Category: Practical Advice

Big Phat Freshers Post

Isobel profile

BSc Biology with a year in Europe

So results day has been and gone, many of you are now unconditional offer holders for Imperial College…. CONGRATULATIONS! You should all feel very proud of yourselves. I know from experience that A Levels feel like the hardest thing in life at the moment you’re taking them but your hard work has paid off so well done. You can now enjoy the rest of your summer worry-free!

My summer has been great so far. I’ve just gotten back from a week in Alsace, France where I helped out at a summer camp and I had the best time. I worked with a fantastic team of people to serve the camp by washing up, cleaning, serving food and dressing up as an evil gang for a night game so that the kids could capture and ‘arrest’ us (the theme of the week was secret agents and there was a lot of back story going on… I still don’t understand all of it myself to be honest). We also went on a couple of great day trips, one to a lake where we went swimming and ate crepes, one to an outdoor swimming pool (swimming in the rain and ultimate frisbee were both super duper fun) and one to a patisserie. French patisserie is almost  my favourite thing in life to be honest, it’s so good. 

The beautiful lake! Most of my team decided to swim across the whole thing but I'm not a very strong swimmer so I watched from afar instead
The beautiful lake! Most of my team decided to swim across the whole thing but I’m not a very strong swimmer so I watched from afar instead
A selection of the cakes available at the patisserie we went to
A selection of the cakes available at the patisserie we went to

Anyway, that’s my summer blogging done for now, time to look ahead to freshers week! I was terrified about freshers week to be honest. Prior to starting uni I had never been out drinking or clubbing and was dreading a nonstop week where everyone was expected to go out every single night, get drunk and generally be crazy. This was made worse by the fact that I’d managed to sign up to what I thought was an official Imperial facebook page but was actually one of those that are used by club promoters to try and sell you expensive wristbands to club nights. Oopsy.

Truth is, freshers week is what you make of it. I received a handy booklet from the RCSU about the events they would be throwing during freshers and also found my way to my hall facebook page which put me at ease massively. All kinds of events happened during my freshers week and once I arrived at Imperial I found that there was actually no pressure to drink every night if you didn’t want to. One of the first events that you’ll attend will most likely be the infamous boat party. Every hall goes to a boat party on the Thames and it’s a great opportunity to meet people so I would definitely reccommend going. The only downside is that you’re stuck on a boat for like three hours so you can’t leave and if you want to buy drinks it’s horrendously expensive. I also went to the Mingle (a freshers party in the Union that you’ll go to on the first or second night), an afternoon tea party put on by the RCSU, a pub crawl which was fun because I got to hang out with my biology sister and meet some others from our course, freshers ball, a CU games night and a campus tour. My hall (the mighty Fisher!) also put on loads of stuff like a trip to China Town, bowling, a games night, movie nights etc.

My point is, there is loads of stuff going on during freshers week but no one will come to your room to make you go. It’s really hard at first, but it’s so important to get along to as much as possible and just mingle and chat with people. You won’t necessarily meet your best friends immediately (although I actually met my current housemates by gatecrashing the conversation they were having when the people I thought I was hanging out with left from campus without me…) but sitting in your room feeling lonely is no way to spend your first week in London when there is so much going on!

I’m so excited to get back to London and see all my friends and move into my house! I’ve got to get down to IKEA pretty soon and buy last minute stuff for my room and I suggest you all do the same! Definitely bring stuff to make your room feel more homey, I think there’s nothing more sad than an undecorated halls room.

I’m also excited to meet my new biology children. I’d definitely reccommend signing up to the Mums and Dads scheme which is run by the IC Union. If you are lucky enough (hehehe) to get me as your mum, you will also get one of my best friends, Adam, as a dad and three siblings. Your mum and dad are there to answer your questions about student life, help you settle in and buy you drinks when you decide to skip the family scavenger hunt that the department organises  wait I mean help you win the very exciting and fabulous scavenger hunt that the department organises. I’ve found it really useful having my bio family this year, my two mums were great at answering all of our questions and it was good to have my sister to hang out with in the early days where we didn’t know too many people.

