UAL Product design or UCL engineering and architecture?

. I’m a yr 12 studying maths physics and textiles. I’m very ambitions and creative- always having wacky ideas. I really like the sound of both course and prospects but would love to hear opinions on both of the courses.
Quite a major difference is ucl has accreditation from RIBA, jbm, cibse and ceng partially but I don’t know if ual has an accredited- think it’s purely design. I want to be self employed in the future and have freedom creatively, financially etc and travel.

Any info on the courses, or comparison? Any info about ual and their prospects as they seem quite prestigious creatively ?

I feel like I am betraying engineering for society by choosing a creative course solely, but I feel I am more creatively driven. Will my prospects be better with engineering or shall I not take this into account if it turns out I really love and am inspire by ual more?

Any valid insight will be helpful, thanks 😊 🙏!!!

Hi, if you are skilled enough you can try and write your personal statement so it applies to both courses and then that gives you a bit more time to decide (although I really don’t recommend doing this).

Engineering is a lot more physics/maths based e.g you learn about why things work the way they do, why things stand up, etc....but you will still have opportunities to design depending which engineering discipline you chose.
Product design is a lot more art based you will spend a lot of your time ‘being creative’ and designing things.

YOU need to choose the course YOU are going to enjoy more as you are going to be spending 3+ years (and then most likely go into a field of work related) doing that degree, you would not be betraying engineering by doing a product design course, you would just be choosing the degree you are going to enjoy more.

Just as a side not if you really enjoy engineering and design, I think some unis offer a design engineering course, so that might interest you.
But the engineering and architecture course should have quite a bit of design in as that is a lot of what architecture is.

Hope this helps

Yes thanks.
I know I’ll need to choose but I’m really not sure as I’ve exhausted online resources but it’s hard to get a feel for it in your bedroom 😅 (not complaining)
But I am very interested in both courses. I just think people don’t think the product design course is a ‘proper degree’. Whereas engineering is seen as more reputable, but I can see myself working in the creative sector or having my own businesses.
What do you think is the best way of doing this?

If possible (and I am a Y12 as well so I am in similar position) try and get to an open day at both unis and speak to the people there, they will able to tell you about what the course is like and graduate opportunities. If open days do happen in September they are likely to be on a smaller scale so make sure you have given your email to both unis and you will be notified when sign up is available for their open days.

I guess I want to have a backup plan after product design and don’t know if I could with this degree...

Perhaps you should be looking at Product Design Engineering somewhere like Imperial or Loughborough.

If it helps, there are many jobs out there that don't mind what degree you have, they more care about knowing that you have a degree and that you worked hard to get it. For example my mum works for a programming company and because the language they program in isn't taught at a single uni, they don't care what your degree background is they just want to see that you are a hard worker who can adapt to new things - and having any degree will show this.

Perhaps you should be looking at Product Design Engineering somewhere like Imperial or Loughborough.