Choosing firm offer for Mechanical Engineering & Motorsport Career – Need Advice!
Hi everyone,
I’m an A-level student looking to study Mechanical Engineering, with an interest in starting a career in motorsport.
I’ve received offers from:
Southampton
Oxford Brookes
Loughborough
Sussex
Sheffield (Foundation Year)
I’m currently leaning towards Oxford Brookes because of its strong motorsport connections, especially with Formula Student and links to F1 teams. However, I feel like Southampton has a stronger overall reputation for engineering and could give me better long-term career prospects even outside motorsport.
Would going to a higher-ranked uni like Southampton be better in the long run, or would Oxford Brookes’ motorsport focus give me an edge for getting into the industry?
Furthermore, if anyone has recommendations for the other unis I would be extremely grateful for your responses!
Any advice from current students, graduates, or anyone in the industry would be massively appreciated!
Thanks!
I’m an A-level student looking to study Mechanical Engineering, with an interest in starting a career in motorsport.
I’ve received offers from:
Southampton
Oxford Brookes
Loughborough
Sussex
Sheffield (Foundation Year)
I’m currently leaning towards Oxford Brookes because of its strong motorsport connections, especially with Formula Student and links to F1 teams. However, I feel like Southampton has a stronger overall reputation for engineering and could give me better long-term career prospects even outside motorsport.
Would going to a higher-ranked uni like Southampton be better in the long run, or would Oxford Brookes’ motorsport focus give me an edge for getting into the industry?
Furthermore, if anyone has recommendations for the other unis I would be extremely grateful for your responses!
Any advice from current students, graduates, or anyone in the industry would be massively appreciated!
Thanks!
Original post by rdp8
Hi everyone,
I’m an A-level student looking to study Mechanical Engineering, with an interest in starting a career in motorsport.
I’ve received offers from:
Southampton
Oxford Brookes
Loughborough
Sussex
Sheffield (Foundation Year)
I’m currently leaning towards Oxford Brookes because of its strong motorsport connections, especially with Formula Student and links to F1 teams. However, I feel like Southampton has a stronger overall reputation for engineering and could give me better long-term career prospects even outside motorsport.
Would going to a higher-ranked uni like Southampton be better in the long run, or would Oxford Brookes’ motorsport focus give me an edge for getting into the industry?
Furthermore, if anyone has recommendations for the other unis I would be extremely grateful for your responses!
Any advice from current students, graduates, or anyone in the industry would be massively appreciated!
Thanks!
I’m an A-level student looking to study Mechanical Engineering, with an interest in starting a career in motorsport.
I’ve received offers from:
Southampton
Oxford Brookes
Loughborough
Sussex
Sheffield (Foundation Year)
I’m currently leaning towards Oxford Brookes because of its strong motorsport connections, especially with Formula Student and links to F1 teams. However, I feel like Southampton has a stronger overall reputation for engineering and could give me better long-term career prospects even outside motorsport.
Would going to a higher-ranked uni like Southampton be better in the long run, or would Oxford Brookes’ motorsport focus give me an edge for getting into the industry?
Furthermore, if anyone has recommendations for the other unis I would be extremely grateful for your responses!
Any advice from current students, graduates, or anyone in the industry would be massively appreciated!
Thanks!
Hi there,
It's a hard choice but i would advise going for the university that specialises in your course as you'll get better experience and get the most out of your degree from a university that has those great motorsport connections. And those connections and experience may lead to an easy way/opportunity into the career path you'd like to follow aswell.
Another course to consider might be Motorsport at Coventry University, with great facilities and a strong Formula Student team that might give you some great experience in an area interesting to you.
Good luck
Amber
4th year Mechanical student
Coventry University Student Ambassador
Original post by rdp8
Hi everyone,
I’m an A-level student looking to study Mechanical Engineering, with an interest in starting a career in motorsport.
I’ve received offers from:
Southampton
Oxford Brookes
Loughborough
Sussex
Sheffield (Foundation Year)
I’m currently leaning towards Oxford Brookes because of its strong motorsport connections, especially with Formula Student and links to F1 teams. However, I feel like Southampton has a stronger overall reputation for engineering and could give me better long-term career prospects even outside motorsport.
