In my personal statement, what if I want to apply to two distinct subjects??

I am an Spanish year 12 student ( this upcoming year in 13). My interests are Physics and Mathematics. I was thinking to apply to the Msc in Applied Maths at Imperial, Bsc Physics at Imperial, Bsc Maths at Cambridge, Bsc Physics at Cambridge and (Msc Nuclear Engineering at Imperial or Bsc in Maths at UCL). So when writing a Personal Statement a challenge comes, What should be the approach to give to my personal statement?? How should I mention each subject ( because emphasising excessively in a subject could be perjudicial).
I am quite blocked

Reply 1

Admit-One

Universities Forum Helper

21

Just firstly noting that only applying to competitive unis such as these is inherently high risk, regardless of your profile. Weakening your app further by having a PS trying to address multiple subjects is going to make things even more difficult.

I'd approach all of your potential choices and ask:

•

How heavily do they weight the PS in their offer making? (They may be vague in their replies)

•

Would they accept a PS submitted directly to them, as you are considering applying to distinct subjects

Then decide how to approach it based on their responses.

Reply 2

totallyfine

12

I really wouldn't recommend applying twice to the same university ..... twice. You have too many places taken up by overly competitive applications and no real back up plan. You could easily come away with no offers at all.
Decide which you really want to apply to before putting in the application

(edited 2 months ago)

Reply 3

sound-famous-

13

Original post by Manree

I am an Spanish year 12 student ( this upcoming year in 13). My interests are Physics and Mathematics. I was thinking to apply to the Msc in Applied Maths at Imperial, Bsc Physics at Imperial, Bsc Maths at Cambridge, Bsc Physics at Cambridge and (Msc Nuclear Engineering at Imperial or Bsc in Maths at UCL). So when writing a Personal Statement a challenge comes, What should be the approach to give to my personal statement?? How should I mention each subject ( because emphasising excessively in a subject could be perjudicial).
I am quite blocked

Just want to check if you are aware that Cambridge do not have a physics course alone, but a natural science course in which students get to slowly specialise in their desired subject throughout the course. I also don't think you can apply to Cambridge twice in the same year.

That aside, it may be a bit of a muddle to be applying to different courses in different places for your personal statement. Why do you want to do this? If you don't get into imperial or cambridge then reapply next year, don't hurt your chances by applying twice and trying to balance two different subjects in your personal statement.

Original post by Manree

I am an Spanish year 12 student ( this upcoming year in 13). My interests are Physics and Mathematics. I was thinking to apply to the Msc in Applied Maths at Imperial, Bsc Physics at Imperial, Bsc Maths at Cambridge, Bsc Physics at Cambridge and (Msc Nuclear Engineering at Imperial or Bsc in Maths at UCL). So when writing a Personal Statement a challenge comes, What should be the approach to give to my personal statement?? How should I mention each subject ( because emphasising excessively in a subject could be perjudicial).
I am quite blocked

Have you considered searching for mathematical physics courses instead?

https://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/undergraduate/degrees/index.php?action=view&code=F326
https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/studywithus/ugstudy/courses/UG/2024/Mathematical-Physics-BSc-Hons-U6UMTHPY.html
https://www.southampton.ac.uk/courses/mathematical-physics-degree-mmath

As noted above, you can only apply to one course at Cambridge.

Reply 5

Manree

OP

2

Original post by totallyfine

I really wouldn't recommend applying twice to the same university ..... twice. You have too many places taken up by overly competitive applications and no real back up plan. You could easily come away with no offers at all.
Decide which you really want to apply to before putting in the application

The backup plan is Spain, as these are the Unis that have substantially better level than spanish unis.

Reply 6

Manree

OP

2

Original post by sound-famous-

Just want to check if you are aware that Cambridge do not have a physics course alone, but a natural science course in which students get to slowly specialise in their desired subject throughout the course. I also don't think you can apply to Cambridge twice in the same year.
That aside, it may be a bit of a muddle to be applying to different courses in different places for your personal statement. Why do you want to do this? If you don't get into imperial or cambridge then reapply next year, don't hurt your chances by applying twice and trying to balance two different subjects in your personal statement.

Yes I knew, ok thanks

Reply 7

Manree

OP

2

Original post by Admit-One

Just firstly noting that only applying to competitive unis such as these is inherently high risk, regardless of your profile. Weakening your app further by having a PS trying to address multiple subjects is going to make things even more difficult.
I'd approach all of your potential choices and ask:

•

How heavily do they weight the PS in their offer making? (They may be vague in their replies)

•

Would they accept a PS submitted directly to them, as you are considering applying to distinct subjects

Then decide how to approach it based on their responses.

