Imperial College London

London

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Imperial & London Unis: Worth it?

Right, Ive finally got UCAS sorted...

Choices are: Cambridge, Durham, Imperial, Sheffield, Warwick (alphabetical order :wink:

) for Engineering/Mechanical Engineering.

It was hard enough making a list of 6...then i was told it was only 5 choices this year! Anyway, Ive got to think about choosing betwen them, so, for London Uni students in general, are you happy? OK, Imperial is possibly the best UK university for my course but its gonna be mega expensive. Is it worth it? don't you find that you and your friends are scattered all over london, and the social life is...well...london prices? Would you choose differently if you could do it over again?

EDIT: just while i might have the attention of some lovely London student, whats the state of play with sports pitches/teams/societies? Particularly hockey pitches & teams as thats my main sport :smile:

Cheers for any ideas/advice/input :smile:

Reply 1

mkgm1

If you know exactly what type of engineering you want to do, then definitely go for Imperial. I don't know much about the engineering courses here, but I think you could transfer to another engineering course if you really wanted to change your mind.

Living in London is great too. Expensive, but great. Halls are probably the only way you're ever going to be paying £110-150 a week to live in South Kensington, a pretty decent part of London. You can literally walk to anything you might need in less than 30 mins (even quicker by tube/bike).

Imperial College London

London

Reply 2

Gimperial

If you can get Cambridge, def go there.

The prices, having to commute from 2nd year (possibly first!), the male:female ratio make a poor case for Imperial, which solely relies on academic power.

If you can get Cambridge, go there, if not then Imperial is worth comming to despite all of its downfalls. In terms of employment you'll find possibly no or very little difference between Camb and Imp, so its better to go and live cheaply and more comfortably there.

Reply 3

jasiekg

as a person who came from outside the UK i can say london i a rly, rly great place to study, even tough i've been here for like a week only. i know it's expensive but u see, on the other hand you get all these big companies which cd offer u a job within 5-15 minutes on tube, especially with computing and probably the same with eng. so there it is - go for imperial...

Reply 4

Cowz

Well I finished my undergrad in London this year and although I never thought it was an overly amazing when I was there, now I am taking an MSc in a smaller city, I really miss the old place. Definately want to go back for a PhD.

There are loads of reasons london is great. My favourite reasons though were

a) The tube/London Buses. Transport is redicuously cheap for students (just ask your union about a student oyster card) and you can get anywhere in no time at all on the tube. Plus the night buses in London are extremely useful and cost no more than a normal journey would.

b) There are so many different areas to get lost in, all of them with a unique feeling-compare Deptford to Wimbledon or Canary Wharf to Harrow. And because of the tube, you can pretty much live anywhere you want.

c) There are a fair few university london colleges which has its advantages. You'll have free access to all college libraries, for example, and you can take modules at a different college if you really want-useful for certain specialisms (although this is more an arts thing I suppose).

d) Being a student in London just "feels really good". There are some great central University of London libraries and you'll also be within easy access of the British Lirbrary (free for students) which can prove to be very useful for a final year project. And the building arounds central London are simply fantastic. Not to mention all the museums and art galleries.

e) London has a train to anywhere if you want. Great if you're not from the south, like me and you don't have a car. I daytripped to loads of places along the coast-such as Hastings and Brighton.

f) Shoppers heaven. For example I am vegan, which is easily catered for in London.

Of course there are loads more reasons, but those are my favourites.

I suppose the main sticking point with London is accommodation. I would argue than on the whole, London isn't particuarly more expensive than anywhere else. Ok a pint can be expensive, but you save money on transport so its not too bad. Plus entry into (the hundreds of) nightclubs is the same as anywhere else. Food costs the same, as do your clothes, stationary etc.

The only real problem is accommodation-it'll cost you twice as much and you'll get half the space in the private sector than you would in other cities. First year you'll be fine though because of your university digs. I'll be honest, I never really had a happy time in the seocnd year accommodation wise because I was renting a flat with my girlfriend for £1200 pcm, yet our neighbours living upstairs where DSS, 16 years old and just played music and got pregnant all day. Final year we moved into private halls which worked out at £80 a week each as were staying together. I guess it depends on where you end up staying and who you are staying with, which applies to anywhere really.

Anyway, go to Imperial.

Reply 5

xaxa

My "commute" in 1st year was 15 minutes walk, in 2nd year 35 walk/tube/walk, 3rd and 4th 25 minutes walk. It's no big deal, and it's worth it -- there's all of London a short walk/tube/bus away!

