Southampton Foundation Year Group Chat

If possible can anyone reply to this thread if you have received an offer for the engineering foundation year at Southampton. It will help us to get to know each other before potentially starting the course.

If possible can anyone reply to this thread if you have received an offer for the engineering foundation year at Southampton. It will help us to get to know each other before potentially starting the course.

Hello!
I have received an offer for the foundation year engineering course at Southampton (and after attending an offer-holder day, I have put Southampton down as my firm choice). I am hoping to progress onto a chemical engineering course afterwards.

That sounds really nice !
I plan on making it my firm choice too, but I didn’t get to go to the offer holder so I might just go for a normal open day and look around the city
have you applied for accommodation yet ? What options did you put

Yeah I have applied for accommodation, I put my top choice as Glen Eyre mainly because of its close proximity to the Highfield campus, followed by Wessex Lane. Both had really nice facilities when I had a look at them during the offer-holder day.
Also I recommend looking around Southampton! Personally I really liked the city, as it has everything you need, not too far from the campus itself (under 10 minute bus ride from Highfield, which is great considering in your first year you can get a free bus pass) and right next to the sea (which is a plus for me).
Have you applied for a foundation engineering course anywhere else? I have put my backup as the University of Nottingham.

I’m definitely going to take a look around! I went there once but it was for another event so I didn’t really get to look around the area or much of the campus
Glen is my first choice too! I really like the city so far, I love how it’s by the coast and there’s quite a bit to do. Free bus pass definitely helps lol
i also applied to Liverpool, Nottingham, Leeds and ucl. I’ve heard from all except ucl but I had an interview
if ucl give me an offer then I’ll insure them, if not then Nottingham. Tbh I like Nottingham a bit more as I don’t really like the ucl campus in Stratford, but the main campus is great
what other unis did you apply to ?

Nice choices! I applied to Southampton, Nottingham, Loughborough, Birmingham and Newcastle and have received offers from all 5. Southampton is definitely my favourite out of them all but I quite liked Nottingham as it has a very impressive campus and foundation year engineering/physics building, but I did not think its chemical engineering facilities were as nice as they were in Southampton.
I wish you good luck on UCL! (for myself, I didn't really want to go to uni in a big city like London, too big for my liking!).

Out of curiosity, what made you choose the foundation year over going straight for first year? Personally, I did not choose the right a-levels as I was unsure of what I wanted to do until late Y12 when it was too late for me to change, so I am really grateful that the foundation year exists otherwise I don't know what I would have done lol

Ooh those options are nice !
ucl are taking their sweet time 😂 I just want them to respond atp
i done the right a levels, but I had to drop maths as I was really struggling with it
southampton has been my favourite ever since I found that course, before then it was bath. I still love bath but no foundation year
Southampton to me is like a big city with things to do, but also small enough so it’s not overwhelming
London is definitely massive which makes me hesitant 😂 plus cost of living and practically no signal anywhere
What was the engineering facilities like there ? I should have went for the offer holder but I didn’t know if I’d be able to go and come back on the same day 😂 plus I had another programme with them about a week later so I just had to choose one
looking back I would have just went 😂

Yeah the fact that Southampton is not too big but big enough to have everything you need really appealed to me, I hope you hear back from UCL soon, I have a few friends who are in the same situation, still waiting back to hear from universities since as far as October! The cost of living in London also put me off, absolutely not gonna want to pay for that lol.
As for engineering facilities, unfortunately idk what the civil engineering facilities are going to be, as they are different from the chemical engineering facilities from the open days/offer-holder days I attended (Nottingham, Southampton and Loughborough).

However, for Nottingham, fortunately I was able to see both foundation engineering + chemical engineering facilities, unlike the rest where I could only see the Chemical Engineering facilities. In case you are wondering, the Engineering Foundation Year facilities in Nottingham were really nice, and the course has its own brand new building (the downside is it is not on the main campus, but a short 10-15 minute walk away) with basically everything you will need and the staff there were friendly too!

The staff and students at Southampton were also friendly, and although I was unable to visit the engineering foundation year facilities, I was able to chat to a student about foundation year engineering there and they said they really enjoyed it + that the course was not too hard to progress through if you put in some effort.

