Help: Politics or Aerospace?!

busiscoming2

my actual present grades are C for maths, A for politics and D for physics (according to my recent report) I just feel I will get CAE!

Voyager2002

busiscoming2 wrote: »

my actual present grades are C for maths, A for politics and D for physics (according to my recent report) I just feel I will get CAE!

How you "feel" is not a good way to predict grades!

Anyway, you are obviously doing well in Politics, and that demonstrates that you can write good essays and have a firm grasp on how the world works. Those skills would enable you to do well in a range of Social Science and Business courses.

Your ability to cope with 'A' level maths suggests that you have skills in logical deduction and analytical reasoning: again helpful for a number of courses, including Law.

However, most Engineering courses require an ability to manipulate equations that corresponds to more like an A grade in 'A' level maths. And they also require thought processes that are very similar to those involved in Physics, so your predicted grade for Physics strongly suggests that you should consider something different.

pinkshoes

You're not supposed to pick a course on the basis that it will be "easier" than another one.

If you have a genuine interest in something, then it's a big factor in overcoming any difficulty. Perhaps get a private tutor for the maths? If you genuinely want to acheive something, then you will.

Do the course that interests you the most.

I probably would have found a degree in French "easier" than Engineering, but although I found engineering difficult, it's certainly paid off. Engineers earn alot more than translators too, and I've still kept up my french.

Someone with an engineering degree makes on average £245k more in a lifetime than someone without, whereas other degrees (some arts and humanities subjects) mean that a person hardly earns any more than they would without a degree, so it's just for personal satisfaction.

This might be of interest to some of you:
http://bookshop.universitiesuk.ac.uk/downloads/research-gradprem.pdf

What would you do with a degree in Politics? What do you actually want to do with your life? Obviously, life is not all about money, but if you're going to get yourself into £15k debt from uni, it does need to have a purpose!

melancholly

pinkshoes wrote: »

You're not supposed to pick a course on the basis that it will be "easier" than another one.

If you have a genuine interest in something, then it's a big factor in overcoming any difficulty. Perhaps get a private tutor for the maths? If you genuinely want to acheive something, then you will.

Do the course that interests you the most.

I probably would have found a degree in French "easier" than Engineering, but although I found engineering difficult, it's certainly paid off. Engineers earn alot more than translators too, and I've still kept up my french.

Someone with an engineering degree makes on average £245k more in a lifetime than someone without, whereas other degrees (some arts and humanities subjects) mean that a person hardly earns any more than they would without a degree, so it's just for personal satisfaction.

This might be of interest to some of you:
http://bookshop.universitiesuk.ac.uk/downloads/research-gradprem.pdf

What would you do with a degree in Politics? What do you actually want to do with your life? Obviously, life is not all about money, but if you're going to get yourself into £15k debt from uni, it does need to have a purpose!

normally i'd agree that encouraging someone to do something they enjoy but when it's something they obviously struggle with, it's less clear cut. i also am a little uncomfortable with the idea of encouraging people to do degrees based on their likely earnings (maybe i'm paranoid after graduating in 2002 when there was such a huge drop in graduate recruitment so many people i knew saw their big salary job offers disappear, or after seeing so many friends u-turn on their career choices in the first three years after graduating). realistically, a third in any degree won't be a huge help these days and at some point, pragmatism has to come over how well someone will cope on a course.

pinkshoes

melancholly wrote: »

normally i'd agree that encouraging someone to do something they enjoy but when it's something they obviously struggle with, it's less clear cut. i also am a little uncomfortable with the idea of encouraging people to do degrees based on their likely earnings (maybe i'm paranoid after graduating in 2002 when there was such a huge drop in graduate recruitment so many people i knew saw their big salary job offers disappear, or after seeing so many friends u-turn on their career choices in the first three years after graduating). realistically, a third in any degree won't be a huge help these days and at some point, pragmatism has to come over how well someone will cope on a course.

Well I've got a desmond in Engineering from a very good uni, and it's never hindered me from getting a fab job!!

My mate's husband also got a 3rd in Engineering from another very good uni, and he's now doing exceedingly well for himself in the field.

Saying that, both of us had very good work experience when graduating, so we were probably favoured over candidates who'd never even lifted a hammer.

I think money and passion are both big factors, as doing a degree for the sake of it being an easier option is a waste of money.

If the OP is planning on doing a foundation year, then perhaps this will be the crunch point on whether he feels he can handle the maths or not. If he hates it, he could easily switch to a politics course.

GoldenEye

If you are struggling with maths and physics I would strongly advise against considering aerospace engineering unless you are very confident you will improve. I also studied aerospace engineering at university and you cannot avoid the mathematical element. It's in every single course module (including design). The maths starts getting insane (and ridiculous) in subjects such as computational fluid dynamics, analytical methods and turbulent flow. It's like learning another language!

You have to really want to do aerospace engineering i think. It's not a subject you can just consider without serious thought. Your other option is politics which is the complete opposite. The degree is very difficult and many people failed throughout the four years of my course. If you want to do it, prepare for 3/4 years of hard work. I was doing a 30hr week of lectures/tutorials/lab work not including the extra 30hrs you are expected to put in yourself.

I also agree with one of the other posters because I had only ONE graduate interview for an aerospace position. The industry is too volatile and finding jobs is also very difficult. You WILL NOT walk into a job. Most of my friends, including guys that got Firsts are either in different fields or studying PhD's. This is from a Red-Brick too. If you want to study engineering I suggest Civil or Mechanical. Aerospace is too specialised.
Good luck.