Cambridge Engineering Students and Applicants

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mistrydude

I applied for natsci but i almost applied for engineering and several of my mates got in, the 2 qualities they are looking for is academic ability and motivation to study engineering.

So if your not already doin F maths, nows the time to pick it up, and if u cant do as much as you can. You need to be able to apply maths and physics to problems, so you need to understand it all inside out. Most of the interview will probably focus on this.

for extra curricular, you've probably missed your opportunity to take part in the engineering education scheme, but ask around at your school, (the project we did more or less got 2 of my team Imperial offers). You should think about taking part in a Headstart course (theres one at cambridge) which is where u basically stay at uni and do like a taster course in engineering. Some work experience would be useful. there are also some cool competitions like the schools aerospace challenge (google it) whihc are not only very good fun but very nice to talk about at interview. the Royal society of eng and several other organisations have some very good opportunities too.

IMO the academic side is more important but I can tell you point you in the right direction for lots of fun relevant extra curriculars if u pm me

Well I sort of agree with this, but the academic side is most important. I didn't do headstart because simply there were no places left when I applied. To be honest I don't think the admissions tutors are only going to accept people who have had the chance for headstart etc. It is a neglible difference.

The important thing is enthusiasm.

Take a look at this Prison Break where Scofield talks about why he chose a career in Engineering:

http://dv.ouou.com/swf/ouou.swf?id=38d7f45b65cc3

The interview starts at 1.10 seconds.

Reply 41

ukebert

mabe_uk

TBH 70% in m2 is quite good, a B. I hope to get that. But 85/90 in FFE is pretty solid, Im personally aiming for 80 ish out of 90 in FFE, there is so much to learn in it.

Not compared to my other modules it isn't ;no; I got 2 in the 70's, 2 in the 80's and 8 in the 90's :proud:

Reply 42

ebam_uk

ukebert

Not compared to my other modules it isn't ;no; I got 2 in the 70's, 2 in the 80's and 8 in the 90's :proud:

So far got 1 "100"

"6" in 90's

"5" 80's.

But I can except that A2 in general the grades might be lower.

Reply 43

ukebert

mabe_uk

So far got 1 "100"

"6" in 90's

"5" 80's.

But I can except that A2 in general the grades might be lower.

I got one 100 as well, C3. Missed out hundreds in many others, got 96 or 97 in M1, C1, C2, FP1.

Reply 44

ebam_uk

ukebert

I got one 100 as well, C3. Missed out hundreds in many others, got 96 or 97 in M1, C1, C2, FP1.

I guess its just silly mistakes/not reading question/ not reading questions properly that made the difference between 95 % and 100%. So I guess its just luck to get 100 UMS pretty much.

Reply 45

ukebert

mabe_uk

I guess its just silly mistakes/not reading question/ not reading questions properly that made the difference between 95 % and 100%. So I guess its just luck to get 100 UMS pretty much.

I know. It's just frustrating thinking well, if I hadn't made whichever silly mistake it was...

A few of them of course I knew that I had mucked up.

Reply 46

Fointy

I ended up going to do a headstart course at Loughborough for Systems engineering cus I only decided I wanted to do Engineering pretty late on and that was all that was left. I'd recommend you do one if you can. Not that I learnt particularly much on mine, but it does help for you PS.

I also picked up Further Maths in my A2 year and I think helped show enthusiasm and probably got some brownie points. And finally I've chosen to do a Year in Industry (www.yini.org.uk) before going to uni and that again has helped quite a bit. Certain colleges (i.e. Queens'!) really encourage their engineers to do a YINI or similar scheme.

Finally, do really well in your AS exams. I would honestly say the ASs are more important than A2s cus its them that get you your offers for unis. So if you get around 90% on all of them, you can get decent offers and then reach them easily cus you'd only need to get a low B or so to reach an A grade overall.

Reply 47

MichaelHolmes

I don't entirely agree with the non-subject related reading - Cambridge would care about how good you are at Physics/Maths/science etc related to engineering, not whether he's read Nietzsche or not..

yeah, thats true. but its something to put in your personal statement, anyway.

xplosiv, i know you wont have learnt much yet, having just started, but it would be a good idea to read ahead in the syllabus in your spare time and teach yourself bits - it'll mean you'll be confident with the work already by the time your teacher covers it with you, and should help you get those 90%+ maths grades, which cambridge look for really (they look at individual module results).

Reply 48

menagerie

Hello again. It finally came up on track:

Decision: Conditional
Conditions:
This offer is subject to you obtaining

GCE A level
Grade A - Mathematics
and Grade A - Further Mathematics
and Grade A - Physics

HOME STATUS

What does HOME STATUS mean? Did it come up on any of your offers?

Reply 49

-Matt-

nonplussed

What does HOME STATUS mean? Did it come up on any of your offers?

I'd guess it means you're a home student (as opposed to international). Not sure though.

Matt

Reply 50

Fointy

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Personal_Statement :colone:

ngineering_8

Was that yours ukebert by any chance?

(Edit: I've read it all now. Undoubtedly is.)

Reply 51

ukebert

Fointy

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Personal_Statement :colone:

ngineering_8

Was that yours ukebert by any chance?

(Edit: I've read it all now. Undoubtedly is.)

Might be

Reply 52

huhu

How could anybody possibly be interested in signal processing?
I would trough myself out of the window rather than spending one minute of my leisure time with signals :heeeellll

Reply 53

ukebert

huhu

How could anybody possibly be interested in signal processing?
I would trough myself out of the window rather than spending one minute of my leisure time with signals :heeeellll

I liked it :p:

Reply 54

thefish_uk

huhu

How could anybody possibly be interested in signal processing?
I would trough myself out of the window rather than spending one minute of my leisure time with signals :heeeellll

You better like it.

They seem to manage to find space for frequency response and transfer functions in everything here.

Reply 55

KwungSun

Were any of you engineering guys (gals) thinking of applying to Physical Natsci? If so, how did you decide?

Reply 56

ukebert

KwungSun

Were any of you engineering guys (gals) thinking of applying to Physical Natsci? If so, how did you decide?

I was, briefly. I decided that I was really interested in applied, rather than theoretical. "Scientists dream of doing great things. Engineers do them".

Reply 57

KwungSun

ukebert

I was, briefly. I decided that I was really interested in applied, rather than theoretical. "Scientists dream of doing great things. Engineers do them".

Is there a large(ish) hands-on part to the course?

Reply 58

ukebert

KwungSun

Is there a large(ish) hands-on part to the course?

To the Engineering course? I think you do do a fair bit of shop work, but it was the design aspect of Engineering as a discipline that swayed me.

Reply 59

thefish_uk

KwungSun

Is there a large(ish) hands-on part to the course?

There's a lot of labs but they're not as extreme as NatScis' (ie. we have 3 or 4 2 hour labs a week, they have one 6-8 hour one).

As far as actually making stuff goes there isn't that much, in fact there are only two small (as in a few weeks long) projects in the first two years where you really do any... for one of them you design, build and test a little bridge or cantilever truss, and for the other it's like that for a little robot that has to carry out a task. The number of people on the course I've met who had never really done wood or metalwork before surprised me.

If you do want to make stuff there are societies such as Formula Student, solar car racing plus one that is making an underwater robot... alternatively you could do what I do and go to the theatre for my regular fix of bodging things / hitting them with a hammer.