Imperial College London
London
Imperial physics interview experience 2016
Hi guys,
For all of you out there applying to imperial for its physics degree, whether you have or haven't got an interview invitation, I thought it would be good to share with you the experience I had today at the interview, as many of you might be curious about what it will be like. (nobody mentioned anything about confidentiality agreements, so I thought might as well. If you think this information is not supposed to be shared, please tell me before I get into trouble!)
Got there at 12:10, the room is not that far into the corridor so if you see anyone sitting around a coffee table looking serious, that's probably where you should be
(among all the people wearing suits and ties I was pretty much the only one that came in a batman T-shirt, it was kinda intimidating!!) Sat down, had a chat with the other people that got interview, an undergrad walked in at 12:15, talked to us for a bit and led us to the canteen for free lunch(awesome!).
Short campus tour after lunch, back to where we started at 1:50, 11 of us got divided into 3 groups with a professor assigned to each group, and that's the person that interviewed us. I followed the professor with other group members to his office, we sat together first and talked about the course content and structure, had some general chat about "why physics" and "why imperial", all pretty relaxed and casual. We then were led on to a department tour, went in and stayed at the back of the lecture hall for a few minutes where presumably the first-year undergrads are having their Maths lecture on complex exponentials. We then saw the first-year physics lab, which was pretty cool(so much as I hate practicals in my college, the imperial lab gave me hope on the fun of uni-level experiments).
Then came THE part, actual interviews. The professor made it clear to us it was 30 min each, and I was the first to go as he somehow knew I didn't come from London and had to catch the train. So it started, what I will tell you most likely won't be what you will eventually get in your own interview since everyone's will be different I'm sure, and I won't go into much details of the questions asked as they may very well come up in later interviews and me doing so will probably not be encouraged.
It was purely academic, surprisingly nothing about my personal statement was asked(doesn't mean you won't be asked on it in yours). We went through 4 questions, first one was estimation(basic fermi problem) -- which I messed up the exponents and got a completely unreasonable answer and sorta made a fool out of myself, good thing I realized my mistake after the professor's hint. So tip 1, don't rush, think through then do it. 2nd one was a kinematics problem which was basically purely equation solving in a physical context, the tricky bit was probably the slightly complicated algebra. That one went OK. 3rd question was curve sketching, pretty interesting trig function to sketch, made silly assumptions and realized my mistake in the end, so again, DON'T RUSH! The last one was a classic suvat kinematics investigation which I worked out myself a million times in the past, yet my mind went completely blank at the spot!! It is very weird knowing how helpless you can be when you are under stress having someone staring at you when you're trying to solve a problem. Even the simplest thing seemed to be gone. But anyways, after the professor's generous hint, I literally shouted out "of course how can I be this stupid!!" And after that the rest of the question was simple.
Everything said by the people that tried to comfort you before the interview is true. It is not an interrogation, it is rather a communication. Imperial showed us what they were willing to offer us for our undergrad life(which they definitely did a decent job in), then in return the interview was simply a process of finding out what we had to offer them. I'm sure they will do the same thing to you as well. The professor was extremely helpful and kind, so was the admission's tutor at the registration, and everyone that was doing the interview with me seemed to be easy going and intelligent people that I would like to spend my undergraduate life with. (I met a really nice girl today and it's a shame that I didn't get a chance to get her number:'D)
Anyways, I hope it went fine and I can get offered a place, and all the best with you guys!
For all of you out there applying to imperial for its physics degree, whether you have or haven't got an interview invitation, I thought it would be good to share with you the experience I had today at the interview, as many of you might be curious about what it will be like. (nobody mentioned anything about confidentiality agreements, so I thought might as well. If you think this information is not supposed to be shared, please tell me before I get into trouble!)
