[Alpha-Omega]

Birmingham University
Bristol University
Southampton University
Nottingham University

Which one do you think is the best for mech eng? and the second best?

In terms of job prospects, teaching quality, social life, and how the university generally look like specially the mechanical engineering building.

[Keckers]

Have you visited any of them?

[Alpha-Omega]

(Original post by Keckers)
Have you visited any of them?

No, that's why I am confused.

After doing some research, I've narrowed it down between Southampton and Bristol.

Which one do you think is better? Southampton or Bristol?

In terms of:

Job Prospects:
Teaching Quality:
Student Life:
Appearance of University and City:
Friendliness of people in General:

[TheFoxBlip]

I'd instinctivley go for Bristol over Southampton. Most of the Russell group Uni's are very similar for Mechanical Engineering in terms of league tables, similar research quality, student satisfaction, graduate prospects so it's a choice of where you'd rather live for 3 or 4 years.

Bristol seems a lot more appealing as a place to live but i'm sure there are people who think the opposite.

[Keckers]

(Original post by Alpha-Omega)
No, that's why I am confused.

After doing some research, I've narrowed it down between Southampton and Bristol.

Which one do you think is better? Southampton or Bristol?

In terms of:

Job Prospects:
Teaching Quality:
Student Life:
Appearance of University and City:
Friendliness of people in General:

I hear good things about both, they are both pretty much equal as far as university standing goes. I have a friend at Bristol and she loves it there. I don't know anyone at Southampton though so I can't really comment

[Keckers]

(Original post by TheFoxBlip)
I'd instinctivley go for Bristol over Southampton. Most of the Russell group Uni's are very similar for Mechanical Engineering in terms of league tables, similar research quality, student satisfaction, graduate prospects so it's a choice of where you'd rather live for 3 or 4 years.

Why is that important for an undergraduate at all?

[Judder01]

(Original post by Keckers)
Why is that important for an undergraduate at all?

They say that you are being taught by the top researchers in that field so will be working on problems that are upto date in the current industry and being taught about those. Also, as you progress through the university you may get the opportunity to help with their research (E.g post-graduate).

[Alpha-Omega]

2-0 for Bristol

[Keckers]

(Original post by Judder01)
They say that you are being taught by the top researchers in that field so will be working on problems that are upto date in the current industry and being taught about those. Also, as you progress through the university you may get the opportunity to help with their research (E.g post-graduate).

You don't get taught about them at all. Maybe something will be mentioned off hand during a lecture but to a lot of researchers-cum-lecturers they are more interested in their research than in teaching.

An undergraduate engineering degree is about getting a grounding in the science, the maths and the technology, not about having a lecturer spend half of his lectures telling you about his research.

The best opportunities you will get will come through networking when you join an engineering institution and attend seminars, lectures and other events hosted by them. Those connections will be far more important than knowing some lecturer who did a bit of research while teaching you.

edit: If you disagree with what I say by all means give me negative rep, but I'd appreciate it if you quoted me and told me why you disagree with what I said. After all, if I'm sorely mistaken about something it'd be nice to know.

[Smack]

(Original post by Judder01)
They say that you are being taught by the top researchers in that field so will be working on problems that are upto date in the current industry and being taught about those. Also, as you progress through the university you may get the opportunity to help with their research (E.g post-graduate).

Doesn't work like that. From my experience people who are top researchers in their field have very, very little time for undergraduates and teaching, which greatly reduces the teaching quality. Likewise you're extremely unlikely to be working on anything that is up to date with current industry during your undergrad outside of your honours project as that is beyond its scope: university engineering is primarily to teach you the theoretical side of things with a little bit of hands on and group work to help make you more attractive to employers. Anything too industry specific will almost certainly not be particularly beneficial for anyone who doesn't plan to go into that industry.

