General Engineering vs Aeronautical Engineering

Hey guys,

I am having trouble deciding whether to apply for a general engineering degree then specialise in aeronautical or apply for a straight Aeronautical degree.

I am thinking of writing the personal statement with a bit of aeronautical engineering and applying to:

Cambridge (General then specialise aeronautics)
Durham (General then specialise aeronautics)
Imperial (Aeronautical)
Bath/Bristol/Southampton (Aeronautical)
Surrey (Aerospace)

Predicted 4 A* for Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Chemistry

I definitely want to do aeronautical engineering in the end. What do you guys think?

Thanks,

Reply 1

Puddles the Monkey

21

Original post by gaf2345

Hey guys,

I am having trouble deciding whether to apply for a general engineering degree then specialise in aeronautical or apply for a straight Aeronautical degree.

I am thinking of writing the personal statement with a bit of aeronautical engineering and applying to:

Cambridge (General then specialise aeronautics)
Durham (General then specialise aeronautics)
Imperial (Aeronautical)
Bath/Bristol/Southampton (Aeronautical)
Surrey (Aerospace)

Predicted 4 A* for Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Chemistry

I definitely want to do aeronautical engineering in the end. What do you guys think?

Thanks,

Hey, just giving this thread a little bump in the hopes someone will see it and reply :smile:

Have you found University Connect yet? It's super useful for finding other people on your course/at your university! :smile:

Reply 2

username1490724

16

Original post by gaf2345

Hey guys,

I am having trouble deciding whether to apply for a general engineering degree then specialise in aeronautical or apply for a straight Aeronautical degree.

I am thinking of writing the personal statement with a bit of aeronautical engineering and applying to:

Cambridge (General then specialise aeronautics)
Durham (General then specialise aeronautics)
Imperial (Aeronautical)
Bath/Bristol/Southampton (Aeronautical)
Surrey (Aerospace)

Predicted 4 A* for Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Chemistry

I definitely want to do aeronautical engineering in the end. What do you guys think?

Thanks,

Cool! Are you fascinated by aeroplanes and jets?

Reply 3

ihavemooedtoday

17

Original post by gaf2345

Hey guys,

I am having trouble deciding whether to apply for a general engineering degree then specialise in aeronautical or apply for a straight Aeronautical degree.

I am thinking of writing the personal statement with a bit of aeronautical engineering and applying to:

Cambridge (General then specialise aeronautics)
Durham (General then specialise aeronautics)
Imperial (Aeronautical)
Bath/Bristol/Southampton (Aeronautical)
Surrey (Aerospace)

Predicted 4 A* for Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Chemistry

I definitely want to do aeronautical engineering in the end. What do you guys think?

Thanks,

If you definitely, or even reasonably certainly, know you what you want to do in the end, I would highly recommend just starting in that.

There is a lot of discussion on this exact topic in this thread if you want to take a look - Oxford vs Imperial Engineering

Reply 4

AeroM

7

Original post by gaf2345

Hey guys,

I am having trouble deciding whether to apply for a general engineering degree then specialise in aeronautical or apply for a straight Aeronautical degree.

I am thinking of writing the personal statement with a bit of aeronautical engineering and applying to:

Cambridge (General then specialise aeronautics)
Durham (General then specialise aeronautics)
Imperial (Aeronautical)
Bath/Bristol/Southampton (Aeronautical)
Surrey (Aerospace)

Predicted 4 A* for Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Chemistry

I definitely want to do aeronautical engineering in the end. What do you guys think?

Thanks,

I am similar to you in that, from the outset, I knew I wanted to eventually specialise in aero.

I chose to go for a course which taught aero-related modules from the first year and I'm glad I did; throughout my time at university these have always been my preferred modules. I'm not sure I'd be able to study two years of general engineering given that it's aeroplanes I wanted to learn about from the beginning!

Have you considered whether you'd like to do a placement year in industry? If so, it's worth noting that not all of the universities you've listed offer such sandwich courses. Of those that do, the placement year typically takes place after your second year of study. If you choose to apply to companies in the aerospace sector then the more aerospace knowledge you can learn beforehand the better (i.e. two years of general engineering may not be the most appropriate - in my opinion anyway!).

Reply 5

0le

21

Its a difficult one. I'll tell you this. Being able to specialise straight away is great - particularly if you enjoy what you are specializing in. There is a major downside though. There will be a lot of general stuff you miss out on if you don't go for something like Mechanical or general engineering. As a personal example, I did less CAD work, less thermodynamics, little to no work related to gears, shafts and such as well and finally I just did one unit on Electronics and that was that so I can't apply for anything related to Electrical engineering. As an example, I was asked to supply the electrical modules I had taken to an engineering company and they flat out said that wasn't enough. Finally, in 99.9% of the Aero jobs, Mechanical engineering students would be accepted, at least that is what I've found. As a consequence, you do start to question whether its worth the hassle to specialise in a very small engineering sector.

On the plus side, you focus more on Aerodynamics :biggrin:

and jet engines. You learn a great deal about flight mechanics, the sensors and equipment involved and all these things are transferable, so you can still apply to many engineering jobs including F1. The ones you won't be able to are mainly electrical, civil and computer science related whereas having done a mechanical or better, a general engineering degree MAY have been more transferable in those areas.

Just a final word of caution. Its one thing to have a great passion for aircraft. Its a totally different ball game actually learning the mathematics, physics and computer software that goes on behind the scenes. As a result, you may well find yourself thinking "this may not be for me" down the line. So if you do go for an Aero degree, make sure you do pick options that would help you transfer to another branch of engineering more easily (I did wind [turbines] and marine for instance on top of Aero related stuff which helped me apply for energy related companies).

(edited 9 years ago)

General Engineering vs Aeronautical Engineering

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