Degree choosing help - stem

Hi,

I'm a year 12 student trying to choose my degree - stuck between materials science and engineering. There are plenty of resources to find what a chemistry degree will be like, but fewer resources for materials sciences. My dream is to become a patent attorney, which seems to have more vacancies for people in engineering than chemistry regardless. I don't take A level physics but am open to the concepts and enjoy mechanics in Maths. How different would chemistry be to materials engineering? Could I tailor my personal statement for both courses?

Reply 1

UtterlyUseless69

Original post by mitostudent

Hi,
I'm a year 12 student trying to choose my degree - stuck between materials science and engineering. There are plenty of resources to find what a chemistry degree will be like, but fewer resources for materials sciences. My dream is to become a patent attorney, which seems to have more vacancies for people in engineering than chemistry regardless. I don't take A level physics but am open to the concepts and enjoy mechanics in Maths. How different would chemistry be to materials engineering? Could I tailor my personal statement for both courses?

Whilst I don’t study materials science, I do believe practically all courses for it require maths + either physics or chemistry and one other subject.

Look at universities you would be interested in (attending open days if you can), see what subjects they require (some materials science courses do require physics - Oxford is one such example) and what grades you would need to achieve.

I reckon tailoring a PS to both would be doable, but it would probably be easier for you to write a chemistry PS but with a section on unit cells (if you have looked into them) in the supercurriculars part.

Reply 2

McGinger

Look at Natural Sciences. This enables you to study several different sciences in one degree program, and the connections between them. This sets you up well for more specialist postgrad or research. Not all NS include Materials - here is one that does Natural Sciences | Undergraduate study | Loughborough University (lboro.ac.uk)

Reply 3

Lancaster Student Ambassador

Official Rep

Original post by mitostudent

Hi,
I'm a year 12 student trying to choose my degree - stuck between materials science and engineering. There are plenty of resources to find what a chemistry degree will be like, but fewer resources for materials sciences. My dream is to become a patent attorney, which seems to have more vacancies for people in engineering than chemistry regardless. I don't take A level physics but am open to the concepts and enjoy mechanics in Maths. How different would chemistry be to materials engineering? Could I tailor my personal statement for both courses?

Hi,

If you have a specific career (patent attorney) in mind and are definite that that is what you want to do, I'd advise using LinkedIn or other websites to see what university degrees people currently employed in the profession studied. That being said, it's important to balance career goals with the enjoyment of your degree so I'd also recommend checking the modules of different degree schemes to see which sound most interesting to you. I've personally found that enjoying the content that I've studied has really helped me to remain motivated to study during my degree.

In terms of tailoring your personal statement, as others have said perhaps try to highlight areas where chemistry and materials science intersect. I applied for three different courses when I applied for uni: natural sciences, physics and environmental science, and focused on topics I was interested in that linked these subjects together such as climate physics. So long as you can get your enthusiasm for your subject across, you should be ok to tailor your statement to both courses.

Hope this helps,
Becky (Lancaster University student ambassador)

Reply 4

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by mitostudent

Chemistry is very different to materials science/engineering. There is of course chemistry involved in the latter (varying amounts depending on the specific course) but fundamentally MSE tends to focus on solid-state chemistry where applicable, and involves a fair bit of work on the mechanical and other physical (e.g. optical/electronic/thermal) properties of materials. It's very physics oriented as a result, although it's not always required for admission (in which case they will at least in principle teach you all the physics you need on the course).

Research has found generally graduate outcomes are similar for all graduates regardless of subject (even whether they did a STEM or non-STEM degree) so I would not overly worry about that. Also while there may be more people going in to be a patent attorney from an engineering background to look at engineering patents, there are plenty of pharmaceutical patents that would require chemists or certain kinds of bioscientists to look at them.

