2nd Year Entry Scottish Universities

Hello.
I am thinking to apply for the 2nd year entry for Chemistry in Strathclyde and Glasgow. (Undergraduate)
I’m not fully sure though. Would I be missing a lot if I skip year 1, in terms of learning, making friends or other stuff.
Also would it be relatively okay to adjust straight year 2?
Thanks.

Hello.
I am thinking to apply for the 2nd year entry for Chemistry in Strathclyde and Glasgow. (Undergraduate)
I’m not fully sure though. Would I be missing a lot if I skip year 1, in terms of learning, making friends or other stuff.
Also would it be relatively okay to adjust straight year 2?
Thanks.

Hiya Engene (:
Thats me onto my third year of the pure and applied chemistry course at strathclyde, content wise first year is mainly a year for getting everybody up to the same level of understanding, everyone starts the course with a slightly different background so just means any gaps can be patched up! id done the adv higher before starting my first year so had covered quite a bit of the first year content, but found it really good for getting used to the university structure as it is quite a change from school 😊
in my first year i also had a maths module with the same sorta idea of getting everybody to the same page (: - also had a few optional modules which i found pretty enjoyable for getting to study something a bit different
the main thing i think that was a big jump betwen first and seccond year was the labs! - in first year i had 1 per week, with a few reports per semester, then in seccond year i had 2-3 labs p/w with reports for majoirty of experiments which were taking up quite a bit of time alongside my other modules - might of just been because i did my higher/adv during covid, but hadnt really experienced much report writing up until uni so i know for me that wouldve been a bit of a struggle to suddenly go to reports every week!
in terms of making friends and general uni life, with your labs a lot of the time you have a partner for the experiments which is always a great way to meet new people on your course!, one of my friends had transferred onto the course last year and thats how i met her (: - as caitlin mentioned, you also have tons of societies and sport clubs running within the uni! - Im on the bookclub committee here and when we were doing our welcome events ,there were tons of new people from all year levels so please dont feel put off going to these type of things, everyone so far ive met has been really wellcoming! 🤗
Just thought also worth mentioning, a lot of my lectuers for 2nd year had posted the 1st year powerpoints to refer back to, these would likely be accessible, also had some guides to write lab reports which im sure if you were to explain that you'd just joined they would be happy to provide (: - lecturers also usually have an out of hours time during the week where your able to go and meet and have a chat about anything within the course, you also have a personal development advisor for this type of thing who can help with any sort of worries (:
hope this helps a bit with the decision! - if you've got any other questions about the course feel free to tag me in a post and im happy to have a yap!🤗
Emily
Year 3, Chemistry
Official University Of Strathclyde Rep

Hello @Engene 😀 Hope you're well! Glad to hear you're considering studying with us at Strathclyde!
Year 2 is a good option for well qualified applicants, and there's pros and cons to consider. Some pros are that you're finished and out in the world of work earlier, that you're able to challenge yourself right from the get-go as you're coming in at a higher level, and that you could have less student loans to repay given you're not at university for as long. Some cons could involve some of what you've mentioned - that lots of students make friends early on and you start after they've worked together for a year and that sometimes the level of learning is too much of a challenge.
I'd say for both of the cons that they're within you're control - so it's up to you to consider what you'd like your first year to be like. You don't need to miss out on anything at all, and there's still lots of friendships to be formed as you get through the degree and explore clubs/societies too. If you're willing to work hard then you should be ok learning wise - as the admissions team wouldn't make an offer of study to you if you weren't capable of doing well 🤗
I'm actually going to tag our brilliant student ambassador Emily in to this thread as she's one of our current Chemistry students and will be able to share some of her student experience with you when she's next checking in on TSR @University of Strathclyde Student Ambassador 🤩
Caitlin 🎓️
Official University of Strathclyde Rep

Hi there,
Some things I would take into consideration:

I've just started my 3rd year of Mechanical Engineering, and I personally couldn't imagine this being my final year. First year can be very overwhelming, exciting and full of new experiences, and I think there is a lot of value in having that year to help you find your feet, especially when all those around you are going through it as well. There's obviously benefits to the second year entry, but I would consider carefully the pros and cons and what you think will work best for you. It's a very personal decision, so go with your gut!
All the best with your decision and application!
Elise, Mechanical Engineering
BEng Student Representative

Thank you sm. I didn’t realise I forgot to mention but I’m also thinking to apply to the forensic + analytical chemistry at Strathclyde.
If I did go into year 2, would I miss anything to do with the forensic side from the first year?
I looked on the website and it doesn’t mention anything on forensic in the ‘course content’ section. However it then mentions in a later section that there is a forensic elective. So I’m not too sure if it would impact on my learning.
Thank you x

no problemo(:
foresnics wise, there are optional modules available relating to drugs of abuse but not everybody on the forensics course will have picked to do them, im not on the forensics coruse and at the time had chosen a biomolecular science elective so not exactly sure what they covered
in the first year general chemistry module we covered some analytical techniques (things like HPLC, chromotography, mass spec etc) these type of techniques can be applied in foreinsics labs to identify compounds but nothing too speicifc (: - that module was split between analytical, physiscal, inorganic and organic chemistry so was only a few weeks of analytical
without taking that elective module from first year, in my 2nd year i did the same foresnsic trace & analytical module as the people on the forensics coruse alongside the foresnic/analytical labs and found that the background for what we were doing in the labs was covered in that module! - in the 2nd year module analytical seperations, handinling chemical data, statistics, maths and chemical trace analysis were all covered (: - the analytical from first year is expanded on in the first few weeks and your taught some stats which will come in handy in the forensic labs, then in the 2nd semester forensic trace content and some more maths - some of the forensic content id already seen a bit in the first semester labs but then explained the content in more detail
didnt think there was much from first year I was missing background from, but if there was anything that came up your lecturers will be happy to chat through it!😊
Emily
Year 3, Chemistry
Official University Of Strathclyde Rep

Thank you again! I have one more question, should be my last one.
If I wasn’t to get accepted for year2 would the university automatically consider me for year1?
I asked this through an email to the university a week ago but they haven’t responded yet, so I’m hoping you can help out.
Thank you x

Hiya (:
Not too sure myself how they deal with the admissions process - best as you've done contacting the chemistry department to ask 😊 - just checking you've emailed to [email protected] ? - i would maybe try resending just to make sure they have your email as it has been a wee while now
Ive also just sent out an email to them just to bring it to their attention that they've not responded so hopefully should get back to you soon!(:
Emily
Year 3, Chemistry
Official University Of Strathclyde Rep