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New Imperial Medics beware!

I thought I'd try and do the right thing and warn you people now:

You should all be receiving invitations from your medic's student union soon, about the medic's freshers fortnight, and how buying a 'passport' for about £50 will get you entry to all the medics freshers events over the fortnight.

This passport and the fortnight is run by the Medic's Student Union, not Imperial Student Union. Imperial run their own freshers week events independently and parallel to the Medics, and normally send out the information a week before term starts.

Many new medics arrive fully meaning to meet lots of new friends at Imperial, from their course/halls or just randoms. They think they have got organised and will be able to do just that with these passports; however, when they get here they realise that there is a separate list of events that Imperial are running, and also a list of events that each hall of residences run.

Past experience over two years have told me what happens: Because the medics have gone ahead and purchased these Medic's passports, they feel obliged not to waste their money and go to ALL the Medic's events and hang out with medics, thus falling into a clique and not getting to know anyone in their halls or from different courses in the first 2 weeks. After this time, people form friendship groups and it is difficult to break that mould and meet new people.

Theres is a very big divide in Imperial between Medics and non-Medics which you will see when you get here and one of the main reasons (besides the history) is because of this. I am not saying that you SHOULDN'T buy the medics passport; if that's your thing then that's up to you. I personally know many medics who got here and regretted buying these passports so early because it effectively restricted them from hanging out with different people or going to different events during the first fortnight. You have 6 years to get to know people on your medicine course and only 3 to know others, or only 1 year to know others in halls. Why form yourself into a clique so early when you should be meeting as many different people as you can in the first two weeks of your university life?

My tuppence of advice to new medics :biggrin:

i hope some of the others at Imperial can back me up on this 'phenomena'

Reply 1

The Caretaker

5

if you dont get the passports can you pay for the medics events separately? cos i still want to go to some, but maybe not all of the events.

Reply 2

4Ed

OP

15

i believe so. The passport basically 'saves you money' because some events are more expensive on the door, but it's nicer to be able to pick and choose what events you want to go to. Some of the medic fresher events are amazing and some are, well... rubbish.

Reply 3

Marie05

1

hm yea i understand what you're saying 4Ed and i can imagine it being like that too, but you're not a medic and for some reason that intrigues me! :rolleyes:

there isn't another reason for this warning to us new medics is there?! :p:

Reply 4

cramnotes

Sounds like good advice to me. I really hope the divide isn't as bad as its made out to be. Anyway, will try and mix the events together, or go to all Imperial events the first week, and medics events the second week.

Reply 5

4Ed

OP

15

lol Marie, it's difficult - to your average non-medics, individiual medics are really nice, but together are cliquey, antisocial and unfriendly towards the rest of us.

I don't know if you are aware, but there are medics society equivalents for most societies at Imperial. Eg medics football, medics rugby, medics orchestra etc. There is a bit of a rivalry (an understatement) between opposing teams, and indeed the 'varsity match' each year takes place between Imperial and the Medics. Basically, the medical school feel their own sense of identity very strongly because they only joined Imperial in 1997, and have their own societies because they are here for 6 years whereas most Imperial students are here for 3 or 4 years.

Personally, I don't have a problem with medics (my corridor were mainly medics this year) but there is a bit of banter, and there IS alot of cliqueyness going along, and I want to do my bit to stop that happening before you guys sell your souls to the medics union. There IS a life outside Reynolds :biggrin:

well played

Thanks for the advice

Reply 8

Marie05

1

4Ed

lol Marie, it's difficult - to your average non-medics, individiual medics are really nice, but together are cliquey, antisocial and unfriendly towards the rest of us.

I don't know if you are aware, but there are medics society equivalents for most societies at Imperial. Eg medics football, medics rugby, medics orchestra etc. There is a bit of a rivalry (an understatement) between opposing teams, and indeed the 'varsity match' each year takes place between Imperial and the Medics. Basically, the medical school feel their own sense of identity very strongly because they only joined Imperial in 1997, and have their own societies because they are here for 6 years whereas most Imperial students are here for 3 or 4 years.

Personally, I don't have a problem with medics (my corridor were mainly medics this year) but there is a bit of banter, and there IS alot of cliqueyness going along, and I want to do my bit to stop that happening before you guys sell your souls to the medics union. There IS a life outside Reynolds :biggrin:

i was just making sure! :wink:

Thank you for the advice. much appreciated :smile:

Reply 9

Mangaroo

12

i was gonna agree but after getting my freshers back im not so sure....do we get to see what non-medical imperial freshers is like?

Reply 10

tuppatopbrer

Yes, but Medics freshers fortnight is in parallel to the ICL freshers festivities, why purposefuly segregate yourself from the rest of the college. Why commit yourself to Medic exclusive events when you can pick and choose while your there, granted it may be a bit more expensive but you could end up having more fun.

Reply 11

Mangaroo

12

well, if the rest of the college sucks then i wont be missing out on much ~ hence the need for info on freshers! im still not getting the passport though

Reply 12

switchday

medics rule. who wants to hang out with a bunch of geeky mathematicians and physicists :P

Reply 13

Mangaroo

12

lolzar harsh (although i know two engineers going to imperial and im going to try my best to avoid them)

Reply 14

tuppatopbrer

Oh please, we are not in year 4 anymore. But each to their own, I thought being submerged in science only would be a problem, but being submerged in only medics must be a bigger problem. But the rest of you sociable medics are cool!

Reply 15

4Ed

OP

15

switchday

medics rule. who wants to hang out with a bunch of geeky mathematicians and physicists :P

I wonder who is going to spend their entire 6 years living in Reynolds and not bothering to know anyone outside of the 300 in your year... :rolleyes:

Reply 16

Mangaroo

12

300 is a big crowd though

Reply 17

//Mike

300 Medics sounds like a pretty boring crowd if you ask me - it's pretty ironic that you think Medics are the only sociable people when you aren't even prepared to socialise with other's yourself.

Reply 18

Mangaroo

12

lol who cares if medics socialise with non-medics, whats the big deal?
Btw, will we get a imperial college (non-medical) student freshers handbook or similar info etc..?

Reply 19

tuppatopbrer

300 people that all think the same thing: medics rule, everything else doesn't. You're in for the time of your life.

New Imperial Medics beware!

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