Aishwarya Chidambaram

Course: Mathematics and Statistics

From: UK

Hi, I'm Aishy, a third year Maths student from London. As Final year hits, I'm focusing on my degree as well as keeping up with some of my activities. I am now the President of the Maths Society and I also take an interest in all things ICU, including my constituent union the Royal College of Science and sitting on council. I hope you enjoy my blog and do contact me if you have any questions!

Final Year has hit

Mathematics and Statistics

Module Choices, Job offers and tough decisions

Whilst my first two years at Imperial could be largely summed up by my extra curricular activities, coming into third year I have decided to focus my attention on my degree in order to secure that 2.1. (I’m not that academic :/ )

Tough Choices

With this in mind, my first step was to decide what activities I would continue into final year, and what would sadly have to face the chop. Having been elected President of MathSoc, I knew that this would be my biggest focus and would take up most of my free time.

Mascotry: Scientists vs Engineers

Mathematics and Statistics

Just another one of Imperial’s old traditions

A few weeks ago, I was sat at home trying to digest some of my Stochastic Simulation course when I received a phone call from the RCSU President, Alex, asking me to come back to campus at 10pm to help steal a giant spanner and bolt from the CGCU office. Now let me provide some context to this.

Most of you will know that Imperial is made up of Constituent Unions (CUs). They are:

  • Royal College of Science Union, RCSU (This is the one I’m in and is made up all science students)
  • City and Guilds College Union, CGCU (This is the one with the engineers)
  • Royal School of Mines Union, RSMU (Materials, Geology and Geophysics students)
  • Imperial College School of Medicine Students’ Union, ICSMSU (The medics)
  • Graduate Students’ Union, GSU

Each of these CUs has it’s own mascots.

Is Summer a Holiday?

Mathematics and Statistics

The exciting things Maths students get up to over Summer

The summer before your final or penultimate year is often quite important. It could help you decide what your future holds, or give you a chance to explore something you’re very interested in. This summer, some of my friends and I embarked on internships and research opportunities all over the world! Although we may not have had much time to sleep, relax or enjoy the sun, we definitely got a lot out of the opportunities we had and made our final summers at uni incredibly useful. I hope this post gives you a good idea of how being a student at Imperial opens up so many doors and how not everyone ends up being interested in the same thing.

How to Survive Freshers Week

Mathematics and Statistics

Welcome to Imperial!

For all of you freshers settling into life at Imperial, it’s a very important and busy few weeks! First of all congratulations on getting here and I hope you have enjoyed your first 24 hours in halls! Starting at Imperial can be a very exciting time, filled with so many different emotions. Fear of the unknown, excitement for the adventures to come and nervousness about meeting so many new people, followed by a touch of homesickness too perhaps. Having been in your shoes two years ago, it’s fair to say I know a thing or two about negotiating Freshers week, which I hope to share with you!

Awards Time

Mathematics and Statistics

Maths Wins big at Union Awards

Sitting in the study room one Wednesday evening, typing away at my Python code, I was delighted to receive an email saying I was shortlisted for two union awards, the first being the Maths Wellbeing Team shortlisted for Wellbeing Team of the year, and getting shortlisted for Union Colours. Union Colours are awards are given to about 30 students a year who have made large contributions to the union through service to the community. This could be in a society, as a departmental representative or through a project.

The Maths Wellbeing Team

Over the year the Maths Wellbeing Team has done some big things to try and foster a better sense of community within the department whilst representing students’ issues and making sure the department makes constant efforts to improve.

Internship Applications: My Story

Mathematics and Statistics

Did I manage to get an Internship?

Here’s a timeline of how I finally secured my Second Year Summer Internship at one of my favourite companies.

August – It’s all about the CV

A year in advance I found myself sitting in the waiting area of an empty careers service getting my CV checked. I would throughly recommend using the service over summer before they become extremely busy in October again. The careers service was able to not only identify key experiences I should include in my CV but also suggested some structural ideas. Whilst I know loads of people who LaTeX their CVs (overkill IMO) I think that you can make a perfectly good CV on Word.

Internship Applications: Top Tips

Mathematics and Statistics

How to successfully navigate applications

One of the hardest parts of being a penultimate year student is juggling applications for internships alongside academic studies. Having just been through this process, I wanted to share my journey and also some top tips on how to survive this time-consuming task successfully! In this first post I will talk about the general process and my top tips!

The general steps in the application process
  1. Online Application – This usually involves providing your personal details, answering some questions about your motivations for this career, listing your previous work experiences. Sometimes you will be asked to provide a CV and cover letter
  2. Online Assessments – Either with your application or sometimes if you make it through the first round, you will be asked to complete some online assessments.

Is it really Challenging?

Mathematics and Statistics

The number one question I hear about studying at Imperial

In short, yes. But of course studying here isn’t easy, but if you’re at Imperial now or are thinking of coming here than you probably already know that and can handle the challenge! (If it was easy then everyone would be able to do it) After speaking to countless perspective students and my friends at other universities, this is often the first question I’m asked about what it’s like to study at Imperial. I have often struggled to answer this question succinctly as it has many different aspects to it. There’s of course the academic side, but the also the concept of work-life balance and having a social life.

Why I chose Imperial

Mathematics and Statistics

Everything that was going through my head when I firmed Imperial

For any perspective students reading this post, you’re probably going through the daunting process of selecting your firm and insurance choices on UCAS. I remember this being quite an important decision and a lot of time and thought went into making it so I thought I would share some of my thoughts on choosing universities.

After being a student caller, speaking to perspective students and answering all the questions over the  phone, I started thinking about all of the reasons I myself chose Imperial and I thought it would be useful to share some of them with you.

Did you Vote?

Mathematics and Statistics

The Story of the Imperial Leadership Elections 2019

Every year, for a fortnight in March, Imperial goes into Elections frenzy. Walls are plastered with campaign posters, social media is spammed and those running for positions suddenly start being peculiarly nice to everyone.

Most of you who keep up with my blog will know how important MathSoc has been to me this year. So with the support of all of the current committee (including our esteemed president Hitesh) I decided to run for MathSoc President. I knew there would be competition for the role, so I set about a strategy to have the best possible chance of winning.

Learn more about life at Imperial

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