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Higher education

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Aeronautical engineering: Southampton or Loughborough or..?

3 replies

PeeringOvertheparapet · 01/07/2025 20:31

DS is keen on MEng in aero, ultimately wanting to join the RAF, so it’s time to narrow down UCAS options. He is awaiting predicted grades, and has a reasonable chance of being able to make the grades for these two. He is not aiming for Imperial, Bristol or Bath (too aspirational + high COL). He is also looking at Sheffield, with Liverpool as an insurance. Leeds was a top contender, but looking at their course the first two years are the same as Mech Eng, and he is thinking that may be a dry couple of years if he absolutely convinced re aero.

Any opinions about that list? Are there others he should consider? Perhaps a lower but still ‘good’ insurance option? And more to the point, should he not be discounting Leeds at this stage? It looks as hard to get into Leeds as S’oton so he is not sure it is worth ‘wasting’ an option on UCAS with Leeds given the first two years are not aero-specific. He is particularly keen to engage in a course with good industry links (although is not necessarily sold on year in industry). Another huge draw is a university that has a gliding club, which really narrows down options. I appreciate these cities are all quite different, but he is quite a phlegmatic chap who is unlikely to be bothered by where he is living, although that is a consideration of course.

OP posts:
WhyIhatebaylissandharding · 01/07/2025 22:01

Strathclyde

Luna75 · 01/07/2025 22:02

Hi, a lot of engineering degrees do share a common first year...but I know that Nottingham does pure areospace from the get go so that might be worth a look at...lovely campus. In terms of links with industry you'll find that most good unis have them. My son is just at the end of his 2nd year on an aerospace MEng at Leicester uni...Loughborough was his top choice but he's really enjoying Leicester (I believe they do have a gliding club!)

TheLemonDreamer · 03/07/2025 15:27

Most universities have the same entry requirements: A star AA, except Imperial and Bath (2 x A star A). Loughborough is a good insurance option if he chooses the BEng which is AAB, and easy to swap to MEng if he gets the grades for it. Southampton requirements can be lowered to AAA if he has an A in EPQ. As mentioned before Nottingham is a great option as it goes fully aero from year 1, however if his interest is F1, which is the case for many students applying for Aerospace, then it is not the best option, but for aerospace and aircraft design is great. For us, Bristol looked great on paper, but the lab / wind tunnel facilities are not great compared to the other universities I mentioned.

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