Imperial v Edinburgh chemistry

[monkey42]

Does anyone have Dc with current or recent experience of chemistry at these 2 unis? Ds struggling to choose between them for pretty much opposite reasons. There isn’t much time now to decide! The ‘gut reaction’ indicator is swinging to Edinburgh, but the dominance of imperial in science seems hard to turn down…

Can't really help that much but ds has firmed Chemistry at IC. He felt excited by the course modules, research options, year abroad, and said the labs/innovative space were good. Cons are expensive accommodation and students spread out a bit from 2nd year although bursaries of £5K are available. Careers support looks amazing. Huge amount of clubs and societies.

Some have cited the % of international students as a negative (I think it's 40% on the chemistry course) but ds isn't worried about that.

Edinburgh looks like an amazing place to study too and will be more compact than London obviously. It has an excellent reputation for Chemistry and ds was thinking of it as one of his choices but doesn't like the cold hence none of the Scottish universities made the cut sadly! I don't know much about the course there.

Depends on how well your kid will cope without support I think.

For context my DB went to Imperial, and my Masters Dissertation actually explored some aspects of Imperial College's pastoral support. Both my DB and the research participants from my study (which was done in 2017) struggled with the lack of support offered by the uni + the high academic expectations.

If your child is good at independent study, bright, self-motivated, and confident then Imperial may be the right choice for them. But if they might need additional support, then Edinburgh might be best.

(PS I'm biased as I went to Edinburgh and loved it enough to come back and settle here, it's a great city!)

My DS2 just firmed Imperial for MChem.

Edinburgh is his safety (slightly easier offer A*/A/A so the A star can be maths. Imperial also A star, A, A but the A star has to be in Chemistry).

He was put off by how few students enter the 2nd year straight away for Chemistry at Edinburgh, and how that would affect his social life. He didn’t want to study for 5 years.

In the end, I think he mostly chose Imperial because it is a bit more prestigious. DS1 is currently 2nd year mech eng at Imperial and it is hard core in a way DS2 respects. Edinburgh sold itself as a manageable course, with time for jobs and hobbies and that may have put DS2 off. I suspect sibling rivalry made it hard for him to take an easier offer. We are all aware of how much opportunity there is at Imperial (and by that I mean how much money gets spent on undergrad facilities and teaching)

London rents expensive, but so are Edinburgh and also scarce.

His girlfriend is going to LSE. Edinburgh is a lot further away. I thought he might choose Edinburgh for a more pleasant day to day life but in the end he firmed Imperial. I didn’t attend either open day with him.

I will be pleased to have both boys in London. I go to London for work but never Scotland. I’ve already booked (a cancellable) Holiday Inn in Acton for the last weekend in Sept.

Where do you live and how easy will it be to get to either university? How much does DS like the cold?

Thank you everyone and dahlia summarises very accurately the way I think DS2 will view it all. Basically he views IC as more prestigious but thought the facilities were better at Ed surprisingly and yes would plan y2 entry and has emailed about that. He has the exact same offers as your DS2.

As a mum just wanting him not to have 3 years of slog without fun at IC.

We live in London so that’s a negative because it feels much less like the ‘going away’ to uni experience he had hoped for.

I have very significant experience of both Ed and IC so trying to let him decide what he wants not what I would pick! Tricky!
I guess I want to know if anyone manages to actually enjoy IC.

There was a thread about IC experiences not long ago as I was anxious about the 'student experience' there too. I can't find it now but it was broadly positive with the usual caveats about the number of international students and N Acton accommodation. I don't think every course at IC is super hard and demanding but obviously both universities are competitive to get into so will attract a highly academic cohort.

We went to the offer holders day at Warwick and had an interesting conversation with an MChem student. He said broadly not many people work that hard and there was too much time off (never heard that from a student before!). He said he was ambitious and would have liked a more competitive cohort. I dont know whether this is a good thing or not - I can see both sides to it. We want them to enjoy their time at uni and be supported but at the end of the day, with the costs of courses now, also have good prospects at the end.