Imperial College what is it like

[ImperialCollege89]

DC is really set in an Engineering course in Imperial College. I would be grateful for opinions from people with children there recently or who attend/attended themselves.

I read is very competitive but all they could do is give them the best shot.

I have a DC doing 2nd year mech eng. He really enjoys his course - it is very hard work but he feels it is manageable. The first two years are intense. He gets stressed around exam time. The halls the first year are mostly in Acton, with good if
sterile facilities. He can’t realistically have much of a term time job, so I think the reality it is that is hyper-privileged. It is expensive to live and study at Imperial. We’re in Wales so benefit from the generous maintenance loan. The resources are excellent and he likes his tutor. The downside, besides the challenge of studying an intense course in London, is Imperial is all STEM, and DC enjoys arty friends so mostly socialises with friends from UCL.

I don’t have anyone currently there. A family member recently got a PhD there and had a great experience. You surely know that Imperial is the gold standard across STEM and has strong student satisfaction as well. Links with industry are vibrant, a real plus for Engineering.

My DD is studying biological science there and the workload is crazy but her friends doing engineering have an even more intense workload. She says they are all geniuses.

She was in Wilson halls for her first year and could walk through Hyde park onto campus. She does work alongside her studies but not sure this is doable for an engineering student.

Her second year rent for a shared basement flat is insane but she wanted somewhere that she could walk to campus from.

Thank you everyone.

There are lots of overseas students so your friends may go home every holiday. You have to work hard to develop a social
life. The engineers work harder than the medics. London life is expensive. Appalling teaching during Covid and the following year.

These are what I have heard from friends whose kids go there. My child was put off and applied elsewhere instead. All just anecdotes though. There are many happy students of course.

Thank you.

Opinions seen to vary a lot; would like to hear more from other people studying there or with children there so DC can make an informed decision

There are a lot of overseas students but my DD loves the diversity. She has made some great friends and loves the engineers because they mend things and assemble furniture.

She's great at finding all the free things to do in London.

It is very hard work and expectations are high. She found the first term and first set of exams hard.

Ds is waiting to hear if he has an interview for a single science subject. The course was the most exciting he's seen and career prospects from Imperial are impressive. Downside will be accommodation costs although the Acton campus is cheaper. Ds will have a few friends who will end up there so there might be a small, ready made friendship group to start off. Likely to have to spend a year at home though to save money so it will be a bit of a different uni experience.

Only a consideration if he gets a place of course and the odds are tough for that.

Eldest child does geophysics there - he's having a brilliant time (I think the Geology School is quite good with making them all socialise together at the start though). Loads of friends across several geological courses and plenty of fun being had - he also got diagnosed with high functioning ASD as a result of the Uni picking it up, which was a relief for him, and his department have been very supportive.

I have one friend who's son graduated recently and a younger relative attending currently. The relative is in Medicine and the friend's son was in engineering. Its almost like Oxford and Cambridge in terms of how difficult it is to get in and do well. Others are correct, there's a large overseas contingent and being in the middle of London, not much of a campus / normal university social environment. However, it's possibly the best place to attend for the course that interests your son. Good luck.

It is true that Imperial has a huge Overseas UG cohort, possibly the highest % of Overseas STEM students in the UK. Home students will react variously to this fact.

In contrast to MessyClock's experience, DD who was there during Covid was very impressed.

The IT worked, exams and assessments were adjusted and her department was well organised. She entered the third year of Imperial's biomedical engineering degree as an BSc intercalation from her medical degree at Bristol. There were six pre-sessional weeks to allow the medics to catch up on maths and electronics, and her tutor was very quick to sort out inevitable administrative snafus.

She liked the student diversity, both of background and education (many of the courses she took were open to Masters students.) There was quite a lot of group work, generally marked intelligently so that those who pulled their weight were recognised. She was particularly impressed by the SEND support including the essay club, designed to help those who found writing essays a challenge. It was apparently the best English teaching she had ever had.

Because of lockdown she spent no time at all on campus which was a huge pity. She played some sport and found fellow students welcoming. (Indeed she carried on playing the occasional game with them even after she returned to Bristol.) Lockdown meant she did not have too many other distractions so she was able to concentrate on the course, which she really enjoyed, and so did well. The work did not seem to be too overwhelming. However from what she said, those who struggled with the maths had quite a hard time.

It has since become clear that a degree from Imperial carries weight. The students are focused and engaged which DD liked along with the fact that . academics in her department were engaged in world leading research. Its competitive to get a place, but a fantastic opportunity if the fit is right.

I am glad to hear your son find the work manageable; that’s my main concern and whether students get much of a life outside their studies. Not so much working but a bit of socialising and other activities.

Also, which subjects did your son study at A level and what results did he get? How. Was the interview process?

He has lot of friends and a hobby- he is very happy with his course. He studied maths, further maths, chemistry and physics at a-level. His predicted marks were all A star and I think (but could be wrong) his offer was 3 a star/a It was a brutally difficult offer and at his open day most people had the same profile. The placement test was easy compared to whatever he took for Cambridge and the interview was just making sure he was teach-able. He had a personal statement full of programming and engineering projects because he was genuinely interested. He was a kid with intense interests.

edited because the stars disappeared and turned the text bold and the stars are important here

This is super helpful, thank you. No wonder he got a place.

@ImperialCollege89 Those A levels are the gold standard for engineering.