That’s about all I have to say on the topic of freshers at the moment, please do comment if you have any other questions you’d like me to address more deeply! Getting comments is what makes this blog so much fun 🙂

Stay safe during the rest of your summer friends, can’t wait to see all you biology guys in October.

Izzie and the CFS journey

Isobel profile

BSc Biology with a year in Europe

So, some people might think it’s weird for me to post about this on a blog that anyone can read but meh, to me it’s not something I feel I need to keep a secret and it could probably be helpful for me to talk about as I’m sure there are some amongst you lucky offer holders who do or will experience similar circumstances. So this blog is about my year leading up to my CFS/ME diagnosis.

What is CFS/ME I hear you ask? CFS/ME stands for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. They are two names for the same condition and it’s up to the sufferer which one they use… I personally prefer to say that I have CFS as it’s less confusing and it makes it easier for other people to understand. CFS is a disorder which primarily causes persistent fatigue that doesn’t go away with rest. Other symptoms include headaches, joint pain, swollen glands, insomnia (ironically) and, my personal demon, brain fog. There are many different severities of CFS. Those who are particularly badly affected may have difficulty looking after themselves and doing simple tasks like washing, dressing and getting out of bed. I am lucky enough to be only mildly affected.

How does it affect me? My main symptom is fatigue. I’m not lying when I say I fall asleep in over half the lectures I attend each week (just ask my friends. They think it’s hilarious). I also experience the dreaded ‘brain fog.’ This means different things for different people but for me, the only way I can think of to describe it is when  you set your computer to ‘sleep’ – it’s still switched it on but it’s powered down and not really doing anything. When I’m in a fog, I’m awake but I can’t concentrate, focus on reading and writing or make much sense of what’s going on around me. I sometimes have difficulty recalling the right words for what I want to say in normal conversation as well.

How have I dealt with my problem this year? I’ve had problems with fatigue for a while now but only properly decided to pursue a diagnosis when I arrived at university. I visited the Imperial College Health Centre (which you must register at during Freshers week, I cannot stress how important it is), had some blood tests and was referred to the CFS clinic at the hospital. In the time between being referred and receiving an appointment, I can’t say that I was very proactive about handling my problem. I stressed relentlessly about the fact I was missing out a lot of major content in my courses either through being mentally out of it during class time or skipping lectures because I was too tired to attend. People kept telling me to record my lectures but embarassment prevented me from doing so.

What changed? When I received my diagnosis I was able to meet with my senior tutor and discuss what the department could do to help me out. This was the best thing I’ve done all year. Throughout the year I had been met with suspicion by other members of staff and my GP at home who thought it was all in my head, but now I knew I wasn’t being ridiculous (WIN!). I’ve now been offered mitigating circumstances to make taking my exams easier for me, permission to record all my lectures and the department have an understanding of what’s wrong with me and why it can be difficult for me to attend very long practicals and lectures sometimes. Meeting with a specialist also helped me as I learnt some strategies for dealing with my tiredness. Imperial can be a very pressured environment sometimes and I often feel like if I’m not studying for five hours a night with no break I’m doing something wrong – recognising that my body physically cannot handle doing this was a big step forward for me. I need to take regular breaks and that’s ok!

Why am I telling you this? If you have CFS, or any other condition which can make your learning experience more challening, the most helpful thing you can do is make your department aware. They have a duty to accommodate you and help you out if you’re struggling. It’s important to do this early on in the academic year so that if you need any special arrangements for your exams, this can be sorted out for you. I, for example, am allowed to take breaks every hour during my exams this summer to help me come back from the physical effect that mental stress has on me. Another thing I want to say to people in this position is that you deserve to be heard. If people are being dismissive or unhelpful about whatever your problem is, it is important to meet with your senior tutor/personal tutor/department head to talk about it, because it is not ok for people to treat you like your problem doesn’t matter, especially if it’s something invisible like CFS.

In conclusion I didn’t write this blog to be inspirational or to make people feel sorry for me – this blog is for sharing my university experience with you guys and that’s what I’m doing. I have a pretty fabulous university life which is made more challenging at times by the fact I am regularly overcome with an overwhelming desire to take a nap in unfortunate places (like tutorials. oops). Know that whatever your circumstances you can still have a great time at university and get a fantastic degree – but make sure to speak up and know that you 100% deserve to be accommodated by your department if you find academic life a challenge.

