Exchange Program Imperial College - Carnegie Mellon

Carnegie Mellon started an exchange program with Imperial College in London, UK, in September 1997. This program is for Chemical Engineering students and involves an exchange with the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College. Every year about three students can participate in this program.

The Imperial College exchange program offers very exciting opportunities to those students who are interested in spending their junior year abroad. Imperial College is one of the leading schools in Europe in engineering and manufacturing. Air Products & Chemicals and Procter & Gamble will consider interviewing students for a summer internship before or after going to London as it is interested in students that get training in the US and in the UK. The possible internship with Procter & Gamble is in two parts. The first part is in the summer prior to the year in London and takes place in Cincinnati. The second part is in the London research facilities at Procter and Gamble at the end of the one-year stay in London. The application is available at http://www.pg.com. Go to Careers>>Job Category>>Internship/Co-op>>Country/Region: US. Also be sure to mention your interest in the Imperial exchange program to the P&G pre-recruiters visiting campus.

The Imperial College exchange program has similar arrangements as the one with RWTH Aachen. Students pay regular fees to Carnegie Mellon. Housing costs are of the order of £400 per month and food about £200 per month. The classes start early in October. Imperial College is located in a prime location in central London, South Kensington, next to Hyde Park.

The courses that Chemical Engineering students will take at Imperial College and that are nearly equivalent to the ones in your junior year here at Carnegie Mellon are the following:

In addition, students would take one elective, and 2 humanities courses.

If you are interested in this exchange program by January 21, 2011, please apply online here.

Feedback from CMU Students

The Imperial Exchange Program has been the easiest and best decision I have ever made. I had always wanted to study abroad but thought pursuing a double major in engineering was too demanding to even take a semester off. But this program gave me the perfect opportunity to live abroad without falling behind, in fact I was even able to take a senior course and fufill a few of my gen. ed requirements to put me ahead in my majors.

The school is situated right near the center of London, which is such a beautiful and inspiring city that offers everything you could possibly want ranging from food, art, music, nightlife and culture. The campus is located in a picturesque and quiet part of London but with the city's great underground system, everything is only a short tube ride away. The students at Imperial are a great collection of diverse people from all different countries and backgrounds with just as many diverse interests and views. I feel like I've grown a lot as a student and I'm most grateful for having a different perspective on education and university life. Wanting to make the most of my time in London has taught me to have balance between school and life. There is just so much to see and do in the city and Imperial's schedule definitely gives you the time to pursue any interest or activity. Also with budget airlines and trains, it's so easy to travel anywhere from England. Traveling to Spain, Italy, Germany, and France were some of the greatest hilites of my exchange and I highly recommend it to anyone in this program.

I've had the most enriching experience through the exchange program with Imperial College of London. I was part of a wonderful and supportive community of friends who I already plan on visiting and traveling with as soon as next summer. I was able to take a lot more than just an education from Imperial and strongly urge anyone remotely considering the program to apply.
Kelly Phouyaphone (2008-2009)

The Imperial College exchange program is the opportunity of a lifetime that yields an experience of a lifetime. It allows you to study at one of the most prestigious engineering universities in the world, in one of the most amazing cities in the world, in a centralized location that allows easy travel to Europe -- what more could you ask for? Imperial College is located in a very safe, very 'posh' neighborhood in central London (posh means smart and fashionable...and very wealthy!) There are an unbelievable amount of things to do in London: my favorites were visiting art museums, feasting at food markets, and attending concerts. The English academic system is much different than its American counterpart, which allowed for a lot of personal growth and discovery. There are periods during the year with a lot of free time, so I learned how to become a much more independent student. Nevertheless, this free time also allowed for a lot of exploration of both London and Europe. You'll be able to experience first hand all of the history and culture that exists on the other side of the pond; it was really awe inspiring. I also enjoyed how we were immersed in London culture: you basically become an Imperial student for the year and feel like a real Londoner. All of my friends were from the United Kingdom or Europe, so there was never a dull conversation, and every day my eyes were opened to a new and different perspective. Plus, my friends all want me to visit again soon, so I have plenty of places to stay! In short, there is no reason not to do this program! Feel free to email me with questions at robert.wiegmann@gmail.com
Robert Wiegmann(2008-2009)

Imperial was such great experience and I highly recommend it. It is situated in the heart of London and I guarantee you'll have an unforgettable experience. By the end of my exchange, I've considered London to be my third home. I got to meet people from all sorts of backgrounds and experiences. It is a decision definitely worth taking.
Nelia D. Viza (2007-2008)

My year abroad at Imperial College, London, was definitely one of the most gratifying experiences I've had. The British academic style, which encourages students to supplement lectures with self- study rather than mandatory weekly problem sets, allowed me to rediscover chemical engineering. Without being bogged down in the stress of completing regular assignments, I started finding the material of my classes fascinating. So much so, in fact, I often read more out of pure curiosity and I look back now wishing I had done more courses.

However, with this extra time on my hands, I had a chance to explore new activities. I joined the exchange student committee (known as Erasmus), a belly dancing class, and Shorinji Kempo (a martial art). I got so involved with this martial art I even went to Japan during spring break to train! It was almost like doing a study-abroad within study-abroad, as I got to learn about the Japanese people and culture. And all this goes without mentioning the extraordinary people I met while in London, who made discovering this metropolis an unforgettable adventure. We did everything from hunting down the best desserts in the area to musicals to pub-crawls to traveling onto the European mainland.