[Like_A_G6]

Bristol if you like clubbing and night-life but don't mind hills.
Nottingham if you like the prospect of Bristol but are not really into night-life and don't want a campus centred around the whole city.
Southampton if......I still don't know why I decided to go Southampton. Oh yeh, it's because no other uni would let me in. Accommodation is cheaper than Bristol and Nottingham, supermarkets are miles away from campus, it's the only coastal city without a beach and overall a disappointment. For any night-life we need to spend a good hour standing in a crowded bus and head down to the Southampton Solent area where all the clubs and bars are
Birmingham if you want to get in to uni to do engineering but don't think you'll get AAA.

[siwelmail]

(Original post by Alpha-Omega)
No, that's why I am confused.

After doing some research, I've narrowed it down between Southampton and Bristol.

Which one do you think is better? Southampton or Bristol?

In terms of:

Job Prospects:
Teaching Quality:
Student Life:
Appearance of University and City:
Friendliness of people in General:

This.

Southampton

[Like_A_G6]

(Original post by siwelmail)
This.

Southampton

If you look at career after 6 months, something that is much more in line with what an undergraduate cares about, Bristol's is higher.

[Alpha-Omega]

(Original post by Like_A_G6)
Bristol if you like clubbing and night-life but don't mind hills.
Nottingham if you like the prospect of Bristol but are not really into night-life and don't want a campus centred around the whole city.
Southampton if......I still don't know why I decided to go Southampton. Oh yeh, it's because no other uni would let me in. Accommodation is cheaper than Bristol and Nottingham, supermarkets are miles away from campus, it's the only coastal city without a beach and overall a disappointment. For any night-life we need to spend a good hour standing in a crowded bus and head down to the Southampton Solent area where all the clubs and bars are
Birmingham if you want to get in to uni to do engineering but don't think you'll get AAA.

Thanks, that was informative. Do you know anything about UCL's mechanical engineering course?

Also, would you pick Bristol over Southampton? or Southampton over Bristol?

3-1 to Bristol

[Alpha-Omega]

(Original post by siwelmail)
This.

Southampton

I might just put Southampton as insurance as they have lower entry requirement anyways. Hmmm... do you have any idea why is the Guardian Mech Eng League Table have not placed any data for satisfaction in UCL?

[siwelmail]

(Original post by Alpha-Omega)
I might just put Southampton as insurance as they have lower entry requirement anyways. Hmmm... do you have any idea why is the Guardian Mech Eng League Table have not placed any data for satisfaction in UCL?

No sorry, probably cause they're too high or something.

(Original post by Like_A_G6)
If you look at career after 6 months, something that is much more in line with what an undergraduate cares about, Bristol's is higher.

And you are?

[Like_A_G6]

(Original post by Alpha-Omega)
Thanks, that was informative. Do you know anything about UCL's mechanical engineering course?

Also, would you pick Bristol over Southampton? or Southampton over Bristol?

3-1 to Bristol

UCL is not good for mech engineering. It's probably their worst course. If you want to do engineering in London, Imperial is the better bet, or you should look at Engineering with business finance which is half at UCL and half at LSE and is mainly electrical engineering, which is something UCL are fairly good at.

It's down to personal preference really as to whether you firm or insure Bristol/Southampton. Both unis have excellent resources that undergraduates in their first year aren't allowed to look at let alone touch.

I'm at Southampton so can speak for them but I can't speak for Bristol. Southampton is a bit hit and miss when it comes to teaching. Some lectures are good and you learn a lot from them, like materials where you get to see a lot of interesting case studies describing flaws in materials that caused incidents like the sinking of the titanic. Other lectures are terrible (like the first half of thermo). It was delivered by a guy who had no idea what he was talking about and spent more time gazing at the powerpoint slides in confusion than explaining anything to us. We now have a new lecturer for thermo and it's actually quite interesting. In case you don't understand something, lecturers do give you a hard copy of all lecture slides, so if you study them you should do well. Exams are designed so students average around the 65% mark with not too high or low of a standard deviation away from that.

The one, and probably the only thing, I absolutely love about engineering at Southampton is projects. We were set one where we had to design a race car wing to be simulated around the campus and we had to see what the fastest time we could get. We've been set another project where we have to design a boat which will actually be built and then raced between two ports at Southampton harbour.

