......??

Disadvantages: Have you not read my review?

Picture the scene; you’ve finished your A levels, you’ve got your grades, and you’re off to Imperial college London. There are two things that you would expect: firstly you would expect that the college lived-up to its’ great reputation; and secondly that there would be some degree of recreation after a hard days’ work. Sadly neither of these are true.

I’m studying Chemistry here, and after only one term I wish that I’d gone somewhere else. The department in which I work is unimpressive, and the idea of recreation seems to be a foreign concept to most people here. I can literally count the number of pros on one hand, and I still have trouble using all five fingers.

An average day consists of about 3-4 forty-five minute lectures, followed by a gruelling and somewhat pointless 3 hours lab session of some description. But that’s not all folks!, after returning home at about 5 O’clock, you have the following tasks to perform. Feed yourself, do the numerous problem sheets you’ve been set, and also find a little time to do that coursework that they expect back in a week’s time. As you can gather life is not all that much fun!!!

This would not be too much of a problem except for the small fact that you need to find some time to sleep amidst this mayhem. Let’s do the maths. In order to get any decent amount of sleep you need to be asleep by 11.30 to get up at 8.00 for your 9.00 lecture. 8.5 hours sleep is what I consider to be the bare minimum you need in order to be able to concentrate to a reasonable level. So this means you probably need to be in bed by 11.00. the gives you six hours between end of the day, and bed time. Feeding yourself takes about 30-40 minutes to cook something, and about 20 minutes to eat it, and 10 minutes to relax. Total time approximately 60 minutes. It’s now 6 O’clock. Next are the problem sheets; these will take you between 60-120
minutes depending on the difficulty (hard) and the amount of reading you have to do yourself in order to answer them (lots). An average time of 90 minutes, so it’s now 7.30. Ah yes, now to the course work. Given the length of the deadline and the volume of work required it will probably take you about one hour per night until it is due in, that makes it 8.30.

Now if you’re anything like me, having basically worked from 8.00am until 8.30pm you’re going to be pretty fed-up and generally aggravated, so you probably won’t go downstairs to see your mates in case you accidentally stab one of them in a fit of fury. You will need about 45 minutes to wind-down before being civilised again. It’s now 9.15pm and time to see some people, but where are they all?...... well they’re in their rooms either working, asleep, or contemplating suicide. It could be at minimum another 45 minutes until you see them again making it 10.00pm. well that’s about it really; you’re pretty much forced to retreat to your room and wait-out the time until they come out (if ever) and by the time this arrives you won’t be in the mood; you’ll be depressed, and quite frankly not much fun to be with.

I’m sure that there’s something missing from the above scheme...... oh yes; it seems that the recreation section has been omitted.... this is for a good reason. On the very rare occasions when you do have an extra hour to spend socialising, you will probably think to yourself "I know, I’ll go and get everyone else and we’ll all go and have a drink and unwind a bit"; your plan is perfect except for two major flaws. Firstly other people are either working, or secondly, they just don’t want to come out. You have no idea what it is like to be a hermit unless you have attended Imperial college!!

There are stories that a person who used to live in my halls "Fell" out of their wi
ndow and died. It is not really that difficult to understand why, plus the fact that if you want to leave your mark (so to speak) at Imperial college, this is probably one of the most enjoyable ways to do it!!

As for all the wild parties that you have read about at other universities..... Forget it!! The only drugs you’ll be taking at Imperial college are antidepressants.

To sum-up:

If you want to keep your sanity, go somewhere else, Kings London or UCL are good bets. I cannot advise strongly enough that you DO NOT come here.

I must state that I do not condone the use of illegal drugs, but my views on this are slowly changing since attending this college. The chance of a little escapism is non-existent.

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Well, here is my contribution in order to keep this as the most damming and important review of this college ever published.

It is nearing the end of the year now and it should be a time for rejoice and celebrations, instead I am in the process of working out which university I am going to attend next year. With the continuing misery that prevails at this establishment it is sad that it has come to this but sadly (thanks to the college’s ‘sympathetic policy’ towards student problems and difficulties) I am left with no other options.

It is worth mentioning that the rest of the first year would be well-advised to follow my course of action as they are all going to fail the end of year tests. Whether they know this and don’t care, or whether they do and are simply denying the reality of the situation still remains a mystery to me. It would not surprise me if the latter was the case, because it seems to be the general code of practice here to pretend that you understand the work so that you don’t appear to be the only one who doesn’t understand it. Ignorance is an abundant quality here.

It is quite a
n amusing situation to watch. It is rumoured that Imperial College is a renowned seat of learning (probably an old wives tale), however it is obvious that the students here are neither overburdened with intelligence nor personality given the above evidence and my previous writings. My experience here at imperial college has taught me one thing: that suicide has a new name; it is called Imperial college chemistry second year!!!

I now have to decide what course of action to take. I can either change universities and continue on this mind-numbing Chemistry course, or take the easy option as many do and decide to study medicine.

I anticipate the usual flaming that accompanies my reports on this universities. So, ladies and gentlemen, light your matches and let the grilling commence!!!!

Summary: