An Imperial Beginning

To me it feels like just yesterday, that I arrived at the South Kensington campus of Imperial College London for what was for me the start of not just a new academic year but an opportunity of a lifetime, an opportunity to be part of the Imperial College experience. I was to be once again in life a Post graduate student, but a first time Postgraduate student at Imperial College London. The day at Imperial for me began with a welcome talk for new Post graduate students that was conducted in the great hall, where new as well as continuing Post graduate students from the UK as well as overseas got together to mark the start of their time at Imperial.

A classmate of mine had organised an informal get together of us future classmates at the East Side Union bar which was to take place as soon as the Welcome talk concluded. Even though everyone from class could not make it to University on the first of October, for those of us who did, it was a great opportunity to get to break the ice and get to know each other in real life before our first official day of classes. Most of us were not complete strangers to each other, as our faculty, the Imperial College Business School had set up a personalised and private Facebook group for those who were confirmed offer holders for the Masters of Strategic Marketing Program. That group was really helpful and infact the real ice breaker, as that element of slight shyness and discomfort that one feels around complete strangers, ceased to be, for us it was almost like we all knew each other very well. 

Soon after, came the big day on Monday October the 3rd, our first official day at Imperial, our first day as graduate students of the highly prestigous business school. Our first day as Graduate students of the Imperial business school would be something all of us would probably remember for the rest of our lives. It was unlike any other start to the new academic year at University. Apart from the usual getting to meet our teaching faculty and getting our student ID Cards, we had a big surprise instore for all of us. It is not uncommon for universities to give their post graduate students a little gift or a souvenier to start off the year, my classmate sitting next to me was eagerly expectation some stationary, but to our surprise we got Apple Ipad 2's, all of us got one Ipad2 each. I still remember the look of uncontrolled joy and happiness on everyone's face that morning. What made us even more proud was that we were the only course in the entire faculty to receive Ipads as start of the semester gifts from the University. It really made us feel special, and made the other business school students feel extra jealous. Especially the MBA students. 

As the week progressed, a lot of energy and excitment was there on campus. The freshers week gave all of us an opportunity to learn about social and extra cirricular activities as part of the university experience catering to the wide variety of tastes and hobbies of Imperial students. This was followed by the business school drinks get together on Friday, where we met students from other degrees in the faculty, and the eagerly awaited Post graduate mingle on Saturday, which was a proper evening time party organized by the student union to cap up what was a pretty spectaculor start to the academic year. A promising and exiciting start is usually a good sign of things to come, and with that optimism, we Imperial Postgraduate students at the business school look forward to a great year ahead, a year which will academically challenge us, stimulate us intellectually and a year where in the process we all manage to have some fun as well.