“We, humans, are killing our planet” 

How many times have we heard someone saying that phrase? How many times has it appeared on the news? How many scientific articles have been published about it?

Yet I believe it is not entirely true. There are two keywords which I find to be a lie. Let me explain myself.

First of all, the term “our planet”. It is a huge mistake to consider the Earth as ours. It has never been a gift nor it has never been available for us to use as we wish. This planet is our home, indeed, but not our property. 

Read We are writing our own end in full

The other day, one of my classmates came up to me with a rather interesting question. He was wondering whether student bloggers were able to say bad things or criticize Imperial in any way. 

And the truth is that yes, we can. I guess we simply don’t do it because we want to spread positivity within our readers. However, he made me realize it was time to share our not-so-pink reality. After all, prospective students need to know what they are getting themselves into. 

The downside of Imperial’s internationality 

Although diversity is one of the qualities we are most proud of, it does drag along a small issue: background inequality.

Read Everything is not what it seems in full

Choosing a PhD supervisor is one of the most important decisions you must make before you start grad school. A bad one can turn three or four years of your life into a nightmare, while a good one will make the experience bearable, if not enjoyable (at times). 

I often get asked for advice on how to approach this decision. Today I’ll share what I did and what factors mattered to me most. However, bear in mind that everyone has different needs and deal-breakers, so please don’t blindly apply all my advice! 

I started looking for a supervisor quite early, over half a year before beginning my PhD.

Read Will you supervise me? in full

As we all know, Imperial is one of the world’s top universities, with an internationally recognised reputation. Would you say that this reputation is obtained by having students chilling out? You guessed right, it isn’t.  

If you are a student here, you will already know what the overload of work is like. If you aren’t a student yet, do not worry, you will find out. 

So, when you have a computing exam coming up, three tutorial sheets to be done, a few lectures to Panopto, two labs to write and a life to live, you better organise yourself. 

Here are a few tips that may help you to be the most productive you can possibly be: 

Plan weekly 

Your whole year is already timetabled, the least you could do is check how does your week looks like.

Read How to increase your productivity in full

Leake Street Tunnel is a hidden celebration of urban art in Central London.

Located just off the bustling Southbank, under Waterloo station is perhaps the most colourful tunnel in the UK. Spray painting is normally something that is shunned, but down in Leake Street it’s encouraged. The tunnel was last open to traffic when the Eurostar was located in Waterloo. But now, it’s a pedestrian only area, full of magnificent art.

In May 2008, the Bristolian artist Banksy curated the “Cans” Festival in Leake Street. The festival extended an open invitation to urban artists to come turn a dark forgetful tunnel into a vibrant, modern art exhibition.

Read Legal Graffiti in full

We have all experienced the pressure of sitting an exam but, oh dear, school has nothing to do with university. There are three main characteristics that differ school exams/A-levels to uni examinations: complexity, time consumption and uncertainty of performance.

First of all, the contents of the module to be examined are usually a whole new bunch of stuff you have never seen before. You only need to check out the names of the subjects: structural analysis, aerodynamics… where are my known physics, chemistry or biology?

Forget about being in a class where you revise previous years’ content, as this is very unlikely to happen in a lecture theatre at 9 am.

Read Our first exam period in full

Like a lot of imperial applicants, I applied around October, with a cheesy personal statement. Yes, cheesy, I still look back at it now and couldn’t resist a giggle here and there. But hey, it got me here. I remembered, when I was writing it I thought, how would anyone expect a 16 y.o. to know what they want to do for the rest of their life. In that moment, I stopped and wrote not what I thought would get me in, but I wrote what makes me who I am today.

After I applied, to the 5 university choices, I waited.

Read My Imperial Application in full