Engineering without Physics ALevel?

[AlrightDaveHowsItGoingAlright]

Daughter has decided Engineering is her preferred route. However, she did not realise this until halfway through year 12 and she does not take ALevel Physics. To remedy this, she started ALevel Further Maths halfway through year 12, caught up by teaching herself and is now likely to get a predicted A/A in it. Other Alevels are Maths (likely predicted A), Biology (likely predicted A) and Chemistry (likely predicted A/A).

She does also have a GCSE in Engineering at grade 8 and also GCSE Physics at Grade 9.

She thinks she would prefer an Engineering course that offers a general year 1 and allows to specialise in year 2 onwards. It seems to make sense to also only do an accredited course, so she can one day work towards Chartered status. If not general in year 1, she thinks she likes the idea of either Aerospace, Mechanical or Systems Engineering.

Have attended open days at Exeter or Warwick so far and loved the sound of the course at Warwick. Warwick prefer candidates to have Physics but will consider applicants with a 'strong profile' who don't have it. So not sure how realistic this is.

We are looking for advice for where else we should consider bearing in mind her lack of Physics. We think Sheffield might be a good shout? Any help from people who know more than us would be appreciated! She will be the first in my my entire family time go to Uni and it's a massive commitment/expense for us. We want to make sure it really counts and try to make the best choice. She doesn't currently have a preference for campus/city unis she will consider anything.

Southampton will accept further maths instead of physics for mechatronic engineering. Dd did it, very good programme

My daughter did Chemical Engineering at Sheffield and got a 1st in the combined BSC/ Masters degree. It has an amazing Engineering department and loved her time there. It’s a challenging degree, but very well respected.

I asked my son who is doing the Warwick course. He thinks you really definitely need Physics A Level. He says he doesn't know anyone who enjoys engineering who really didn't like physics. So one question might be: if she thinks engineering is for her, what put her off doing physics A level in the first place?

From what he said, I think take a year to get A Level physics and some work experience.then do the course.

Bristol does not require an A Level in physics for their undergraduate engineering degrees. Any of them.

It may help ( … but not as much as further maths) however I certainly don’t think you have a valid reason to believe your DD will struggle without one.

If she does not know what type of engineering she wants to specialise in then look at the course in Mechanical and Electrical combined. Unless she has a specific interest in aircraft or concrete it keeps her options open.

Your DD sounds like she is clever. The foundation would just be a wasted year for her and I suspect she would find it boring as it won’t challenge her.

You are overthinking accreditation. However to put your mind at rest, you can download a list of accredited degrees from the IET website. You will find it is pretty much all of them.

Bristol might choose applicants that have it though. For civil engineering it would be a big disadvantage not having it. Universities don’t list how they select. They list the bare minimum they want. Look at Oxford. AAA is often quoted but how many dc actually go with AAA?

She’s not overthinking accreditation but I agree, most have it except brand new courses.

Hi op
My dc was predicted as and a stars and is currently doing a mech eng at top 10 uni from complete university guide (just for reference, I know tables have their limitations)
My dc did not do physics a level (maths, computer science, biology). He loved the mechanics part of maths.
I think your dc will be ok without physics and further maths will really help

We looked at every University's entrance criteria individually and in great detail.
He had enough options and didn't want to take a extra year.

Possible options we found which are a bit historical now (some of these the biology was useful, others the computer science, others both, noted that a few unis eg Warwick and perhaps Manchester might take those with further maths but not physics, when we looked)
Sheffield
Birmingham
Nottingham
Bristol (kept on hold for ages eventually no offer but predictions probably a bit low)
Exeter
Lancaster
Newcastle
Liverpool
Edinburgh
Ds applied to 5 of these and got 4 offers.
Is now at one of them
We asked at loads of open days and no one was worried or even suggested any catch up at all (may be different for top top unis)

Just to add he's very pleased he didn't take a foundation year (and so are we as finances are crippling) and hasn't reported any lack of physics problems when I asked although he is fairly diligent so i think has just worked hard on areas where he'd less prior knowledge. He says if anything lack of further maths is a headache (wouldn't be for your dc)

Bristol is competitive. Of those Birmingham and Sheffield are top 10. Exeter isn’t really seen as a great engineering university. Newcastle and Lancaster are not top 20 so good for middle choices. What they will accept is often driven by numbers and qualifications of those applying. If there are plenty with the required A levels and predicted A at Physics, they might take them. As Bristol probably did. Others won’t be as choosy as they want bums on seats.

Lots of dc head for computer science when they could do engineering. This means engineering is not overly competitive. Hence they overlook a subjects like physics and FM. DH just did maths, physics and engineering for civil and structural engineering degree. Over reliance on maths, he believes, is at the expense of grads understanding engineering principles and common sense solutions. There are jobs for people with those qualities and possibly more interesting ones.

This is useful insight

In particular the comment about what the Universities themselves are saying. I mean why listen to them when you can listen to a random posters MN 🙂

IME you don’t need that much of an understanding of physics to provide a foundation.

Half the syllabus will be derived from some really quite basic concepts - things like Newtons laws and the constant gas equation. Ask your DD if she understands these things and I might imagine her reply will be a more eloquent and polite version of “Yeah Mum, did both at GCSE. Doh”.

The other half will be new and the A level in physics won’t necessarily help.

Good luck

Yes I would add that my ds had 99 in combined science (with strongest exam scores in physics across the different papers) although he didn't do it a level (as was initially thinking of a different degree) so had good basic knowledge.

My DS is an Engineer. Don’t be put off by doing an MEng degree rather than an Aviation one. With his MEng he is doing very well in the military and has not regretted the general mechanical engineering route. He’s working with aircraft everyday.
Has she looked at the University of Manchester’s courses? He seems to think they do a combined mechanical and aviation engineering one.

@Karatema What is an aviation degree? MEng in Aeronautical Engineering is possible as is Mechanical. Yes, some of it is interchangeable. However Aeronautical is more about design of aircraft.

What universities say to potential students and what actually happens are not necessarily the same thing because it very much depends on who applies and the need for bums on seats.

DH is CEng, FICE, FIStructE and FCIHT so obviously knows nothing.

I meant aeronautical engineering! Trying to work and reply at the same time as well as talking to my aviation mad DGS 🙄

@Karatema I wondered if this was a new degree. No worries.