BA/MEng in Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (Cambridge)

[Createausernameargh]

After some advice for Ds 🙏🏻 Is anyone’s child doing this course currently? Wondering what ds chances are… he’s also interested in bio medical sciences at Imperial.

He was set to do Medicine hence his a levels maths, chemistry & biology. He’s already done 6 months care home work experience (!) but has decided it’s not for him which I’m actually relieved to hear. GCSEs: 8 9s, 2 8s

He’s starting to write his personal statement now but is it too late for this year? He’ll be in yr 13 in September. I’m assuming both these kind of unis expect a lot of extra curricular and FM? Although it looks like FM is not required for either but perhaps everyone has it? He could easily have done FM so is wondering if he should take a year out and do it? He focused on doing just the 3 a levels and getting 3 a* for medicine if that makes sense?

Thanks so much, any advice appreciated.

Thanks everyone. Ds is now actually thinking to start again at another local sixth form and take FM & Physics on top. As I said he’s one of the youngest in his year (not yet 17!) so I think this might be a really good idea if they’ll have him!

I really do think having to choose so early is such a pain!

Good luck to your DS, that is a very positive and focused plan. Yes, narrowing options so early doesn't happen in many places around the world. (The flip side is that people in the English system tend to finish education, up to PhD level, younger than in other countries. This is great for some people and awful for others.)

Actually that means your DS will be applying in direct competition to my DS unless plans change! 🤔

@Createausernameargh He doesn’t need 5 A levels. Maybe 4 including FM?

@TizerorFizz maths, FM, P, C & B is what he’s put on his application to the new college. He was already predicted an a* for biology and he says he enjoys it. He could drop it later if it’s too much maybe.

Will they let him do 5? Most 6th forms are not keen. This is likely to be a huge workload.

It's true that timetabling is often done in blocks that wouldn't make it possible. Most schools only have four blocks for A-levels.

I only managed to do a silly number of A levels, many many years ago, because some of them were extra-curricular. OP, I think that your DS should have some idea of priorities in case he can't do them all.

I agree. He needs Physics for many engineering courses. Chemistry for chemical engineering. Not sure about other courses but Biology and Chemistry suit some science courses very well so he needs to try and choose by looking at the details for each course. What does he really want. Everyone else does the research because they have to choose 3/4 A levels.