Whos applied for an Engineering Foundation Year?

Boozah

(edited 9 years ago)

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Reply 1

kingkongjaffa

Offer from manchester BCC C in maths and C in physics

probably not going to do it though.

Reply 2

keyboard-warrior

Original post by kingkongjaffa

Offer from manchester BCC C in maths and C in physics

probably not going to do it though.

wait, you're doing maths and physics alevel so how comes you're allowed to apply for engineering foundation year? (thought it was only open to people who haven't taken the relevant alevels :s-smilie:

)

btw OP, is this for general engineering or specific ones?

Reply 3

DdotT

Original post by keyboard-warrior

wait, you're doing maths and physics alevel so how comes you're allowed to apply for engineering foundation year? (thought it was only open to people who haven't taken the relevant alevels :s-smilie:

)

btw OP, is this for general engineering or specific ones?

why wouldn't a foundation year be open to those with lower grades in the relevant a levels then required for Beng?

Reply 4

keyboard-warrior

Original post by DdotT

why wouldn't a foundation year be open to those with lower grades in the relevant a levels then required for Beng?

i phoned up a few unis (rhul, sheff, soton, bristol, york) and thats exactly what they said to me (because i have maths + physics already), for my UCAS choices, I was going to apply for one foundation course - efectively as an insurance because they typically have lower offers. They basically told me foundation courses are for people who picked the wrong alevels and then realised later that they want to do engineering/sciences, apparently they won't allow people even if they've done only one of the two (maths or physics alevel) :lolwut:

Reply 5

DdotT

Original post by keyboard-warrior

hmm that seems strange, i applied to southampton due to it being such a good uni for engineering with a Btec Engineering and A level maths, 2 relevant subjects and got accepted. (didn't go their though).
I would still go for it with 1 choice, no loss in trying to getting into a good uni with foundation year, youll still have a decent chance even if they say that

Reply 6

keyboard-warrior

Original post by DdotT

Cheers, i'll probably try it. Initially when i found out about foundation courses, i thought it was too good to be true, because surely everyone would have them as an insurance choice if they all (or most) allowed applicants who already have the relevant subjects, so i'm not entirely surprised at what i've heard so far tbh.

Reply 7

DdotT

Original post by keyboard-warrior

Well i mean, its a whole extra year and that puts people off, especially when they've basically done everything thats on the foundation year in a level but simply havent got the grades.
But yeh you should definately try it.

Reply 8

Jetblast

I might consider the foundation year at Portsmouth to decide with doing Pet eng or civ eng, cause I don't know if i'm confident enough for a full on degree course yet.

Reply 9

chrislpp

If they are going to have to choose between a person who hasn't the right requirements to get into engineering but a keen interest in the subject, and a person who has the requirements but can't get the grades they will decline the latter.

Reply 10

Oh my Ms. Coffey

Original post by DdotT

You do learn a lot of extra stuff from a foundation year, especially to do with engineering. Topics you spent 2-3 lessons on at A-level are brushed over in about 10 mins.

Reply 11

DdotT

Original post by Oh my Ms. Coffey

You do learn a lot of extra stuff from a foundation year, especially to do with engineering. Topics you spent 2-3 lessons on at A-level are brushed over in about 10 mins.

really? from the people i spoke to about it they said it was boring and no new stuff.
and hmm maybe it would of been a lot of help then for me :s-smilie:

Reply 12

Oh my Ms. Coffey

Original post by DdotT

really? from the people i spoke to about it they said it was boring and no new stuff.
and hmm maybe it would of been a lot of help then for me :s-smilie:

Depends where you do it I guess.

I do mine at Loughborough.

We do physics and materials/maths/chemistry/mechanics and a learning/communications module. This is if you are doing Mech Eng/Physics (Note: you can do either programming or mechanics for physics).

Maths is pretty standard, a mix of C1-C4 in semester 1.

Physics we do electricity/mechanics, some friction in this mechanics we didnt cover friction in MEI M1 or physics.
The materials part is entirely new, like a mixture of chemistry bonding and how that applies to materials. You also have 4-5 physics based assessed labs.

Learning/comm's you do technical essays/group work

Chemistry you have 4 assessed labs and theory lectures, seems to have a lot of what i did in physics for the first couple of lectures. 4 assessed labs.

Mechanics is quite hard, the notation is way past A-level, you have an assessed lab and report for this.

Reply 13

TheFoxBlip

Original post by DdotT

why wouldn't a foundation year be open to those with lower grades in the relevant a levels then required for Beng?

because they're clearly not very good at maths and physics, which is not a good recipe for success on an engineering degree. Unless the student didn't put the effort in and is actually capable, but that's their fault.

Reply 14

Musester

Can anyone shed some light on the actual maths/physics taught on a foundation year. All my choices are for foundations in engineering and seeing as i dont do a level maths or science im a bit concerned by it all.

Reply 15

kingkongjaffa

Original post by Boozah

Really ? How come ?

had offers for Beng, don't really want to do another year :/

Reply 16

Jetblast

Original post by Musester

I would say start reading up on physics and practice maths asap or as soon as you get your offers, alternatively if you want to revise for current exams, leave it until during the summer when you have lots of time

Reply 17

tozzy

i've applied for engineering foundation at manchester and nottingham, and i have gotten offers from them already :smile:

Reply 18

chrislpp

Original post by DdotT

really? from the people i spoke to about it they said it was boring and no new stuff.
and hmm maybe it would of been a lot of help then for me :s-smilie:

It's GCSE to A level all compacted within a year with a bias towards the engineering concepts, there are also things that are entirely new to you....but the year is for students without those topics, so maybe a lot of it isn't new to you.

It's also university, very different to the classroom learning.