If your primary interest is chemistry, then a chemistry degree is the only degree where you really have a substantial amount of chemistry involved. I would recommend focusing on choosing a degree based on your interests, then find a career when you are in that degree that relate to those. It's all well and good to plan out a career 10 years in advance but if you start a degree that is directly required for it but realise you hate the degree, you'll subsequently realise you probably wouldn't enjoy the career and were basing your decisions not on what your interests and strengths are but other factors - which is not a good place to be.

Reply 5

halogen123

Original post by mitostudent

Hi,
I'm a year 12 student trying to choose my degree - stuck between materials science and engineering. There are plenty of resources to find what a chemistry degree will be like, but fewer resources for materials sciences. My dream is to become a patent attorney, which seems to have more vacancies for people in engineering than chemistry regardless. I don't take A level physics but am open to the concepts and enjoy mechanics in Maths. How different would chemistry be to materials engineering? Could I tailor my personal statement for both courses?

I'm a Materials Science and Engineering student, I've just completed my first year at University, so if you have any questions on the course and what it's all about, I'm happy to answer. There are some things that overlap between Chemistry and Materials Eng, but Materials Eng is more Engineering based. Materials Eng does have quite a lot of Physics, but there are courses out there that don't have A level Physics as a requirement. I didn't take A level Physics, and found the Physics stuff within the course difficult to understand at first, but once I'd gone over the content a few times it all made sense. I haven't encountered any mechanics in Maths so far and am not expecting to within the course. The Maths stuff I have done as part of my course is the Pure Maths stuff. You do however encounter some stuff on the mechanics of materials within the course.

Reply 6

mitostudent

Original post by halogen123

Hello, I'm currently considering materials engineering but as a degree apprenticeship. I wonder if you believe it's manageable studying only one day a week (albeit for four years), also, what really separates it from ordinary engineering if engineering is so prevalent? I have found that I like physical chemistry the most if that counts for anything, but how much actual chemistry is in the course?

Reply 7

halogen123

Original post by mitostudent

If it's being offered as a degree apprenticeship, it should be manageable. I don't do a degree apprenticeship, just the degree at uni, but if it is being offered I believe you'll be able to manage it.

Do you mean what separates ordinary engineering from materials engineering in terms of the degree? If so, usually engineering degrees (general engineering) have shared first years, maybe even second years of the programme. After that you branch out into a particular engineering discipline that is offered. But with materials eng, you specialise from the get go. In terms, of the types of stuff you do, you look at materials, and different types/groups of materials (e.g. polymers, ceramics, glasses, semiconductors, superconductors, magnets etc.). I am aware that in future years of the programme, I will look into how the materials can be applied to different environments.

So in my first year, there was a bit of chemistry but mainly the physical chemistry side of things. We covered atomic structure, electron configuration, bonding, thermodynamics, polymers, glasses, composites. Overall, I would say the chemistry stuff constituted like 30% of my first year. I'm not too sure how the chemistry content will be like in the years to come.

Reply 8

mitostudent

Original post by halogen123

If it's being offered as a degree apprenticeship, it should be manageable. I don't do a degree apprenticeship, just the degree at uni, but if it is being offered I believe you'll be able to manage it.
Do you mean what separates ordinary engineering from materials engineering in terms of the degree? If so, usually engineering degrees (general engineering) have shared first years, maybe even second years of the programme. After that you branch out into a particular engineering discipline that is offered. But with materials eng, you specialise from the get go. In terms, of the types of stuff you do, you look at materials, and different types/groups of materials (e.g. polymers, ceramics, glasses, semiconductors, superconductors, magnets etc.). I am aware that in future years of the programme, I will look into how the materials can be applied to different environments.
So in my first year, there was a bit of chemistry but mainly the physical chemistry side of things. We covered atomic structure, electron configuration, bonding, thermodynamics, polymers, glasses, composites. Overall, I would say the chemistry stuff constituted like 30% of my first year. I'm not too sure how the chemistry content will be like in the years to come.

Thanks very much for this! I'm currently looking at degree apprenticeships in the area, and have a few questions:

•

is there a difference (big) between materials science and materials engineering?

•

How much lab work is there?

•

Which universities are good for the subject?

