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Life in an Aerospace Degree Questions

Hi guys, i will hopefully be starting at Swansea to study aerospace in september, i just have some questions for anyone studying aerospace.

how many hours of lectures do you have a week?

how much extra work (out of class work) do you do?

what do you wear? is is collared shirt? or just casual? safety restiction in labs? no trainers ect.

how much free time do you have?

is your time much more restricted compared to friends doing a "softer" degree?

thanks for any answers :smile:

Reply 1

SillyEddy

I do neither aerospace nor study at Swansea, but there are plenty of generalisations across the board. I do mechanical engineering at Coventry.

The number of lectures I get per week varies quite a bit. At best, around 5 hours of lectures a week. At worst, maybe 16 or so. It depends if something specific is on. You'll also get labs, workshop time and tutorials. These will take a further 8-10 hours in some cases. Mostly it was 9am starts, and sometimes a 6pm finish. It's not usually full time though, you might have a couple of hours of something and maybe the rest of the day off.

How much extra work outside of classes? Well, you can do revision and reading ahead at your own pace. I really didn't do much in the first year except for the prescribed work and any homework. I probably spent 5-10 hours or so a week doing coursework or revision or whatever. Several hours of those would be spent researching labs (as we would present posters on our findings) or just doing normal bits of coursework. We usually got given a 15 minute online quiz from one lecturer and that came into it too. I don't like reading ahead or finding work to do, but I don't get lazy either. Get the work done, and all is well.

What do I wear? Pretty much whatever I want. So long as it's not offensive, you can wear what you like to university. Some "elite" universities may have traditions or rules, but many are flexible. I like wearing casual shirts, but just stay comfy. For doing things in workshops and labs, you'll need steel toed boots. These were given to us, but you may have to buy yours. We also wore boiler suits and safety glasses when working with materials. It's advisable not to wear anything loose nor flammable - Especially when working with machinery or torches!

I had quite a lot of free time actually. Even on days with significant amounts of coursework or projects, there was always time to do something. On most days, I would be finished (lectures, tutorials and my own work) by 3pm. However, when it gets busy, 3am is not unheard of. On a typical week, I'd be completely free by 6pm, so you should be able to go out. As a rule of the university, Wednesday afternoons would be free so that people could do sports and societies (it's up to you if you do, but the time is there). The mornings were usually free as well, so Tuesday was always a good social night out.

It's hard to say how ones time compares to someone elses. There are degrees where people only get 3-5 hours of contact time a week, and engineering and sciences do have significantly more contact time. I don't find myself being restricted though. I think it's important to have a social life outside of the work. Set a date with your flat mates or coursemates just to go out and do something. I am part of a society where we will meet up for a social drink on a Monday, go out for sport on a Wednesday and go out of the city once a month for the weekend to go mountain climbing. Things like that are a blessing as you'll have some objective to complete your work for. Finishing a massive piece of coursework and then going to the pub to be with likeminded people and your friends is a fantastic feeling. If you plan with friends when to go out, you'll find yourself more focused on getting your work done and won't have people nagging you to go out if they're on the same schedule.