Physics/Mathematics uni-courses

I am applying to ucas this year and am looking at courses and i dont know what to do?

-If i enjoy maths and physics at school
-I am mostly looking to do a academically challenging course-ish in the physics field but dont really know what exact course

-If anyone could point me in the right direction to start looking or tell me any exact courses it would be great

Any help is appreciated and i hope i put this in the right place!

edit; was looking at material sciences and wondering if anyone knew anything about it?

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 1

MathsAddict

8

Original post by alistairh656

I am applying to ucas this year and am looking at courses and i dont know what to do?

-If i enjoy maths and physics at school
-I am mostly looking to do a academically challenging course-ish in the physics field but dont really know what exact course

-If anyone could point me in the right direction to start looking or tell me any exact courses it would be great

Any help is appreciated and i hope i put this in the right place!

Mechanical Engineering is Maths/Physics degree and you can go far with it not just engineering.

Reply 2

PQ

Clearing and Applications Advisor

21

I'm sure you'll get a load of people suggesting various flavours of engineering but you need to be good at both those subjects if you're interested in http://www.met.reading.ac.uk/ug/ugmmetmeteorologyokla.html

Reply 3

alistairh656

OP

Original post by MathsAddict

Mechanical Engineering is Maths/Physics degree and you can go far with it not just engineering.

If a job in some sort of research be stopped by doing this sort of degree, my haert isnt set on it but its just a thought

Reply 4

MathsAddict

8

Original post by alistairh656

If a job in some sort of research be stopped by doing this sort of degree, my haert isnt set on it but its just a thought

I dont get the questions can you rephrase it?

Reply 5

alistairh656

OP

Original post by MathsAddict

I dont get the questions can you rephrase it?

Sorry just read it terrible English, if i wanted to maybe try and get a job in some sort of scientific research would a mechanical engineer degree stop me from doing that sort of job

Reply 6

benji385

6

I was in a similar situation then I choose to do theorethical physics and maths at Birmingham. Its a pretty decent course, I am abt to start the 4th and final year.
The good thing abt it is that you can kind of pick the best bits of physics and the best bits of maths and leave the crap modules. Its also good that its entirely up to you wheter you wanna do a maths or a physics project in your final year so you have 3 more years to think abt which one u enjoy more.
The bad is that your timetable is gonna be pretty restricted in the 1st 2 years, but after that you get more control over it than anyone doing straight physics or straight maths. (the restrictions most of the times mean that you have to do the hard modules, but bear in mind these are the useful ones)
The ugly bit is that in the 1st two years you have to go to both physics and maths tutorials. these tend to be very boring, once I fall asleep with just me, my tutor and two other students in the room :smile:

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 7

MathsAddict

8

Original post by alistairh656

Sorry just read it terrible English, if i wanted to maybe try and get a job in some sort of scientific research would a mechanical engineer degree stop me from doing that sort of job

As far as i know there is big chunk of it being research so you will definetly have the analytical and problem solving skills to be able to take on a research job. However, depends on the research itself something like Biology obviously wouldn't be suitable as you will need a deep understanding of that subject. Depends on you though, its a hard degree but you gain an enormous array of skills from it.

Reply 8

alistairh656

OP

Original post by benji385

I was in a similar situation then I choose to do theorethical physics and maths at Birmingham. Its a pretty decent course, I am abt to start the 4th and final year.
The good thing abt it is that you can kind of pick the best bits of physics and the best bits of maths and leave the crap modules. Its also good that its entirely up to you wheter you wanna do a maths or a physics project in your final year so you have 3 more years to think act which one u enjoy more.
The bad is that your timetable is gonna be pretty restricted in the 1st 2 years, but then you get more control over it than anyone doing straight physics or straight maths. (the restrictions most of the times mean that you have to do the hard modules, but bear in mind these are the useful ones)
The ugly bit is that in the 1st two years you have to go to both physics and maths tutorials. these tend to be very boring, once I fell asleep with just me, my tutor and two other students in the room :smile:

Could i ask what you or other people on the same course want to do after uni?

Reply 9

PQ

Clearing and Applications Advisor

21

Original post by alistairh656

Sorry just read it terrible English, if i wanted to maybe try and get a job in some sort of scientific research would a mechanical engineer degree stop me from doing that sort of job

There's more funding available for a PhD/doctorate in engineering that pretty much any other discipline.

Loads of people with degrees in other topics end up converting to engineering for PhD simply because the funding is available and the stipends are generous enough to live off.

Reply 10

alistairh656

OP

Original post by MathsAddict

As far as i know there is big chunk of it being research so you will definetly have the analytical and problem solving skills to be able to take on a research job. However, depends on the research itself something like Biology obviously wouldn't be suitable as you will need a deep understanding of that subject. Depends on you though, its a hard degree but you gain an enormous array of skills from it.

Thank you, it was a degree i had sort of written of abit because i didnt really want to spend time drawing etc...

Reply 11

using a name

3

Hi alistair, a good place to start looking at physics courses is here all courses listed are approved by the institute of physics so are of good standard and share a similar core syllabus at least to begin with. I would suggests browsing through a range of different subject combinations and course providers to get a good general impression of what a physics degree entails before focusing on specific courses you may want to apply for. (most universities offer specializations i.e theoretical physics for the more mathematically inclined but often you will be allowed to switch between streams early on in a course)

Reply 12

benji385

6

Original post by alistairh656

Could i ask what you or other people on the same course want to do after uni?

sure, so this is our final year, so abt time to start applying for jobs etc.
Unfortunately its hard to make a decision. There is 6 of us left doing this course.
From what I know 2 guys are thinking abt teaching (they did an interesting module in a 3rd year which allowed them to teach in high school on a weekly basis giving them some teaching experience and they apparently really liked it).
The rest of us is not so sure, but mainly thinking abt smithing in technology (we did some programming in the first 3 years), finance (we have the maths skills, there is a math finance module we can do in the final year and good salary, so why not) or just pursue our degree further and do a phd (hopefully the project that we are doing this year will give us some insight into what research would be like so its kind of an unsure option just yet, but definitely something to think abt).

When I applied for this course I stupidly tought that it will be so easy to get a job as maths/physics skills are so sought after. What I see now is that although I wasn't wrong, there really is a lot of opportunity for maths/physics student but life is not so easy, you kind of need to think early what you wanna do and then in your free time (outside uni) do as much interesting stuff relating to that field as you can.
what i am trying to say is that its great that you can do some many different things after uni and that what you gonna have to do is not carved into stone, but it also means that you will have to put in the extra work through extracullicular activities, otherwise you are left with the jobs which are strongly physics related (research jobs mainly)

(edited 9 years ago)

Physics/Mathematics uni-courses

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