Got there at 12:10, the room is not that far into the corridor so if you see anyone sitting around a coffee table looking serious, that's probably where you should be
(among all the people wearing suits and ties I was pretty much the only one that came in a batman T-shirt, it was kinda intimidating!!) Sat down, had a chat with the other people that got interview, an undergrad walked in at 12:15, talked to us for a bit and led us to the canteen for free lunch(awesome!).Short campus tour after lunch, back to where we started at 1:50, 11 of us got divided into 3 groups with a professor assigned to each group, and that's the person that interviewed us. I followed the professor with other group members to his office, we sat together first and talked about the course content and structure, had some general chat about "why physics" and "why imperial", all pretty relaxed and casual. We then were led on to a department tour, went in and stayed at the back of the lecture hall for a few minutes where presumably the first-year undergrads are having their Maths lecture on complex exponentials. We then saw the first-year physics lab, which was pretty cool(so much as I hate practicals in my college, the imperial lab gave me hope on the fun of uni-level experiments).
Then came THE part, actual interviews. The professor made it clear to us it was 30 min each, and I was the first to go as he somehow knew I didn't come from London and had to catch the train. So it started, what I will tell you most likely won't be what you will eventually get in your own interview since everyone's will be different I'm sure, and I won't go into much details of the questions asked as they may very well come up in later interviews and me doing so will probably not be encouraged.
It was purely academic, surprisingly nothing about my personal statement was asked(doesn't mean you won't be asked on it in yours). We went through 4 questions, first one was estimation(basic fermi problem) -- which I messed up the exponents and got a completely unreasonable answer and sorta made a fool out of myself, good thing I realized my mistake after the professor's hint. So tip 1, don't rush, think through then do it. 2nd one was a kinematics problem which was basically purely equation solving in a physical context, the tricky bit was probably the slightly complicated algebra. That one went OK. 3rd question was curve sketching, pretty interesting trig function to sketch, made silly assumptions and realized my mistake in the end, so again, DON'T RUSH! The last one was a classic suvat kinematics investigation which I worked out myself a million times in the past, yet my mind went completely blank at the spot!! It is very weird knowing how helpless you can be when you are under stress having someone staring at you when you're trying to solve a problem. Even the simplest thing seemed to be gone. But anyways, after the professor's generous hint, I literally shouted out "of course how can I be this stupid!!" And after that the rest of the question was simple.
Everything said by the people that tried to comfort you before the interview is true. It is not an interrogation, it is rather a communication. Imperial showed us what they were willing to offer us for our undergrad life(which they definitely did a decent job in), then in return the interview was simply a process of finding out what we had to offer them. I'm sure they will do the same thing to you as well. The professor was extremely helpful and kind, so was the admission's tutor at the registration, and everyone that was doing the interview with me seemed to be easy going and intelligent people that I would like to spend my undergraduate life with. (I met a really nice girl today and it's a shame that I didn't get a chance to get her number:'D)
Anyways, I hope it went fine and I can get offered a place, and all the best with you guys!
Original post by JasonHcamb
Hi guys,
For all of you out there applying to imperial for its physics degree, whether you have or haven't got an interview invitation, I thought it would be good to share with you the experience I had today at the interview, as many of you might be curious about what it will be like. (nobody mentioned anything about confidentiality agreements, so I thought might as well. If you think this information is not supposed to be shared, please tell me before I get into trouble!)
Got there at 12:10, the room is not that far into the corridor so if you see anyone sitting around a coffee table looking serious, that's probably where you should be (among all the people wearing suits and ties I was pretty much the only one that came in a batman T-shirt, it was kinda intimidating!!) Sat down, had a chat with the other people that got interview, an undergrad walked in at 12:15, talked to us for a bit and led us to the canteen for free lunch(awesome!).
Short campus tour after lunch, back to where we started at 1:50, 11 of us got divided into 3 groups with a professor assigned to each group, and that's the person that interviewed us. I followed the professor with other group members to his office, we sat together first and talked about the course content and structure, had some general chat about "why physics" and "why imperial", all pretty relaxed and casual. We then were led on to a department tour, went in and stayed at the back of the lecture hall for a few minutes where presumably the first-year undergrads are having their Maths lecture on complex exponentials. We then saw the first-year physics lab, which was pretty cool(so much as I hate practicals in my college, the imperial lab gave me hope on the fun of uni-level experiments).
