Our international team also included Gulnur Babaeva, an ITMO Bachelor’s student of bioengineering, who came all the way to share first-hand experiences with applicants from her home country.

We caught up with Gulnur to learn more about her impressions of the event.

💬 Why did you choose ITMO?

I was choosing between studying in St. Petersburg and Moscow. In high school, I did chemistry and then got interested in bioengineering. I find it a very promising career field with a lot of prospects. And in St. Petersburg, only ITMO offered a program in this field. I enrolled there by winning a government scholarship.

💬 How did you become a part of this event?

One day I received an email from the International Students Learning and Support Center. Its head, Marina Serova, was inviting me to the upcoming educational exhibition in Baku as she wanted ITMO to be represented by an Azerbaijani students. She paid attention to me because of my grades and academic success. I grew fond of this idea and took the opportunity.

💬 What did you do during the exhibition?

At the event, numerous Russian universities set up booths where any school and university students, as well as researchers, could come up and learn more.
I was the only student representative there, so it was to our advantage – applicants could ask me questions about student life that no teacher could answer. We talked about the government scholarship and they were surprised they could study in Russia for free. The next day, I made a presentation about ITMO in general.
It was useful in both ways – we got acquainted with other Russian and Azerbaijani universities and established solid communication.

💬 Do you think such events are important if you can find everything online?

Even though every university nowadays has a website, information for international students is often hidden or hard to find.
It’s always better when people themselves talk about their university and prepare speeches for a specific audience. There is always live communication, and an opportunity to ask your questions in real time.

ITMO takes part in educational exhibitions all over the world. Stay tuned for announcements of educational fairs in your country!

Who among our students will become the voice of ITMO? The competition results are here 🥁

A huge thanks to everyone who shared their stories with us – your contributions are greatly appreciated! Without further ado, we are excited to announce the authors of the most creative videos:

🥇 Collins Awusa
🥈 Zhang Xi
🥉 Beybitkhan Khalifa

Congratulations! You’ll soon receive an email on how to claim your prizes 💙

Our library offers you an amazing opportunity send a letter to your future self ✉️

You’ll find a special mailbox and everything you need for writing at the ITMO Library on Lomonosova 9.

To join, simply visit the letter zone and do the following:

💫 Write a letter and put it in an envelope
💫 Take a number, stick it to your letter, and then fill in the table with your email and ITMO ID number
💫 Place the envelope inside or next to the mailbox (if your envelope does not fit)
💫 Return in a year to pick up your letter!

International students are welcome to send their time capsules by November 1❣️

The weather might be weathering, but we know our ways to keep the mood up. Here are just some of them:

🏠 Future Dwelling
• Oct 26 | 1-9 pm | 250 rubles

The display featuring 24 wall-size digital paintings, sparks a conversation on the future of living spaces and photography as an art medium.

🌠 Impulse Exhibition
• Oct 27 | 11 am - 8 pm | free

The debut show of French digital artist Maotik brings together six immersive projects, one of which was made specifically for St. Pete in the fall.

🎃 Intelligent Flea Market
• Oct 28 | 12-9 pm | free

In Sevkabel Port, you will find one-of-a-kind sweaters, stock up on craft delicacies, find your perfect Halloween costume, and much more.

🎥 Whiplash (2014) and Roman Holiday (1953)
• Oct 29 | 3 pm, 5:10 pm | 320-430 rubles

Here are our movie recs for those who want to see the cut-throat chronicles of a promising young drummer or accompany a runaway princess on her adventures in Rome.

More activities for next week await you in our full guide.
#weekends

ITMO is going to Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬

Our international team will be joining next week’s National Exhibition of Russian Education in Bishkek. If you’re a prospective student or simply would like to learn more about the university, don’t miss the opportunity to meet our representatives and ask your questions in person!

📆 November 1-3, 10 am - 1 pm
📍 Bishkek, Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University, Kievskaya St. 44

It’s the last Friday of October, which means it is time to gear up for the winter. One way to do that is by reading our weekly news digest while sipping on some hot chocolate. Try it out!

🔆 Kirill Bronnikov, a laureate of ITMO Fellowship program’s Postdoc track, speaks about the prospects of photonics and the related projects ongoing at ITMO.

🌌 Did you know that almost 85% of matter in our universe is made of dark matter? But… what is it? Dmitry Glazov, a senior researcher at ITMO’s Faculty of Physics, describes it all.

🕴 If you win the I Am a Professional contest, you will get bonus points when applying to Master’s and PhD programs, as well as internships at prestigious corporations! Learn more from the curator of the Programming & Information Technologies track. Applications are open until November 14.

❄️ And finally, we have a few not-so-challenging online tips that will help you fight through the waning fall and fast-approaching winter.

#newsdigest

ITMO is the only Russian university among the world’s top 100 universities in Automation & Control! 😲

As per ShanghaiRanking Consultancy’s latest Global Ranking of Academic Subjects, ITMO managed to stay in the top 100 for the fifth year in a row.

🔝 ITMO also featured in 5 other categories, ranking as the top Russian uni in 4 of them!

Find out what those categories are here.
#itmoinfo

Unity Day schedule 📆

We would like to remind you that November 4 is Unity Day, a public holiday in Russia. As a result, both November 4 (Saturday) and November 5 (Sunday) are days off for ITMO students.

⚡️ Please note that classes scheduled for November 4 will take place on December 23.

Spooky swap party! 🎃

We invite you to celebrate Halloween and swap some treasures at a very special event by ITMO.Green!

It’s a wonderful, eco-friendly way to get rid of stuff you don’t need anymore, find something new, chat with your awesome fellow students, and watch a horror movie together.

Feel free to bring snacks 🍭

🗓 October 31
🕝 Swap party starts at 6 PM; movie begins at 6:30
🔗 Fill out the form to join

Workshop by ITMO Negotiations Club 😎

Let's discuss strategies to excel in various negotiation scenarios, types of manipulation, ways to counteract them.

The meeting will be held by Maria Stepanova, project manager for personnel development, soft skills prof at ITMO. 

📆 Thursday, November, 2nd at 6 PM
📍 9 Lomonosov str., room 3109