I would definitely recommend this program to anyone even remotely interested-it allowed me to grow both in and out of the classroom and I'm sure it will provide many great experiences to all other participating as well.
Arianna Gutierrez(2007-2008)

Skip's Thoughts
So we have been asked to write you a brief description of our experience over the past few months in London so that the doubtful and unsure among your class can have a better idea about the incredible opportunity to study abroad. When you’re a chemical engineer at CMU who is thinking of studying abroad, there are some inherent concerns that immediately come to mind. “How will I live without the study group I’ve grown so close to through the nights of cramming for the next Thermo exam?” or “What do you mean I won’t be around for Carnival?” “London, do they even speak English there?” or “What am I to do if I can’t go see one of the amazing Tartan football games..?” Ok the last one was a bad example.

However, the experience we have had so far has been the about as far away from regretful as possible. Of course I miss the my friends, miss the house parties on Beeler, and the all nighters in Club Hunt (yes, the only way I could get myself to convince myself to spend so many nights in the library was to rename Hunt Library and dub it Club Hunt). But those nostalgic feelings show up only once every blue moon. I can’t remember the man who actually said this, so I’ll just take credit where it isn’t deserved: “If you’re tired of living in London, you’re tired of life.”

Every week I am experiencing new things or meeting new people. London has an appeal for any personality. For the Greek sing enthusiast, the theatre (yes that’s spelled correctly) in this town is one of the most renowned in the world. Currently, Lion King, Avenue Q, Wicked, Othello, Henry VIII, Chicago, and tons more are all playing and have student discount tickets. If you fancy music, regardless of genre, London draws both the biggest and most obscure names in the business. And even at the obscure gigs, London draws a crowd of people just as interested in the music as you are. From jazz to folk to electronic, and every combination in the middle, the music scene is accessible and one of the most innovative on the planet. For the intellectual nerd out there (aka CMU students) the museums actually have their own social scene in London. They are often open late on weekends, and host events with various speakers, or simply to give intellectuals a place to drink a glass of wine and meet like-minded people.

Oh and since wine has come up in this continuous flow of thoughts, for those of you that it appeals to, the drinking age is 18, so you won’t have to worry about that underage citation every time a police car drives by you as you’re coming back from a party that just got broken up on Forbes.

However, the biggest selling point for me was the opportunity to spend a year in Europe. I’ve always had a thirst to travel, but the bubble of life at CMU has always kept me pretty close to Pittsburgh during the semesters. However, as Rachel will describe, the way the courses are run in London allows the students to have a lot of free time. In the past two months, I have been on the beaches of Barcelona, and just last weekend I was hundreds of feet above Dublin sipping a freshly brewed Guinness at the Guinness factory.  Oh, did I mention both of those flights cost about $35 dollars? I have planned trips to Stockholm, Berlin, Leuven, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Rome, already booked, and none costing more than $40 round trip. I’m even getting the opportunity to do a hitchhiking trip to Morocco from London for a charity organization over my month long spring break. Without being able to call London my home, none of these trips would even be possible.

Deep Thoughts on Practical Matters from Rachel
There are almost no graded assessments. Students are trusted to study on their own and utilize ungraded problem sheets, and time is given before the exams in May/June to finish studying or to cram. The academic year is broken into three terms. 1st and 2nd are like fall and spring semesters without finals. The 3rd term has minimal lectures and functions as a reading month with exams. Between the terms are 3+ week long breaks. I will use the breaks to travel (Eastern Europe now and Italy in April).

The college is located in South Kensington, a very posh part of town that is near most tourist attractions and surrounded by museums somewhat like CMU. It is a safe and pretty part of London, but can be expensive (esp. if you want to party a lot). Fortunately those costs are offset by the opportunities for travelling around Europe which are easy and cheap (i.e. Ryan Air flights).

For accommodation, you can live in halls or find your own place. I am living in halls, and since I have free time, I can get to know my hall mates very well and spend a lot of time cooking (nice change from E Tower for two years). If I can emphasize this again, we have a lighter workload than the Imperial ChemE students. Because of this, we have a good amount of free time to explore London, join societies, relax, travel, and make great friends. Don’t be worried about making friends. If you have any at CMU, you’ll have them here as well.

With respect to enjoying the new culture, this program is better than other exchange programs because it is for the whole academic year. We feel like we live in London and aren’t just visitors anymore. But when you consider studying in London, remember that the academic year is shifted about a month later, so plan your summers accordingly. There is an internship offer through P&G that Cindy can talk about that covers the summers before and after. I had 6 weeks of extra time this past summer after my internship, and one thing I did was visit CMU before flying over.

Final Thoughts: Studying abroad has been a great experience for everyone we’ve talked to. To experience another culture is truly an eye opening experience. Most of what you learn in college is outside the classroom, and having Europe as our playground has already taught us more about ourselves and the world than most of our years in the states.

Shout if you have any questions/concerns about the application process or London in general.

Cheers!!
Rachel Bradley, rabradle@andrew.cmu.edu, (2009-2010)
Skip Waldron, hwaldron@andrew.cmu.edu, (2009-2010)