Help me brainstorm my choices. Portsmouth or Greenwich Medway for engineering?

Hi people
I've applied for uni this year and have had all of my replies back, with positive results. My choices are as follows:



The problem is, I think I'm on track for a BBB, as I need high marks to get an A in any one of my subjects. I was initially going to put Queen Mary as my firm, but I'm having doubts about Mechanical Engineering. Are there any current students on here that can let me know what Civil and Mech Engineerings entail? I have my heart set on being involved in structural design and engineering.

I may just put Brunel as my firm, because they're the uni I've heard a lot about. I live in South London, so the location is pretty nice for me. However, I'm just worried about getting that A grade, but should I just risk it?

As for my insurance choice, I was going to choose from Portsmouth or Greenwich. From what I've heard, Portsmouth has a lot of stuff to do around the uni and Medway is the complete opposite. Could someone clarify this for me please? I don't drink and I'm not someone who enjoys clubbing, so I just need places to chill with my friends and have a night out really.

Overall, I'd want a uni where the engineering facilities are to high standards. I should be driving soon, so travelling to and from uni would be another factor to take into account, but not a major one. I want to live out anyway.

Thanks for reading, and any positive opinions will be appreciated

Hi people
I've applied for uni this year and have had all of my replies back, with positive results. My choices are as follows:



The problem is, I think I'm on track for a BBB, as I need high marks to get an A in any one of my subjects. I was initially going to put Queen Mary as my firm, but I'm having doubts about Mechanical Engineering. Are there any current students on here that can let me know what Civil and Mech Engineerings entail? I have my heart set on being involved in structural design and engineering.

I may just put Brunel as my firm, because they're the uni I've heard a lot about. I live in South London, so the location is pretty nice for me. However, I'm just worried about getting that A grade, but should I just risk it?

As for my insurance choice, I was going to choose from Portsmouth or Greenwich. From what I've heard, Portsmouth has a lot of stuff to do around the uni and Medway is the complete opposite. Could someone clarify this for me please? I don't drink and I'm not someone who enjoys clubbing, so I just need places to chill with my friends and have a night out really.

Overall, I'd want a uni where the engineering facilities are to high standards. I should be driving soon, so travelling to and from uni would be another factor to take into account, but not a major one. I want to live out anyway.

Thanks for reading, and any positive opinions will be appreciated

Civil is buildings, roads, bridges, tunnels and canals etc. Mechanical is almost everything that is engineered that doesn't include what i've just said. So they're very opposite degrees in that respect. If you have your "heart set on structural design" then i'd suggest you don't go to queen mary.

Also I think it would be a shame if you gave up on going to a better university because you weren't 100% confident you could get that A. You can do it mate.

Civil is buildings, roads, bridges, tunnels and canals etc. Mechanical is almost everything that is engineered that doesn't include what i've just said. So they're very opposite degrees in that respect. If you have your "heart set on structural design" then i'd suggest you don't go to queen mary.

Also I think it would be a shame if you gave up on going to a better university because you weren't 100% confident you could get that A. You can do it mate. Just put in that extra bit of work - maybe just 30mins extra a day - and you'll reap the rewards when you get in to a uni doing something you want to do. I.e put the likes of Surrey (which is a great uni btw - forget all that polytechnic stuff (above)) as your number one and then choose a place with grade requirements you're 100% sure you can achieve as your no.2.

Ultimately though, check out each uni, visit their departments etc, and make your decision accordingly. Hope this helps. You are probably one of perhaps hundreds of thousands making that same choice!

You have to remember that employers remember all that polytechnic stuff because it isn't all that long ago that some universities were polytechnics, and polytechnics were not considered to offer as high standard degrees as universities. Not only that but some polytechnics were considered to be better than others so if you pick an ex polytechnic that was a low standard one, it could be the case that when you apply for a job you might be less likely to get onto a shortlist if there are a lot of applicants who have picked universities that are not renamed polytechnics.

Can anyone tell me what the engineering facilities are like at each uni. Preferably the ones at Greenwich and Portsmouth, please.

This is false. Employers DO NOT short list candidates by looking at what universities they went to. It's completely irrelevant they are so many deciding factors (ie. assessment centres, psychometric tests, interviews)

So what you are saying is that someone who has a first class honours degree from Wolverhampton University is going to be viewed the same way as someone who has a first class honours degree from Cambridge?

Where do you get your evidence from that people are not considered by employers to be more able if they studied at a top university?

A shortlist for a job is what an employer does before the interview so that they don't have to interview everyone who applies. There are lots of people on this forum who have applied for jobs and not been given psychometric tests gone to assessment centres or been given interviews. Some have not even had their application replied to. So how was the shortlist done for the people who did get interviews for those jobs?

I always understood that you have better opportunities if you go to a 1st rate university. Lots of people on this forum are also under that impression.

None of the ex polytechnics are viewed as top universities. I went to a polytechnic for my first time of studying and the courses that they used to offer were excellent, but they were not the same as the courses that the universities offered. Since the polytechnics have been renamed universities there has been a reduction in the choice of type of course. The polytechnic courses tended to offer more training than the university courses but were not considered to be as academic.

Completely unlikely scenario that you have mentioned. It is very unlikely ONLY two candidates will be applying for one position. I'm speaking for engineering here and the first step is always the application form (if you satisfy the basic requirements for this then you are on to the psychometric tests those will test your engineering way of thinking and if you succeed in that they shortlist applicants for interviews. At the interview you will be asked a lot of questions about yourself and your CV once you succeed that stage you get invited to an assessment center where you will give a presentation for 20min or so and have another interview as well as an exercise to see how you work with others.

This process is true for 98% of the big engineering firms/companies. The other 2 % take candidates from specific university listings that they have. So it is very likely that even tho you have a candidate from Wolverhampton and Cambridge if one of them isn't good enough at some of those stages they will simply not make it but the university you went to isn't a deciding factor.

a10,

Ahh... rant over. Back to FP3 :-)

yeah i know that going to a top tier uni will probably improve your chances! But what i was trying to say was it doesn't mean if you didn't go to one your "bad". good old further pure how is FP3?

Absolutely agree. And FP3 is a right f***er. Slightly easier than FP2 in my opinion - though i'm resitting that anyway . Do you take further maths as well??

Further maths AS. I only do Fp1 D2 and S1 so further modules already did mechanics (M1). I heard Fp2 is nasty. Random question but if your 25 how come your doing A-levels again? Or did you not do them before?

Yeah i have D2 to do as well. I haven't even looked at it yet haha. Any pointers?

Yeah I have a-levels already but because I wanted to get in to a good engineering uni I thought i'd add A2 further maths (did the As 7 years ago). But I also had to do physics from scratch as well, seeing as i didn't do it before. But i'm self-teaching along side a full-time job so its pretty heavy going at the moment! I just keep telling myself that it will all be over in 3 months :-)

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