incoming engineering undergrad — considering between offers from the top (not oxbridge/imperial) schools here in the UK e.g. manchester, edinburgh, bath, bristol…. does prestige matter when you apply to phds? some of the schools i just listed have better research output than others — does that matter?
Thanks for any help!!
First year MechE student at a T5 institution in the UK
It’s a sandwich course meaning after two years, you do a placement (yearlong co-op/internship) and then study for two more years until you are awarded an MEng.
During my placement year I’m thinking of applying to transfer as a junior student to a mechE program in the US, so basically the fall
after my placement i want to enter as a junior.
Does this plan make sense? i see some people here applying as sophomores, freshmen, some with SAT scores… it’s all a bit confusing. what else do i need to consider for this??
I’m an incoming first year undergrad in the UK and i’m pretty much certain that I want to pursue some form of postgraduate education in the USA after I get my Masters in Engineering. I guess I know the basic do’s and dont’s of trying to get research experience, maybe getting referenced in a paper/poster at a conference, getting relevant work experience blah blah.
but i guess i’m at somewhat of an advantage right now since i have (or think i have) made the decision to pursue postgraduate education earlier than most. so, for people with a little more experience, what would be the best advice you would give the younger you to help set you up for grad school a bit better?
yeah so this course was really popular.
first of all i’m not here to complain or act righteous in any way — just providing some perspective on the competitiveness of these courses and some comments on the UK application system.
i was a bit surprised that i got rejected from here but i was offered mechanical and electrical instead so i’m not too bothered.
nevertheless i emailed them asking for feedback and they gave me the email in the screenshot above.
notably, the “strongest” applicants “achieved 9s across all or the vast majority” of subjects at GCSE. so that debunks the myth that bath care a lot about PS (coming from someone who has represented the country at an international level in several engineering competitions, and won the most prestigious engineering scholarship nationally) enough for it to be a determining factor. personally, its pretty unfair given 16 year old me sitting my gcses was not, nor expected to be, aware that these exams would determine my university admission.
another notable point from this email was that “4000 applications were made this year; 500 more people applied to bath’s mechanical engineering courses compared to last year” which indicates the almost exponential rise in demand for not only this course at this institution, but a lot of mechanical/aero engineering courses generally. given the generous assumption that across all mech eng courses at bath, both BEng and MEng (incl. aero, manufacturing etc), 500 people are admitted, that gives a 13.7% acceptance rate. obviously the applicant pools are different, but that’s about the same as oxbrimp.
so if you’re feeling dejected this cycle — trust me, youre a perfectly able engineering student who is going to make it far. don’t worry. it’s tough. i assume more than 50% don’t even want to go into engineering after uni (fair enough, uk job market for engineers is cooked) so ig the increased demand makes some sense.
and congratulations for everyone that did get an offer like genuinely fair play