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.

Strathclyde do an aeromechanical engineering MEng and are highly thought of in Scotland, it's not RG though so the pro RG lemmings won't look at it.

zamantha you have to choose your "firm" and "insurance" offers.
Then if you don't get the grades for your first choice you can accept the insurance place or go to clearing.
piste I love your description, it fits my experience exactly. DS wants to do MMaths and he lives and breathes Maths. Thankfully DH speaks the same language and can listen to hours of Mathspeak without glazing over. He left me behind around year 6. It looks as though DS2 is going the same way. My input is limited to researching stuff on MN and booking open days.

My brother did aero engineering at Hatfield Poly which became uni of Hertfordshire in his last year. He's worked for 20 years and now very. High up in flight ops deciding if your planes can land safely. I also went to a none Russell group uni and have a successful career. In fact it's still not a Russell Group but is one of the best universities in the country and the forefront in its field for some of the science universities so don't ignore ex polytechnic s and None Russell groups

Science courses not universities and ignore stupid full stops in the wrong place

Thank you everyone - a mine of information for someone not remotely interested in Science/Maths/Engineering but so wanting to support my DS and His passion. I followed mine!

Out of interest in a laypersons speak - what sort of jobs are there out there in Engineering for graduates. Forget the recession, I know about that - but on a good day!

There is a shortage of engineers and it's getting worse. In 10 years time due to retirements. This is why money is being poured into it through try the likes of Arkwright and Headstart.
We were at Leeds open day yesterday and the whole message was about employability and the industry based experience they can give them. The p Rte ojects they do in 3rd year come from companies wanting solutions.

DS was telling us its very similar at Southampton, the students select 3/4 options from a list of 60+ based on research that's happening at the uni. Then they are assigned to a project for their third year.
His is something to do with wind drag and he need to learn a new computer program over the summer - that's if he ever comes home. This week he is helping to build the car they will be using in the formula student competition next month.

From what i can gather NewFerry, industry is desperate for engineers, but what they need is engineers that don't just understand the theories but can jump right in at the deep end and understand the practicallities of the job.
My dh became a professional engineer the old fashioned way, through leaving school at 16 (being an august baby he was actually 15) and getting an apprenticeship. He said you could tell the engineers that went through the degree route, they could tell you how an oscilloscope worked, but wouldn't know how to turn it on.

Nowadays bruffin, do you have a feel for what the differences in career opportunities are likely to be for someone entering engineering with a degree as opposed to someone going the apprenticeship route?

bruffin, my husband would completely agree with your :o he says they leave university not even able to use a soldering iron! He is an old school type engineer though (the best sort he would say...)

HullyGully, they are doing apprenticeships at my dh's place, would like me to PM you the name? I don't know where you live though

I think Bae do apprenticeships now though too

yes please owl

I think there may be some crossover here in people's perceptions of an engineer. It is quite a far-ranging term. My father and husband are both engineers - both studied physics at university but both in massively differing fields, neither needing to use a soldering iron.

The word engineer covers jobs from manual labour on the shop floor through to people who sit in offices never seeing a moving part.

I agree with Anne, not all engineers work on "the shop floor" and my son who wants to be a mechanical engineer doesn't want to be a mechanic.
Having said that many engineers start on getting your hands dirty work and progress to more legislative/ design/ management roles.
My son can use a soldering iron but would see chartered engineers as designing stuff for others to solder, not soldering it themselves.
If you have no interest in the getting your hands dirty/ building stuff aspect you're probably looking at the wrong job though.

I probably fall into the category of engineers who can't turn on an oscilloscope, but I probably earn more than many of those who can ;) I can use a soldering iron though. Agree with Anne about it being a really wide field - the practical, organisational and analytical skills you acquire doing Engineering (or Physics) really will stand you in good stead for almost any career.

I came across this article recently, it is about non-science careers for academic scientists, but I think many of the things it says and the jobs it suggests are great options for Engineers:

blogs.nature.com/naturejobs/2013/05/21/careers-for-scientists-away-from-the-bench

oh how rude my husband is a highly skilled design engineer and subject matter expert but yes, he likes to still 'get stuck in' and would be the first to admit that, he went into to it because he was good at maths/reasoning and was creative

am i the only person on this thread who has an oscilloscope in their hall... and a room full of binders. A room you do not want to enter without sunglasses because of the blue glare that shines through

DH does get his hands dirty but done design and worked his way to management. As i said above he learned on the job, but would need a require a degree now for his professional membership.
DH was talking about the engineers that came in to do the same work as him. This was many years ago when he was in his first job which made clean rooms and the machines that made electronic chips.
He has managed to cross over to marine generators and electric systems for boats,and now works in the test rooms for the pharmaceutical.

"am i the only person on this thread who has an oscilloscope in their hall."

Bet you havent gone to bed to find dh there playing with a circuit board

I realised after I posted that probably sounded ruder than I meant! I just think that sometimes the old-school view of hands-dirty engineering puts a lot of people (especially girls) off studying what is a really interesting subject that can open loads of doors :)

No oscilloscopes here, but I do a fair amount of computer programming in bed!

oh i was pulling your leg about the rude thing, i think i most probably came across as just as rude :o . I think that's the problem with things written down v's speaking and body language

I think it's great that there are more women going into engineering. Dh has a lady on his team who does the PCB layouts and designs and he never has a bad word to say about her, she is his reliable iykwim.

Ruby
I noticed that the girls at the mechanical engineering open daSaturday urdayseemed to be doing the biomedical mechanical engineering.

Dd 15 seems to be swinging from wanting to be an SEN teacher and an astrophysics at the moment. But we will send her on the Inspire girls day when she is yr 11.

I went on a girls engineering course when I was 16 and it put me off. I think that was mainly because the engineering was divided into days for the different disciplines and that particulat uni just did specific disciplines from the start.
Had I realised some colleges start with a year or 2 of broad based engineering I might have been more interested as although I liked the concept of engineering I just didn't get excited by car engines, concrete or really complex circuits.

I feel chuffed my son wants to pursue Engineering - after hearing your work stories as he's very Mathsy but also loves building/designing things and being outdoors.

He thinks Engineering will be creative which to a Drama/English graduate sound strange!

I also like the team work aspects of the uni specs I read which I think is less relevant on a Maths degree course. My DS is very sociable

Thank you so much for all your posts - had no idea so many people actually liked/talked about Engineering - I come from and work in a different world!

Whoops! should read : sounds strange