Sorry I can't give you details about the civil/architectural facilities, probably some stuff of the university website you can check out.
Anyway what A-levels are you taking? I am taking Chemistry, Biology and Geography (I originally wanted to study medicine but changed my mind to engineering shortly in Y12, hence the choices)

hopefully ucl say something so I can hear back for Southamptons accommodation 😂 cost of living in London is absolutely ridiculous even though London is nice. I can’t deal with the lack of signal 😂 it’s ridiculous
The new campus at Nottingham sounds really nice even though it’s a bit further out. Plus I’d have to pay for travel whereas at Southampton I don’t, so extra bonus
I’ve heard some pretty good things about Southampton so far so that’s really great. They have a lot of events for fresher that I’ve seen online (drinking and non since I don’t drink). Plus the societies look great - hopefully I can join gaming, chess, paintball, Christian etc
Hopefully if I go in June I’ll be able to see more faculties !
I take art, business and product design (luckily I’ll finish art end of April so only two left !)
What made you switch from medicine?

Haven't had a chance to have a good look at Southampton's societies, had a brief look before and they seemed pretty cool. Its good that they have a lot of events for freshers for non-drinkers as I am also not that keen on drinking (haven't gotten the appeal of it as much as others have ).

I switched from medicine because when I first chose my A-levels I think I misunderstood what a medicine course would actually involve, and I think I may have just been doing it for the sake of my parents being doctors and didn't know what to do (which seems like a stupid move now). I attended a few sessions at my sixth form for aspiring medics and it put me off as I realised that isnt me. Afterwards, I was originally thinking of just doing a chemistry degree but then I had a chat with a teacher about possible options, to which they asked if I had considered engineering (which I hadn't). I had a look and was interested, then I found out that chemical engineering was a thing and thought this is something I would actually enjoy doing + the work at the end is pretty good.

You got some pretty cool a-level choices, unfortunately I stopped doing art in year 8 so can't really relate with you there lol.
So what made you want to apply for civil and architecture? Do you know what you want to do at the end of your degree?

You should definitely take a look, they have some really interesting societies on there! The events I’ve seen look pretty good and apparently they give out free plants, lots of vouchers which seems pretty nice. They also have bowling, escape rooms, titanic museum (which I must see) and the docks
I think switching from medicine was a fair choice ! It’s alot of pressure on the course and certainly isn’t for everyone. At least you have a good balance with chemical engineering as it’s got both chemistry and engineering which is pretty cool. It’s always good to do something you would enjoy
My a level choices are definelty course work heavy , but I prefer those sort of subjects more lol. A level art is alot though lol . So much work to do but atleast it’ll be over with soon
Originally I wanted to do architecture until GCSE results day and I couldn’t do a level maths and I didn’t you you could do architecture without it so I decided to switch choices. Plus I wanted something more mathy and less design . So I switched to civil . Then when I was looking at courses I mainly wanted to do civil, but then found some with civil and architecture like ucl, Edinburgh, Glasgow etc (when I was still doing maths a level )
I never really looked at Southampton until like may? I didn’t look at their courses properly then saw they do civil with architecture and it was literally a dream. Looked around the area (alot of Google map stalking ) and loved it. Wasn’t too far area, good course, great place - couldn’t want anymore. The course was basically having my cake and eating it lol
I’m not really sure what I want to do with my degree. I was thinking of something to do with housing and making it better (from a civil engineers and architects perspective)
What are you thinking of doing with yours ?

Just had a look at societies, they do have quite a good variety (+ I might also join videogame/e-sports society), as do Nottingham! When I went to Southampton I saw the docks which were pretty cool, but didn't have time to see any museums or anything. I won't lie, I am still a bit nervous as to what I am doing is the right course for me, but I am glad I did not try to do medicine, don't think I would have survived one week of doing that, let alone if I would even get a place for medicine in the first place. My A-levels have also been a lot of work, not so much coursework but just staying on top of the infinite things that I need to know, particularly Biology (which I now regret taking). Cannot wait until its all over though.
Architecture and civil engineering sounds like a cool degree, I was thinking about being an architect when I was younger (as well as other careers such as a doctor, a pilot, etc, was never really sure what to do lol), being able to design buildings and all. Don't think I would have the creativity to do that now though (I am also more of a mathsy guy, not really an artistic or humanities guy).
For what I want to do after my degree, if I'm honest I don't really know yet, my degree comes with a placement year so I'm hoping that would help decide what I specifically would like to do. I think perhaps working in the pharmaceutical industry would be nice, or maybe designing energy systems. Or I could just end up doing something completely unrelated to my degree, anything is possible really.
Are you thinking of doing a placement year somewhere (if there is one for your course) or do you not know yet?

