Finance or Engineering at Uni - Help my son choose

[blueshoes]

Ds is in Y12 and doing Maths, Physics and Economics A level. He thinks he can get AAB (solid chance) or AAA* (aspirational, cough) if he finally knuckles down.

He finds Economics naturally easy. His fave subjects at GCSE are Physics and Maths but he is finding it hard work at A level and not getting the grades.

He is starting to think about his course and uni and veers between Finance and Engineering but does not know where to start. Not Oxbridge, he is not that material so probably more Russell Group. He definitely wants the university experience and not an apprenticeship.

Neither dh nor I are Science-y nor Finance-y, so not much use.

Any thoughts at all about Finance or Engineering as a career in terms of future prospects? Which uni or course is the best for either? Any other thing he could be doing that is all the rage?

This is useful. Have made a note of the Insight into University link. Will get ds to check it out.

He is working on his Physics and Maths. He has been trying to 'wing it' for too long.

Thanks for sign-posting those courses. Innovation and cross-disciplinary courses are particularly handy tools in the age of AI. Both great universities too.

"His personal statement is going to be all over the place!"

Neither of my children's personal statements were looked at for their University offers.
Older child had three offers within an hour of submitting the form !!

I think personal statements are being phased out anyway from next year?

My DH is a civil engineer and a partner now in a medium sized firm. I don't think I'd be doing him a disservice to say he wasn't the highest academic achiever, and he did his fair share of socialising and partying, but came out with a decent MEng from an RG university, and went into one of the big professional services firms.

He isn't particularly practical, but he's really mathematically minded and really keen on problem solving. He's worked on some huge international projects and now runs a company with about 100 staff.

One of our good friends was a mechanical engineering student and then went to work for one of the big finance houses. From there he's gone on to be FD of some really big multi nationals, so as others have said, engineering degrees give you a real range of options that maybe a pure economics/finance degree might not.

I was told that the maths in accounting is not much harder than GCSE. What you do need is an ability to express complex ideas clearly in writing and verbally.
Think about how complex tax laws are.
And English degrees are useful, that was a while ago so you'd need to check

As a specialist in a civil engineering discipline, I’d add that engineering involves quite a lot of problem solving. If your DS wants engineering as a career then integrated masters courses are the way to go, as he’d need the masters element to get chartered status.

I'd say the maths in my ACA was easier than A level maths. But it's a slightly different set of skills so not entirely comparable. And a lot more learning of content and rules.

Hi, OP -

I am a RG STEM Admissions Tutor. Your writing is really interesting, but what’s fascinating and a bit unusual is that at this point in thread I still don’t have a very clear picture of what your DS is interested in. He sounds bright and affable, though.

Economics A Level is quite essay driven as compared to Economics BSc. That’s a very competitive and maths-orientated degree. As DS doesn’t sound so keen on the msths, it may well not be his thing. An Economics BA might interest him much more.

But as he sounds so affable and as if he primarily wants A Career - which is true for the majority at his age, and not to be criticised - I wonder if he has thought about a Joint Hons degree in Business and Finance?

Some of our students preparing to make the leap to the banking sector (as a PP said, they are highly desirable) take some modules in common with this cohort. My impression through the grapevine is that they are pretty well sought after. But it is rather vague, and I would welcome impressions from others. I have not RTFT so I apologise if someone has suggested this already.

Former RG STEM admissions tutor!! Thankfully

You don't even need a degree to be an accountant.

First Year Accountancy Exams : 2 + 2 = 4

Second year Accountancy Exams : 2 + 2 = between 3 and 5

Third Year Accountancy Exams : 2 + 2 = why do you need to know

I know that but OP specifically said that DS "definitely wants the university experience and not an apprenticeship".

OP, I hope that you (and DS!) are getting the message that the devil is in the detail. Drill down. Research, research and research some more.
Are you also taking on board that the finance / economics / whatever will be a 3-year degree but the engineering could well be a 4-year Masters.

I used to teach business studies, I'd recommend doing a degree which gives him knowledge of an area of life. Eg engineering or biology etc Lots of courses have business modules integrated in them.

Third Year Accountancy Exams : 2 + 2 = why do you need to know

The joy of writing as fast as I could for 8 solid hours for two and a half days is seared into my memory. I doubt my hand muscles could manage an hour nowadays.

😂😂A good Accountant is a Creative Accountant

@KalaMush @Talkinpeace Personal statements are not important?

That is handy because apart from not knowing what he wants and not getting top grades, ds also does not have great extracurricular. I am not making him sound the best, am I?

Aye, for sure, taking it on board to do research. This thread is so helpful to point ds in the right direction or multi-directions in his case.

This will kick start his my research. Having done this with dd before (creative degree so I was equally clueless), mn is a wealth of info that is not possible to access in any other way.

I am a RG STEM Admissions Tutor. Your writing is really interesting, but what’s fascinating and a bit unusual is that at this point in thread I still don’t have a very clear picture of what your DS is interested in. He sounds bright and affable, though.

@Notgoodatpoetrybutgreatatlit you got it. I do apologise for my ds' lack of direction. He has not given up on STEM or Engineering but has lost confidence because the maths and physics he found easy at GCSE is not so easy at A level.

He does not want to take an uphill course but equally, maybe it is just his study technique letting him down.

Truth be told, he is more interested in buying stuff on Vinted and going to parties and meeting new people than hitting the books.

So the last few weeks and into the Easter break, he has been bulking up his physics notes and working on harder maths questions before taking his progress tests when he gets back to school.

If this last blast does not improve his grades, then he will have to truly face reality.

Your dh gives hope to party animals. Great to hear his story.

It is a real eye opener how important maths is to so many of these competitive degrees. I thought the UK population wasn't generally good at maths!

I did an economics degree, then went on to do an engineering degree. I then went on to specialise in architecture and structural engineering. I would say maths is key for anything economics related. It depends on the course, but in most BSc courses maths is the main component and it’s very technical. Could your child do a maths degree and then specialise? I found it easy to change courses once you were at a university.

Are you being serious?!!! What do you think the whole of the UK are good at 😂

This was me, actually, OP, and there is nothing to apologise for! I do think that if DC don’t find real drive by application time a well planned gap year may be of benefit.

However if DS wants to do a STEM or otherwise heavily maths-orientated degree this may be controversial, so in that case he should consult with the admissions tutors at some of his top choices before deciding.

(Something about DS as you have described him still whispers ‘Business and Finance’ in my ear, and I have never made this sort of observation to anyone. I doubt it is is correct but perhaps it is worth investigating). Best wishes to DS