Welcome to Mums & Dads!
If you're a new first year student, you might be feeling nervous, excited, anxious and raring to get going all at the same time. You certainly won't be the only one! And if you're a returning student, you probably remember what it was like to start out and feel this way.
The Union's Mums & Dads scheme matches up incoming first year undergraduates (the 'children') with returning undergraduates on the same course (the 'parents') into academic families. The aim is to provide a source of advice and support to help ease the transition for new students. Your 'parents' can offer tips and tricks for succeeding at Imperial life, practical academic support, socialising opportunities and are a place to turn to if you need help and don't know where to go. And your 'siblings' can help you build friendships in your year early on.
So how do you get involved?
All new undergraduate students will be assigned a family, and you'll be matched based on the information you submitted if you signed-up. For returning students, unfortunately you've missed your chance to become a parent this year as the sign-up has now closed.
What to expect in the new term?
Once you've been matched into your Mums & Dads family, your Departmental Society will arrange activities to help you get to know each other. Naturally, this year, with social distancing measures in place, things will look quite different! As Imperial will be running multi-mode, families can choose to meet in-person (particularly in outside spaces) if they wish. However, we expect a lot of the initial interaction and events will happen online. Rest assured, whether you plan to be on campus or not this term, you will be able to enjoy the Mums & Dads experience - both as a new student, and a returning student.