Accept Imperial Mech Eng Offer or reapply to Cambridge next year?

Well the fact we cover mechanical, structures, electrical, in 1st year, means that unlike the Imperial undergrad, who would have just done mechanical we have covered a bigger range.

Technically I may be accredited by all IMECH, ICE, IStruct, IET etc. but the actual work covered could possibly be less than someone who has just done mechanical, structures, or electrical etc.

You got a source?

My assumption was based on
http://www.topuniversities.com/worlduniversityrankings/results/2008/subject_rankings/technology/

You can't be accredited to all those. You will have to choose which one and take the appropriate later year options in order to fulfil its requrements.

Yes you can! Any route is accredited lol at least from my year of entry!

So my classmate got an offer for Mechanical engineering @ Imperial for this year but got rejected for Engineering at Cambridge. Now she is a perfectionist like me and is seriously considering to decline the imperial offer and to reapply to cambridge next year for engineering, for reasons such as honour, prestige, family tradition, job/earning prospects, the "cambridge experience", lower living costs, more diversified student body etc. What do you think she should do? Will the extra investment in cost/time and risk for declining the Imperial offer and reapplying to cambridge next year yield extra benefits for her career and personal development it in the long run?

Any, yes. But I'm sure you'll find, if you investigate, that you can only gain accreditation to only one engineering institution. If you look here (http://www.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/courses/engineering/index.html ), you'll see it says...

Actually, no.

If you look here, where it's detailed fully, you'll see that the course is accredited for all of the major ones (IMechE, ICE, IStructE, IET, RAeS) no matter what combination of options we choose, as long as we choose at least two management / business options in our third and fourth years which everyone does anyway.

I suggest you read a bit further. This document (http://www.eng.cam.ac.uk/teaching/teachoff/3&4year_options.pdf) makes it clear that qualification for one institution is the norm (though it is possible to gain accreditation for more than one, presumably if they overlap sufficiently well) and certainly not all (unless you don't want to sleep for two years).

The rows on the table you linked to are additive, and to understand their meaning should actually be read in the negative - if you haven't taken two management/business options you can't be qualified for any area (which is why everyone takes them, of course).

So my classmate got an offer for Mechanical engineering @ Imperial for this year but got rejected for Engineering at Cambridge. Now she is a perfectionist like me and is seriously considering to decline the imperial offer and to reapply to cambridge next year for engineering, for reasons such as honour, prestige, family tradition, job/earning prospects, the "cambridge experience", lower living costs, more diversified student body etc. What do you think she should do? Will the extra investment in cost/time and risk for declining the Imperial offer and reapplying to cambridge next year yield extra benefits for her career and personal development it in the long run?

AFAIK Cambridge won't accept transfers into year 2 of undergrad studies - Oxford certainly doesn't.

Hardly more specialised, since at Cambridge you can get the same IMechE-accredited qualification at the end if that is the disciple you choose. Cambridge makes a point of saying that its course is not general engineering and that all students emerge with a specialist qualification and similar knowledge as those from specialist courses. The same applies at Oxford and Warwick.

So my classmate got an offer for Mechanical engineering @ Imperial for this year but got rejected for Engineering at Cambridge. Now she is a perfectionist like me and is seriously considering to decline the imperial offer and to reapply to cambridge next year for engineering, for reasons such as honour, prestige, family tradition, job/earning prospects, the "cambridge experience", lower living costs, more diversified student body etc. What do you think she should do? Will the extra investment in cost/time and risk for declining the Imperial offer and reapplying to cambridge next year yield extra benefits for her career and personal development it in the long run?