Imperial vs Warwick Maths.
Firstly, I know this has been done before but I feel as though all my questions haven't been answered yet - Plus, I don't think I've heard many positives about Imperial at all, and I'm thinking that it can't be that bad, can it?
I hold offers to study maths at Imperial and Warwick (information is in my sig) and I'm hoping that someone can tell me about the following:
Social life - The key differences between living in London in comparison to the bubble that is Warwick. I'm from a reasonable large town so I'm not really sure I've experienced either enough to make a decent judgement.
Lectures - How often? duration? quality of lecturers (in your experience)?
Tutorials - How often? duration? quality of tutors (in your experience)? Tutorial sizes? Are they beneficial and are they even necessary to do as well as possible in your degree?
Comparative job prospects.
Any anything else you think I should know.
Thanks in advance.
I hold offers to study maths at Imperial and Warwick (information is in my sig) and I'm hoping that someone can tell me about the following:
Social life - The key differences between living in London in comparison to the bubble that is Warwick. I'm from a reasonable large town so I'm not really sure I've experienced either enough to make a decent judgement.
Lectures - How often? duration? quality of lecturers (in your experience)?
Tutorials - How often? duration? quality of tutors (in your experience)? Tutorial sizes? Are they beneficial and are they even necessary to do as well as possible in your degree?
Comparative job prospects.
Any anything else you think I should know.
Thanks in advance.
Scroll to see replies
As much as I'd hate to do this, it's reasonably urgent.
Bump.
Bump.
Hey farhan,
I was in a similar position to you earlier. On the warwick open day i thought that the maths department there was amazing, everyone seemed friendly including the lecturers that i saw. The course was clearly a tough one but had a great deal of flexibility and choice.
However i personally found the rest of the campus slightly claustrophobic and there seemed little to do there. To be honest i found that the maths department was the only bit i really liked. When going to a university u have to spend time outside this one building so id want to go somewhere where the other deparments and the rest of the facilites were as nice as the department i wished to study in. Hope that bit made sense.
Imperial personally suited me more cant quite explain why. Also in terms of the job prospects imperial has a slightly better reputataion i think and since its london there may be better opportunities when looking for a job.
Hope that helped. I think im going to chose imperial. May i ask what the hurry is too btw
?
Im guessing you've read this:
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?p=29376879&highlight=what%20is%20maths%20at%20imperial%20like?
Dont let it put you off!
I was in a similar position to you earlier. On the warwick open day i thought that the maths department there was amazing, everyone seemed friendly including the lecturers that i saw. The course was clearly a tough one but had a great deal of flexibility and choice.
However i personally found the rest of the campus slightly claustrophobic and there seemed little to do there. To be honest i found that the maths department was the only bit i really liked. When going to a university u have to spend time outside this one building so id want to go somewhere where the other deparments and the rest of the facilites were as nice as the department i wished to study in. Hope that bit made sense.
Imperial personally suited me more cant quite explain why. Also in terms of the job prospects imperial has a slightly better reputataion i think and since its london there may be better opportunities when looking for a job.
Hope that helped. I think im going to chose imperial. May i ask what the hurry is too btw
?Im guessing you've read this:
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?p=29376879&highlight=what%20is%20maths%20at%20imperial%20like?
Dont let it put you off!
(edited 13 years ago)
Original post by Kolya
Anyone who replies will not know what is most appropriate for you either. Rather than wasting your time collecting pretty-worthless facts and figures, I'd just go with your gut. (:
Original post by amoled
Hey farhan,
I was in a similar position to you earlier. On the warwick open day i thought that the maths department there was amazing, everyone seemed friendly including the lecturers that i saw. The course was clearly a tough one but had a great deal of flexibility and choice.
However i personally found the rest of the campus slightly claustrophobic and there seemed little to do there. To be honest i found that the maths department was the only bit i really liked. When going to a university u have to spend time outside this one building so id want to go somewhere where the other deparments and the rest of the facilites were as nice as the department i wished to study in. Hope that bit made sense.
Imperial personally suited me more cant quite explain why. Also in terms of the job prospects imperial has a slightly better reputataion i think and since its london there may be better opportunities when looking for a job.
Hope that helped. I think im going to chose imperial. May i ask what the hurry is too btw?
Im guessing you've read this:
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?p=29376879&highlight=what%20is%20maths%20at%20imperial%20like?
Dont let it put you off!
I was in a similar position to you earlier. On the warwick open day i thought that the maths department there was amazing, everyone seemed friendly including the lecturers that i saw. The course was clearly a tough one but had a great deal of flexibility and choice.
However i personally found the rest of the campus slightly claustrophobic and there seemed little to do there. To be honest i found that the maths department was the only bit i really liked. When going to a university u have to spend time outside this one building so id want to go somewhere where the other deparments and the rest of the facilites were as nice as the department i wished to study in. Hope that bit made sense.
