Can I ask what grades your dc got to study engineering at a Russell Group uni?

[LittleMissWagtail]

That's it really. My dd got BBC in her A/S exams and we are wondering if those grades, repeated at A level, would be good enough. Particularly interested in any clearing successes. Thanks.

Engineering is often better at fortmet Poly's, more industrty links, commitment to teaching over research etc.

Also engineering no where near as snobbish as law, history etc. No one will care once she gets her degree.

Possibly - but she wants to go to one!

Last year, DD got an offer for Cardiff at AAA, but was accepted on AAB.

AAA offer at Edinburgh and Exeter.,

AAB at Nottingham

ABB at Sussex (not RG)

Take a look at the Heap guide (apparently available online for about £15 for about 1 month) for the unis that will likely offer based on her projected grades.

I know that the University of Liverpool was in clearing at BBB.

If she could get her school to predict her AAA, then Nottingham may give her an unconditional offer (at least that is what we were told at their Open Day last year).

DS1 AAABb MEng Aerospace & Spacecraft Engineering at Southampton (I think the requirements have increased to A*AA). Had no relevant work experience but offered a fantastic job as a graduate aerospace engineer straight after his finals.

DS2 A*AABc MEng Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering at Warwick. Currently on a year in industry placement.

Offers were based on x3 subjects including maths and physics.

It might depend what type of engineering she is interested in, some are more popular than others. I know Chemical Is very much in demand at the moment but I'm not as aware of the national picture for other types of engineering.

You can access the accepted grades in Clearing from old newspapers.

I don't think any RG are taking below BBB for engineering. Stronger RG won't go below ABB/AAB with A in maths because those without an A in maths tend to do poorly.

If her final grades are BBC she might well be better off going to a non-RG university, rather than being at the very lowest end of a RG engineering course.

My son was accepted on the M.Eng at Surrey (not RG, but highly-regarded) for Civil Engineering with BBC. He was offered AAB, with ABB for a Bachelors, initially.

This was 2 years ago however, and he has said that he reckons he wouldn't have got away with it last year. Don't know about this year/next.

As I said on your other thread, a few RGs offer Foundation years which might be an option if she doesn't make the standard offer e.g.: [http://www.sefp.qmul.ac.uk/home/requirements/index.html Queen Marys]]

Proper link this time!

QMUL

Thanks all. Yes, clam, I have heard great things about Surrey too. Teachers and dd both hopeful her grades will go up, not down, this year but some of these offers seem very, very high. Will definitely look into a foundation course as well - might be a good plan. Thanks again

My son was offered BBB at an RG Uni to do a BEng. He got BBC but was accepted as the C was in the least relevant subject. He failed 2 modules in his 1st year and is currently contemplating his future. I think he may have done better if he'd gone to his insurance which was an ex-poly type uni but with a good record for his type of engineering. There is a reason why they ask for high grades as my DS has found out.

I don't think you can generalise though, as my ds got a first in Year One, without breaking much sweat.

DH is a chief engineer at a high end car manufacturer and is a self confessed uni snob ( irks him no end that my degree is from Oxford and his merely from a RG uni,silly bugger) but even he will admit that the best universities for engineering are apparently Oxford Brookes and Brunel. Neither are RG but both would be more likely to cut it at interview for an engineering role.

My DS got in with ABB to UCL. His five offers offers were AAA - ABB.

He interviewed at UCL which probably led to ABB, rather that AAB.

DH would not look favourably on Oxford Brookes for Civils/Structures or Brunel for that matter! Not on the radar at all!

However, what this shows is: Depends on The Engineering Discipline you are talking about - it really does!

Generally speaking the ones asking for the higher grades have the most applicants but they are not necessarily the best courses. Some Engineers will want to be academic engineers, others will want to be hands on. Some will want to run businesses and some will become city bankers and consultants.

