help! astro/aero engineering and physics

[Hullygully]

I am an airy fairy arts person with ds wanting to do physics and then aero/astro engineering.

Any advice on the best universities for this? England/abroad? Obviously we are looking ourselves, but all advice/thoughts very welcome.

Is she going to commute?

How did you know about them?? I don't know about anything...

I found the all science geek thing very positive: lots of shared interests, its a small university (you'd start talking to someone in the bar and know them through 3 different people) and was generally good for my social confidence which was very valuable.

My masters is at Cardiff University but its not in engineering. Its just when looking for a post-grad masters course I got very familiar with the funding problem. An undergraduate masters course is covered by the student loans company like a bachelors, a post grad masters isn't.

Hully, I know absolutely nothing, tis all alien to me, I was more history, geography, she is wired all differently. But, DH works in tech and mapping, so knew who to try. I stopped being able to help her with maths by about Y5, and she's (hopefully) doing two maths A levels. Listening to her and DH talking, I'm like this --->

Yes, she is commuting, had hoped to do a trial run but GCSEs got in the way, so am going with her on Monday morning, it will take 2 hours. Was just this mo looking at cheapo traveldodgy hotels, maybe thinking going to stay over one night with her. See the sights and sounds of central Stevenage. Smashing!

The things we do...

Finding this thread very useful as don't have a clue about Eng.

Glad to hear that aero-engineering is most Maths type as My Ds loves his Maths and is doing two Maths A levels - he seems to know though that thi stype of engineering is mor eup his street than say Electronics.

Hopefully Headstart course will give good guidance.

Interesting about Southampton maybe not insisting on A*

my DH is an engineering training manager with a big airline, they have a fantastic work experience and also apprentice scheme. He instructs many types of aeronautical engineering (that was his degree) but specifically does physics and maths amongst other things. PM me if there is anything I can ask him re this stuff. Me??!! I know nothing and dd wants to go into the police!

my DH is an engineering training manager with a big airline, they have a fantastic work experience and also apprentice scheme. He instructs many types of aeronautical engineering (that was his degree) but specifically does physics and maths amongst other things. PM me if there is anything I can ask him re this stuff. Me??!! I know nothing and dd wants to go into the police!

Mabs- both you and your DH are stars

not sure about that Newferry! but thanks

It's also worth checking out whether doing f/maths can help with offers. Eg, at Bristol, the standard mech engineering offer of A*AA is dropped to AAA with f/maths, maths and physics as your A2s.

Zamantha, or any other posters, you're welcome to pm me with soton aero eng qs, and there's at least one other poster with as DS taking eng at southampton.

ds is going to do maths, f maths, physics, philosophy and (hopefully) art.

If he was keen to study in London there's also UCL, which I don't think anyone has mentioned. As a University within London it's right up there with Imperial and LSE but unlike them covers the whole academic range: science, engineering, maths, humanities, medicine, the lot - and slap bang in the middle of Bloomsbury/ Fitzrovia. I know the physics dept is top-notch. I have no direct knowledge about the engineering but I'm pretty sure that is too. And what is more (the real clincher) they have the preserved and stuffed body of Jeremy Bentham on display in a glass case in the foyer. What more could anyone want?

I did physics at University - many many moons ago - so I am biased, but I do think it's a great choice for someone who wants to follow a career in science/ technology but is presently a bit vague about precisely what. And especially if you did a course where you started of with a broader range of scientific disciplines. The prime example here would be Natural Sciences at Cambridge. Much of a physics degree would be directly relevant to engineering and I would have thought that there shouldn't be a major problem in doing physics as a first degree followed by an engineering masters.

With engineering in many cases you have to make decisions very early one - e.g. between different machanical, aeronautical, electrical, chemical etc. Absolutely fine of course if you know what direction you want to go in.

I think it's very important too to go and have a look at various places before applying, whether on official open days or other times. Some people would be attracted by a college structure (e.g. Oxford, Cambridge, Durham), others by a self-contained campus (East Anglia, Sussex) or sizeable town/ city. I think whether you generally like the "feel" of a place is more important than whether its 2 or 3 percentage points higher lower in the league tables.

Our son, by the way, is doing Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Sheffield and really likes it. A highly regarded department in a big - but not too big - city with a proud engineering history. First year in a really nice student village.

It's all so serious these days.

When I went I chose five random unis from the ucca book the night before I had to hand the form or whatever it was in. Mind you I ended up going miles away and nearly had a heart attack. But no visits, no parental involvement nada.

I'm trying to help ds do it the right way!

Also now, after you have received your provisional offers, but before you actually sit the A levels, you have to cut down your choices to 2, and put them in order of preference. Also you have to do one of these bloody pointless "personal statements", supposedly written by the applicant but in reality typically not. It is indeed grim these days.

In the old days if you got the grades for all 5 of your choices you could leave the decision open right up to the last minute.

It all feels much more serious, I hadn't started thinking about degree courses at this point, DD only finished her GCSEs on Wed. I had a vague idea that I might go to university at her age, she is much further on.

Hully tis good to see that he is doing a broader range of subjects, DD is doing maths, f maths, chem and physics. She did toy with French instead of chem for a while, which I felt was a good thing somehow, but it is not to be.

Ds isn't keen on chem and I was JOLLY keen on an arts subject...

Ds is doing maths, further maths, physics and philosophy as well Hully. He also doing another engineering qualification but not sure what it is.

They don't do anything like that at ds's school sadly. I wonder if he could do something somewhere else...

Ds is doing it at school but not in a class. He is doing it in spare time with no set classes but can go and see the DT teacher for help if he needs. He is doing it instead of the independent project thingy they do in 6th form.

Its come to me
EPQ

This is news to me - whittling down offers to top 2 choices - do you need to play it safe?

Any Russell Group will be fine at physics, as will some of the 1994 group universities. Try to avoid ex-poly's and regional universities (e.g Salford, Kent, Herts).

I thought the EPQ was the extended project qualification they do in 6 form?

Apologies I am being confusing.
DS is doing the engineering qualification instead of the EPQ

aha!