Personal Statement and University choices help

Hi,

So recently, we've been trying to complete our personal statements. Normally, this would be straightforward, however I recently made the switch from A degree in medicine to pursing one in Engineering, more specifically one in Mechanical Engineering. The problem I'm now seeing is that without a background in Physics its hard to write anything as not doing physics as a course during my A levels meant that I was excluded from a multitude of different competitions which could have strengthened my statement. With very little formal engagement with the subject and its background, I turned to doing a MOOC and watching TED talks in the subject but I still feel like its not going to be enough to write a good personal statement. So I was wondering if anyone had some advice on how to strengthen and structure a personal statement in engineering without a physics background.

Some universities, I've found, don't require physics for a mechanical engineering degree but instead look for Maths and Chemistry. I'm sure universities would not say that unless they meant it so I am unsure as to how far I should believe them on that. I get that I'll be having to work harder however I'm prepared to do that as I'm also aware that they will put it in place to accommodate everyone during the first few months or so. I'm torn between a foundation year or just applying if they don't require physics at a level.

Thanks for reading.

Reply 1

AliG720

Hi I also did something like this I changed from medicine to aerospace engineering but I retook physics onky because one of my unis required it and if the unis youre applying to don’t require it then don’t worry about it. Unis usually bring you up to date in the first few weeks because they know people have covered different things is their specifications because they get students from all over the world so seriously don’t worry about the physics as for the foundation year I strongly encourage you not to onky because it’s a waste of 9.5k if you’re getting the required grades. Foundation years are usually for those who fail to meet the requirements so if you are confident you will get the grades needed if you try hard enough then don’t waste your time on the foundation year

Reply 2

AliG720

I’ll continue here separately because I wrote a huge paragraph before and for some reason it just removed it all when o tried to send
So as for the personal statement you don’t need to necessarily do multitudes of activities. I did a lot for when I wanted to do medicine and also a lot for engineering last year since I had to redo yr 12 but personally none of it really helped me write my personal statement. I went to 2 summer schools for engineering and I didn’t really talk about either of them they were kind of useless to me because we didn’t really do anything that was to do with what I’m interested in it was more about structural engineering and obviously I want to do aerospace so what I’m trying to say is youre too focused on what you didn’t do just focus on what you have done and what you ca do over the next few weeks. I’m guessing youre deadline is in January so you still have a few months to work if you really want to but a pedaonal statement is short anyway so theres not much you can actually fit in it just do a few activities that you can actually talk about. And if you’ve done any maths competitions they would be nice too. And with supercurriculars you can literally do anything and just tailor it to engineering. I read an example Oxford pwrsonal statement for engineering a little while ago and the person talked about how he experimented with projectile motion and used the mechanics knowledge from his alevel maths/ physics to see how to make it faster or slower by changing its mass etc so if you can do any little projects liek this you should be fine

Reply 3

AliG720

And to continue on from that you can basically do anything for a supercurricular I read an article on electric flight and i did some maths challenges if you can’t think of any supercurriculars just type into chat gpt what youre specifically interested in and ask chat gpt to give you example supercurriculars. A good supercurricular currently happening is ritangle it’s a matsh competition and it ends in December right before ucas deadline so you can talk about that I know a lot of applicants try answering hard maths wuestions to challenge their problem solving skills so you can do taht a few websites include I want to study engineering, Isaac science and a book called professor poveys perplexing problems and you can talk about who you used critical thinking and it made you look at the problems from multiple different angles

Reply 4

AliG720

And don’t be too worried about the ps because i know most unis don’t really care too much because most of my froends who applied medicine last year all got their 5th choice even though their personal statement was nothing to do with taht subject I know people who apply to medicine and mechanical engineering and get into both even though the pwrsonal statement is purely medicine related. But if you’re planning on applying to competitive unis then they probably will look at it since theres nothing else they can look at because there’s no interview. So don’t be too worried I hope this helps I did write a lot more before but for some reason it keeps on removing what I’ve typed up so I have to rewrite it and forget some of the stuff I wrote previously so sorry about that

Reply 5

Zain0409

Original post

by AliG720

Thank you so much. This has been really helpful and I think I'll definitely get started on the Ritangle challenges. But yh I tried like compiling a list of things like super curricular to do so this has been a great help.

Reply 6

AliG720

Original post

by Zain0409

You’re welcome

Reply 7

Kingston Trenyce

Official Rep

Original post

by Zain0409

Hi,
So recently, we've been trying to complete our personal statements. Normally, this would be straightforward, however I recently made the switch from A degree in medicine to pursing one in Engineering, more specifically one in Mechanical Engineering. The problem I'm now seeing is that without a background in Physics its hard to write anything as not doing physics as a course during my A levels meant that I was excluded from a multitude of different competitions which could have strengthened my statement. With very little formal engagement with the subject and its background, I turned to doing a MOOC and watching TED talks in the subject but I still feel like its not going to be enough to write a good personal statement. So I was wondering if anyone had some advice on how to strengthen and structure a personal statement in engineering without a physics background.
Some universities, I've found, don't require physics for a mechanical engineering degree but instead look for Maths and Chemistry. I'm sure universities would not say that unless they meant it so I am unsure as to how far I should believe them on that. I get that I'll be having to work harder however I'm prepared to do that as I'm also aware that they will put it in place to accommodate everyone during the first few months or so. I'm torn between a foundation year or just applying if they don't require physics at a level.
Thanks for reading.

Hi there! its great you've taken the initiative to explore the mechanical engineering through MOOCs and TED Talks, this kind of independent learning really does strengthen your PS. Don't underestimate how valuable that is!

If entry requirements don't list physics as essential, most likely the introductory modules may recap or teach the necessary physics principles so that students from different academic backgrounds can succeed. If you're unsure about your unreadiness, you could apply for a mix of options, some direct-entry courses and some with a foundation year.

Trenyce (Kingston Rep)