The backup plan is Spain, as these are the Unis that have substantially better level than spanish unis. Ok I will try that way

Reply 8

Manree

OP

2

Original post by Admit-One

Just firstly noting that only applying to competitive unis such as these is inherently high risk, regardless of your profile. Weakening your app further by having a PS trying to address multiple subjects is going to make things even more difficult.
I'd approach all of your potential choices and ask:

•

How heavily do they weight the PS in their offer making? (They may be vague in their replies)

•

Would they accept a PS submitted directly to them, as you are considering applying to distinct subjects

Then decide how to approach it based on their responses.

Another thing, how do I choose or work out the best subject for me? In other words, how can I make the decision between subjects??

Reply 9

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

21

Original post by Manree

I am an Spanish year 12 student ( this upcoming year in 13). My interests are Physics and Mathematics. I was thinking to apply to the Msc in Applied Maths at Imperial, Bsc Physics at Imperial, Bsc Maths at Cambridge, Bsc Physics at Cambridge and (Msc Nuclear Engineering at Imperial or Bsc in Maths at UCL). So when writing a Personal Statement a challenge comes, What should be the approach to give to my personal statement?? How should I mention each subject ( because emphasising excessively in a subject could be perjudicial).
I am quite blocked

Couple of things to note.

An MSc is a postgraduate degree. It's not the same as an MSci or MPhys/MMath etc. You can't apply to an MSc as a school leaver, you need an undergraduate degree (BSc, BEng, BA, MPhysics, MMath, MEng etc). The integrated undergraduate masters courses are the MPhys/MMath/MSci/MEng etc. Two of the degrees you note (the MSc Applied Mathematics and MSc Nuclear Engineering at Imperial) are postgraduate courses - you can't apply to them yet.

Also to note, Cambridge doesn't offer a BSc, all their bachelors degrees are BAs. This doesn't mean anything it's just a convention due to their being an ancient university. Also the physics course at Cambridge is offered through natural sciences so you would apply to natural sciences and will study other sciences in first year, unless you go in through the maths course first year option "mathematics with physics" by applying to maths and indicating that preference, and then switch into natural sciences physics. Either can lead to an MMath/MPhys (which is typical) plus BA.

You can only apply to a maximum of 5 undergraduate courses in the UK, and all undergraduate applications go through UCAS. All the courses you apply to receive the same personal statement and so the general advice is to apply to the same course at all unis. However some courses are offered as a "joint honours" (or sometimes stylised as combined honours) where you combine the study of two (usually related) areas. Maths and physics are commonly offered as a joint honours course in maths and physics (or sometimes more thematic names like mathematical physics).

However also bear in mind that at degree level physics is necessarily mathematical and you will be continuing mathematical training throughout the physics course. You won't be "dropping" maths as a subject by going into a physics degree - you'll still be learning more maths beyond A-level, and using it on a daily basis. Also the physics you learn will be much more mathematical and by all accounts, more similar to A-level Maths than A-level Physics (as A-level Physics is algebra based physics only...).

Finally it's worth being aware that maths in a maths degree is vastly different to maths at A-level (which would broadly be referred to as "mathematical methods" at degree level). It's very abstract, and the pure content is wholly proof based. You'll be studying things like abstract algebra (groups/rings/fields), number theory, real analysis, and linear algebra (both abstract and more applied areas). Even the "applied" maths at degree level tends to be pretty abstract with applications just used for example - the emphasis of a differential equations course in a maths degree is to understand how ODEs and PDEs "work", rather than necessarily solving particular problems with them (whereas in a physics or engineering degree you might be learning them to solve some classical mechanics or electromagnetism problem).

Therefore I would recommend looking at some content of that level (e.g. some introductory analysis text or something) to get an idea of how it is different - the grind of theorem, lemma, proof is very different to the kind of computational exercises you are probably familiar from and may be less appealing. The maths in a physics (or engineering) degree is much more in the vein of A-level, just learning more advance mathematical methods.

(edited 2 months ago)

Reply 10

Admit-One

Universities Forum Helper

21

Original post by Manree

The backup plan is Spain, as these are the Unis that have substantially better level than spanish unis. Ok I will try that way

If you have backups elsewhere, then it becomes much less risky to try these kind of options in the UK. I’d still follow my advice above to maximise your chances.

Reply 11

sound-famous-

13

Original post by Manree

Another thing, how do I choose or work out the best subject for me? In other words, how can I make the decision between subjects??

Read about the different course structures. Do you want to study multiple different sciences at Cambridge or do you only like physics? Think about what you like about maths or about physics. Do you like mathematical proofs? Maths degrees are heavy on this. Do you like problem solving and practical work? Physics degrees better choice if you like this.

Physics has a lot of maths in it anyway, but I know Warwick has a "Maths and Physics" course and Warwick is a very good uni too so maybe look for courses like that if you think you'll prefer doing both subjects.

In my personal statement, what if I want to apply to two distinct subjects??

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