Student Reviews

  • Welcome to our student review page! Below are links to reviews written by a variety of past and present UCL students. Some of them are organised by what course they did, other are general. Either way all of them have information on how they found UCL as a fresher and also as a student. We hope you find them helpful.

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    Chemical Engineer

    UCL through the Eyes of an ISoc Fresher

    Assalaamu ‘alaikum wa rahmatullah

    University College London is a great place to be, especially if you’re Muslim. I say this despite the lack of wudu facilities and a large enough prayer room and solely because of the close community of Muslims you’ll find here. (Well, I can only really speak for the brothers but I assume the sisters are all great too :)). Alhamdulillah, I remember my first day quite vividly – constant queuing, filling out forms etc. But all you have to do is keep your eyes open for an ISoc member and you’re set. I remember walking around with a brother I had just met on my course, wondering where the prayer room was and subhanAllah, just at that moment, a big bushy brown beard bobbed right past us. He happened to be the previous amir of the ISoc, and not only did he direct us to the prayer room/hut, he also introduced us to all the other brothers in our year starting on our course. I still don’t know how he managed to find them before we did, but alhamdulillah the ISocers are always looking out for one another.

    From the icebreaker event at the beginning, to the buddy programme throughout the year and the AGM towards the end of the year, you’re always kept in the loop about what’s going on within the ISoc, and you always have a say. There are plenty of events throughout the year, and more often than not you’ll get a free meal out of them so there’s an extra incentive! But honestly, not a month will go by without at least a couple of great ISoc events.

    Now, university life compared to college life is quite a drastic change. Well, I thought so anyway. No more spoon-feeding from your teachers or leaving your work till the very last minute (well, if you want a decent grade that is…). You’re going to have to expect a lot more independent work. The lecturers deal with classes that can often be full of over a hundred students, so don’t be too surprised if you go the whole year without any of your lecturers knowing your name (in fact, you should be surprised if any of them do!). But alhamdulillah, the support is there when you need it – you just need to ask and that’s the best advice I can give. Don’t be afraid to ask questions to anyone; be they your lecturer, your personal tutor, or someone else in your year. That’s perhaps the biggest difference I noticed between college and here – everyone at university is a lot friendlier and willing to help. Of course, there are language barriers and the occasional grumpy lecturers, but you’ll find some innovative ways around that!

    University life is very different to college, sixth form, or wherever it was that you came from (unless of course, you came from another university, in which case you might as well ignore this whole page), but there’s a whole lot more to gain from it. Be it in your studies, the ISoc, or any other societies you join, (the ISoc is the most worthwhile society to join…!) as long as you put the effort in, you’ll definitely get out from it more than you put in.