Stay healthy friends! (And try not to get referred to Hillingdon Hospital during your time here. As I have mentioned previously, it is a massive pain in the bum to get to and you might get lost and take 3 hours to get home which is no fun)

Revison Antics

Isobel profile

BSc Biology with a year in Europe

Exams are only five weeks-ish away. The year is enarly over (HOW. HOW HAVE I BEEN HERE FOR A YEAR?!) The weather has (of course) improved drastically just as I chain myself to my desk. Courses are drawing to a close. Oh wow.

So revision. I am terrible at revising, I’ll put my hands up and say it. I just find it very very hard to get started and I inevitably end up taking a lot of tea breaks. And biscuit breaks. And food breaks in general. And of course I need an appropriate spotify playlist for my mood. And the temperature of the room has to be just right – is the window open too wide? Not wide enough? I do get a breeze across my legs when I’m sitting at my desk and the window is open. Oh look at that, I’ve finished my tea before I’ve even started. Back to the kitch- wait a second.

So revision tips for uni:

1. Start early. Do not make my mistakes, dear friends. You think that you can not work over Christmas? Hate to tell you this but you will not have a relaxing Christmas holiday for the next three years of your life. Get used to it now.

2. Organise your stuff. I have a French oral on Friday and my entire year’s worth of French coursework, homework and handouts are currently scattered across my room, in various different folders and under my bed. The thought of needing to hand in all the coursework I have received back this year is mildly terrifying considering I have no idea where most of it is.

3. Have everything you need on your desk. Get snacks, a jug of water or a thermos of tea, laptop, textbooks, pens, notebooks and have everything set up on your desk. That way you won’t be going back and forth to the kitchen and rummaging through drawers constantly. Refer to photo below for how not to have your desk.

The sad thing is, it can be A LOT worse than this
The sad thing is, it can be A LOT worse than this

4. Be comfortable. It’s important to have your desk set up in a way that is comfortable for you to use. Have your laptop near the front so you’re not straining your wrists, don’t hunch over your textbooks (consder getting a book stand) and make sure your desk chair is comfortable. (Massive thanks to friendly repair man who came to fix my chair today and then bought me up a brand new chair WITH WHEELS )

5. Just start. That’s the hardest part. Don’t procastinate.

On that note, I’ll stop writing blog posts and get back to cell junctions.

Best wishes for everyone sitting their A Levels soon!

 

Why You Will Want to Live in Halls

Isobel profile

BSc Biology with a year in Europe

1. Guaranteed that you have friends waiting for you there, you just need to find them.

2. Great way to get to know the area and the university before you start lectures.

3. When it’s 1am and you’re coming back from the Union and you don’t want to go to bed yet, you can always find someone to have late night chats with.

4. Movie nights.

5. Hall organised events such as ice skating, musicals, Easter egg hunts, bowling, meals out and formals.

6. Feeling lonely? Make dinner then text everyone you know. Chances are at least a couple of people will come and eat with you.

7. It’s so sociable! You get to know loads of people and there’s always someone to walk to College with in the morning.

8. There’s a security and maintenance team at every set of halls so you’re safe and it’s easy to get help if something goes wrong. For example, say the handle snaps off the latch when you’re trying to leave your room, your roommate has already left, you’re locked in and you have an essay to hand in… You can ring the hall office to come and break your door in and free you! (Not that this has ever happened to me of course…)

9. Free tea and coffee! Well in Fisher anyway we have a little ‘bar’ called the Fish Bowl where you can free tea and coffee and cheap pick and mix on week nights.

10. Table football!

11. If you want to save your cash, there are some seriously cheap options for accommodation at Imperial. I feel so blessed to be living in such a great area for hardly any money!

12. The halls in Evelyn Gardens have beautiful back gardens (although if you end up in Fisher you’ll have to befriend people in the other EG halls to get in to their gardens… we’re not allowed to use ours)

13. Vastly improves your independence. Washing, cooking, cleaning and generally being responsible for yourself is a massive part of living in halls and it definitely improves your self confidence and cooking skills.

14. It’s just super fun, you meet some amazing people and have some fantastic experiences. I will never regret my decision to apply for accommodation at Fisher.