•

I like chemistry, but physical is by far my favourite as I have found researching my personal statement. Does this mean I'll be able to enjoy the subject (I don't take A-level physics though)

•

are there any specific topics you really enjoyed? I watched some lectures on smart materials, and got interested in OLEDS and others.

•

Are there any beginner resources you would recommend for researching this topic or materials in general? I feel it would seriously enrich my application statements 🙂
Thanks again for your time!

Reply 9

halogen123

Original post by mitostudent

Thanks very much for this! I'm currently looking at degree apprenticeships in the area, and have a few questions:

•

is there a difference (big) between materials science and materials engineering?

•

How much lab work is there?

•

Which universities are good for the subject?

•

I like chemistry, but physical is by far my favourite as I have found researching my personal statement. Does this mean I'll be able to enjoy the subject (I don't take A-level physics though)

•

are there any specific topics you really enjoyed? I watched some lectures on smart materials, and got interested in OLEDS and others.

•

Are there any beginner resources you would recommend for researching this topic or materials in general? I feel it would seriously enrich my application statements 🙂
Thanks again for your time!

•

So, I don't really know if there is a big difference to be honest, I would imagine Materials Science involves learning the science behind materials and Materials Engineering involves more Engineering. But you would need to know the science behind a material to do the engineering stuff with it, so I'm not entirely sure. The course I study at Uni is called Materials Science and Engineering. If you're searching for degree apprenticeships and some of them allow you to earn a Materials Science degree, maybe ask about the type of qualification it is, e.g. BSc or BEng? Apologies for not helping much with this question, but it might be worth contacting someone in the company who is responsible for the jobs side of things/degree apprenticeships.

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There's quite a bit of lab work. Throughout my first year, I completed 8 labs altogether. In the coming academic year, I know I will be doing a lot more lab work, where I'll be having labs every week so will definitely complete more than 8 labs in the academic year.

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University of Birmingham is brilliant for the subject as the lecturers teach the modules well and because the school (Metallurgy and Materials) is a fairly small school, you get tons of support from the lecturers because of the staff to student ratio.

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Hmm, that is a good question. I took A level Chemistry and loved it, but after doing my first year at Uni, I quite dislike Chemistry. I don't know what the reason for this is but just my experience. I would say, if you like Physical Chemistry, the Chemistry you encounter in the course will be enjoyable. But the course encompasses a lot more than Chemistry, so enjoying the Physics side of it will be important too. I didn't take A level Physics but the Physics I have done in the course is something I really really enjoy. Overall, I would say if you like Physical Chem, yeah you will enjoy parts of the course, but just be aware that there is more to the course than Chem. Also there is a bit of organic chem too, involving polymers.

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I loved the maths, I found it really enjoyable, and it was all Pure Maths. I also enjoyed learning about Manufacturing, where we learnt around 10 different Manufacturing Methods. We had quizzes and tutorials with this topic and were presented with items and had to figure out the Manufacturing Method used to produce the item. We also had a lab where we had a go at one of the Manufacturing Methods we learnt, which was Sand Casting which was really cool! I also liked some of the physicsy stuff, where we had a look into Thermal Properties, Magnets, Semiconductors, the Quantum Mechanics behind Semiconductors.

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We learnt quite a bit on LEDs, not specifically OLEDs, I'm not sure whether I'll encounter that in lectures, but I'm sure you could do a project of some sort during your time on the degree programme.

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Are there any other things about Materials Science and Engineering you're interested in?

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Having a look through papers on Science Direct (I'd say it's better than reading books because books are long and the papers I've seen on Science Direct are A LOT shorter than a book}, doing online courses, listening to podcasts. I did an online course with Future Learn on Batteries as I quite liked Batteries. Maybe doing a project of some sort, or something as simple as finding something in your house that has an LED and researching into how it works and maybe this can take you to an article or paper online that introduces some new research. There will be papers you encounter that are difficult to understand, and that's okay, even as a University student I find it quite difficult to absorb some information, but I hope this helps!