Imperial Chemical Engineering 2021

Hi, I believe most of the applicants that meet the entry requirements gets interviews and then about half the interviewed applicants receive places. They have to keep in mind that a lot of the successful applicants also receive places at oxbridge and are likely to decline imperials offer for oxbridge. Therefore they do give out a lot of offers taking into account what I’ve mentioned. Also are you sure about chemical engineering? A lot of ChemE students don’t do enough research into what the degree is really about and end up regretting their choice.

Reply 2

Original post by EmberPlayer

Ah ok that makes sense, any advice on how to prepare for the interview? Yep I'm definitely sure about chemical engineering done quite a lot of research and i know what I'm getting myself into

Reply 3

Original post by EmberPlayer

Do you have an idea of what they tend to ask at interview?

Reply 4

Original post by yoyowhatsup

Ah ok that makes sense, any advice on how to prepare for the interview? Yep I'm definitely sure about chemical engineering done quite a lot of research and i know what I'm getting myself into

Make sure you can talk about what you’ve written in your personal statement and answer any related questions about it. Also they may ask general questions like “Why chemical engineering?”or/and “Why imperial?” (They asked me both of those). So think about how you would answer them but don’t prepare an exact answer or it might sound too mechanical. As per technical questions preparation, I’d say brush up on your A level chemistry/basic A level physics principles, do practice questions on differentiation/ integration and sketching functions. Also ask advice from your science teachers since they may offer to do a mock interview with you. There may be some stuff that I missed so I’d suggest you do further research as well.

Reply 5

Original post by Shaz24tpt

Do you have an idea of what they tend to ask at interview?

I believe they usually start off with asking questions about your personal statement, then they inquire about your motivation for choosing Chemical engineering/ Imperial. After that they ask about 3 technical questions. In my case, the questions were very engineering-y which basically means I had to make loads of approximations to arrive at an answer. I believe the questions asked will depend on your interviewer and their research background. So make sure to do some research on your interviewer (they give you their name when they invite you for the interview). Also to end off the interview you’ll have a chance to ask questions so maybe think of what you’d like to know more about. It could be course related or have something to do with your interviewer’s research field.

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 6

Original post by EmberPlayer

I believe they usually start off with asking questions about your personal statement, then they inquire about your motivation for choosing Chemical engineering/ Imperial. After that they ask about 3 technical questions. In my case, the questions were very engineering-y which basically means I had to make loads of approximations to arrive at an answer. The technical questions they asked me: estimate the size of a water molecule, estimate the time it takes for a golf ball to reach the bottom of a lake, some graph sketching/ integration question and a question on the Haber process. I believe the questions asked will depend on your interviewer and their research background. So make sure to do some research on your interviewer (they give you their name when they invite you for the interview). Also to end off the interview you’ll have a chance to ask questions so maybe think of what you’d like to know more about. It could be course related or have something to do with your interviewer’s research field.

Thank you so much!

Reply 7

Original post by Shaz24tpt

Thank you so much!

No Problem. Feel free to ask me more and try not to worry too much about the interview. I thought my interview went abysmally, since I struggled a lot and needed help answering the questions, so I doubted I’d get an offer. I think the most important thing is to think out loud and explain your thought process.

Reply 8

Original post by EmberPlayer

Thanks a lot!!!!! Did you apply for 2021 entry or? Also how bad was the graph sketching question like was it really difficult?

Reply 9

Original post by EmberPlayer

Stay positive bro, it aint over till its over! I'm sure you have done much better than you think you have as well....

Reply 10

Original post by yoyowhatsup

Stay positive bro, it aint over till its over! I'm sure you have done much better than you think you have as well....

I applied in 2019. I just started my second year there 😂

Reply 11

Original post by EmberPlayer

I applied in 2019. I just started my second year there 😂

OHHHHHHHH hahahahahahha my bad

Reply 12

ammar.mi

I'm a bit in lost in the woods about the course , could you please enlighten me ?

Reply 13

Original post by ammar.mi

I'm a bit in lost in the woods about the course , could you please enlighten me ?

It’s basically about designing large scale processes like oil refineries, waste water treatment systems, nuclear power plants, etc. In order to do that you have to learn “fundamental” sciences like thermodynamics, chemistry, fluid mechanics, heat and mass transfer, physical chemistry, ect as well as more engineering modules like separation processes, process analysis, process dynamics and control, reaction engineering, safety courses, etc. And lots of maths.

Imagine a very very simple process where you add 2 reactants to a reactor, they react to form a mixture of products. The products have to be separated so you can collect the desired product. So this simple system comprises of pipes where you need to use fluid mechanics to understand and model the system, a reactor where you need to understand the chemistry of the reaction, the physical chemistry of the individual compounds, the thermodynamics of the systems so you know how much heat is given off/absorbed by the reaction or how much heat needs to be added/taken away for the reaction to be feasible. You require knowledge about heat and mass transfer to be able to model the heating/cooling system of the reactor (and other subsystems). Reaction engineering teaches you how to optimise the size and type of the reactor. Process dynamics and control is about how systems respond to inputs (like reactants into a reactor, etc) and how to control the responses due to safety concerns. The reactants need to be separated by different methods such as distillation columns - this is where separation processes come in. You require maths at every step (most commonly solving ODEs and PDEs (kinda like differentiation/ integration), linear algebra, etc) .

Reply 14

Original post by EmberPlayer

I applied in 2019. I just started my second year there 😂

Hey! Thankyou so so much for all your interview help! I was just wondering if you knew whether the imperial chem eng course is marked on a curve? Like if only a certain portion of people can get a 1st etc or whether its just off raw marks as it’ll really affect my decision haha :smile:

hope you’re well!

Reply 15

Original post by Shaz24tpt

hope you’re well!

To my knowledge, it isn’t marked on a curve. As long as you get 70% or above, you get a first. However, I’ve heard the marking criteria are generally quite ambiguous, and appeals for grades are very difficult to get/impossible.

Reply 16