Robotics

[salsa]

Salsa....definitely don't pay the tuition fees - put the money in an account for a deposit on a house if you want to give it to your son for something! Have a look at Martin Lewis's thoughts on tuition fees and you realise haow absolutley daft it is to tie your finance up by paying the fees up front - the graduate tax for the "loan" is a much better option as you cannot foresee your needs for the future and once paid, you can't get that tuition money back....

I will do. At this pace, I'll need a degree to work out what's best. The money is his and when he is 18 he'll have access to it. I remember a colleague asking me if it was wise as he could spend it in anything. I said that I had 18 years to "bring him up properly". I am not so sure now, but there is nothing I can do! Well, I have 2 years...

Salsa

[SteveDH]

My DD was interested in Robotics, even went to Japan for a couple of Weeks for a robotics summer school (was connected to her uni and offered in the 3rd year).

When she was looking for Uni's the 1st couple of Open days helped narrow down what she really wanted and made her final choice a lot easier. Basically electro-mechanical engineering with a reasonable chunk of mechanical. After looking in detail at the various prospectuses there were only about 4 unis that covered exactly what she wanted so put those and one other on her ucas form and put off the final choice to post offer open days.

She actually ended up at the other Uni due to prestige and the fact that the 1st 2 years were general engineering.

She managed to study quite a few elements of robotics, but she hated the actual robotics module. Some of the aspects were ok, but using matlab to work out the best path for a 3 jointed robot arm whilst taking into account obstacles, the maximum torque the joints could handle and their freedom of movement was not one of her favourite things.

And at the end of it all she ended up as a Hardware in the Loop Engineer... which has actually turned out more interesting then the description implies.

I'd suggest going on a few open days with him including some in related degrees so that you can help act as a sounding board while he decides what he really does and doesn't like.

If he does an engineering course, further maths A level if very useful. (not sure about IB)

[salsa]

Thank you very much for your detailed response. I hadn’t heard of Hardware in the Loop engineer.
Would you mind sharing some of the degrees your daughter was interested in? Where there any in London?

I will definitely go with him to the open days. My son will be doing Maths and Physics at higher level for the IB. He loves Physics, designing and building things.

Salsa

[SteveDH]

My Daughter also loves making things, did DT for GCSE which pointed her towards and Arkwright scholarship, which pushed her towards engineering.
She also liked robots, but as you stated there are not many actual robotics courses so she looked at robotics as a mixture of electronic and mechanical engineering so looked at mechatronics degrees.
in the end she got offers for.

Bath - integrated mechanical and electrical engineering
Lancaster - Electronic and Electrical Engineering (1st year general and choose after that)
Leeds - Mechatronics and Robotics
Newcastle - Mechanical Engineering with Mechatronics
Cambridge Engineering..

she shortlisted to Cambridge with Bath as backup due to distance and ended up at Cambridge.

We did look at London unis but none seemed to do the course she wanted.

Regarding finance, depending on what you earn after the degree, and I'm not sure how things have changed since she applied, but with a 4 year masters there is a good chance after tuition fees she wont end up paying back any more for the maintenance part of the loan.

note for an Engineer a typical starting salary is around 26k-30k. The 50K you see beside quite a few engineering courses is because quite a few engineering students go into finance.

[salsa]

Thank you SteveDH, I will look into those degrees.
Cambridge? This is for general engineering, I presume? I've not seen any robotics. Do they cover robotics in the engineering degree, I presume?
My son has mentioned Cambridge and believes that if he goes there he will be better paid. That's from his own research. Do you have an opinion on that?
Did she have a look at Imperial? This is my son's current preference, but then again, all on paper so far. We are going to their open day in June.

Salsa

[Tinkers]

I doubt going to Cambridge will make a difference to his salary tbh. At our place all the grads get paid the same for the first few years, regardless of uni. (We have had a recent Cambridge grad for the first time in years)

I suspect the difference may come from whether they end up actually in engineering or into finance, and some unis will have far more going that route than others.

Steve’s comment about starting salaries for engineers is what I’d also expect to see.

[ToadMum]

I doubt going to Cambridge will make a difference to his salary tbh. At our place all the grads get paid the same for the first few years, regardless of uni. (We have had a recent Cambridge grad for the first time in years)

I suspect the difference may come from whether they end up actually in engineering or into finance, and some unis will have far more going that route than others.

Steve’s comment about starting salaries for engineers is what I’d also expect to see.

There are quite a few people who post on internet forums that employers are more impressed with 'Oxon' or 'Cantab' on a cv than with the actual suitability of the candidate for the job in hand, so presumsbly some, somewhere, must be willing to pay a premium for the prestige of their employee's alma mater...? Otherwise, what's the point of going there?

(Apologies, SteveDH, not a serious comment there, honest ).

[Tinkers]

I was recently involved with grad recruitment at my work. We observed them during a team building activity. No reference was made to their unis. We scored them in various things and that along with the interview was the basis of the decision.

We want the right people, not those who went to the ‘right’ place. If they happen to have gone there fair enough.

There’s a shortage of engineers. Any company who actively only looks at certain unis is probably missing out on numerous excellent candidates. Their loss.

[salsa]

I was recently involved with grad recruitment at my work. We observed them during a team building activity. No reference was made to their unis. We scored them in various things and that along with the interview was the basis of the decision.

We want the right people, not those who went to the ‘right’ place. If they happen to have gone there fair enough.

There’s a shortage of engineers. Any company who actively only looks at certain unis is probably missing out on numerous excellent candidates. Their loss.

Happy to hear that there is a shortage of engineers. I am worried post Brexit whether this would be so in the UK.


Salsa

[Tinkers]

If my company is a reflection of the country as a whole Brexit will make the shortages worse. We employ a fair number of foreigners including EU nations. Some have made their homes here, had children Here etc. They will probably stay. Others probably not as they could go to other offices.