Offer decision: SURREY or KINGS for ENGINEERING

Hi,
I’ve recently received offers from both Surrey and Kings however I’m not sure what to pick(I know that it sounds silly and most would say it’s a no-brainer just go for kings). For some context:
- I want to do a mechanical engineering degree
- Surrey offers a mechanical engineering degree
- kings does not, they only do general engineering( if I choose kings I will need to specialise and do a masters later)
- Surrey is better known for engineering with solid rankings(mechanical engineering specifically is ranked about 18th in the uk)
- Kings is not know for engineering and there engineering department is relatively new, hence why they only offer one engineering course
- I heard from someone who worked at Kings that the engineering department is not that great aswell
- Kings is 40 minutes by train, Surrey is an 1hr to an hour and 10 minutes
- Surrey has great opportunities for engineering students to work with big companies
- Surrey graduate prospects are really high

Based on this I want to choose Surrey even if I have to travel further, but whenever I bring it up to someone they kind of look at me like I’m crazy, so this make me unsure,

Thanks for any help.

Reply 1

University of Surrey Student Rep

Official Rep

Original post by Ggdjhggg

Hi there, congratulations on your offers!

As you've already outlined in your post, yes, Surrey is a great choice for mechanical engineering! I have a few friends in the engineering department and they love it. It sounds like the main thing that is putting you off is the distance you would have to commute, which is only 20-30 minutes longer. Personally for me, if I was planning on doing a 3-5 year degree (including/excluding placement and integrated master's), I would definitely choose the University that had better teaching staff, a better department, had been established for longer and had better job prospects after graduation. You don't mention whether you have visited both universities, although I assume you have, did you feel more at home at one or the other? The "ambience" of a campus, as well as available academic and pastoral support and resources such as libraries etc are also important factors to consider!

To me, it seems that 20-30 minutes is really not that long - especially if you plan on taking the train, so you can take a laptop with and work on the journey (or watch TV etc!).

If you do decide on Surrey, ignore the people who look at you funny when you say you're choosing the further commute - they are not you, and only you can make the decision that is correct for you and your circumstances!

I mentioned a placement year earlier, I don't know if that is something you are considering now, but I would definitely recommend looking into it. If you don't know already, it's a year in industry, normally in the area that you would like to work in after graduation. It gives you an opportunity to check whether this career/area of engineering is a good fit for you, gives you a year out of studying, helps you develop workplace skills and even earns you some money. I'm not sure if King's offers that yet, but definitely worth taking that into account.

Good luck making your decision, let us know if you have any more questions!

- Michelle :smile: