Chemical Engineering - any advice please?

[FreezeDriedSweet]

Ds is year 12 and wants to do a chemical engineering degree. I’m guessing he’ll be predicted around ABB in his A Levels but I know it’s very early days. Neither dh or I went to Uni so we are not sure how to support ds make the necessary decisions. School will help him I’m sure but I’ve always had better advice from Mumsnet than school!

We were hoping to go to some Open Days but he works at the weekend so that’s quite limiting. Looking at the UCAS website I can see what different Unis say you need to apply but is that set in stone? And is it best to do an MEng? Thank you!

Yes an MEng is best if you want a career in engineering.

This is a useful start point.

https://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings/chemical-engineering

Your DS needs to apply for places that meet his predicted grades. He could do one 'aspirational' and one as a safety net.
Some places (e.g. Nottingham) only look at these.
Some places give a combined MEng / BEng offer because the results of exams on the course dictate whether you can continue on to the MEng year.
Might as well apply for the longest course they are likely to want to do - noone will hold them to it. So include a year in industry for example.

As DS is the first person to go to uni, he might be eligible for contextual (slightly lower) offers.
If you are on a lower income, look up bursaries. These are free money and depends on family income. The cut off is often significantly higher than that for free school meals (e.g. imperial is 80k if I remember rightly - most are more moderate say upper limit around 40k).

Can you do an MEng with ABB?

Ds has an offer for meng with abb for Leicester.

I know a couple of kids doing it at Nottingham, think the offer was quite high though

Thank you! What I really don’t understand is how for example Swansea it says you need AAB, but when you look at the previous data it says most common is BBC. And they offer for all applicants.

And I can’t find anything on the UCAS site about Chem Eng being available at Leicester

Yes. ABB is good as it's 128 points I'm assuming chemistry, physics and maths.

I am an engineer and worked in supporting young people getting into engineering and with industry to make them more accessible to under-represented groups.

Engineering is generally a four year degree. You can get a BEng after three years in some universities, but employers like a four year MEng degree.

This is a list of the Chemical Engineering ranking of universities.

https://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings/chemical-engineering

I searched for Chemical Engineering Entry Requirements [university] (just Newcastle/Nottingham for example) and found the requirements very quickly.

For the top universities, AAA+ is required, but ABB is fine for Newcastle and Swansea, for example. They are 16 and 17 on the list, and they are great universities.

Go down the list and write down the requirements for each university. Some universities will ask for higher grades even if they are lower down the list, so it's worth checking the top 30, then deciding where he wants to go based on grades and location. Some of the London universities have nice campuses, so don't think he'll be on his own if he wants to go, but London is pricey.

I would recommend a campus university where the university is on one site with accommodation on site for first years as it's a great way to make friends and not worry too much about meals and rent.

The Scottish universities are great, but their systems are different.

He may wish to do the accelerated MEng Integrated Engineering Degree at NMITE which combines study and hands-on experience:
https://nmite.ac.uk/ It's a three year course covering four years of material. They will accept 112-144 points. It's a small university but excellent and it's a new way of studying.

TEDI London also do a condensed degree in design engineering, hands-on work and study. https://tedi-london.ac.uk/

The other option is to do a Higher Apprenticeship with a company which means hands-on training on the workplace and a sponsored degree which means he won't have any student debt.

This link is to the Institution of Chemical Engineering's (IChemE) young people pages which has loads of resources and information about university and apprentice routes into Chemical Engineering.

https://www.icheme.org/education-career/discoverchemeng/young-people/

I would recommend he gets in touch with the IChemE careers department by phone or email. They will be very supportive and he should join them as a student member when he starts his course or apprenticeship as he will meet a lot of other students, and other engineers and he will be on track to become a Chartered Engineer.

Good luck. Feel free to PM me if you have questions.

OP you can apply to any uni you like but tbh if your PGs are not close to the typical offer you are not super likely to receive an offer, especially at a more popular uni (broadly, Russell Group (20+ unis) and RG+ = St Andrews, Lancaster, Loughborough and Bath - four unis not in RG but highly rated). Obvs lots of other unis are excellent especially for specific courses that the uni specialises in; I am not saying only RG are good (far from it as neither of my uni DC went to one). Mate of DS's applied for an A-starAA course he really wanted with PGs of BBB and did not get an offer. He was not surprised. He got other great offers tho and ended up getting a first.

Anyway what I am saying is if the typical offer is AAA, he can apply with ABB PGs, and yy if eligible for contextual offer the offer may be lower. But he should also include some unis with offers closer to his PGs and maybe one below.

Yes this is true. Clearing is often the reason. More so with less popular unis tbh. I bet if you look up actual grades at Oxford, or Durham, or Imperial, they are close to the offer.

DD got in to a course on clearing which has a book offer of ABB IIRC and she had BCC, which was the clearing offer. The following year it was CCC I think.

No I don't think Leicester offers chem eng tho it does offer other engineering courses. But that's not much use to your DS.

The entry requirements usually show the grades you need to get a definite offer. So at Swansea everyone may get an offer of AAB but they may accept students with lower grades if they have spaces to fill.

