Engineering Degree - advice/experience

[BreakfastClub80]

DD is planning to study engineering at uni, either a general engineering or mechanical engineering degree. She needs to start the process of deciding where to study but we are feeling overwhelmed at this stage and I wondered if anyone could offer any advice. I do remember reading other posts about engineering but can’t find them.

She is currently studying 4 A Levels (Maths, FM, Physics and 3D Design) and has very good GCSEs (9x9 plus 1x8). Her projected grades for A Level at this point (first year) are something like A star, A star, A (no grade for FM yet).

Looking at the league tables, she is favouring Bath, Durham and also wants to visit Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester. I am encouraging her to look at Bristol and Southampton too. We live near London so she doesn’t especially want to go to uni there and likes the idea of a campus uni.

Is there anywhere we’ve missed that you’d recommend?

Birmingham - campus uni and well ranked for mech eng. Warwick for general engineering. Nottingham?

Are you looking at BEng or MEng?

Great list. Look across the last couple of years of league tables too - they all dip up and down and margins are all very close up at the top end.

Been in a similar situation but one year ahead of you and looked at:

Warwick
Durham
Bristol
Cambridge
Imperial (he didn’t really want London either but we live close so went along with friends)
Sheffield
Southampton
Bath
Loughborough

Also considered looking at
Nottingham
Birmingham
Manchester (had one of the highest entry req and seemed to have been going down a lot in league tables so we gave it a miss, despite it being the best city in the world)

Of those, for 4 year mech eng or general eng, Cambridge, imperial and bath wanted 2 Astar and one a, and all the others wanted one Astar and two A. There are also various contextual or grade flexibility options for some courses if you’re doing 4 a levels, etc, but you have to go through each to check requirements - didn’t manage to find a reliable central resource for that.

TBH they were all excellent and v impressive in different ways. Look at a mix of campus and city early on to get a feel for it.

Sheffield had a particularly impressive engineering department building / facility. Warwick campus was really great. Durham is practically a campus if you’re in a college up the hill and doing engineering. Southampton seemed a bit confusing as the buildings are all scattered around, but everyone we spoke to was really nice. Loads of good things about all of them.

Definitely consider Warwick alongside those you’ve already shortlisted. It’s a lovely campus and great Engineering department.

It's worth visiting Imperial just to see what a great engineering department looks like, as a benchmark. There are lots of good options though.

Also bear in mind that it’s got to be somewhere DD would be happy living for 3 or 4 years (DS had an offer from Bath but whilst he liked the campus he hated the city).

I'm a little biased as DH and my sister are Sheffield STEM alumni, but Sheffied has one of the UK's largest engineering faculties, with strong links in aerospace, civil, and mechanical engineering.

The university also owns AMRC
https://www.amrc.co.uk/

Thanks everyone, really good advice.

I’m not sure yet whether DD will go for BEng or MEng, and appreciate the grades will differ.

Looks like we’re going to be very busy with visits!

If DD wants an engineering career where becoming chartered is a requirement for progression, then she will need either an MEng or an MSc.

You can check with universities if those on the BEng can switch to MEng if the student’s 1st and 2nd yr grades are high enough, student funding should cover this.

A separate MSc course allows a student to specialise, but the funding is different and fees will be higher; on the upside it’s more likely to be 6 month taught / 6 month project so more in depth than the final year of an integrated masters.

My youngest graduates this year with a MEng (civil engineering) from Strathclyde university in Glasgow. She has had an amazing 5years and learned so much , she has enjoyed her course and starts a graduate job in August.

@BreakfastClub80 with those grades just apply for MEng.
Nottingham gave effectively a double offer - both higher for MEng and lower for BEng - they decide who progresses to MEng on performance in year 2 exams rather than a levels.
Give Oxbridge a shot - for engineers, they continually emphasised how they wanted people who are really good at maths, and were less worried about supracurriculars (not to say you don't need a good personal statement). Accomodation provided for the whole course.
Offers from Leeds, Nottingham, Sheffield Manchester, Birmingham are pretty much guaranteed if predicted grades match their typical offers.
I'd apply for 2 of those ones
It's then worth a punt on 2-3 of the super competitive ones.

@BreakfastClub80 Do be aware that quite a few dc at top unis don’t become engineers at all. Their high maths ability and problem solving sees them go into the finance sector in a number of roles. If DD actually wants to be an engineer, I’d be more inclined to look at Sheffield and a few similar ones. It won’t make much difference what course (General or mechanical) but do MEng. No need for 5 years in Scotland.