There are other unis that cater for engineers too! At less cost. DH is an engineer and did loads of engineering at school and home. Remember Airfix kits! Always mending and adapting household things with his dad. Always interested in how things work and how buildings stand up!

It’s interesting that many posters on mn tell us about companies recruiting blind but then we hear Imperial (and others) open doors. I rather agree they do but some other unis are exceptional at engineering too and have a slightly more relaxed atmosphere. Eg Sheffield. So always consider personality. Imperial students are likely to be more driven as so many are paying international fees and expectation of parents is through the roof. Some dc are happier with a slightly less intense ethos. Others thrive of course so you need to know what sort of person you are.

My DD had a hall at Acton with UAL. It’s not a great location! New building but the surrounding area is dull, dull, dull.

DS1 is in first year, studying a similar subject to the one I did. Impressions so far:

1. pace is fast and workload is high. DS1 is keeping up but spending evenings and a fair bit of sat/sun to do so.
2. They will, by Christmas, have covered most of what I covered in 1st year at another RG uni in top 10 for subject. Largely, this is because the course demands further maths on entry, and they skip the entirety of it. There is no consolidation/review of A level material (e.g of further maths). Everything feels a bit rushed.
3. Lectures have run the full range from excellent to incompetent, and are overall a bit old-school. If the lecturer turns up, writes hand-written notes on the overhead projector but makes a bunch of mistakes along the way, then really they should have taken the time to make a powerpoint presentation in advance and get it checked rather than wing it.
4. Organisation of modules is variable. Some have been impeccable. But with others, there have been times when lecturers / tutors have done a no-show. Not really acceptable.
5. In general, not enough feedback or contact with tutors. Less than I got from other RG uni 30 years ago.
6. Facilities/buildings dated and tired. To be fair, this is not true for all depts - apparently the business school is rather swanky. But DS is stuck in a 1960's concrete eyesore that never should have been built.
7. Reports of diversity may have been overstated. in DS's course there is a large majority of Chinese students, and no EU students at all. I.e. a monoculture, not multicultural.
8. support for special needs / accommodations is frankly shambolic - no appointments available for months.
9. Overall, it doesn't feel like a world (or UK) top 10. More like a bottom of Russell Group Uni that has decided for some reason to ditch the first semester, start the students straight onto the semester 2 courses and crack the whip to drive the pace. They demand a lot from the students, but are not giving a commensurate amount back in terms of feedback or support.

Interesting. DD studied with and played sport with a lot of Europeans, from both east and west though her closest friend was Korean.

Acton has changed a lot in the past decade. Westfield, the new Imperial campus, the Elizabeth line. The thing about London Universities is that people tend to socialise on campus rather than close to where they live, and Imperial is probably the richest London college, reflected in an excellent sports centre and a lively student bar and other facilities. From reading mumsnet UAL offers nowhere like the same level of facilities. That said DD seemed to do a certain amount of post sports training drinking in Hammersmith just down the road from where she had gone to school, but almost a different place. She had had no idea that student Hammersmith existed.

Piisnot3, that sounds grim. Perhaps DD was fortunate to enter in the third year the point at which engineering students seem to specialise and study in smaller groups often under leading researchers in their field. Biomedical engineering is a relatively new degree and perhaps a smaller department or perhaps she was just lucky that her tutor was excellent.

The biggest difference for DD between Bristol and Imperial was drugs. Too many in Bristol, far fewer at Imperial. This made socialising easier.

There are now very few undergraduate students from the EU starting programmes in Imperial College as EU students who started in 2021 and later are required to pay international fees. The top EU students now go to ETH, EPFL, Dellft, Leuven, etc. instead.

New undergraduates in Imperial College seem to be now predominantly from China.

A lot of third year courses were shared with Masters students. I don't think there is the massive difference between fees for home and overseas students at Masters level, and I assume some of the more specialised STEM areas at Imperial still have international cachet. From what I have seen there is a reasonable amount of mixing between home students and, say, Chinese, as in some of each group mix, others don't. "Chinese" as a group are not always that homogenous: some are British born and raised, or educated in the UK, others will have been raised in countries outside China and have gone to international schools. Those from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore or Malaysia are often more open, and there will be a variety of different characters. It is partly about making the first move. Don't forget moving halfway across the world to study is huge and several will still be in shock through much of their first year, clinging to the familiar. Things will change as people get to know each other. Studying in an international environment is a huge advantage if the aim is to work in an international environment.

That is also my understanding - I found a FOI request where you could see applications and acceptances from the EU drop off a cliff when EU students became liable for "overseas" fees. Why pay 35k per year for Imperial when you can pay a tiny fraction for a degree from a leading European uni?
I think that is a real shame and something that is not being talked about enough. I remember having several European (erasmus) students in our courses - they were a nice bunch and enriched the whole experience.

The other side of the coin is the disproportionate Chinese influence at several UK unis, Imperial foremost among them. This is in the news.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/nov/28/china-influencing-leading-british-universities-documentary-claims

I loved it, but I think it lacks a bit from not having any real arts courses (as in diversity - we were all very geeky!). Has he thought about UCL?

“The biggest difference for DD between Bristol and Imperial was drugs. Too many in Bristol, far fewer at Imperial. This made socialising easier.”

Having been to both, I’m not sure this is true - there were plenty at both!