Is writing a personal statement for 3 different(ish) courses too ambitious?

I finished in College last year and got A*A*A*A in Maths, Physics, Chem and Welsh bacc respectively. This year I have had a bit of a crisis with wanting to go to uni but not knowing what to study.
I have narrowed it to Mechanical engineering at Bristol and Bath, Management science at UCL and Economics Finance & Data Science at imperial.
Imperials website says that they don't want a fully tailored statement to the three specific subjects. And UCLs course includes a minor in Engineering so that also works. They are also both very unique courses so surely they cant expect people to have it tailor made for that subject.
My question is it too ambitious to write a personal statement for these courses?

Reply 1

lalexm

16

Original post by huwmongous420

I finished in College last year and got A*A*A*A in Maths, Physics, Chem and Welsh bacc respectively. This year I have had a bit of a crisis with wanting to go to uni but not knowing what to study.
I have narrowed it to Mechanical engineering at Bristol and Bath, Management science at UCL and Economics Finance & Data Science at imperial.
Imperials website says that they don't want a fully tailored statement to the three specific subjects. And UCLs course includes a minor in Engineering so that also works. They are also both very unique courses so surely they cant expect people to have it tailor made for that subject.
My question is it too ambitious to write a personal statement for these courses?

You should be okay as in your personal statement you can talk mainly about engineering and data science, which covers most of the topics for those courses, and maybe for good measure you can add something on economics/finance for imperial.

(edited 6 months ago)

Reply 2

huwmongous420

OP

2

Original post by lalexm

You should be okay as in your personal statement you can talk mainly about engineering and data science, which covers most of the topics for those courses, and maybe for good measure you can add something on economics/finance for imperial.

That was my thinking aswell, thanks for the help!

Reply 3

McGinger

18

Original post by huwmongous420

I have narrowed it to Mechanical engineering at Bristol and Bath, Management science at UCL and Economics Finance & Data Science at imperial.

Crazy. You run the risk of loosing all those choices.
Mech is so competitive at Bristol and Bath that anything that wavers off-topic will go straight in the bin.
UCL and Imperial wont be charitable either.

Plan a gap year. Work out what you do actually want to study - and then apply.

Reply 4

lockets

11

Original post by huwmongous420

I finished in College last year and got A*A*A*A in Maths, Physics, Chem and Welsh bacc respectively. This year I have had a bit of a crisis with wanting to go to uni but not knowing what to study.
I have narrowed it to Mechanical engineering at Bristol and Bath, Management science at UCL and Economics Finance & Data Science at imperial.
Imperials website says that they don't want a fully tailored statement to the three specific subjects. And UCLs course includes a minor in Engineering so that also works. They are also both very unique courses so surely they cant expect people to have it tailor made for that subject.
My question is it too ambitious to write a personal statement for these courses?

Those unis are too competitive to be writing a personal statement not focused entirely on a single subject.

Reply 5

PQ

Clearing and Applications Advisor

21

If you got offers from all of them which would you choose?

Reply 6

huwmongous420

OP

2

Original post by McGinger

Crazy. You run the risk of loosing all those choices.
Mech is so competitive at Bristol and Bath that anything that wavers off-topic will go straight in the bin.
UCL and Imperial wont be charitable either.

Plan a gap year. Work out what you do actually want to study - and then apply.

How competitive is Bristol and Bath for engineering? I haven't been able to find admission statistics anywhere
thanks

Reply 7

huwmongous420

OP

2

Original post by PQ

If you got offers from all of them which would you choose?

Probably Imperial or UCL, not sure though tbh

Reply 8

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

21

Original post by huwmongous420

I finished in College last year and got A*A*A*A in Maths, Physics, Chem and Welsh bacc respectively. This year I have had a bit of a crisis with wanting to go to uni but not knowing what to study.
I have narrowed it to Mechanical engineering at Bristol and Bath, Management science at UCL and Economics Finance & Data Science at imperial.
Imperials website says that they don't want a fully tailored statement to the three specific subjects. And UCLs course includes a minor in Engineering so that also works. They are also both very unique courses so surely they cant expect people to have it tailor made for that subject.
My question is it too ambitious to write a personal statement for these courses?

This is not practical.

The UCL and Imperial courses maybe you could swing, mechanical engineering is a completely different course, and a "minor" in engineering in the UCL course is not going to change the fact mechanical engineering is completely different.

Why are you even applying to engineering if you are evidently not aiming to pursue a career in engineering as you are applying to other non-engineering courses?

Reply 9

huwmongous420

OP

2

Original post by artful_lounger

This is not practical.

The UCL and Imperial courses maybe you could swing, mechanical engineering is a completely different course, and a "minor" in engineering in the UCL course is not going to change the fact mechanical engineering is completely different.

Why are you even applying to engineering if you are evidently not aiming to pursue a career in engineering as you are applying to other non-engineering courses?

The imperial and UCL course are pretty unique and I like the way they look and the unis themselves. Im not interested in other business/finance/economics courses. Im not looking to pursue a career in anything particularly, I just want to go to uni to study something I think looks interesting. I think engineering at Bath and Bristol is just something id like to do if I didnt get into Imperial or UCL

Oh boy.

OP

Original post by random_matt

Oh boy.

? Please elaborate man ur scaring me

Reply 12

random_matt

20

Original post by huwmongous420

? Please elaborate man ur scaring me

Follow McGinger's and Artful_Lounger's advise.

Reply 13

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

21

Original post by huwmongous420

The imperial and UCL course are pretty unique and I like the way they look and the unis themselves. Im not interested in other business/finance/economics courses. Im not looking to pursue a career in anything particularly, I just want to go to uni to study something I think looks interesting. I think engineering at Bath and Bristol is just something id like to do if I didnt get into Imperial or UCL

In that case why don't you just apply to mechanical engineering at those unis as well?

Or if you don't know what you'd like, I'd honestly strongly recommend a gap year and spending some time figuring it out.

There are plenty of less "mainstream" courses out there as well which are exceptionally interesting intellectually - and the subject you study doesn't have a great effect on any long term earnings potential, as research has found: https://figshare.le.ac.uk/articles/report/The_employment_trajectories_of_Science_Technology_Engineering_and_Mathematics_graduates/10234421

Why, you could study Sanskrit at Oxford and still do just as well for yourself as on any of those courses.

Reply 14

McGinger

18

Original post by huwmongous420

How competitive is Bristol and Bath for engineering? I haven't been able to find admission statistics anywhere
thanks

They are are two of the most competitive Mech courses in the country.

If you intend to apply, get the PS right or it will be a total waste of time.

Reply 15

arialle

17

Original post by huwmongous420

? Please elaborate man ur scaring me

It might be good for you to narrow down your options slightly. I applied for 4 different courses (all of which had enough crossover to link them together in my personal statement) and managed to get offers for all of them. Your grades are very strong but Data Science and Mech Eng are starkly different, so you might want to rule one of these out. I applied to quite a different course at Imperial compared to my other unis because I liked the dept, so I see where you're coming from.

It is definitely possible to apply for multiple different courses but I think you'd need a stronger link between them. It'd probably be better to figure out which you prefer out of engineering and econ or try to find more interdisciplinary degrees. Good luck!

Reply 16

Muttley79

20

Original post by huwmongous420

The imperial and UCL course are pretty unique and I like the way they look and the unis themselves. Im not interested in other business/finance/economics courses. Im not looking to pursue a career in anything particularly, I just want to go to uni to study something I think looks interesting. I think engineering at Bath and Bristol is just something id like to do if I didnt get into Imperial or UCL