Would going to a higher-ranked uni like Southampton be better in the long run, or would Oxford Brookes’ motorsport focus give me an edge for getting into the industry?
Furthermore, if anyone has recommendations for the other unis I would be extremely grateful for your responses!
Any advice from current students, graduates, or anyone in the industry would be massively appreciated!
Thanks!
I’m an A-level student looking to study Mechanical Engineering, with an interest in starting a career in motorsport.
I’ve received offers from:
Southampton
Oxford Brookes
Loughborough
Sussex
Sheffield (Foundation Year)
I’m currently leaning towards Oxford Brookes because of its strong motorsport connections, especially with Formula Student and links to F1 teams. However, I feel like Southampton has a stronger overall reputation for engineering and could give me better long-term career prospects even outside motorsport.
Would going to a higher-ranked uni like Southampton be better in the long run, or would Oxford Brookes’ motorsport focus give me an edge for getting into the industry?
Furthermore, if anyone has recommendations for the other unis I would be extremely grateful for your responses!
Any advice from current students, graduates, or anyone in the industry would be massively appreciated!
Thanks!
Hi, congrats on your offers!
I would recommend visiting both universities on offer holder days if they are offering them, as this gives a great opportunity to speak to lecturers and students about their experience in the course, as well as visiting the area - which is important as you will be there a lot over your uni course!
I know Southampton has some great connections and being a Russel group university is well regarded by employers. There are also some great extra curricular opportunities - such as the Formula Student team (which you can find more about here: https://www.sufst.co.uk/) and you can find more about motorsports and the university here: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/engineering/research/groups/performance-sports/motorsport/index.page
I hope this can help you make a desicion - please let me know if you have any questions.
Rachel (UoS student ambassador)
Original post by rdp8
Hi everyone,
I’m an A-level student looking to study Mechanical Engineering, with an interest in starting a career in motorsport.
I’ve received offers from:
Southampton
Oxford Brookes
Loughborough
Sussex
Sheffield (Foundation Year)
I’m currently leaning towards Oxford Brookes because of its strong motorsport connections, especially with Formula Student and links to F1 teams. However, I feel like Southampton has a stronger overall reputation for engineering and could give me better long-term career prospects even outside motorsport.
Would going to a higher-ranked uni like Southampton be better in the long run, or would Oxford Brookes’ motorsport focus give me an edge for getting into the industry?
Furthermore, if anyone has recommendations for the other unis I would be extremely grateful for your responses!
Any advice from current students, graduates, or anyone in the industry would be massively appreciated!
Thanks!
I’m an A-level student looking to study Mechanical Engineering, with an interest in starting a career in motorsport.
I’ve received offers from:
Southampton
Oxford Brookes
Loughborough
Sussex
Sheffield (Foundation Year)
I’m currently leaning towards Oxford Brookes because of its strong motorsport connections, especially with Formula Student and links to F1 teams. However, I feel like Southampton has a stronger overall reputation for engineering and could give me better long-term career prospects even outside motorsport.
Would going to a higher-ranked uni like Southampton be better in the long run, or would Oxford Brookes’ motorsport focus give me an edge for getting into the industry?
Furthermore, if anyone has recommendations for the other unis I would be extremely grateful for your responses!
Any advice from current students, graduates, or anyone in the industry would be massively appreciated!
Thanks!
I think it’s important to understand that Formula 1 teams aren’t recruiting universities, they recruit people. That said when you apply for a formula 1 graduate engineering job you apply for specific role something like:
- graduate aerodynamicist - CFD
- graduate design engineer
- graduate performance engineer
- graduate PLM engineer
- graduate mechanical engineer (structural/stress analysis)
…. (Other roles / words that mean the same thing)
When you go to these interviews they will want you to have experience in motorsports (placement years or internships in professional race teams, or motorsport suppliers will be very beneficial) additionally most also do formula student (typically successful graduates have both). Additionally they will want you to have a decent working knowledge of the area you have applied for, and ideally have done some projects in the area you are applying for.
