The Student Room Group

Is it too late to change what course you want to do in uni in year 12?

Hey

I've been saying I'll read maths at uni for as long as I can remember. I had hints of doing Med, Vet med, sciences etc as well but I always stuck with maths so I've planned masterclasses and summer school and stuff for that. -And I do maths, further maths, chem and phys btw for AS.

However, I'm sort of swaying toward Vet Med now (but still not 100% sure as I do like maths a lot) as I don't really know where I'll end up with a maths degree, but with a vet med degree I feel like my career is more secure and definate in a way.

Anyway, is it too late to change what I want to do now? Based on all the competition there is now with people who have probably already sorted out their work experiences, research etc. ?

Thanks in advance :smile:
Reply 1
Well, it's not too late, though you probably should try to do at least AS Biology next year. And you'll need to arrange work experience for at least your summer holidays.

Though with a maths degree, on paper, if anything, it shows that you've got brains, not to mention you'd be employable in the financial sector, in maths degrees you'd even be able to study quantum physics, so that's another path you might want to explore. Besides, maths is such an interesting degree as well, if I'm not applying for engineering, maths would've been my choice. I mean, if you're more interested in and attracted to maths than all other subjects, go for maths, it's not like some kind of study of pre-historic rock formation or the research into the evolution of maps.

If you really want a highly employable degree for uni, you can also go for one of the many varieties of engineering, and I only really realised that engineering was for me (in terms of job prospects and degree content) at around the end of my AS year anyway.

Though talking to my friends, apparently the veterinarians are relatively underpaid, much less than doctors i think.

And: I'm doing the same A levels as you, just took them all to A2
(edited 13 years ago)
Reply 2
Original post by Jiamenguk
Well, it's not too late, though you probably should try to do at least AS Biology next year. And you'll need to arrange work experience for at least your summer holidays.

Though with a maths degree, on paper, if anything, it shows that you've got brains, not to mention you'd be employable in the financial sector, in maths degrees you'd even be able to study quantum physics, so that's another path you might want to explore. Besides, maths is such an interesting degree as well, if I'm not applying for engineering, maths would've been my choice. I mean, if you're more interested in and attracted to maths than all other subjects, go for maths, it's not like some kind of study of pre-historic rock formation or the research into the evolution of maps.

If you really want a highly employable degree for uni, you can also go for one of the many varieties of engineering, and I only really realised that engineering was for me (in terms of job prospects and degree content) at around the end of my AS year anyway.

Though talking to my friends, apparently the veterinarians are relatively underpaid, much less than doctors i think.

And: I'm doing the same A levels as you, just took them all to A2


Yeah that's the only thing, I do love maths, but I just don't want to end up in the financial sector at all (or anything related like economics, business stuff etc.) and that sort of cuts out a big section of jobs available. And then I'm sort of stuck on what I could actually do with that degree. The only thing that ever comes to mind is mathematican lol.

Yeah I did also consider engineering, chemical engineering always interested me the most. But I'm still very confused about what to do. Which engineering course are you applying for?

But then I can imagine being a vet and I would probably enjoy it a lot..:\

How are you finding doing 4 full A levels then? And looking at your profile, Imperial have asked for four grades; aren't you finding that a bit unfair lol?

Anyways, thanks again :smile:

Also, so for the whole of your AS year you didn't go to any masterclasses or do work experience or anything for engineering?
(edited 13 years ago)
Reply 3
Original post by Kay94
Yeah that's the only thing, I do love maths, but I just don't want to end up in the financial sector at all (or anything related like economics, business stuff etc.) and that sort of cuts out a big section of jobs available. And then I'm sort of stuck on what I could actually do with that degree. The only thing that ever comes to mind is mathematican lol.

Yeah I did also consider engineering, chemical engineering always interested me the most. But I'm still very confused about what to do. Which engineering course are you applying for?

But then I can imagine being a vet and I would probably enjoy it a lot..:\

How are you finding doing 4 full A levels then? And looking at your profile, Imperial have asked for four grades; aren't you finding that a bit unfair lol?

Anyways, thanks again :smile:

Also, so for the whole of your AS year you didn't go to any masterclasses or do work experience or anything for engineering?


Well, for engineering, I went to a engineering day at a Ricardo center, and did the Nuffield Bursary, which is more of a science thing but still really, really useful. I also subscribed to the New Scientist (which probably isn't that related to engineering either, but still useful) and some engineering websites. I had a work experience during Year 10 at an engineering firm, but AS is definitely not too late to start doing work experiences for engineering. I think what most top universities look for in engineers isn't just how much work experience you'd had, but also how much you love the subject, and for engineering, since there isn't really an A level for it, they do want you to love maths.

For vet medicine, I would recommend to do a work experience on it quite early, just to see if it's for you (i think vets are more than happy to provide work experiences since it's like having someone else in the clinic without paying a salary). A friend of mine really wanted to do vet med and then did a work experience during her summer holiday and found that it was more about opening up a dog's stomach than petting the animals to sleep (exaggeration, but the dog stomach probably isn't), and in the end applied for biology instead.

Imperial ended up correcting my offer from A*AAA to A*AA or A*AAa where the "a" is for AS Further and the A*AA is for Maths, Physics and Further. Though with these kind of Uni's 4 A Level offers are possible due to how competitive they are, but if I got more than 90% in Chemistry AS, I wouldn't really mind a 4 A level offer.

I mainly applied for Electrical and Electronic, which somehow I always thought to be more pure maths-y (though it probably isn't), but for Cambridge they only have Engineering and then you specialise in the 3rd year, or for Chem eng branch off from the 2nd year, which might be a kind of course you might be interested in.

I mean, with Maths, being a mathematician is probably less horrifying that it sounds, you could be trying to find the non-mind-bending proof for Fermat's last theorem or a way to find very large prime-numbers or something, and people do actually invest in this kind of research, and the top-end maths research is useful in things like computer security. I mean, maybe you're not going to become millionaires researching about numbers and stuff, but it's definitely possible.

Quick Reply

Latest