Imperial personally suited me more cant quite explain why. Also in terms of the job prospects imperial has a slightly better reputataion i think and since its london there may be better opportunities when looking for a job.
Hope that helped. I think im going to chose imperial. May i ask what the hurry is too btw
?Im guessing you've read this:
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?p=29376879&highlight=what%20is%20maths%20at%20imperial%20like?
Dont let it put you off!
That's brilliant, cheers!
I did read that thread and I'll be honest, it did put me off quite a bit. I've also got a similar vibe through discussing the situation with people who've been there and done that.
Original post by Kolya
Anyone who replies will not know what is most appropriate for you either. Rather than wasting your time collecting pretty-worthless facts and figures, I'd just go with your gut. (:
With all due respect, I'm not asking people to tell me what's appropriate for me. I'm simply asking for the hard facts and figures. I know what I'm looking for but I can't really take that forward if I don't know enough about the place in question.
I really don't think this information will be worthless. I've tried to keep the qualitative questions to a minimum, although I'd still also be happy to hear some opinions.
Original post by Farhan.Hanif93
That's brilliant, cheers!
I did read that thread and I'll be honest, it did put me off quite a bit. I've also got a similar vibe through discussing the situation with people who've been there and done that.
With all due respect, I'm not asking people to tell me what's appropriate for me. I'm simply asking for the hard facts and figures. I know what I'm looking for but I can't really take that forward if I don't know enough about the place in question.
I really don't think this information will be worthless. I've tried to keep the qualitative questions to a minimum, although I'd still also be happy to hear some opinions.
I did read that thread and I'll be honest, it did put me off quite a bit. I've also got a similar vibe through discussing the situation with people who've been there and done that.
With all due respect, I'm not asking people to tell me what's appropriate for me. I'm simply asking for the hard facts and figures. I know what I'm looking for but I can't really take that forward if I don't know enough about the place in question.
I really don't think this information will be worthless. I've tried to keep the qualitative questions to a minimum, although I'd still also be happy to hear some opinions.
I can tell you about the social life at Warwick - my sister's friend went to Warwick and said it does get boring after a while. London's got a much better social life but if you go to Imperial I don't know if this will still be true. What do you want to do after you graduate anyway?
Imperial every time though I may be biased as a former Imperial Phys. undergrad. I can PM you about my experiences and the general student life there if you want. Warwick was also one of my choices back then but the Open Day completely killed it for me. Coventry + stuffy atmosphere = less kudos. Shame!
Thanks for everyone's input thus far.
I'm really looking for someone currently at Imperial or Warwick, and studying maths, who can answer those initial questions.
I'm really looking for someone currently at Imperial or Warwick, and studying maths, who can answer those initial questions.
I agree with slylion1 (pending your summer results of course).
I don't really have experience of either uni, so I can't give you any useful information. However, different people are suited to different locations. London's a huge city, which has its benefits if you like going out a lot or you want to have every shop under the sun at your fingertips. Warwick is campus-based and usually second-years live in Leamington Spa or Coventry, so the differences with this respect are quite big -- at Warwick more of the social stuff you do is likely to be arranged by the student union, for example.
Another thing is how much you're engulfed by your uni. At Imperial you can come and go from uni as you wish pretty much, and at Warwick you'll pretty much be there all the time. Both of these scenarios have their advantages. Cambridge is very much a "you're there all the time" place, which is nice when things are going well and horrible when they're not; but I get the feeling that if it wasn't like that then I might get distracted by the real world.
But really it boils down to this: Warwick has a paper on Knot Theory, Imperial does not. [Neither does Cambridge dammit!]
Oops!
EDIT: FWIW the Warwick and Imperial Maths department websites have useful things like timetables, exam schedules, past exam papers and so on that might be useful.
I don't really have experience of either uni, so I can't give you any useful information. However, different people are suited to different locations. London's a huge city, which has its benefits if you like going out a lot or you want to have every shop under the sun at your fingertips. Warwick is campus-based and usually second-years live in Leamington Spa or Coventry, so the differences with this respect are quite big -- at Warwick more of the social stuff you do is likely to be arranged by the student union, for example.
Another thing is how much you're engulfed by your uni. At Imperial you can come and go from uni as you wish pretty much, and at Warwick you'll pretty much be there all the time. Both of these scenarios have their advantages. Cambridge is very much a "you're there all the time" place, which is nice when things are going well and horrible when they're not; but I get the feeling that if it wasn't like that then I might get distracted by the real world.
But really it boils down to this: Warwick has a paper on Knot Theory, Imperial does not. [Neither does Cambridge dammit!]
Original post by Farhan.Hanif93
I'm really looking for someone currently at Imperial or Warwick, and studying maths, who can answer those initial questions.
Oops!
EDIT: FWIW the Warwick and Imperial Maths department websites have useful things like timetables, exam schedules, past exam papers and so on that might be useful.
(edited 13 years ago)
Original post by nuodai
I agree with slylion1 (pending your summer results of course).