Then came THE part, actual interviews. The professor made it clear to us it was 30 min each, and I was the first to go as he somehow knew I didn't come from London and had to catch the train. So it started, what I will tell you most likely won't be what you will eventually get in your own interview since everyone's will be different I'm sure, and I won't go into much details of the questions asked as they may very well come up in later interviews and me doing so will probably not be encouraged.
It was purely academic, surprisingly nothing about my personal statement was asked(doesn't mean you won't be asked on it in yours). We went through 4 questions, first one was estimation(basic fermi problem) -- which I messed up the exponents and got a completely unreasonable answer and sorta made a fool out of myself, good thing I realized my mistake after the professor's hint. So tip 1, don't rush, think through then do it. 2nd one was a kinematics problem which was basically purely equation solving in a physical context, the tricky bit was probably the slightly complicated algebra. That one went OK. 3rd question was curve sketching, pretty interesting trig function to sketch, made silly assumptions and realized my mistake in the end, so again, DON'T RUSH! The last one was a classic suvat kinematics investigation which I worked out myself a million times in the past, yet my mind went completely blank at the spot!! It is very weird knowing how helpless you can be when you are under stress having someone staring at you when you're trying to solve a problem. Even the simplest thing seemed to be gone. But anyways, after the professor's generous hint, I literally shouted out "of course how can I be this stupid!!" And after that the rest of the question was simple.
Everything said by the people that tried to comfort you before the interview is true. It is not an interrogation, it is rather a communication. Imperial showed us what they were willing to offer us for our undergrad life(which they definitely did a decent job in), then in return the interview was simply a process of finding out what we had to offer them. I'm sure they will do the same thing to you as well. The professor was extremely helpful and kind, so was the admission's tutor at the registration, and everyone that was doing the interview with me seemed to be easy going and intelligent people that I would like to spend my undergraduate life with. (I met a really nice girl today and it's a shame that I didn't get a chance to get her number:'D)
Anyways, I hope it went fine and I can get offered a place, and all the best with you guys!
For all of you out there applying to imperial for its physics degree, whether you have or haven't got an interview invitation, I thought it would be good to share with you the experience I had today at the interview, as many of you might be curious about what it will be like. (nobody mentioned anything about confidentiality agreements, so I thought might as well. If you think this information is not supposed to be shared, please tell me before I get into trouble!)
Got there at 12:10, the room is not that far into the corridor so if you see anyone sitting around a coffee table looking serious, that's probably where you should be
(among all the people wearing suits and ties I was pretty much the only one that came in a batman T-shirt, it was kinda intimidating!!) Sat down, had a chat with the other people that got interview, an undergrad walked in at 12:15, talked to us for a bit and led us to the canteen for free lunch(awesome!).Short campus tour after lunch, back to where we started at 1:50, 11 of us got divided into 3 groups with a professor assigned to each group, and that's the person that interviewed us. I followed the professor with other group members to his office, we sat together first and talked about the course content and structure, had some general chat about "why physics" and "why imperial", all pretty relaxed and casual. We then were led on to a department tour, went in and stayed at the back of the lecture hall for a few minutes where presumably the first-year undergrads are having their Maths lecture on complex exponentials. We then saw the first-year physics lab, which was pretty cool(so much as I hate practicals in my college, the imperial lab gave me hope on the fun of uni-level experiments).
Then came THE part, actual interviews. The professor made it clear to us it was 30 min each, and I was the first to go as he somehow knew I didn't come from London and had to catch the train. So it started, what I will tell you most likely won't be what you will eventually get in your own interview since everyone's will be different I'm sure, and I won't go into much details of the questions asked as they may very well come up in later interviews and me doing so will probably not be encouraged.
