Good life plan?

Basically, no, in my opinion. Putting your degree choice at the whim of one university really isn't a good idea. You can't just play dice with your life - Engineering and Egyptology are too different for that. I just find it hard to understand how you've got to the position where you're willing to put your choice of degree, which could well define the course of your life, into the hands of chance.

You've still got time. Carry on doing research and find out as much as possible about future career paths as possible. I know it's easier said than done but I can't see your plan above ending well.

Pursue your interests. I had an expectation to do Medicine for a little bit, and Law for a couple of years too - because my family would be proud. But in the end I applied for Economics because that's where my heart rests. I didn't realise this until I sat down one day and scrolled through every course available at the universities I would every consider (I suggest scrolling through Manchester's online prospectus simply because they offer most courses). Eventually, after looking at the modules, you'll discover your greatest interest.

You're clearly undecided as those two courses are very different. Perhaps there's a bridge between them that you'll discover through research.

Good luck!

Thank you so much. Your advice is always brilliant! I just have extremely conflicted interests and I'm worried that if I don't study Archaeology or Egyptology etc at a top university I'll be unemployed and regret everything.

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Speaking purely from employment prospect point of view, engineering >> history/archaeology so not sure what you mean by that? Even engineering from a mid tier uni would be more employable than Cambridge Egyptology. Mostly because we have a huge deficit in engineering (and all STEM) jobs in this country.

That's what I mean. But Egyptology has such low employment rates that you need to go to an exceptional university and do really well to get jobs.

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Ah I see the dilemma I'd personally go for a compromise between liking the course and job prospects. Luckily for me they matched up perfectly, but it's a tough decision. If you don't enjoy maths/physics then don't bother with engineering you'll absolutely *hate* it, and if you hate your degree you're not going to get a good degree classification out of it so it'd be less useful than a better degree from a less employable course.

The best advice I've seen in a while

So basically you would only consider studying Egyptology at Cambridge and if that wasn't an option, you would study a completely different subject? You can't be very committed to Egyptology if that is your plan and Cambridge will likely pick up on that in your interview and reject you - so no, not a great of plan. FYI Cambridge isn't the only good university which offers Egyptology, UCL's Institute of Archaeology is definitely equal to Oxbridge in terms of academics, research and subject prestige.

Your pathway into a good job is probably going to be easier with an Engineering degree but that is not to say you wouldn't get a good job with an arts-based degree. Do some LinkedIn stalking and find out where people who study Egyptology/similar subjects end up. Do you actually want to be an engineer or is it just the money that interests you?

No, I just want to apply for Cambridge for Egyptology. I'm sorry it sounded ignorant. I'm interested in Engineering, especially Aeronautical Engineering.

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It seems to me that you just want to go to Cambridge and you think you will have more chance of getting in if you apply for an obscure course. If that is your plan, it won't work - you can't pretend to be passionate about a subject, the interviewers will see right through you. If you are interested in engineering and you want to be an engineer then apply for engineering.

I really don't . . . I've always been interested in Egyptology and their course looks AMAZING. Plus, you can do modules of other subjects as well! Perfect! Trust me, I'm passionate. When I love something, it practically takes over my life.

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