In the Big, Bad World
I'd like to firstly welcome all the new freshers to Imperial College, have a great next few years! Secondly I'd like to say hello to all the second , third and fourth years, especially anyone who was unfortunate enough to know me! I am now no longer at Imperial, which is a great shame because the three years I spent there were the best of my life. I hope the years you all spend there will be just as good. I also hope I can help you all enjoy them as much as I did.
I intend to try and give you useful tips for Uni and also give you a view of what world is like afterwards, (it is very different). Over the year I intend to bring you such essential topics as 'The Bike Gangs of Cambridge', `Why Accountants are heroes' and 'Why we DO need a Neighbours Omnibus!'. First, however, a bit about me. While at Imperial I read biology for three years and now I work for Deloitte, Touche and Tohmatsu (I guess in the interest of advertising standards I must mention that there are other financial services firms) training to be a chartered accountant. That brings me nicely to my first point; it doesn't matter too much what degree you do you can still pretty much work in any sector you like. Okay, so you can't really become a doctor unless you do medicine (and I still wouldn't trust some of the medics at Imperial) and you are unlike to be employed to be a construction engineer if you do chemistry but for the most part a degree simply proves you have a brain, it shows to employers that they can train you to be an asset to them.
Anyway, I wouldn't worry about all that too much, after all for you freshers the day you have to get a job is at least three years away, but if you feel like you don't know what you want to do right now, don't worry! You can use most degrees for pretty much anything. Of course if you think that you want to do something particular and it means changing degrees then go for it, there's no point doing something for three years that you don't want to do and you don't enjoy!
That brings me on to my second point, enjoy uni! People criticise Imperial; you might see the Felix editor wearing a T-shirt reading 'Gimperial' (he is very proud of that!), and it is true to a degree (no pun intended). Imperial does have a lot of geeks and also a lot of boys. For this reason a lot of people say that the union sucks and they all go out in London and to other unions. It wasn't always this way, in my first year (god, I sound old) the union was brilliant, we went there every Wednesday and nearly every Friday. Go to other places as well, London is a wonderful place and has all sorts of clubs and pubs but remember, if Imperial's own students don't go to their Union then it will be crap and empty and if they do go it will be packed and brilliant.
In terms of girls, yes Imperial is 66% boys but some subjects aren't. Biology and medicine are about 50/50 and all of them hang out in SAF (so you have them trapped in one place!) Looking back now, I wish I had made better friends with more medics; the rivalry that exists between the college and the medics simply stops the rest of the college having access to some very attractive and pleasant girls! Apart from medics, certain clubs and societies have lots of girls, riding club and dancesport spring to mind. Girls, you have nothing to worry about; guys are everywhere, if you go to the Union you won't even have to try and yes, there are some hot guys in Imperial (even though I've left).
Uni is not just a place to study, especially in the first year. I did two weeks very bad revision before my first year exams and I got three C's and a D and I was pleased! I passed and, frankly, in Biology the first year means nothing, it's worth 5%! It varies for other degrees but never will it be worth more than about 10% so enjoy your first year; go out, have fun, turn up hungover for lectures, steal traffic cones and signs, go to Maroush at four in the morning, make those 24 hour staff at Sainsbury's earn their pay and, most importantly, make good friends, they will stay with you for life!