Women of Imperial, Represent!

Isobel profile

BSc Biology with a year in Europe

If you have been following my blog for any period of time you will know that I frequently like to talk about the lack of women at Imperial. As most of my friends will tell you, this is something I feel pretty strongly about (no for real, even if they care 0% about the gender ratio, I rant about it so often they will still be able to tell you why it can be hard to be a woman here). I do think it’s important for Imperial ladies to stick together and to know what to expect so here we go, from one female to fresher to (hopefully!) another.

1. Don’t be surprised if you move in and find that there are only a couple of other girls on your floor/in your house. My kitchen actually defies The Ratio as there are 6 girls and 1 guy but this is because they don’t house girls in the basement or ground floor of Fisher so the girls are concentrated on the upper floors. I could write a whole blog post about why I disagree with this policy but I’ll save that for another day… Anyway, don’t be surprised to find yourself surrounded by lads. It’s unlikely there will be no girls so make an effort to find them and get talking!

2. Don’t be surprised if you overhear boys talking about how there are no hot girls on their courses. This is the most ridiculous thing that an Imperial guy can come out with. Guys who say this will probably also deny the fact that not enough is being done to encourage women into scientific and engineering careers. They’re massive fools. You are not here to act as eye candy for them, you’re here because you worked damn hard to get in to a world class university and get an amazing degree in an exciting field.

3. Make an effort to make close friendships with girls. A lot of my best and closest friends at Imperial are guys and I absolutely love them all but I think it’s really important to have girl friends here. I have an equally amazing group of lady friends who I can talk to about anything and just get stuff that the boys don’t.

4. Talk to older students about their experiences being a woman in your field. I’ve been lucky to meet a few older students doing awesome stuff in biology and I’ve found it really useful chatting to them about how they’ve found it pursuing their masters and doctorates.

5. Join a girl club! There are a few societies and clubs at Imperial for girls and people who support girls! WSET , FemSoc and stuff like Robogals, who organise for school pupils to come in to Imperial and learn to build lego robots in a bid to increase the exposure of young girls to the possibility of pursuing engineering. I’m not currently in any of these societies as they just weren’t right for me this year, but they do really good work and are well worth checking out!

Being a lady scientist is pretty great and education for girls about all the possibilities the world of science, medicine and engineering holds for them is improving all the time. You should definitely be proud of being a female student at Imperial at this time. Sounds pretty cheesey but you’re paving the way for the girls who will come after you. For more advice, check out Mala’s post about surviving Imperial as a girl.

I love this comic
I love this comic

An Imperial FAQ

Isobel profile

BSc Biology with a year in Europe

I’M FINALLY AT HOME FOR CHRISTMAS! As absolutely fabulous as it to not have to pay £3 every time I do a wash and experience my mum’s home cooking once more, it’s a bit surreal to sleep in my room and walk around my area again… I know I’ve only been away for ten weeks but it’s almost like everything that came before uni is a bit of a blur… Did I ever really live here?? Anyway, crises aside, I probably won’t have anything exciting to blog about over the festive season (unless you’re interested in biology of organisms and general crying about lab arithmetic) so I thought I would do a fun-filled Imperial Fresher FAQ

Is the Imperial Ratio as bad as people say it is?

For those of you not in the know, The Imperial Ratio is the fact that Imperial is full of men. There’s about a 60:40 ratio of men to women. Depending on which course you do, you may not notice this so much – in biology for example we’re pretty evenly split. In some courses however, like computing and a lot of the engineering courses, it’s a lot more uneven. Although it can be slightly weird (I often find myself going to things with friends and suddenly realising that I’m the only girl hanging out with five guys. You get used to it) , the ratio hasn’t prevented me from making an incredible group of lady friends and I don’t notice it too much. What does get on my nerves is guys who complain about the lack of ‘hot girls’ on their courses. Please tell me again how the choice of women on your course is so small and then simultaneously deny the fact that not enough is being done to encourage women into scientific and engineering careers. If you encounter people like this, punch them just laugh and walk away because they’re obviously cretins who shouldn’t have gotten in to Imperial in the first place. /rant.

Is London safe??

