In reply to Offwidth:
> More bad advice.
You are a sweetie, aren't you? As you have never been to the place I can't see how you can give any advice at all. It's not as if students are free to choose where they go, to get into, Oxbridge or IC or any other university that attracts students you need to already have a certain aptitude to study, unless you are Price Charles of course. There is a selection procedure after all. This may not apply to people paying the colossal fees that foreign students pay, I couldn't say on that, but it certainly is for home grown students.
Having said that IC is as stressful or laid back as you make it, you have to get through the exams at the end of each year and do the practical work but that's all. There's no role call for lectures... on the other hand you have two tutors, an academic one and a personal one of you need advice but it's up to you to provide motivation, you are treated as adults.
Concerning stress, that comes more from parents than the university administration IMO. I had a friend who committed suicide, he came climbing, seemed very relaxed then one day he jumped out of South Side residence window, while his friend was reading the note he'd just handed him... I was told he was under pressure from home. His name was Bill Bailly of all names, but he was one of the average of three per year at the time, three out of a couple of thousand undergraduates but I don't think the university could be blamed, suicide is one of the highest causes of death at that age, apparently, but then so is mountain climbing - are you going to blame the university for that too? Four mates died in one year, 1972, is IC to blame for having a climbing club and helping expeditions?
Anyway, BnB asked for experiences, not advice, and probably he wanted it from people who had actually been to IC. What you get there is lecturers who are often leading lights in their field, laboratories that put any I've seen in France to shame, and a location that puts you in one of the most active cities in the world, from then on it's down to personal choice, not everyone likes big cities, it's true.