Whats life really like at imperial?

So the impending doom of the deadline for ucas choices is starting to rear it ugly head so I was wondering what its like to be a student at imperial
eg how much time outside of your studies do you have
how connected do you feel to other people at the uni (do you live far away)

Basically my main concern it that so much time will be spent on the academic part of the course that there's no time(/money for anything else)

I have only been in the lobby and common room area. It's a 1950s concrete block on the outside but fine on the inside. Apparently the rooms are huge. Southside, Eastside and Weeks are arranged in a quadratical pattern and all pretty much the same distance from college.

If you put down Beit, Southside, Eastside and Weeks you've got 4/5 good choices. This does not give you a 4/5 chance of getting a room at those places though since they're all heavily oversubscribed. The details of the allocation system are not public, but you should not put down a strongly undersubscribed hall like Xenia as your 5th choice or you're guaranteed to get it.

I'd recommend a single in Fisher as your 5th choice since they're very oversubscribed because there are few and they are very cheap. That should reduce the probability of you getting the room you don't really want but have to use as a placeholder since you must submit 5 choices.

Once again, no guarantee on this but it seems that people who put down Xenia always get it since nobody want to live that far aways, and it makes logical sense that the system would work that way.

I wouldn't pick Imperial over the Ivy Plus American schools (the Ivies + Stanford, MIT, Duke, Chicago).

If you come here one thing you will quickly learn that above all else we love to complain about Imperial, when really its not that bad, it could be a lot worse in fact. Ultimately I don't have as much "fun" as my friends doing arts at other London unis. But when I'm not smashing out courseworks or revising for more silly exams I am. When 4 years is done, because I not only decided to study for a science degree, but made the few (necessary) sacrifices to study at Imperial I will have a top job in the industry I want.

How can I say such ludicrous things with such naive certainty?
Because without really trying I have ended up with top industry internship and UROP offers coming out of my ears.

Am I particularly smart?
Not a chance when compared to my peers.

I got a 2:2 in first year. That was not doing any work, I mean literally did not revise, every coursework was started the evening before it was due. Had great fun though doing less work than GCSE's. No, like you I didn't do any work for GCSEs, catch my drift? Again I reiterate, I am not that clever, Imperial is full of a few geniuses, and a lot of normal people and some stupid people who have to work way too hard.
Second year I've cut going out down to twice a week max, got a job, started courseworks earlier and tried revising (currently writing this is procrastination), low and behold I'm averaging 80%....I bet if you're reading this you are smarter than me anyways and you could stomach doing a little studying if you had to..

Is it true that people work tirelessly in the library, well yeah, but that's because they want to end up on the Dean's list so good for them. (or they got way too much help at school or something)
Reason being, every percentile up to 100% gets tougher and tougher to get, so if you're happy with 75/80 in some work you have time for fun if you're smart enough to be there. Want 90+ well its gonna be a totally unnecessary library hibernation.

So far as socialising goes there's something for everyone in my opinion. Took me best part of a whole year, loads of societies since given up and countless nights out with the wrong people till I found the RIGHT people but they are there.
THE STAT: Most clubs and societies of any UK uni is not a lie....its not the easiest to find your own group granted but they do exist, you just need to hold it together till you find them.

Imperial is quite cold and hard, but so is the real world. At least you learn here how to make the most of it in the comfort of your massive student loan, hugely generous bursery, oh and did I mention there is loads of well paid hugely flexible part-time work available, which allows me to do important things like pay rent and eat, but also provides another place to meet similar people.

Ah I've been rambling, quite inconsistently about various things it seems......something has occurred to me though, maybe you shouldn't go to Imperial, its a bit of a different gamble. I guess at other unis you are pretty certain of the fun times but it will be arguably harder to get a job as Imperial's career stats, service and industry links are ACTUALLY unrivalled.
But you may well be lonely and therefore struggle with the workload because you're unhappy if you come here, but if you scrape a 2:1 you're pretty set....hmmmm dunno, depends also if you are clever enough to really come. I don't regret it though, well I do but I remember I'm just complaining cause its the done thing here and when you put it into perspective its not that bad.

Hi, I'm actually trying to decide between UCL and Imperial for medicine and some of the comments on this thread have been really off-putting. I am a very academic person, more than I am outgoing, and following my visit to both universities yesterday (not an open day or guided tour) I found that I liked Imperial a lot more than UCL. The people I talked to at imperial were a lot kinder and balanced in their approach whereas at UCL, the students were a lot more arrogant and condescending. I know that talking to a few people isn't reliable enough for me to make conclusions but is it really that bad at imperial? I plan to study from home and six years is a long time so I don't want to be making the wrong decision. Any advice would be much appreciated!

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Hi i am actually going to imperial for medicine next year as well.. although i haven't applied to UCL i can tell you that medicine at imperial is quite separated from the rest of the university so not everything mentioned in this forum applies for medicine.. also my brother is a graduate from imperial (material science and engineering) and he was 3rd in his class aka achieved a first while travelling a lot and having his girlfriend.. don't get me wrong he did have to work but it is doable.. but it also depends on each person.. i know that since i am not there yet my opinion is not very reliable but i hope i have helped..

Are the halls in Imperial really as bad as everyone on this thread is saying? It's making me re think where I want to apply which is sad because Imperial is my dream university.

Thank you for that! I do really like imperial and I don't want to let a couple of people who despise it change my mind! Hope to see you there

everyone at Imperial complains about it because it's tough; really tough (if you want to get a 1st/do well), but the vast majority would never go anywhere else if given the choice (prestige etc.). We're lucky we're here and we know it. It's sometimes really difficult though, so every imperial student will undoubtedly rant!