Not a hint of the dark side (Imperial College, University of London in general)

Member Name: Boriski

Product:	Imperial College, University of London in general
Date:	06/09/01 (1873 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It is in London, Good Teaching, Well renowned in industry

Disadvantages: high cost of living, hard work required

I am about to start my second year at Imperial College studying Chemical Engineering.

Imperial is constantly ranked in the top 5 universities in the UK in most ranking guides (The others being Oxford Cambridge LSE and UCL). This means that in the business world it is well perceived and this is no more apparent than by the number of relationships it has with various companies. In a nutshell this means that hopefully I can graduate with a degree that will get me a well paid job for a upwardly mobile company.

The college has around 10,000 students and is a constituent element of the federal University of London although it enjoys quite a high level of autonomy.

Area
Imperial is based in the rather affluent district of South Kensington near the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum. South ken is a particularly affulent area of central london and most of the halls of residence are located within walking distance.

Accomodation

All first years get a place in Halls of residence. There are two types, the ones directly owned by Imperial and the ones that are owned by the university of London, a federal body that Imperial is a part of.

Imperial College Halls are all self catering except for one; Linstead which offers an evening meal on weekdays. This extra meal of course requires a supplementary fee and I have to be honest although I have not tasted the food I am informed it is not exactly great. The self-catering aspect is not a huge hurdle as a supermarket is within walking distance from all halls and a taxi split between a few of you for an especially large shop breaks down to only a couple of quid each. Imperial's halls have a variety of leases. Most include the christmas vacation as a 34 week let and then there are a variety of 39 (includes Easter holiday) and 51 weeks (usually for halls in which a large proportion of the residents are overseas or postgraduate students)

The University o
f London halls are available only on a 31 week let. This basically means that you have to move all of your stuff out for the xmas and easter vacations which can be a bit of a bind. In general they are a little further from campus as they cater for all university of London students and not just Imperial ones. On the upside it means that you meet a wider variety of people and in addition they are generally catered having breakfast and tea catered for during the week. I am not sure what provision is made for the weekends having never lived in one of these halls.

If you are particularly useless in the kitchen or desperate then there are plenty of fast food outlets within walking distance from most halls such as Burger King or KFC or even 24 hour shops.

It should also be noted that with the opening of Beit Hall in the same building of the union the standard of Imperial accomodation rises on past years. Some of the more lacklustre halls were only kept open for the 2000/01 term because beit was not yet ready. Beit Hall is opposite the departments of Chemical Engineering and Physics and is composed almost entirely of high quality single ensuite rooms. The theory being they will be worth more when rented out to businessmen and visitors to seminars based on Imperial's campus during the vacation periods when the students aren't there.

Nightlife

Living in central London enables you to take part in pretty much any activity you could possibly want to. I am not going to go into details as it is somewhat unnecessary given the sheer volume of possibilities.

Regarding the provision via the university there is the students union which incorporates a pub and dance floor with facilities for a large screen for those must see football matches. The beer prices are significantly cheaper than in the local area or pretty much anywhere in central London so expect to see more students there as the term progresses and bankruptcy looms. <
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In addition the univesity has its own cinema screen (i think the 7th largest in central London but do not hold me to that) the films are a couple of weeks after mainstream release but being a bit cheaper it is something you might want to consider.

Societies

Imperial has many societies although not nearly as many as most other universities. A large proportion are dedicated to the various nationalities that have a high prescence at Imperial although most other sorts are present in some form. Notably absent though is a Liberal Democrat society so if anyone thinking of coming here who is a budding politician, hold that thought! There is a large careers fair every October mainly aimed at students who are about to graduate, so they can organise interviews for the spring. Students from other years (including myself) do find them useful though to organise summer work and maybe even look into what field they may eventually want to take part in.

Many students from Imperial due to its science based academic nature do not go into careers related to their disciplines and instead work in the city tempted by the high value starting pay cheques and potential golden hand shakes (loan pay offs). If you are interested in this sort of job (many students become so when they get bored of their degree after four years) then Imperial's location and status promotes it.

From a sporting point of view Imperial has a very strong rowing team. This was shown at last years olympics with strong representation in the 8s. The other teams have varying performance dependent on any given year and although the facilties are decent the sports field are a fair way off. One near Heathrow is actually rented out to Chelsea as a training ground. Either way all main sports are catered for so the opportunity is there.

The studying..

Last but by no means list the studying, I have only cursory knowledge of course other than my own but as a gen
eral rule the work is hard. Speaking to many of my friends I get the impression I am working harder than them but the difference varies from course to course.
At the end of the day Science/Engineering students will be working pretty hard wherever they go, but it does seem that we always have more work due.

The necessary work ethic is most noticeable in the fact that Imperial is one of the only universities where the first year counts in nearly every subject towards the final degree classification. In most cases you merely have to pass each year until the last, at Imperial the mark you get is cumulative. The downside is this means you have to work hard from the first year so while your friends are aiming for 30% in the knowledge they can swot up later you have to be aiming as high as you can.

It's a great place but it does require commitment and hard work and that is not everybody's cup of tea

Summary: