can you work and study in first year uni?

Im going to start my course in 2019 to do found aerospace eng and I was wondering what kind of jobs I could do whilst studying without me putting myself under too much pressure

how intense is it ?

when you say you didn't come from a very mathematical background I presume you only done gcse maths?
Also what engineering do you do ?
how many people dropped out after first year ?
and how hard is it to stay onto of lectures and homework?

Reply 3

Anonymous #1

what course did you change to I did a level maths bio and chemistry and got 3 u's but hope to do found aerospace eng I know its going to be tough but I didn't revise for my a levels so I want to be sure I don't drop out or make a wrong decision so thats why I need all the info I can get

Reply 4

Helloworld_95

As above, engineering tends to have a lot of contact hours compared to other subjects in first year (and later on, just it's particularly bad in first year), but you are largely free from having to do other work which means you can probably hold down a weekend job if you want to. A lot of universities will offer work on and off which is another avenue of making money, it just won't be as regular and you won't make as much overall (usually pays quite well per hour though because a lot of unis are living wage employers and you get holiday pay in lieu).

I'd disagree that you need FM though, most unis will start teaching maths from the relevant parts of A2 maths plus a little bit of AS FM which you need thrown in, you don't really need anything more than that throughout your studies, with a few exceptions. There might be some unis out there which go overboard with the maths content though.

Reply 5

Lkathryn08

I guess it depends what you do and where you go a little bit. I also study engineering and personally found first year easier than my second and third year by quite a bit. While I didn’t do a part time job I did have time to socialise, chill and have quite a healthy work life balance. I couldn’t say the same in 2nd and 3rd year, it’s very intense with a lot of contact hours and a lot of assignments like design projects and lab reports that you need to do outside of lectures, I was even told by the year above to not get a job because of the intensity.

So again it depends but I would say potentially first year, especially if you’ve got a good understanding of the basics. I didn’t do further maths but I didn’t have much trouble picking it up and I did mechanics which also helped with my other modules. Also doing Chem eng, I did a level Chemistry meaning I also had a good grasp of the basics for these modules.

I would see how it goes and test the waters but if you are going to get a job, get one in first year as it will only get harder from then on.