Imperial College Materials Science and engineering interview

Hi so I wanted to share my experience of my undergraduate materials science and engineering applicant day at Imperial as it may be helpful to even just one person.

As part of the applicant day, there is a group task, interview, and department tour.

The group task:
- You will be given information on this a couple of days before but you will need to prepare some research on materials that you will then discuss in small groups of around 4-5 people with one professor/phd student that will assess you but likely won't guide the discussion
- Make sure to listen to the people in your group and share your own ideas too!
- There may be a slight debate and you want to make sure you contribute so make sure you do some basic research on leading materials science research at the moment.

The interview:
I found the interview at Imperial very chill which actually really surprised me because of how competitive of a uni it is.
- The interviewer just wants to see your thought process and your passion for materials science!
- They want to know how willing you are to learn and they will guide you in the right direction if you're unsure.
- They will likely ask a couple of questions about why you want to study materials and about things you mentioned on your personal statement
- If you have mentioned a particular material you are interested in on your personal statement, expect to be asked about it.
- They will ask a couple of more physics/chemistry/maths questions that will be on content you learn in your A-levels (especially chem and physics questions)
- If they try to ask a chemistry question when you don't do chemistry just let them know and they will ask a different one. They want you to show off your knowledge and they're not trying to catch you out
- If you've done an EPQ they might ask about it or discuss materials related to it (if you did a sciencey EPQ)
- Have a question prepared to ask the interviewer at the end, it shows your interest and

The main thing is, do not panic! You have made it to the interview/applicant day stage! that is so so good. Imperial's materials science department usually only invite around 50% of their applicants to interview so you've already done really well!
Also the materials department offer most (not all but most - around 70-80%) students from all the applicant days an offer.

But most importantly, enjoy it! I found it a really useful day to ask students questions, meet people with similar interests, and see what the environment at Imperial is like. They are honest about the workload and encourage you to really think hard whether you would be able to manage it. So take the day as an opportunity to see whether you would enjoy life at imperial too.

Good luck to anyone applying!

Reply 1

rahyav

I also applied to material science and engineering at Imperial and have my interview soon. Thank you so much for writing this, it is super helpful. In what sort of topics do they ask questions on in chemistry, is it more on things like structure and bonding. And I don’t do physics, can they still ask me questions on it?

Imperial College London

London

Reply 2

Rough_circle

Thank you so much! If you don't mind me asking, will I need to show my EPQ at the interview or do I just need to explain extensively about what I've written?