The further I dig into asking for advice on reapplying, the more I get put off. My biggest concern of all - even beyond the fees and 'wasting' a year of my academic life - is that I may not be able to convince them that I'm still as sharp mathematically as I was when I first applied. I have a feeling that my previous interview scores will be hard to beat. Another rejection will be very awkward to deal with.
I don't really have experience of either uni, so I can't give you any useful information. However, different people are suited to different locations. London's a huge city, which has its benefits if you like going out a lot or you want to have every shop under the sun at your fingertips. Warwick is campus-based and usually second-years live in Leamington Spa or Coventry, so the differences with this respect are quite big -- at Warwick more of the social stuff you do is likely to be arranged by the student union, for example.
Another thing is how much you're engulfed by your uni. At Imperial you can come and go from uni as you wish pretty much, and at Warwick you'll pretty much be there all the time. Both of these scenarios have their advantages. Cambridge is very much a "you're there all the time" place, which is nice when things are going well and horrible when they're not; but I get the feeling that if it wasn't like that then I might get distracted by the real world.
But really it boils down to this: Warwick has a paper on Knot Theory, Imperial does not. [Neither does Cambridge dammit!]
Oops!
EDIT: FWIW the Warwick and Imperial Maths department websites have useful things like timetables, exam schedules, past exam papers and so on that might be useful.
Another thing is how much you're engulfed by your uni. At Imperial you can come and go from uni as you wish pretty much, and at Warwick you'll pretty much be there all the time. Both of these scenarios have their advantages. Cambridge is very much a "you're there all the time" place, which is nice when things are going well and horrible when they're not; but I get the feeling that if it wasn't like that then I might get distracted by the real world.
But really it boils down to this: Warwick has a paper on Knot Theory, Imperial does not. [Neither does Cambridge dammit!]
Oops!
EDIT: FWIW the Warwick and Imperial Maths department websites have useful things like timetables, exam schedules, past exam papers and so on that might be useful.
Thanks for trying! I already had this view on both the Universities but I'm slightly more interested in the details that the Universities do not release directly. If push comes to shove, I may have to email Imperial about most of these things directly as I'm struggling to come across many Imperial maths students to ask about this sort of thing.
Original post by Farhan.Hanif93
The further I dig into asking for advice on reapplying, the more I get put off. My biggest concern of all - even beyond the fees and 'wasting' a year of my academic life - is that I may not be able to convince them that I'm still as sharp mathematically as I was when I first applied. I have a feeling that my previous interview scores will be hard to beat. Another rejection will be very awkward to deal with.
That's true. I mean, if you keep pushing at the level you're at you'll do very well indeed no matter what uni you go to, and of course Part III's an option if you still want to go to Cambridge. Good luck!
Original post by Farhan.Hanif93
Thanks for everyone's input thus far.
I'm really looking for someone currently at Imperial or Warwick, and studying maths, who can answer those initial questions.
I'm really looking for someone currently at Imperial or Warwick, and studying maths, who can answer those initial questions.
I thought there were quite a people doing maths at warwick on TSR.
Original post by anshul95
I thought there were quite a people doing maths at warwick on TSR.
Well I wanted advice mainly on Imperial, I know a fair bit about Warwick and primarily I was hoping someone could tell me why they think Imp is better than Warwick.
Original post by Farhan.Hanif93
Well I wanted advice mainly on Imperial, I know a fair bit about Warwick and primarily I was hoping someone could tell me why they think Imp is better than Warwick.
Imperial has a better name if that means anything.
Imperial has the better name overall. London is so varied that you can not meaningfully identify what the London social life is like though- however, some activities like going to bars/clubs can be prohbitively expensive. My brother went clubbing very infrequently when he was at Imperial. The fact that ICL is science-students only is a significant difference: I don't want to generalise; but there are some very noticeable differences between your average sciences student and your average humanities student.
I think a lot of people give Imperial a bad name because the crazy student party-hard culture is less pronounced at Imperial compared to other universities. You can still have that hedonistic social life if that's what you want (seriously, managing to not find people to drink with at any university would be just pathetic) and Imperial has a great set of clubs on offer. The ethos of the university does tend to be very career-focused though.
Just give me a sec, I'm going to see if I can get a hold of a few Imperial Maths students for you, there don't appear to be many on this site for some reason.
I think a lot of people give Imperial a bad name because the crazy student party-hard culture is less pronounced at Imperial compared to other universities. You can still have that hedonistic social life if that's what you want (seriously, managing to not find people to drink with at any university would be just pathetic) and Imperial has a great set of clubs on offer. The ethos of the university does tend to be very career-focused though.
Just give me a sec, I'm going to see if I can get a hold of a few Imperial Maths students for you, there don't appear to be many on this site for some reason.
(edited 13 years ago)
Original post by DFranklin
You could always PM Physics Enemy for info on Imperial...
I was looking for the positives about Imperial, rather than the negatives...
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