It was purely academic, surprisingly nothing about my personal statement was asked(doesn't mean you won't be asked on it in yours). We went through 4 questions, first one was estimation(basic fermi problem) -- which I messed up the exponents and got a completely unreasonable answer and sorta made a fool out of myself, good thing I realized my mistake after the professor's hint. So tip 1, don't rush, think through then do it. 2nd one was a kinematics problem which was basically purely equation solving in a physical context, the tricky bit was probably the slightly complicated algebra. That one went OK. 3rd question was curve sketching, pretty interesting trig function to sketch, made silly assumptions and realized my mistake in the end, so again, DON'T RUSH! The last one was a classic suvat kinematics investigation which I worked out myself a million times in the past, yet my mind went completely blank at the spot!! It is very weird knowing how helpless you can be when you are under stress having someone staring at you when you're trying to solve a problem. Even the simplest thing seemed to be gone. But anyways, after the professor's generous hint, I literally shouted out "of course how can I be this stupid!!" And after that the rest of the question was simple.
Everything said by the people that tried to comfort you before the interview is true. It is not an interrogation, it is rather a communication. Imperial showed us what they were willing to offer us for our undergrad life(which they definitely did a decent job in), then in return the interview was simply a process of finding out what we had to offer them. I'm sure they will do the same thing to you as well. The professor was extremely helpful and kind, so was the admission's tutor at the registration, and everyone that was doing the interview with me seemed to be easy going and intelligent people that I would like to spend my undergraduate life with. (I met a really nice girl today and it's a shame that I didn't get a chance to get her number:'D)
Anyways, I hope it went fine and I can get offered a place, and all the best with you guys!
Thank you so much for putting so much effort. It is really helpful and reassuring, probably won't be so nervous then. Good luck for your application
Imperial College London
London
Original post by anonymousguy24
Thank you so much for putting so much effort. It is really helpful and reassuring, probably won't be so nervous then. Good luck for your application
Haha no problem at all, glad it helped
It's reassuring to know they might prefer to interview applicants outside of London first and so from abroad too, I assume. My friend had an interview as well a year ago; he was asked questions relating to his PS: a maths one and an astrophysics one. And they were also asked some physics questions before the individual interviews. He mentioned there was a double rainbow at that time in London and the professor asked them how do they form.
(edited 7 years ago)
Thank you for your input about the whole Interview process, it was very helpful indeed!
I recall one of my elder brothers friend's, who applied to Imperial for a Bsc Physics, got a conditional offer of A*AA with a scholarship.
If I remember correctly, the head of department interviewed him and as you said, questions were purely academic.
The questions wasn't as specific as yours but rather more flexible and fun. He got asked 'Estimate the volume of water on the surface of earth, here's a pencil and paper you have 5min to give your best guess'. He didn't get the exact answer (very close though), but the process he displayed managed to impress the interviewer, and with a little charm he did the trick.
I recall one of my elder brothers friend's, who applied to Imperial for a Bsc Physics, got a conditional offer of A*AA with a scholarship.
If I remember correctly, the head of department interviewed him and as you said, questions were purely academic.
The questions wasn't as specific as yours but rather more flexible and fun. He got asked 'Estimate the volume of water on the surface of earth, here's a pencil and paper you have 5min to give your best guess'. He didn't get the exact answer (very close though), but the process he displayed managed to impress the interviewer, and with a little charm he did the trick.
Original post by akpai22
I had my interview 5 weeks ago and still haven't heard back at all. Anyone got an offer yet?
Got an offer on the 24th. Not sure how they are processing it but I guess the time can vary quite a bit. All the best with yours and I hope it'll come fairly soon.
Original post by JasonHcamb
Got an offer on the 24th. Not sure how they are processing it but I guess the time can vary quite a bit. All the best with yours and I hope it'll come fairly soon.
When was your interview?
Original post by akpai22
When was your interview?
8th of November
Original post by JasonHcamb
8th of November
It took them as much time to decide whether to give you an offer as acknowledging an email I sent them.
Did you get an offer in the end?
Quick Reply
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