video game society sounds really good! I’m not much of a gamer but I do like gaming a bit. Hopefully in the summer if I get a better laptop or find games that work on mine lol, I’ll start playing more like valorant, sims 4 (love sims), gta or see what else is out there . Definitely also want to play wii sports , never done it before . What games do you usually play?
Hopefully the docks meet my expectations then lol, I’ve set quite a high bar for it already
I get what you mean about the right course, but I guess when you start is when you’ll know. I still don’t know if I want to do fully civil hence the architecture as I still like it, but not enough for a whole degree - but certain aspects I like
Architecture and civil is defiantly something different. For me it’s the right balance of design, maths , science etc. I do love a good bit of maths. In year 13 I still done my as maths stuff for fun when I had time and to just keep me brain fresh lol. Even during GCSE I use to just sit a do past papers ( friends have said that was weird lol, but I thought why not )
I remember when I was younger I wanted to be midwife for the longest time and I just switched once I realised I could draw lol
I mean a levels is a lot, some subjects more than others lol. Ngl as much as dt is useful I regret taking it as it is the most boring class I’ve ever had. Literally we do nothing and it just drags. What made you regret biology ?
Placement year sounds really good, plus chemical engineering has a bit of variety in it so pharmacy could definitely work. Mine can have a placement year added but I was thinking of summer internships as it would build up . If I couldn’t get any then probably a year in industry . Ideally an internship more design based - what about your ideal placement. ?
Also hows your revision going so far for exams

Yeah I haven't been much of a gamer recently myself, with exams and all approaching rapidly, just don't have that time anymore. Played gmod with some friends a week or two ago, also used to love gta (until my xbox broke). The docks are cool but don't expect to get your head blown away by them lol, although if you go to the harbour by the river there is like a millionaire's area where you can see some cool apartments, yachts and lots of luxury cars like porsches and ferraris outside which was pretty sick. I like a good bit of maths too, have not really had the opportunities to do much since I did not take it for A-level, but I have been trying to keep on top of my maths skills from GCSE recently and I've actually enjoyed it. Shame you don't enjoy DT, if you do nothing and it just drags on it could just be the teacher not teaching in an engaging way, I've experienced that before (a good teacher makes a lot of difference). I kinda have neutral feelings for DT, once again a subject I only did up to Y9, but friends of mine who have done it past that have seemed to have enjoyed it. I probably don't know enough about architecture or civil eng to say this but it sounds useful for those subjects!
As for Biology, its more that I regret taking it over other subjects I could have taken more than the fact that I don't like it. Its okay sometimes when I can actually get to see the purpose of the course, but as I quickly discovered a-level biology seems less about actually learning biology and more about memorising or reciting a textbook or a mark scheme with little ability to think for yourself. I enjoy chemistry though, a lot less of that in chemistry lol. I wish I took either physics or maths over biology, I think I would have chosen one of them if it weren't for the fact that I wanted to do medicine at the start of Y12.
Just like I have no idea what I want to do at the end of my degree I also don't know what I want to do for my placement year lol, I have 2 years to decide yet so ig I'll make up my mind later. An internship sounds cool, another thing I have not really considered (as you can tell I am terrible at planning things) but it might not be an opportunity for me idk.
My revision for exams has been kinda hit and miss, definitely getting less work done over Easter Holidays than I had anticipated, I often find it hard to work and not get distracted, I find it much easier to focus at school than at home. I need to take these things seriously but I am finding it hard to, which is kinda worrying, just gotta keep pushing through the pain until the 23rd of June (my last exam). Mainly just doing past paper after past paper until I know everything. How's your revision going? (probably better than mine I can tell you that )

