A level choices, French or Further Maths

[Tinkers]

Also (and I’d forgotten this, since it didn’t apply to me), engineers who wish to get chartered status need to have done a Masters or jump through an equivalent hurdle. I think most unis offer a MEng course as well as BEng courses. If your DD is pretty sure she wants to do engineering afterwards, then it will be worth looking at the pros and cons of doing an MEng at start with or doing a BEng then following with a MSc (Which can enable them to specialise) afterwards. There’s the fees/funding for both routes to take into account as well.

If she has no ambitions to be an engineer after doing an engineering degree, then it’s probably not worth doing the MEng course. Quite a number of engineering grads go into banking/finance/law etc. In which case they end up doing other qualifications instead.

[ToadMum]

Engineering degrees are accredited by the relevant institution (so IChemE, I MechE, etc), so they all need to provide a good offering so to speak.

Where’s ‘best’ depends on what type of engineering, how they teach and what else they offer. How much support they give when it comes to finding placements. At some unis, hardly any grads actually go into engineering jobs, others most do. Their links to industry can be important too. How many on the course? In your DDs case, the female to male ratio might be of interest. How many drop out? How do they assess?

There are loads of well respected unis for engineering. Imperial is only one. I didn’t even consider it at the time due to location.

The accreditation thing goes for Architecture, too. There are ?60 institutions on the ARB list, so even if all 24 Russell Group universities (its origins, a lobby group named after the hotel where its representatives used to meet up, btw) were on it, 36 would be non-RG. In fact, a lot of schools of architecture are part of former polytechnics etc, just because the institution they started off as / as part of has eventually been subsumed by what has now become a Post-1992 university or whatever. And the Manchester School of Architecture is a joint school of the University of Manchester (RG) and Manchester Metropolitan University (formerly Manchester Poly, originally in the 19th Century the Manchester Mechanics Institute).

[Tinkers]

Back on the original subject of FM or French. I actually remembered that one of our younger engineers did maths, physics, chemistry and German, before doing a chem eng degree. She spent her placement year working in Germany. Whilst working for us, she has gone back and worked there for a while too. Not an opportunity her peers could have easily taken up.

Obviously this was back when taking four A levels was more the norm than it is now.

[kenyancowgirl]

Durham is usually one of the “first” choices (after Oxbridge/LSE) for Economics, with parents who care about presumed prestige.

[mad?]

Just wanted to know which universities are good for the following subjects:
1. Architecture: UCL,

If you love and are hugely talented in fine art

Bath

if you love Engineering. Many, many others. The degrees in Architecture vary hugely and DD needs to decide what it is that appeals about this area before choosing a course.

2. Economics: LSE, Warwick and

Cambridge

3. Engineering: Imperial and

It depends on what type of engineering, for example, two world leading for Auto Engineering would be Oxford Brookes and Coventry, for obvious reasons
I think you really need to look at this differently. The universities you have listed are not necessarily 'good for' these subjects. I suspect they just might be perceived to be more prestigious, from the outside, but she needs to look much more closely than that, look at the courses first.

[ToadMum]

Just wanted to know which universities are good for the following subjects:
1. Architecture: UCL,

If you love and are hugely talented in fine art

Bath

if you love Engineering. Many, many others. The degrees in Architecture vary hugely and DD needs to decide what it is that appeals about this area before choosing a course.

2. Economics: LSE, Warwick and

Cambridge

3. Engineering: Imperial and

It depends on what type of engineering, for example, two world leading for Auto Engineering would be Oxford Brookes and Coventry, for obvious reasons
I think you really need to look at this differently. The universities you have listed are not necessarily 'good for' these subjects. I suspect they just might be perceived to be more prestigious, from the outside, but she needs to look much more closely than that, look at the courses first.

Or better still (much as I enjoy a good rummage on a univetsity / UCAS website, Which?University, WhatUni, TSR etc myself ), get your DD to do it and see what and where appeals to her.

[mad?]

The universities you have listed are not necessarily 'good for' these subjects. I suspect they just might be perceived to be more prestigious, from the outside, but she needs to look much more closely than that, look at the courses first.

Or better still (much as I enjoy a good rummage on a univetsity / UCAS website, Which?University, WhatUni, TSR etc myself ), get your DD to do it and see what and where appeals to her.

Indeed, which is why I said she needs to

[ToadMum]

The universities you have listed are not necessarily 'good for' these subjects. I suspect they just might be perceived to be more prestigious, from the outside, but she needs to look much more closely than that, look at the courses first.

Or better still (much as I enjoy a good rummage on a univetsity / UCAS website, Which?University, WhatUni, TSR etc myself ), get your DD to do it and see what and where appeals to her.

Indeed, which is why I said she needs to

So you did. Next thing I read whilst going over points on the way out of Fenchurch Street, I promise to read again once we get straightened out again .

[solimum]

If she's attracted by architecture, engineering and economics, it sounds like the infrastructure/ civil engineering/ construction area might bring all of these together: a female friend of my DS2 did engineering at Oxford and now spends her time helping to redesign railway stations (while interestingly my DS2 who went down the maths/ data science route is now involved in helping Network Rail use signalling data to improve punctuality as part of an infrastructure consultancy.) HS2 recently did a presentation at my school and, whatever you think of it as a project, there are huge opportunities for many roles in such areas, often multidisciplinary . Get her (as many others have suggested) to try and articulate what kinds of projects she might like to be involved in - something like the Engineering Education Scheme might be useful if her school takes part https://www.etrust.org.uk/ees" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[berks_mum]

First, many thanks to all the posts here. Very helpful.

Second, I had a look at engineering requirements and most of the branches need maths, physics/chemistry. Almost all of them say Further Maths is preferred but not essential. Will it seriously jeopardise DD's engineering chances if she doesn't do further maths?

Last, some of the courses like Economics and PPE ask for a combination of analytical and writing skills i.e sciences and humanities/languages respectively, if I understand correct. If DD chooses FM, Maths, Physics and Chemistry does she close her doors for Economics/PPE etc?

I forgot to mention in my earlier posts that philosophy is also one of the top interest subjects for my DD.