Uni help

Hi all,

I am currently in my final year of secondary school and we have been asked to complete a first draft personal statement for when we go back in mid August. However, I have a few concerns.

I am wanting to study a maths/physics based course (possibly Mathematical Physics). How would I structure my personal statement? The course I want to do at Edinburgh is under physics section in the prospectus, but would I mention both maths and physics in my personal statement or just physics???

Also, I am hoping to go on to do a Ph.D in this subject. But, before that, do I apply for
bachelors or masters for next year entry? Like, do you have to do the former before the latter or can you go to masters straight from secondary school???

Sorry if this doesnt make much sense, its just that I feel that we have been told next to nothing about how Uni works in school and I have searched high and low on Ye Old Internet for this type of info but have had little success.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 1

Carnationlilyrose

Original post by theship555

Hi all,

I am currently in my final year in secondary school and we have been asked to complete a first draft personal statement for when we go back in mid August. However, I have a slight problem.

I am wanting to study a maths/physics based course (possibly Mathematical Physics). How would I structure my personal statement? The course I want to do at Edinburgh is under physics but would I mention both maths and physics in my personal statement or just physics???

Also, I am hoping to go on to do a Ph.D in this subject. But, before that, do I apply for
bachelors or masters? Like, do you have to do the former before the latter or can you go to masters straight from secondary school???

Sorry if this doesnt make much sense, its just that I feel that we have been told next to nothing about how Uni works in school and I have search high and low on Ye Old Internet with little success.

Decide which course you really want to do, and just apply for that. A ps for two subjects will fall between tow stools, and you will come across as uncommitted or ill-informed about the course.

Apply for a bachelors degree first. You are a very long way away from applying for postgraduate courses and a lot will happen in between.

Reply 2

theship555

Thank you so much. Now I know that the forums provide much better advice than teachers/parents

cheers! :smile:

Reply 3

Carnationlilyrose

Original post by theship555

Thank you so much. Now I know that the forums provide much better advice than teachers/parents

cheers! :smile:

That depends on the teachers and parents. I'm both. :wink:

Reply 4

theship555

Original post by carnationlilyrose

That depends on the teachers and parents. I'm both. :wink:

I'm pretty certain that I will go ahead and do Mathematical Physics so should I put more emphasis on the physics (the subject area in the prospectus) in the PS or would I mention maths and physics to the same extent?

Reply 5

Jkizer

You need a bachelors to do a masters

It's probably easier to apply for master courses of whatever you want to do since it makes your life a lot easier regarding student finance (you can decide to scrap the masters if you change your mind during university for no cost anyways)

Statement wise, you probably wanna link maths and physics - much easier than most other subjects. Though since both subjects crossover so much, I wouldn't over worry too much if you decide for one joint honours - I had a friend who applied for 4 different joint honours for economics and got 4/5 offers at some very good unis purely writing about economics

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Reply 6

Carnationlilyrose

Original post by theship555

You will have to judge this carefully. If both subjects are weighted equally in the course descriptions, then do the same. If it's more physics based then give it a slight skew that way. If you aren't applying for either single maths or single physics in the same application (and you really shouldn't if you want to maximise your chances), it's not a big deal.

Reply 7

Carnationlilyrose

Original post by Jkizer

Since OP doesn't know about how degrees work, it's worth clarifying that undergraduate masters are different to postgraduate ones and are available in some STEM subjects. As you say, it's often better to apply for the masters if it's available and drop out of that final year if circumstances change than to try to do it the other way. Undergraduate masters are covered by student finance as postgraduate ones are not, but they remain of lower 'value' than a postgrad qualification. And let's not cloud the issue by mentioning that some of the ancient Scottish universities call their undergraduate degrees masters....