Experiences of Imperial College

[Partridgewell]

Hi all,

DS had his heart set on Oxford, but it wasn't to be. He has offers from Imperial College and Warwick to study Maths. He slightly prefers Warwick in terms of location and lifestyle. However, he wants to be an academic, so Imperial would make sense from the point of view of it being a slightly more prestigious university.

His main concerns about Imperial are the location and the fact that there are no arts students. He is looking on The Student Room etc, but I said I would ask on here too. Any experiences? We know lots of people who have been to Warwick but very few who have been to Imperial.

Thanks in advance.

Super convenient. It must be great being so close to lectures, library, gym. I really liked the university, the area, the facilities.

We only saw the accommodation close to IC, not sure what the other ones are like

ESAT is new for this year, so nobody knows. The threshold is likely to be different for different courses.

As an academic, where you studied for UG is really not going to make or break your career. He will need to excel academically and then choose wisely for his postgrad and PGR, but I’ve literally never seen anyone discuss the candidate’s UG institution on a hiring panel (and I’ve sat on many).
choose where he’ll be happy: if he’s planning to spend the rest of his career in universities it makes sense not to have an unhappy start.

Thank you

I have two DC who are at Imperial and happy.

One DC made great friends in halls in Acton and has an active social life based around the halls.

The other DC has friends on his course, but lives and primarily socialises with UCL friends

Socially it is fine. For us, the challenge is that is expensive. We are also public sector workers so not that well off. The DC don’t work term time - the course is very demanding.

They were absolutely amazing on University Challenge last night and showed incredible broad-based knowledge. Best team ever I'd say and same in the last round. Really inclusive too- no-one just controlling and leaving others out.

Sounds amazing. Thank you

Out of curiosity, would Imperial have better equipment in their labs compared to other universities?

That really can't be answered at University level, and probably not even at department level. What subject is your DC applying to?

Mine is applying to Civil Engineering. We visited several open days. They all had some lab equipment in common and some that was unique to them, depending on their research specialisms. e.g. Imperial has a fabulous "wave machine" (not the technical term) which they were keen to demonstrate. Bristol had a fabulous earthquake table that they were keen to demonstrate. Both were wonderful but in dingy underground labs which would make me feel claustrophobic. Southampton had some wonderful specialist equipment too, which was all modern and in a new, high ceilinged building, following recent investment. Who is to say which is better? It depends on your DC's future interests, which they may not yet know.

My DC isn't applying I'm just curious.

Two points here, one is that there are good reasons for carefully calibrated machines being on ground or basement level and is common practice in most labs. Second big shiny buildings mean recent capital investment which may have put increased pressure on university finances, which are currently under severe strain. Better to be in a basement perhaps than at a uni on the edge of financial crisis.

It was Government investment, not university investment: https://www.ukcric.com/how-we-can-help/facilities/national-infrastructure-laboratory/

It was all rather fabulous. But Imperial and Bristol were fabulous too, in their own way. My comment about dingy labs was personal to me, but I won't be the student.

@pivotall that does look fabulous. I’m very wary of fancy buildings on the Uni budget as I’ve seen what’s happened in the sector. Maybe too wary!

Shout out to the Silwood crew!!!

Any one know how long it typically takes to hear post a chemistry interview?

The student Room is good for this. Most offers came out in March last year but a few before then depending on when the interview was. I think all offers for all courses are made by the end of March/Easter.

DD still waiting for interview invitation.

Have anyone not passed the application stage/invited to interview? And have IC informed them of this decision early enough and the reasons for it?

For civil engineering I think everyone got an interview, though sadly it was an interview via a bot.

Good experience for modern job interviews I suppose.

Nothing here yet. DS put his UCAS in at the start of term this month, and has just sat the ESAT. He’s only had an acknowledgment so far, nothing else.

Really? A bit disappointing

I mean the robot interview

Yep, they're designed to cater for large volumes of applicants, and not likely to allow anyone to present themselves in their best light. Hopefully the videos will at least be watched by human eyes, rather than analysed by AI.

I have an older DC in his final year elsewhere and has had several employer interviews via bot. Very dispiriting.

What kind of interview was it? An initial screening thing or more in depth and on topic? I’m both appalled and intrigued.

The screenshot shows how they describe it online. They didn't say a lot more about it at the open day, so at least everyone had the same info. They were sent the link and given a couple of days to do it. Questions came up on screen. There was a time limit for each question, with no opportunity to pause or re-record if you fluffed an answer.

They said decisions would be based on a combination of the personal statement, the video, and the ESAT results.

Thanks. Wondering if this is only for Civil Engineering? If they are using AI I wonder whether they will actually see all the videos, review all the applications.

The system will probably discard a good number based on certain criteria and they will probably see the rest.

Technology is moving fast.

DC applied for Design Engineering