Sheffield or Southampton for Mech Eng???

Any perceived differences in reputation between two overall very strong engineering departments by the 17 year olds on here isn't actually going to make the slightest bit of difference to your employability prospects, so go where you feel you liked the best.

One thing I'll add is this: Different universities have different connections and may lead you towards a certain career. Of course, it's not a guarantee that you'll make it into/be stuck in that career path, but you could use it to your advantage through their contacts. For example, one university I visited had strong ties with power companies and the railway industry. Another one with aerospace. Another one with certain automotive companies (we had a McLaren come and park outside our building the other day whilst they gave a talk).

If you have to pick between two, this is something to consider. I don't really want to be focused on thinking about designing trains, so I opted for the university with a harrier in its basement and close ties to the companies I want to work for.

loughborough?

I wish! I go to Coventry. Our maths support centres operate off the same network though!

coventry is still a decent uni. Loughborough have a huge fighter jet inside their aero department. Im guessing your doing aero? are you first year of BEng/MEng?

I'm doing mechanical BEng first year... Then hopefully MSc Aerospace at a more reputable university (using Coventry as a leg-up). A couple of nice looking flight simulators down there too. Sometimes they have a pizza and flying evening - I don't think anyone other than aerospace are invited though (I'll have to pester the SU).

It's a good university though. It is one which really debunks the whole "If it's not Russell, it's not worth bothering with" ideology that some people have. The new building is still being finished this year (we're still using it though, but it won't be completely finished until Easter or so). A cool £50M+ spent on us engineers does make us feel quite proud!

Yeahh i know its not all about Russel group but a lot of people seem to think so and think if you get the same degree from a non RG your crap or they undermine you yet its the same degree haha.

How are you planning on getting funding for MSc in aerospace? Im assuming you want to be an engineer at the company you are going to work for, if you are then an MEng is better suited for this so i would just do the MEng in mechanical...and also its hard to get sponsorship for the MSc year but if u do get i dont see why you shouldn't do it.

What companies you looking at working for? Rolls-Royce? BAE Systems? Airbus?

Placement year, ideally. That will likely fund it. I doubt I'm in a position to get full funding - I'm optimistic, but realistically I'm not a First class student. If I get the placement, I'll go for the master's. If not, I'll save up for a bit. I'm really interested in Manchester university at the moment... And that's £7,200 a year for Aerospace.

I'd rather do the MSc than an MEng. I'd like the variety and I'd like to think I have a full postgraduate degree. But hey, it's a while off still. No major preference who to work for just yet... Bentley is very local to me, so are Jaguar/Landrover. JCB suited my buddy too. BAE/Rolls Royce/MBDA etc. Some of them are willing to help fund students through their latter years of university with grants - Hopefully that will extend to the master's degree as well.

I have a solid 12 months before any of this happens though. I'm making preparations, but we'll just have to wait and see.

£7.2k wow thats expensive..thats why im aiming to do an MEng after the foundation year...it sucks that i forced to apply for the f.y first but i may email the universities to ask if i do achieve the grades for first year entry could i start the first year course if not ill just do the f.y. then progress afterwards and do an MEng but i will have to find a way of getting some sort of funding for the f.y. as student finance only accounts for 4 years max i think.

Good Luck broo im sure you will find a solution. Im going to have engineering work experience at airbus soon and im currently waiting for rolls-royce to also accept me for their work experience (fingers crossed). Im applying for mechanical but im liking civil eng(the design aspects as i think there's more design than in mechanical also i didnt like the sound of the heat stuff in mechanical sounded boring but i liked the other modules).

Well, I'm paying £9k fees at the moment, so it would be a discount! Virgin Trains were doing an offer for £30 or £50 a week first class on the mainline up to Manchester and back, which I would be able to take... Meals included! So Manchester would be a great choice for me, and I might be able to live at home.

The thermofluids stuff isn't bad. It's basically AS/A2 physics... Or at least, it is those sorts of questions. Engineering Mathematics is one of my modules which is a bit of a bugger... It's all the maths type stuff I've never done before. A fair bit of design work too. The labs and application stuff is quite interesting - I just finished a 9 hour CAD workshop last week, and soon I'll be doing an engine rebuild and building bridges. The first year is just to get people up to the same level... The second year is really where the degree starts.