In many respects, there’s more engineering work for civil engineers - we have major infrastructure projects, however it’s important to do the Engineering that interests you. If DD does nothing to find out what that is by actually doing something allied to it, it’s a bit of a punt really. So I would look at her engineering interests and build on those. Look up women in engineering or find out if institutions have open days and see what’s available. Knowledge leads to better decision making.

Definitely recommend civil and structural engineering. I did a combined course and really love my job.

My son is at Warwick. He's in Y3 placement at one the F1 motorsports and absolutely loving it. Will return for final year in October.

They gave him a super-flexible offer for the MEng/BEng .It's general engineering so you choose a speciality in Y2. There are so many.student projects and he has had a lot of experience leading technical teams, giving presentations, pitching ideas for funds. He also got paid work at WMG (university/business partnership) over the summer.

Easy to get to London. Got a job in student's union quite easily. Accommodation on campus isn't expensive unless you want it to be. Leamington Spa is a lovely town to live year 2. Easy and cheap to get to London on the train (40 mins). Sports facilities are great too.

Also, lots of these courses offer “year in industry” type options. Important thing to remember about this, which is usually explained quite well at open days but harder to figure out when browsing online, is that none of these placements are guaranteed- students have to put lots of effort into applying for their year placements and nothing is guaranteed. Some unis have lots and lots of links and may be very engaged with helping students find placements, though ultimately it’s always up to the student to secure one. Others “allow” it as part of the course structure but not that many students take it up and there’s less active engagement from the uni in sharing info on places.

And remember also that there are summer internships around as well as the full year placements - it’s not all or nothing for industry experience. And while there are many positives of the year in industry, it’s not expected or required for recruiters - it’s bound to be helpful but it will all depend how they do, and it will make the course longer. Loads of pros and cons, there are several threads on this already but just flagging that it’s a v good thing to find out more about in person at open days, asking at the presentations and talking to people in the department about it.

@SabrinaThwaite thanks for mentioning the MSC, that’s a good point as DD has shown some interest in nuclear engineering ultimately and I think this may be offered at MSC level if you don’t go for undergraduate level.

@OhDear111 DD is looking at taster day type events to try to ensure the best choice. It’s quite hard when it’s not a school subject, to know you’ll definitely enjoy it.

@Talipesmum thank you, that makes sense about the year in industry. I think it makes a big difference to the whole uni experience as to whether lots of the year group do it or if you’re on your own, so to speak. Definitely something to be clear about going in.

lots more great advice, thank you so much.

@BreakfastClub80 Do be aware that a year in industry is not easy to get. Students have to apply - like they would for a job. It’s time consuming and many students are not succesful. If it’s an additional year, dc have done four years for a BEng. Those who don’t do it, do 4 years for a MEng. The MEng is more valuable in terms of career prospects if getting chartered is the goal. Doing a year out in a civil engineering degree is fairly unusual.

May be worth looking at degree apprenticeships too if interested in nuclear engineering e.g EDF.

Apply for MEng. The grades are often the same as BEng.

Don't rule out Oxbridge.

Why not Oxford?

If she’s certain about nuclear I would definitely suggest to her about alao looking at some Degree Apprenticeships too.

I would also suggest starting another thread asking which route is best to become a Nuclear Scientist.

There was an Engineer on here recently, unfortunately I can’t remember what her company specialised in but she was saying that they want Graduates who have done a specific Masters as they found the ones from more general courses didn’t have the knowledge which they needed.

Also recommend having a look at Civil Engineering and it's worth having a look at the ICE Scholarships.

Because Cambridge is way better :-)

(of course it’s not really! - but he’s been to Cambridge a few times anyway, liked the small feel of the city, I went to Cambridge and so did my parents and my grandpa was a professor there. My dad lived there for all his childhood. We spent lots of holidays there staying with family. Lots of family fondness for the place. So if he wanted to apply for “one of” Oxford or Cambridge he always just thought about Cambridge.

Main issue with this is I really really don’t want him to feel he “ought” to go and “ought” to “achieve” there - none of us feel that way at all, and tbh I’ve been pushing the other places more really. But he wanted to apply and I do think the college system would be brilliant for him. He’ll find out in a couple of weeks whether he has an offer or not - really there’s no bad outcome, all the places he has applied to and got offers from are absolutely brilliant and will all offer different things).

@SleafordSods Prospects gives a good summary about degrees. General is probably not focussed enough if it’s 3 years. However there are masters and nuclear engineering degrees.

As well as those already mentioned Essex, Swansea, Reading, Sussex worth looking at.

Do have a look at the average grades achieved on the UCAS website. Whilst Clearing can offer opportunities to bag a place at a more "prestigious" uni with lower grades someone prone to anxiety might not want the added stresd of knowing they're at the lower end of the grade distribution.

Sorry, this was posted on the wrong thread.