I think i'd be right in saying no matter which uni you are it, if you're lazy and don't do work you'll fail, but if you put the hours in, you'll do well.

[Alpha-Omega]

(Original post by Like_A_G6)
UCL is not good for mech engineering. It's probably their worst course. If you want to do engineering in London, Imperial is the better bet, or you should look at Engineering with business finance which is half at UCL and half at LSE and is mainly electrical engineering, which is something UCL are fairly good at.

It's down to personal preference really as to whether you firm or insure Bristol/Southampton. Both unis have excellent resources that undergraduates in their first year aren't allowed to look at let alone touch.

I'm at Southampton so can speak for them but I can't speak for Bristol. Southampton is a bit hit and miss when it comes to teaching. Some lectures are good and you learn a lot from them, like materials where you get to see a lot of interesting case studies describing flaws in materials that caused incidents like the sinking of the titanic. Other lectures are terrible (like the first half of thermo). It was delivered by a guy who had no idea what he was talking about and spent more time gazing at the powerpoint slides in confusion than explaining anything to us. We now have a new lecturer for thermo and it's actually quite interesting. In case you don't understand something, lecturers do give you a hard copy of all lecture slides, so if you study them you should do well. Exams are designed so students average around the 65% mark with not too high or low of a standard deviation away from that.

The one, and probably the only thing, I absolutely love about engineering at Southampton is projects. We were set one where we had to design a race car wing to be simulated around the campus and we had to see what the fastest time we could get. We've been set another project where we have to design a boat which will actually be built and then raced between two ports at Southampton harbour.

I think i'd be right in saying no matter which uni you are it, if you're lazy and don't do work you'll fail, but if you put the hours in, you'll do well.

Thanks. I'm so excited getting to uni.

How does the Engineering Building and lecture rooms of Southampton Uni look like? Could you describe it to me or, if you have a picture of it, share it?

I've been looking for it in Google, but with no success.

[Like_A_G6]

(Original post by Alpha-Omega)
Thanks. I'm so excited getting to uni.

How does the Engineering Building and lecture rooms of Southampton Uni look like? Could you describe it to me or, if you have a picture of it, share it?

I've been looking for it in Google, but with no success.

Yep I shall describe it. The lecture theatre in which ALL your lectures take place in the first semester is building 46 on the highfield campus map, room 3001. It's a normal lecture theatre that look like this:



from the front. From the back:



Highfield campus map:

http://www.southampton.ac.uk/visitus...eld_3d_key.pdf

Building 46 is the physics building and looks like this (only picture which makes it look half good):



Building 5, 7 and 9 are where your labs are usually held. They are typical of any workshop. You have benches at the rear of the room with clamp stands on and all cutting and tapping tools you may need. Towards the front there are many large pieces of equipment like pillar drills which you'll learn to use in the first semester, but most people should already know how to use them. This is what the building looks like:



Building 9 and 7 are joined and it's the building on the right that you see. Building 5 is further up the road but is joined to building 7 and 9.

There's one lab room with a massive engine in which is 100 or so years old which you also get to play around with in your first semester.

Your supervisions generally take place in a variety of buildings, but our group have got all our supervisions in a single building:



The supervision rooms look like a typical small classroom but can't find any pics of it.

The library is pretty cool, it's big but like all unis you wish it could be bigger. It's 5 flours including basement and they have many computer rooms as well. Cold food and drink are allowed on the first two floors, covered drinks only on third floor and no food or drink on the top two.

Library from front:



Library from rear (view from outside building 5):



Oh yeh, there's a civil engineering building designed by civil engineers at the back of the uni that's closed off as it's sinking into the ground. They can't knock it down as it's listed.

To view the campus, go onto google maps and search SO17 1BJ and go to street view.

Hope that helps.

[Alpha-Omega]

Wow, that was more than I was expecting!

I wish someone would do the same for Bristol Uni's Mech Eng Building - I can only see the front of Queens Building in Google Maps.

Thanks G6