Now it’s less important where you go to university - more building an appropriate cv & set of skills that highlight what will let you be successful through recruitment. Id say any of the universities you have listed are solid choices (the only university id be more hesitant on your list with is Sussex, all the others will give you a solid platform to pursue what you want.
Original post by rdp8
Hi everyone,
I’m an A-level student looking to study Mechanical Engineering, with an interest in starting a career in motorsport.
I’ve received offers from:
Southampton
Oxford Brookes
Loughborough
Sussex
Sheffield (Foundation Year)
I’m currently leaning towards Oxford Brookes because of its strong motorsport connections, especially with Formula Student and links to F1 teams. However, I feel like Southampton has a stronger overall reputation for engineering and could give me better long-term career prospects even outside motorsport.
Would going to a higher-ranked uni like Southampton be better in the long run, or would Oxford Brookes’ motorsport focus give me an edge for getting into the industry?
Furthermore, if anyone has recommendations for the other unis I would be extremely grateful for your responses!
Any advice from current students, graduates, or anyone in the industry would be massively appreciated!
Thanks!
I’m an A-level student looking to study Mechanical Engineering, with an interest in starting a career in motorsport.
I’ve received offers from:
Southampton
Oxford Brookes
Loughborough
Sussex
Sheffield (Foundation Year)
I’m currently leaning towards Oxford Brookes because of its strong motorsport connections, especially with Formula Student and links to F1 teams. However, I feel like Southampton has a stronger overall reputation for engineering and could give me better long-term career prospects even outside motorsport.
Would going to a higher-ranked uni like Southampton be better in the long run, or would Oxford Brookes’ motorsport focus give me an edge for getting into the industry?
Furthermore, if anyone has recommendations for the other unis I would be extremely grateful for your responses!
Any advice from current students, graduates, or anyone in the industry would be massively appreciated!
Thanks!
Hello,
I would recommend going to Open Days or email admissions teams at the respective universities. I made my choice to study Motorsport Engineering on a specific list of my career goals and researched programs and then used LinkedIn to see where these people studied. If you are looking to join a university based on wanting to go into F1 you should prioritize asking questions to admissions.
Oxford Brookes University is continuing to develop their engineering program by just recently finishing their new engineering campus and having a lineup on industry professional visit which is a common for a well - known program.
Open Day information sign up is found here . https://www.brookes.ac.uk/open-days/ug-oxford
Original post by rdp8
Hi everyone,
I’m an A-level student looking to study Mechanical Engineering, with an interest in starting a career in motorsport.
I’ve received offers from:
Southampton
Oxford Brookes
Loughborough
Sussex
Sheffield (Foundation Year)
I’m currently leaning towards Oxford Brookes because of its strong motorsport connections, especially with Formula Student and links to F1 teams. However, I feel like Southampton has a stronger overall reputation for engineering and could give me better long-term career prospects even outside motorsport.
Would going to a higher-ranked uni like Southampton be better in the long run, or would Oxford Brookes’ motorsport focus give me an edge for getting into the industry?
Furthermore, if anyone has recommendations for the other unis I would be extremely grateful for your responses!
Any advice from current students, graduates, or anyone in the industry would be massively appreciated!
Thanks!
I’m an A-level student looking to study Mechanical Engineering, with an interest in starting a career in motorsport.
I’ve received offers from:
Southampton
Oxford Brookes
Loughborough
Sussex
Sheffield (Foundation Year)
I’m currently leaning towards Oxford Brookes because of its strong motorsport connections, especially with Formula Student and links to F1 teams. However, I feel like Southampton has a stronger overall reputation for engineering and could give me better long-term career prospects even outside motorsport.
Would going to a higher-ranked uni like Southampton be better in the long run, or would Oxford Brookes’ motorsport focus give me an edge for getting into the industry?
Furthermore, if anyone has recommendations for the other unis I would be extremely grateful for your responses!
Any advice from current students, graduates, or anyone in the industry would be massively appreciated!
Thanks!
I'd go with Brookes and their brand new facilities. Did you think about their Motorsport Engineering degree?
They have fantastic industry links and every F1 team employs their grads.
RG is irrelevant ... and Brookes are the most successful UK Formula Student team
(edited 1 month ago)
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