Engineering for girl (with very high grades)

[Au79]

Dd has heart set on applying to Cambridge (I know, I know, she is doing this all wrong). But she’s going to apply there, end of discussion, she says! With her exam performance and other activities throughout school so far, she has a good shot at it. It will be her firm, as it stands atm.

My question is, where else can she apply that will be both prestigious and really interesting? I gather she needs an MENg to be properly qualified, but I don’t know. She is maybe interested in Bioengineering in the longer term, and quite keen on something like a stint abroad or at least a placement, as part of the course.

I don’t want her to end up like her sister, with three offers but all for the same (high) grades. Sis was set on a super demanding subject, or nothing (in the end she got the grades but it was super stressful waiting for results and not knowing where she was going until 2 weeks before). I want dd2 to have a proper insurance, with actual lower offer grades in the event of dropping a grade, where she won’t be too sad about getting second choice.

Not keen on London, we live there and she wants to leave home for uni.

TIA

What type of a University does she want to go to - campus or city?

I’m not sure what that means? Are there unis that are out in the middle of no where, is that a campus? She is quite work oriented so maybe would be fine to have to get a bus into a town to go out. She hates going out much, so far, can’t imaging she would go I.e. clubbing. I Think she could take or leave city entertainment.

Her sis is in a big city but has to commute daily out to her campus. Sounds like a pain actually and she (dd1) is always hungry.

One thing dd2 would do better with is an en-suite room. Absolutely she will not share a room, that is a deal breaker. She requires some solitude every day.

There are many sorts of engineering- which is she interested in? What year is she? There are excellent taster courses/ days via Sutton trust,headstart, small piece trust, unis themselves which would help her decide. Often yr10 upwards.
Would also recommend Big Bang fairs to meet engineers of all sorts.

She’s going on a smallpiece one this summer, bio-Engineering. I think she wants to do general at first, then decide about specialising later, but has met some lecturers through a relative and was impressed esp by the (female) bio-eng projects. I would think it would be better to do that than straight into a narrow specialism.?

Sheffield has a bioengineering course and worth looking at. I would look at all the courses though as what's interesting to one may not be to another. My DD wants to do this to though she's only 13 so probably will have changed mind before then!

If she knows specialism she wants and isn't a serial changer like my DD I would go with specialist - DH recruits for engineering and they look for specialists and often have to go with non UK graduates to get what they need as lack of specialists.

Sheffield is good for engineering and a great university city.

University of Nottingham is highly ranked for Engineering.

Have you looked at the league tables?

www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings?s=General+Engineering

If you go to where it says general engineering you can select specific types of engineering from the subject list.

my DD is at Strathclyde and I've had comments from quite a few folk that she's at the "right" place for the degree she's doing (although that's probably Scottish rather than UK based view) but it's aero mechanical engineering and I think it does vary by specialism which unis are recognised as particularly good...

I've heard that Sheffield is good for engineering and has been for quite some time, as is Bristol.

Penguinsandbears really? I did not know they preferred specialists. But, I am old. A scientist (via research path as is DH) so maybe it is different too.

Thanks noblegiraffe, will look at that.

I don’t think she knows yet exactly what she wants to do. Her planned A levels are Maths Physics and French, with maybe further maths or maybe an EPQ (she is very good at writing, design tech and has broad interests). I hope she doesn’t do further maths as it sounds weird, more of the same to me, not a passion subject, and would stop her doing other “different” stuff (sorry maths aficionados) but she is capable of it. Not my call anyway.

If she wants to do engineering at a top uni then she should absolutely do Further Maths.

Huh. Now I have looked at Cambridge website, it seems she is very strongly encouraged to take further maths, if available at her school, which it is. I’d translate that to “it is utterly obligatory”! Wouldn’t you? I better tell her that! Maybe she will rethink the Cambridge thing.

Cross posted, WiFi playing up.

What is further maths anyway?

Further maths is what it says on the tin really - maths at a level above A level. I did Physics and if your school offered further maths it was expected that you would have taken it. I couldn't, and the first year of maths for physics was a lot harder.

BTW, I ended up in Medical Physics as I wanted to do clinical engineering and design orthotics/prostheses (but found radiotherapy was where my passion lay and have done it ever since)

Loads of students must have maths FM and physics A level for Cambridge Engineering. If she wants to do a 4th and gets the required grades, is that going to be better for her application than any other activity? Like what I’m not sure, for example dd1 had to do stacks of work experience to get in, as well as fab grades in the right courses, but I don’t know about engineering. Realistically. I feel like we have to read between the lines all the time! What am I missing?

Further maths will help wherever she goes. why not look at ucas fairs or go and visit unis? It all gets v busy in sixth form so going to visit say sheffield, Birmingham, Warwick, Southampton to give yer a feel of 5he places would help her decide campus or not?

I think she would be best to do further maths to get into Cambridge for engineering.

Re jobs depends what she wants - if she wants a specialist job then I think they would prefer a specialist degree. However, there are shortages which are likely to worsen with Brexit. If she says just wants general engineering management or wants to keep options more open then go for a general degree. I am old too as is DH. DD wants to do engineering at Cambridge but when asked why it was as its what DH does. 😉

When I was at Cambridge a lot of engineers where sponsored, if she's interested in that look at what they are after.

Definitely do maths and further maths. I would advise (but it’s not compulsory) four A levels for Cambridge if two of them are maths so she could still do physics and French.
Look at Southampton which is very highly regarded for engineering.

I have a son with a Cambridge engineering offer. His subjects are maths, further maths, physics and chemistry. The offer is 2A & 2A and further maths must be at A. He is taking Loughborough as his insurance place. He doesn’t have vast amounts of work experience but has done very well in various chemistry/physics/maths type national competitions. But even that I’m not really sure they were interested in - they just asked about maths and all the pre application information and open days at Cambridge just emphasised “we want people who are very good at maths”. Your dd must do further maths if it is offered.

If Cambridge says they strongly encourage further maths then I'd take that to mean that she won't get in unless she does it.