You need to keep your wits about you, just as you would in any big city, but I’ve never felt unsafe around campus and South Kensington in general. I’m pretty happy to go between campus/the tube station and halls at night on my own but if you’re going further afield for a night out, you just need to be sensible. Go in a group, don’t leave anyone behind, keep an eye on each other and don’t get into a minicab that you haven’t booked! You’ll have a safety talk during Freshers week in which you’ll be told about a lot of scams that have happened to Imperial students and whilst this may scare you, just follow the advice they give you, don’t take risks and you’ll be fine.

Is the Imperial social life really bad? I’ve heard that people literally just study the whole time and never go out.

Ahaha this is a lie. Imperial isn’t quite as party hard as a lot of other London unis but if going out clubbing is your thing, you’re bound to find people who want to do the same. One thing you will find is that it can be ridiculously expensive to drink out in London so expect to predrink if that’s what you’re in to. Personally, I don’t really drink so clubbing isn’t my idea of a great night out but I like the Union for a cheap sociable drink with friends, and societies keep me pretty busy too. You will be studying hard but if you get your balance established early on, you’re in for a really great, sociable year.

I’m thinking of signing up to the boat society

Ignore everything I wrote above. Rowing will now be your life.

Eat, sleep, row, repeat.

This is a genuine quote from a novice rower on my course. You have been warned.

Living costs?!?!?!111

CHILL OUT OK?! Everyone will tell you that you’re going to be poor and have no money because it is so expensive to live in London. Although to an extent, this will depend on where you live and how much finanicial support you’re receiving, you’re living expenses don’t have to be that bad. Many of the Imperial halls are within walking distance of campus so you won’t need to shell out too much for travel. Take advantage of supermarket own brand. I’m serious. When it’s the difference between paying like £2.50 on Tropicana OJ or 75p for a litre of Sainsbury’s Basics… you know what to do. Set a budget and stick to it. I use an excel spreadsheet to keep track of how much I’m spending on food, travel, leisure etc. This is a really good way to see if you’re going over budget on certain categories (for me this would be cookies. I buy way too many cookies).

What kind of financial support could I qualify for?

I think it’s changing for 2014-2015, but this year, the main financial support that Imperial offers is in the form of service discounts. The amount you’re eligible for increases as your household income decreases. Most of my service discount this year went directly towards paying for my accommodation and the remainder was a cash bursary that went straight to me. I think next year it all goes straight in to your bank account but I’m not entirely sure. There are also a number of scholarships available which you can look at here

I hope that is a sufficient amount of Imperial wisdom for the time being, leave comments if there’s anything I’ve missed that you would like me to cover 🙂

Happy Christmas y’all xxx

 

Things Which Will Surprise You About Coming to University

Isobel profile

BSc Biology with a year in Europe

How tired you will be and how unembarrassed you will become about taking naps in public. I’m talking lectures, the library, computer rooms, and in my building (Sir Alexander Fleming Building or SAF as we affectionately term it) there are lots of grotty looking sofas on the ground floor. If you study biology or medicine I almost guarantee that will you attempt to nap on the SAF sofas before your time at Imperial is out.

How much you will just not care about your appearance. I mean, everyone likes to make an effort for certain events and occasions, but whereas at home I would never go to college without having washed my hair and thought about my outfit, I am pretty happy here to just put on anything and go. And yes. I have been out in my slippers. Several times. One of my favourite things to do in South Kensington is walk to the big Sainsbury’s wearing my enormous CU hoodie (usually with odd stains on it from whatever I’ve cooked that day), a bobble hat and trainers and count how many odd looks I get from immaculately dressed middle aged women walking their tiny dogs.

Just how much you can fit into a short space of time when you really put your mind to it. Whether this is getting up at 8.25 to leave at 8.30 for a 9.00 lecture or accidentally overwriting the most recent copy of your bioinformatics assignment and having to rewrite half of it and put all the references in 40 minutes before the deadline, you will truly astound yourself at times.

How much you will come to appreciate pasta and noodles. I’ve branched out a bit since then but during freshers week, literally all I ate was wraps and lettuce for lunch and pasta and pesto for dinner. Freshers week will be a blur of carbs.

Learn more about life at Imperial

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