Whatever type of engineering your DD is interested in, look at the top 20. Lots of employers do like a year out and MEng is a quicker route to get Chartered Status. What really matters is ability in the type of Engineering she chooses. If 3D is not her thing, then avoid structures - for example. Narrow down what she is interested in, then look for suitable courses. There are lots of jobs out there, but the degree is only part of the picture. Ability in the disciline andcommon sense matter too and lots of degrees do not actually teach that!

Really good advice from bojorojo. When you visit engineering departments ask what their graduates go on to do. Some will have most going to use their degrees in engineering functions or going on to further engineering studies, either PhD or specialist Masters while other will have most going into non-engineering jobs and studies. This is not dependent on the "status" of the university it seems to be a culture thing, once a course has the culture of wanting to be an engineer it sticks, and vice versa. Choosing the right discipline is important. In some places you are locked in to a particular discipline from day 1, in others there is some flexibility.
Engineering is half technical knowledge and half common sense, the second is much harder to teach and learn than the first! To be a good engineer you need to be curious about how things work, want to solve problems, and be a good communicator.

My DH would love to know why universities give high degree classifications to students who cannot display any of the important factors in your last sentence, chemenger! Quite often degree classification in Engineering can mean very little in the real world if the other attributes neded are missing.

Why to graduates with no apparent aptitude for Engineering have good degrees? Interesting question. I can think of graduates of ours with high first class degrees that I would barely trust to operate a dishwasher and others with thirds who have become successful engineers. We have to grade our students objectively and while there are elements of the course which assess the real world attributes these have to form less of the assessment than exams and the application of theory. We are an academic institution, not a training centre, we produce engineering graduates, not engineers. Having said that I would say that most of my own graduates, who have spent time in industry as part of the course, are pretty good on soft skills, and the feedback from their placement supervisors is usually very positive.

DH is perfectly happy to train the right people but is constantly shocked that theory is not applied very successfully by some who have real problems with the selection procedure design challenges. Not that he is in your discipline, chemenger. I do realise he likes engineers in the image of himself! Employers cannot rely on degree classification alone and frequently it is the ones who do not appear top drawer on paper are the ones who really grasp the job. DH's company are consultants so want a package of skills they can develop but he has often found engineering students are too spoon fed to work things out for themselves, especially in structures. At the coal face, no-one is giving you all the details you need, you have to work it out for yourself, and, get it right!

The open ended design project is the battleground of the engineering degree. Students hate to do things where there is a) no one "right" answer and b) not enough information, or conflicting information, ie they are unsettled by problems similar to what they will see in real engineering life. Making connections between what they see as abstract theory and design problems is often difficult. Not helped by a general belief that somehow theory is not relevant to "real life" which is hard to break down. The commonest thing I hear from students coming back from placement is "I actually used that stuff you taught us" in a tone of astonishment.

The other thing that students have problems with is having a go at something if they don't know exactly how to do it. I spend about 80% of my time when supervising projects saying "just try it and see what happens". They don't want to waste time on something that might not work, so instead spend weeks looking for information that doesn't exist, making no progress and getting increasingly desperate. In many ways it was easier in my student days when there was far less accessible information so we had to make assumptions and move on, now there is always the feeling that the right google search will find "The answer".

If they are looking at structures then consider Loughborough, never met a graduate from there I haven't been impressed with. I'm not sure that my employers could even tell you all the Russell group unis but they could tell you which unis produce good graduates for working in the sector.

I would also recommend doing a summer placement I can PM you my company name as we take placement/work experience and interns and we cover many engineering disciplines (civil, structures, mechanical, electrical, lifts, acoustics and probably a few more I've missed off). We currently have a graduate that did a summer placement and a year out with us. They value loyalty and if they like you when you do a placement then it puts you in a great position for a job later.

Have you had a look at foundation years at all? They can be good way to get into a better uni than would otherwise be feasible, with an extra year of university level study e.g. www.manchester.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/2016/00428/beng-meng-engineering-with-an-integrated-foundation-year/