It is worth applying to universities that do make offers to all applicants, and those that offer an interview. He may shine in person.

For the personal statement add in anything out of the ordinary. So not just choir and Duke of Edinburgh and sport, but if he breeds racing pigeons for example or races old bangers, it's more likely to get an interview. This is because they get bored seeing the same old hobbies and would be interested in talking about the unusual.

@MyrtleStrumpet thank you for the link to IChemE ❤️ I have been trying to pull that to the front of my brain for weeks

You're welcome. I worked with all the institutions for a long time and they are really keen (almost desperate) for young people to get involved. They also hold awards ceremonies and dinners and invite young people to them which is great for networking. This industry has more black tie glitzy nights out than any other I've known. It also pays really well, a lot of graduates start on salaries between £30,000 and £45,000.

For the personal statement add in anything out of the ordinary. So not just choir and Duke of Edinburgh and sport, but if he breeds racing pigeons for example or races old bangers, it's more likely to get an interview. This is because they get bored seeing the same old hobbies and would be interested in talking about the unusual.

There's no need to mention hobbies on his PS unless they relate directly to the subject studied. What he should write in his PS is why he wants to study the subject, what has inspired him, what supra-currcular work he has done (read books, done online courses, watched lectures, that relates directly to (in his case) chem eng.

Many unis don't use the PS much for decisions anyway but some do so it may as well be focused correctly. Unis are not bothered about gold DofE, playing for the school rugby team or even racing pigeons.

@FreezeDriedSweet , if your ds wants to be a chemical engineer after his degree (plenty don't, but it's a well-respected degree with lots of opportunities), make sure his degree is accredited by the IChemE. You can find their list of universities offering accredited degrees (would need to check the individual degrees) here: https://www.icheme.org/education-career/find-a-degree-programme/

If your ds is interested in taking a year out between school and university, he could maybe look at a year in industry with this scheme: https://www.etrust.org.uk/programmes-platinum-placements

It's the former Year in Industry scheme (I did this way back in the 90s).

Hi, OP -

You have lots of good advice above. I think @clary and @MyrtleStrumpet have made particularly useful points.

I am a former Russell Group STEM admissions tutor, and I am with @clary on the extracurriculars. DS needn’t hide what makes him interesting, but TBH we mainly care about academics. (In my School, the interviewer will use the application to find some conversational ice breakers)

When a degree programme lists a range of admissions requirements, the low end is usually for Contextual Offers. DS may qualify as a first generation university student or for other reasons.

He doesn’t need to do anything special. UCAS extracts contextual flags from his part of the application and his school’s part of the application. Different universities apply them differently.

When DS does not fit the Contextual profile (and unless you are sure about your post code, or he has spent time in care, etc, it can be difficult to know) you should assume the highest offer listed is the relevant one.

I agree that an MEng is the more useful degree, leading to Chartered status. But it may have a higher Admissions requirement. More importantly, it is easy to switch from BSc to MEng if you are doing well at the end of Y2, and necessary to switch the other way if you are not!

I recommend that all applicants make one aspirational choice (if they like), three choices for which they have the PGs (for the most competitive degree programmes wiggle room is advised; for your DS wiggle room in one or two choices cannot hurt) and one Insurance choice with requirements two grades lower than the PGs. For DS the Insurance choice should have PGs of (at most) ACC (unlikely) or BBC.

Be aware that AAC does not satisfy an ABB offer. However depending on the subjects and the competition many admissions tutors (including me) would probably take it.

Your question about achieved grades of actual students vs entry standards was excellent. Clearing and Contextual Offers were mentioned by PPs as two reasons. A third is that if not enough applicants meet their offers, the first step is to accept some applicants who came close. This is always done before Clearing.

I love @MyrtleStrumpet ’s suggestion that DS join the student branch of IChemE. Even now he may find their website useful and motivating. In my experience connecting YP to the world they want to join helps them to succeed.

Best wishes to DS

Thank you for all your messages. Ive read so much online but this advice has been amazing, so valuable. Ds says thank you as well and is feeling really motivated.

From am employers perspective, the ideal grad has a good MEng in the discipline, they are committed to the discipline and already a student member of IChemE or similar and ready to continue towards Chartered Engineer. The university is not so important. We understand not everyone is a very high performer at A levels but they can still develop into very good engineers. We do take on degree apprentices, BEng etc but they need more support and time to progress career.

It's a good point that you can move from BEng to MEng if doing well enough.

Don't overlook Loughborough with the placement year in industry.

Edit: also tell him: great choice, great career, work hard it will be worth it!

Hi again, OP -

@NotMeNoNo made a good point about Loughborough. They have some of the most nurturing and innovative STEM education in the UK and a strong international reputation in the field. (STEM education in HE is a slightly neglected area)

Also, if there is no good reason to apply for a BSc, it is probably sensible to go ahead and apply fie MEng. If you switch you have to change your student loan over. It is completely routine, but why not avoid an extra step if you can?

The best reason to apply for a BSc is if the entry standard in your top choice uni is lower. There is no problem at all switching down at the end of Y2 if you want.