Fair point with the games lol. I haven’t played in a while - last proper game was expedition on Roblox
I’ll set my expectations lower for the docks lol, I set such high expectations for it. I set such a high bar for Southampton and when I went it was ok. It was still great but my bar was way to high. The millionaires harbour sounds pretty cool though, if I get a chance to visit again I’ll make sure to go to the docks first lol
Maths is literally my favourite subject so I would have take it at a level, but then again I’m biased lol . I will say it’s pretty intense and time consuming if you don’t understand the content . But when you don’t take it as an a level learning maths becomes a lot more fun lol even GCSE maths
I would definitely say it’s the teacher . Don’t get me wrong, he’s a good teacher and is really helpful but the subject just isn’t interesting. We’re meany to be submitting our work in mid may (final stuff for examiners ) and we haven’t even made our final product yet . Idk how I’m going to do it tbh - I’ll probably make a scale down version
My product is basically a coffee table (very innovative - mind blowing idea )
Chemistry does sound pretty cool, but I like the most fun side of it (chemicals and flames etc ) . The theory was decent at GCSE, nowhere near as bad as physics (hate that subject with a passion but I can tolerate it )
You do still have a lot of time to figure out what you want to do with it, and uni is the best place to figure it out. So many opportunities and experiences so that great . I only wanted to do internships just to fill up my summer, plus depending where it is, more travel
Ngl, my revision this Easter has been trash. I had two interventions - business one was really useful. Plus a while ago he gave us a thick stack of past papers from 2017 up till 2020/21 to use so that’s pretty great (I refer to it as the business Bible lol it’s massive )
I really need to work through those past papers at some point, but I’ve done a couple
Dt revision is non existent lol. I usually do flashcards which help and I seem to do well in it so I’ve just stuck with that
I agree with studying at school, I literally cannot study at home no matter how much I try . Tv is very distracting but when I force myself to go out and study at school, it’s sort of like I have to do work becuase I made all the effort to go there
Honestly I need to take this seriously too, I’ve been too chill about these exams which is a pro and a con. I just don’t want to burn out like I did at gcse
My last exams on 16th June (nice and early so I can chill lol). 23rd June is so late , latest one I’ve heard is 21st
Then again my first exam is 23rd may (just over a month) which isn’t great since I’m not that prepared for it. However the advantage is I only have two a levels since art is done end of April. My exams are also spaced out quite nicely - about a week gap between each of them.
Technically art is my first exam then (25 April -27th ?) . A lovely 15 hour final piece . I don’t even know what I’m making yet lol
All I know is I’m looking forward to finishing all my exams . Apparently the air is different when you finish your last exam and leave the hall (that will be interesting to see if that’s true lol). I’ve made a whole plan of what I’m doing the moment I leave - Starbucks first and Chinese , and sleep . What about yours?
Also whens your first exam , and how’s the spacing between them ?

