Emma Wills

Former blog contributor

Emma

Course: MSCi Physics

First Week

MSCi Physics

Calling this the end of week one is definitely cheating, since I’ve only had two days of lectures! It’s been great to be back in London and see everyone who has stuck it out for another year though.

A thing that has surprised me this term is that that the most timetabled hours I have for any course is actually for a sort of business course. I missed the introduction of this course last year as I was sneaking the end of term off volunteering at Cheltenham science festival, but what I heard about it filled me with utter dread. This is two actual sentences from the PowerPoint we were given in the first lecture:

‘The UK’s most viable route to continued prosperity is to go to higher technologies, higher added-value solutions to problems which result in create wealth.  

Happy Freshers!

MSCi Physics

Summer is finally over. It’s been a long time since I’ve been at uni, and it feels even longer!

My summer was full of beaches, pancakes, relaxation, jumping in streams, and I even played quidditch!

As I’ve mentioned, I’m doing a masters project this year, but somehow my timetable seems fuller than ever with lectures and even a sort of business course (again [!]), so between that and applying for jobs, this year is going to be intense!

This is really just a short blog to say hi, that I will be blogging again this year and of course welcome to all the new students!

Flat success!

MSCi Physics

Last week I went down to London with my mum and sister to continue searching for flats for next year. My other two housemates are in Japan and Southampton at the moment so the responsibility fell to me!

It’s hard to find a place around Imperial campus close enough to walk, which is what we really wanted, having lived further out in first year and not enjoyed the experience of getting the bus everyday through London traffic (especially early in the morning or on Friday night). Obviously most of the closest areas to Imperial (South Kensington and Chelsea for example) are far too expensive for us to find anywhere suitable, so we ended up looking around Earls Court, Fulham and West Kensington.

Summer ball, sunshine and going home :)

MSCi Physics

Since the end of term I have looked round at least half of London’s flats and houses. Things are a bit trickier this year as one of our housemates is an international student who doesn’t have a UK guarantor (someone who can sign a form to say they will pay her rent if she doesn’t). This is a real problem, especially with visas running out and houses in London costing all the money.

We did find one house that only required a guarantor for three out of the four of us, which sounded good until the estate agent lightly explained to us students, that we needed to show savings of £30000 each.

Volunteering at Cheltenham Science Festival

MSCi Physics

So, I’ve just got back from Cheltenham Science Festival. It was a really fun and hectic week!

Like most volunteering experiences, a lot of the work we were doing was basic slave labour—cleaning venues between talks, getting water for speakers, clicking people in and out of venues, making tea, carrying messages etc etc. Even while doing these routine tasks however, we were surrounded by such great communicators and lovely people, from the speakers in the talks we attended to the stall holders in the drop-in zones, and the other volunteers.

There was a wonderful atmosphere of inspiration and urgency in many of the talks—most of the speakers were funny and excellent at communicating, but even the ones who seemed initially slightly dumbfounded by the large audiences, had such a depth of knowledge and passion for their subject area that their talks were really brilliant.

Setting up for Cheltneham Science Festival

MSCi Physics

I’m volunteering at Cheltenham Science Festival this week and have just got back to the YMCA where we are staying after a long day of unloading chairs and tables and sofas and fridges off lorries and distributing them around the venues. I am not a very strong person (!) so this has been a tiring day, but absolutely worth it, because the venues look incredible now, and one of the things I got to help lift was a giant dinosaur head!

Cheltenham Festival looks like it is going to be a great experience– if anyone is interested in science communication I would thoroughly recommend applying next year.

End of third year… almost

MSCi Physics

My exams finally finished today!

I think they went pretty well in general, although third year exams are hard (as you might expect!)

This was the first exam season where I’ve consistently struggled for time during the exams—normally I finish with a bit of time to spare and check things over, but this year has been a mad rush right until the end for almost every exam, which was disconcerting.

Except for one day of lectures related to next year (that I am accidentally missing by going to Cheltenham Science Festival next week) and the summer balls, I am now done with uni for the year!

Exams, Dinos and next year :)

MSCi Physics

It’s almost the end of third year now which is really strange! I’ve still got one more year at Imperial doing my masters, but many of my friends are leaving this year. Integrated masters are a good thing to consider by the way for anyone thinking they might want to carry on in science– you can always transfer off the masters course if you change your mind, but if you do want to do a fourth year, this way it is counted as your first degree so you can take out a student loan, and it is also charged at the same price as an undergraduate course.

Being an Independent Visitor

MSCi Physics

So, what is an independent visitor?

Children in care can get moved around a lot—the average number of moves in Hammersmith and Fulham is 3.41 per child, but it is not unusual for this number to be much higher—with around 17 placements per child. It is also likely that the number of professionals involved in their lives— social workers (who change from around 10-30 times too), looked after children nurses, foster parents, teachers, children’s rights advocates etc. etc. is much greater than the number of unpaid close friends and family.

This is why the Independent Visitor scheme exists—it allows volunteers who are not being paid and are somewhat independent of children’s rights services to spend time getting to know children and young people in care, and build up a stable, long-term relationship with them.

Easter holidays!

MSCi Physics

Happy Easter holidays!

Only a few weeks until exams….and a few more til summer!

My summer plans are coming together a bit more now because I got accepted to help volunteer at Cheltenham Science Festival!

I’ve always wanted to go, so I am really excited! It starts straight after my exams so will hopefully be a brilliant beginning to the summer 🙂

In other good summer news Alex got accepted for an internship with First Actuarial which should be great (he actually likes statistics you see). It was his last ever interview, so this should be hope to anyone else who feels like everything’s against them after filling out innumerable applications and failing many online personality tests!

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