I chose Imperial over Cambridge and I don't regret it at all. Many of my friends are within 10 minutes walk, others are further away but then we just meet up in the middle.

Reply 6

Henerz

Thanks for the responces :smile:

OK, you've relieved some of my doubts...but that really hasn't helped in choosing between Uni's, as what they are offering seems really similar.

Anyway, there's only one thing I see between them, which is London's loan (An extra £1350 per year) which will land me in an extra £5400 debt.

Is it really right to choose something like a university which will effect your whole life on a few (well actually lots of) quid?

Again, thoughts are much appreciated :smile:

Reply 7

xaxa

I just got back from clubbing. The nightlife in London is fantastic. My friends in Durham tell me there's only one (two?) club(s) and that they play the same cheesy music all the time. Cambridge is a bit better, but it's still a tiny place. Warwick is in a field. (I've never been to Sheffield, and I don't know anyone there.)
London has loads and loads of clubs, playing everything you could want, whoever you are. On the way back I was handed flyers for a glam rock night, a punk rock/goth night, a standard metal/rock night, a night of "electic music for alternative queers", one for "London's newest rock/metal night" (so that would be newer than the one I went too, which was the newest rock/metal night last week...), and a goth/industrial night. And I only walked 200m down Charing Cross Road...

If nightlife isn't your thing, there's stuff like musicals, theatre, museums, opera, "proper" (orchestral?) music, "decent" (rock concert?) music, ... that's what the £5400 debt is for ;-)

Reply 8

Cowz

Henerz

Anyway, there's only one thing I see between them, which is London's loan (An extra £1350 per year) which will land me in an extra £5400 debt.

Is it really right to choose something like a university which will effect your whole life on a few (well actually lots of) quid?

An extra £5400 is really nothing to worry about it (it will probably be at least £6000 by the time you graduate btw) in the grand scheme of things. If you graduate from IC with a decent degree, which you probably will, you'll easily be offered £k20+ for a starting salary. And remember, you have the rest of your life pratically to pay off the loan-which is effectively interest free anyway as it's tied to the CPI.

Another thing to note is that, as has been suggested, you're more likely to get a job in London if you were a student in London. And you can expect a job in London to pay around %20-25 more than an equivalent job elsewhere.

6 grand should not decide whether or not you go to London.

Reply 9

silent ninja

You should visit the place before you decide.
Personally, I disliked Imperial. I went there twice and the atmosphere was crap, foreign cliques everywhere. It didnt feel like a friendly place.
But UCL in comparison (also central london) was really great.

What you see on paper is different to the real thing. Rep counts for nothing if you are miserable so go visit.

Reply 10

Gimperial

I can vouch for the foreign cliques at Imperial. Kinda sucks when you're a very very misrepresented foreigner :biggrin:

Reply 11

trickz

silent ninja

foreign cliques everywhere

As long as there are a lot of foreigners (asians) I should have no problem fitting in.

Reply 12

Gimperial

Lol. Ur lucky, the asians are numerous :smile:

Infact I'm starting to think the asian girls outnumber the other girls, or it may just be my course :P

Reply 13

OCC++

sort of offtopic but can anyone care to elaborate more about the "foreign" cliques?

Reply 14

D.Hilbert

so? who cares about there being many asians at imperial?

@ silent ninja: that's sad. So you didn't like it because there are many asians there? that's just plain stupid...

(i'm not asian btw)

Reply 15

silent ninja

I didnt say anything about asians, I just said lots of foreign people and it generally felt unfriendly. UCL also has lots of foreigners, but that was a hell of a lot better. Its just the uni i guess.

Reply 16

silent ninja

I just got neg repped by who i wont say, but lets just say the bright spark has no rep power. Neg for what anyway? For being racist? I happen to be asian.

Anyhow, i stand by my opinion and its just an opinion.

Reply 17

Candy_Shop

My opinion of Imperial keeps changing. I would say though that a lot of the rumours you will hear are actually true.

Reply 18

suneilr

Really? I'm doing Physics and there are loads more girls than I expected and a lot more people who do actually go out and socialise which basically shows that the two most common stereotypes of IC are just plain wrong. Everyone I've met so far has been really friendly.

Reply 19

Gimperial

Candy_Shop

My opinion of Imperial keeps changing. I would say though that a lot of the rumours you will hear are actually true.

Same here really. Basically, dont expect to have any fun during the day, but go out and have fun in the evenings (hopefully friday / saturday, unlike me who now has to go to lectures with a massive hangover). London is a very fun place so dont limit urself to the union or something, even though the union could be fun if you can get ur head around the male:female ratio.