Blog posts

What to Expect: Top tips for life at Imperial

MBBS Medicine

It’s not long until term starts again, so I thought I would write a couple of posts for the new freshers to prepare you about what to expect during your first few weeks and months. It is a daunting and exciting time, so relax and enjoy it and remember if we all made it then you can too!

My top tips:

  • Where to work: Find somewhere you can work well- try a public library or college computer room. If you do like the library get there early- it gets very busy and warm
  • Make friends with hall seniors: they can be a great source of support and advice as they understand life at Imperial and have been around longer than you!

What to Expect: living in halls

MBBS Medicine

It’s not long until term starts again, so I thought I would write a couple of posts for the new freshers to prepare you about what to expect during your first few weeks and months. It is a daunting and exciting time, so relax and enjoy it and remember if we all made it then you can too!

What to expect:

  • Culinary delights and disasters– organising food shopping and cooking defeats even the best culinary students- expect mushroom clouds of cheese sauce, setting fire to various meats and very unusual food combinations. Best advice: try cooking as a group, keep things simple and make use of the freezer (to avoid forgetting about things and them going off in the fridge).

That time Imperial turned me into a hologram!

MBBS Medicine

Twitter: @malamawks | Instagram: @malamawkin

Earlier this year Imperial got thinking about how they could celebrate some of our alumni’s notable achievements. We honestly have some amazing alumni! Dennis Gabor, who worked at Imperial, actually invented holography and won the Nobel Prize for Physics for it in 1971. His work formed the basis of the holograms that are in use today.

The student recruitment and outreach team contacted me to let me know that they were purchasing a Musion EyeSay hologram to temporarily be placed in the Main Imperial College Entrance. They asked me if I would like to be the face and voice of the hologram…of course I said yes that is so ridiculous.

What to Expect: Starting Medical School

MBBS Medicine

It’s not long until term starts again, so I thought I would write a couple of posts for the new freshers to prepare you about what to expect during your first few weeks and months. It is a daunting and exciting time, so relax and enjoy it and remember if we all made it then you can too!

What to expect:

  • To be behind on work– no matter how hard you try, how organised you are or how much stationary you buy from the Union shop you will never be on top of lectures. Learn to ‘park’ things (but not too much, you do need to do some work too!).

Summer holiday? What holiday!?

Victoria Burton profile

Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet Doctoral Training Programme (PhD)

I must apologise for the long hiatus in blog posts, I have been under a lot of stress from phd work and an illness in the family. It is now September and soon Imperial College will be filling up with students again. As a phd student working at a host institution I am not so aware of semesters and holidays and have been working right through the summer. Phd students do not get official holiday but we are recommended to take the statutory amount, which is 4 weeks per year. Depending on your supervisors you might have to arrange this with them, but I generally take it when I want.

Travel Tips for New London Students

MBBS Medicine

Twitter: @malamawks | Instagram: @malamawkin

So there is a brand new cohort of thousands of students starting at Imperial. Imperial has buildings all over London (Halls, hospitals, research labs…!) and so it can get a bit daunting to have to leave the luxury of your mum and dads car to now travelling by yourself through London.

So I have come up with some top tips for students travelling around London!

Number 1: Make sure you download CityMapper! It honestly will save your life when you are lost on the “blue line” and 30 minutes late for something. It will get your location and let you know how/how long it will take you to get to your destination.

Challenge of the week: Stereotypes

MBBS Medicine

In Medicine, like many other jobs, we tend to subconsciously stereotype. We rely heavily on pattern recognition for diagnosis, and being a certain age/ sex/ gender is part of that pattern. For example abdominal (tummy) swelling in a 20-30 year old woman has different likely diagnoses that the same swelling in a 70 year old man.

However I was recently challenged about my subconscious stereotypes. I was visiting a HIV clinic in the heart of Soho. When the first patient arrived I found myself surprised- they weren’t the patient I had expected. In fact none of them were.

I saw high flying city workers, happily married couples, internationally renowned performers, hard working shopkeepers and smiling children from all over the world, including many different parts of the U.K.

It’s the small things…

MBBS Medicine

I was upset recently to realise that in the midst of studying I had lost sight of why I went into Medicine.

It’s easy to do. Placements are hectic, stress builds around exams, studying in the library disorientates you and finding opportunities for sign-offs and achieving competencies become your first priority. Recently I found myself stressed in theatre on a Friday afternoon frantically trying to sort out achieving my last competencies on that placement and make sure I had all the paperwork for them sorted.

I was stunned to see the attitude of the student nurse and staff nurse, and how different this was from my own.

Learn more about life at Imperial

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