Imperial College London

London

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Biochemistry at IMPERIAL COLLEGE help!!

Hi everyone.! I would really appreciate if you could tell me anything really about this course at Imperial. I've heard that it's a really prestigious place to go, top 5 in the UK league tables and with great facilities.
Could someone tell me about the Biochemistry course, how interesting it is, employment opportunities and also perhaps the male:female ratio!
I wouldn't mind some girls also in the course!

thanx very much really!

cheers

Reply 1

frappucino

well, i really don't know much i must say, although i have applied for biochem/biotech as well.

as you have already mentioned, imperial is a really prestigious uni, at times ranked third in the nation. as far as i've read on this forum the male:female ratio kinda sucks, something like 80:20 or 70:30...nevertheless, my aunt has studied there and she initially applied for a Bsc (Biochem as well) but ended up doing her PhD there and did NOT want to leave. hahaha, what i'm trying to say is that according to her imperial is a GREAT place to study because
a. you're in london, at not only that, you're in south kensington. basically, you have loads of options for your free time etc
b. excellent job prospects
c. very prestigioius uni
d. you get a great education w/many research opportunities (check UROP for more...)

hope this helped!

Imperial College London

London

Reply 2

boonkoh

I got into BSC. Biochemistry w/ Management course at Imperial starting Fall 2004, so I'm quite happy. Been researching on the internet about Imperial and biochemistry. Appears that the Biochemistry course is not a "star" or focus course at Imperial.. its like an arts course in an engineering school.

I doubt that the teaching will be the best you can get in the UK, and if you're a foreign student that 20,000 pounds a year cost is alot. However, given that its IMPERIAL, the name carries alot of weight, especially in Asia, so it would be definately easier to get jobs. I agree that London would be helluva fun place to spend 3-4 years!!!

I have a few questions of my own, so if anyone can answer I would appreciate:

1) What is the average academic ability of the students in Imperial biochem? (A-level grades, tariff points, etc)
2) How much focus is given to the Life Science department in Imperial?
3) The biochem w/ management course... does the management year get taught by professors in the business school?

Reply 3

claire1985

1) What is the average academic ability of the students in Imperial biochem? (A-level grades, tariff points, etc)
2) How much focus is given to the Life Science department in Imperial?
3) The biochem w/ management course... does the management year get taught by professors in the business school?My boyfriend goes to Imperial and does the Msci Biochem course, he got AAA and so did the majority of the people who are on his course (only one or two didn't). The Biochemistry department is very prominent with many of the leading researchers in the country, currently working (and nearly cracking) anti cancer drugs. However, you shouldn't expect the research professors to be good teachers @ undergrad level, they are not really that interested.

Reply 4

Mysticmin

claire, can you tell me what the social life and workload of an imperial student is please? Thank you.

Reply 5

black_dragon_9

Mysticmin

claire, can you tell me what the social life and workload of an imperial student is please? Thank you.

Hello,

I do Biochemistry and Biological Chemistry at Nottingham. I have heard the Biochem course at Imperial is very good. It's an extremely good uni and rated 5* for research in both Biochem and Chem.

I didn't apply because
a) I didn't want to live in London (too big, dirty and expensive for me)
b) I wouldn't get the grades
c) I wanted the more chemical slant because I was told that i general biochemistry is getting more chemical.

Imperial competes very well with Oxbridge and has lots and lots of foreign students, and loads of blokes. My ex is doing Physics there, and the workload is tough, but it seems to spend a heck of a lot of time battered ;-)

Roz.

Reply 6

username9816

watermelon

Yes it's quality; I would definitely advise going to Imperial. :smile:

Reply 7

TheWolf

watermelon

my sister is doing biochemistry at imperial -prepare yourself with a massive workload tho :wink:

great uni i must say

Reply 8

Mysticmin

black_dragon_9

Lol, not so bad then as long as I can still have the odd drink.

Reply 9

claire1985

Workload = v heavy, my boyfriend has lectures 9-11 and lab practicals 2-5 every day four days a week, then he has research etc on top.
Social life= is what you make it
I don't know whether I exagerrate the amount of work he does, It seems a lot to me because History you only have to go to 4 voluntary lectures, I don't know anything about science at university

Reply 10

boonkoh

Well, it is to be expected that Science courses take up more time than humanity courses.. otherwise why do international students pay 30% more for science than humanities?

Besides, Imperial is a good university for science, whether or not its been slipping in the rankings, and I think they expect a high level of workload. But if you got into Imperial, chances are that you worked hard in High school as well, so it wouldn't be a shock.

Me, I'm thinking of enrolling the Biochemistry with Management course at Imperial this coming Fall 2004, so if anyone is thinking of enrolling as well, please email me at [email protected].

Also, if anyone has numbers for the number of students in Biochemistry and how Imperial's Biochem ranks to other unis, I would appreciate it.

The following are my offers... which one should i choose?:

Imperial - Biochemistry with Management
UCL - Chemical Engineering
Bath - CHeimical Engineering
Bath - Biochemistry
U Manchester - Pharmacy
York - Biochemistry

Frankly, I have no preference between chemical engineering and Biochemistry. I had wanted to apply for Biomedical Engineering, but didnt meet the physics requirement for it.

Also, anyone know a student at Imperial Biological Sciences I can contact?

Reply 11

Asphyxiating

boonkoh

Hey! I'm starting Biochemistry With Management in the Fall 2004 too but I'm getting a bit daunted now by everyone talking about this huge workload! I guess I did expect it but it's starting to put me off :frown:

I'm even starting to doubt if science is actually what I want to do anymore. I'm personally more interested in Medicine but 1) it's too late 2) I don't think I have that encouragement to beat the tough competition, esp. if I was to pull out and apply next year with top up fees etc..

Anyways most of the Biochemistry people on the open day I went on seemed to be women (about 90%) so I wouldn't worry if that's what you're worried about.

Reply 12

Asphyxiating

By the way, I thought I'd just point out that according to The Times league tables (I think), Imperial Business School is 3rd or something like that, under LSE. So if you're doing blah with management, should be good :smile:

Reply 13

boonkoh

LOl.. i gather you're a UK student? Ah... the joys of only paying cheap tuition.. anyways, I've contacted Imperial and asked for a switch to Biomedical Engineering... something that I had wanted to do but didnt apply to cuz i didnt take physics. But I've learnt physics on my own for 6 months now, and took the SAT II Physics exam (it's like a standardized exam for american system) and scored a really good score, so I'm hoping they might take that as a substitute for A level physics.
Asphyxiating... is that your real pic? Well, it would be a pleasure to meet up at Imperial if you and I are both going.. and you also mentioned that most of the prospective students for biochem on the open day are women? Well, good news for me..

I know Imperial's business school is 3rd ranked, and they just open new facilities and are trying to compete with LSE, but seriously... they're going to use teaching assistants and graduate students to teach us the "management" part.. that's what I heard.. and classes would be at our usual Biological Sciences Building, not at the new Tanaka School of Business.

Neways, if you find out more, please post a message.

Boon

Reply 14

Pumpkinfoodle

hey i'm in for Biochem MSci. i had to turn down UCL for imperial, bit upset about that, and even more so when i found out that my friend(s) were offered BBB offers when they had worse predictions than i did <sighs>

now i don't particularly want to go to bath, i think only because my brain is heavily swayed to the future days at imperial. i'm scared too.

for all i know, imperial is quite science-y, and i wanted to home in on that. its very well recognised (they spend hell a lot of money on advertising so duh)

etc, as mentioned too. i think imperial and lse should combine so i don't have to fuss skipping LSE out when looking at league tables.