Fair point with the games lol. I haven’t played in a while - last proper game was expedition on Roblox
I’ll set my expectations lower for the docks lol, I set such high expectations for it. I set such a high bar for Southampton and when I went it was ok. It was still great but my bar was way to high. The millionaires harbour sounds pretty cool though, if I get a chance to visit again I’ll make sure to go to the docks first lol
Maths is literally my favourite subject so I would have take it at a level, but then again I’m biased lol . I will say it’s pretty intense and time consuming if you don’t understand the content . But when you don’t take it as an a level learning maths becomes a lot more fun lol even GCSE maths
I would definitely say it’s the teacher . Don’t get me wrong, he’s a good teacher and is really helpful but the subject just isn’t interesting. We’re meany to be submitting our work in mid may (final stuff for examiners ) and we haven’t even made our final product yet . Idk how I’m going to do it tbh - I’ll probably make a scale down version
My product is basically a coffee table (very innovative - mind blowing idea )
Chemistry does sound pretty cool, but I like the most fun side of it (chemicals and flames etc ) . The theory was decent at GCSE, nowhere near as bad as physics (hate that subject with a passion but I can tolerate it )
You do still have a lot of time to figure out what you want to do with it, and uni is the best place to figure it out. So many opportunities and experiences so that great . I only wanted to do internships just to fill up my summer, plus depending where it is, more travel
Ngl, my revision this Easter has been trash. I had two interventions - business one was really useful. Plus a while ago he gave us a thick stack of past papers from 2017 up till 2020/21 to use so that’s pretty great (I refer to it as the business Bible lol it’s massive )
I really need to work through those past papers at some point, but I’ve done a couple
Dt revision is non existent lol. I usually do flashcards which help and I seem to do well in it so I’ve just stuck with that
I agree with studying at school, I literally cannot study at home no matter how much I try . Tv is very distracting but when I force myself to go out and study at school, it’s sort of like I have to do work becuase I made all the effort to go there
Honestly I need to take this seriously too, I’ve been too chill about these exams which is a pro and a con. I just don’t want to burn out like I did at gcse
My last exams on 16th June (nice and early so I can chill lol). 23rd June is so late , latest one I’ve heard is 21st
Then again my first exam is 23rd may (just over a month) which isn’t great since I’m not that prepared for it. However the advantage is I only have two a levels since art is done end of April. My exams are also spaced out quite nicely - about a week gap between each of them.
Technically art is my first exam then (25 April -27th ?) . A lovely 15 hour final piece . I don’t even know what I’m making yet lol
All I know is I’m looking forward to finishing all my exams . Apparently the air is different when you finish your last exam and leave the hall (that will be interesting to see if that’s true lol). I’ve made a whole plan of what I’m doing the moment I leave - Starbucks first and Chinese , and sleep . What about yours?
Also whens your first exam , and how’s the spacing between them ?

I’ve just scrolled through that, and that is alot of writing. Sorry for waffling lol

Yeah I feel in a similar way you feel about your DT teacher with my Biology teachers. Actually they kinda contrast each other but not in a good way. One of my teachers makes the subject interesting but just goes off-topic so much that I worry I'm not learning anything (and he likes to do random topics at different times, does not like to follow any specific order which I don't like) and the other teaches but their method of teaching is boring (just endless flicking through a powerpoint or textbook). I wish they were both like in the middle, not boring but so I am actually learning stuff. So for this DT project, like how you made a coffee table, were you given the choice to make anything or did you have to follow certain rules or a specific theme?
I'm honestly glad my subjects did not require much coursework, specifically the sciences though, for geography I had to do an 'NEA' which was essentially a dissertation on some fieldwork stuff we did, mine was about the carbon sequestration rates of habitats (extremely boring sounding and trust me, it really is), glad I got that out the way, I think I could have done better though so I might not get a high grade for it.
I like most parts of chemistry (apart from a topic called 'Buffers', I have tried so hard to understand that and I just cannot). I prefer Organic Chemistry as that more of like the 'observable' side of chemistry, with some cool practicals but I prefer to do questions in physical chemistry as most of the time its just maths.
I wish I could just get on with revision without getting distracted, I'm at a point where its just a repeating cycle of trying to do revision, getting distracted and as a result then getting stressed about not doing revision which makes me try to do revision and it just continues, so yeah I haven't been very productive recently as a result. I like to stay at school after the school day finishes some days just so I can focus better. 23rd of June is really late, its the latest exam in my school (Chemistry Paper 3), so basically I'm gonna be one of the last ones to leave the school which sucks. My first exam is on the 17th May (Geography Paper 1), luckily thats my only exam before half term so I have a bit more time to revise other subjects. Unluckily for me, apart from geog paper 1 my other exams are terribly spaced out, I have a chemistry and geography exam on the same day, my wrist is gonna probably drop off at the end of that day. Most of my exams are in a short two week block.
When I finish my exams just going to go home and sleep probably, would be too tired to do anything I suspect lol. I'll probably go out for my birthday which is just 2 days after finishing exams and do something but what yet idk. Also unfortunate for me but just a week or two after finishing exams I am taking my driving test. Had to book it so late since there were like no slots for me to do it around me (and the fact that I have a late birthday in June). Its okay though because I'm going on holiday shortly after that so I can finally relax. Are you learning to drive or have passed your driving test? I feel like I'm kinda slow at learning compared to everyone else ngl, I was hoping to have passed before my exams started so I would not have to take the bus but can't really do anything about that. Also are you planning to do anything special over the summer?