Mech Engineering: help please!

Hi all,
I've been a poster on this site for many years, providing advice on the legal careers and Law forums. It's now my turn to ask for advice!
My son is in Year 11, and on course for a strong set of GCSEs (9s and 8s across the board). At present, he's leaning towards aerospace engineering as he's been passionate about all things aviation, astronomy, design and tech for many years. If he maintains his academic progress, it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect As and A*s at A-Level. His grammar school prefers students to take 3 A-Levels plus an EPQ, not 4 A-Levels.
Key questions for us:
- He'll definitely chose Maths and Physics at A-Level. Third choice is between Chemistry and DT. My sense is that DT wouldn't be as well-regarded as Chemistry, but do I have that wrong?
- Is it best to do a broader engineering degree, or go straight for an aerospace/aeronautical engineering course?
- Which Uni's would people recommend given the above points?
- Is MEng the better route than BEng from a careers perspective?
- Should we be looking at courses that offer a placement year?
- What should he be doing now to strengthen his future Uni applications?
A lot of questions, I know! I'm cashing in all the credit I've gained from doling out legal careers advice over the last 15-odd years!
Cheers

There's a lot of CAD in Engineering and little Chemistry [except in Chem Eng] so DT is fine. There are no subjects considered 'soft' now - that's outdated.
He would be wise to do a placement year and an MEng is only better if he needs to be chartered - many Engineers aren't.
So a bit more research into unis - might he want to go to a uni wanting FMaths? Do Aero Engineers need to be chartered?
Don't be fooled that he needs to look at RG unis - that's not relevant for Engineering [many of my students do that degree].
Happy to help further

Thank you, much appreciated!
Funnily enough, he's come home this evening now thinking about doing Further Maths rather than either Chem or DT so it may be irrelevant!
Thanks for the thoughts on BEng vs MEng, and the importance of a placement year. Naturally, as a parent, I think of employability at the end of all of this but, probably more importantly, I want him to have an amazing time at Uni and the choice of city will be critical. My sense is that whilst the likes of Imperial are very highly regarded, he would have a better Uni experience outside of London.
I think I might have seen some of your posts on here about Oxbridge and engineering. What are your thoughts?
Thanks again.
Chalks.

Hi all,
I've been a poster on this site for many years, providing advice on the legal careers and Law forums. It's now my turn to ask for advice!
My son is in Year 11, and on course for a strong set of GCSEs (9s and 8s across the board). At present, he's leaning towards aerospace engineering as he's been passionate about all things aviation, astronomy, design and tech for many years. If he maintains his academic progress, it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect As and A*s at A-Level. His grammar school prefers students to take 3 A-Levels plus an EPQ, not 4 A-Levels.
Key questions for us:
- He'll definitely chose Maths and Physics at A-Level. Third choice is between Chemistry and DT. My sense is that DT wouldn't be as well-regarded as Chemistry, but do I have that wrong?
- Is it best to do a broader engineering degree, or go straight for an aerospace/aeronautical engineering course?
- Which Uni's would people recommend given the above points?
- Is MEng the better route than BEng from a careers perspective?
- Should we be looking at courses that offer a placement year?
- What should he be doing now to strengthen his future Uni applications?
A lot of questions, I know! I'm cashing in all the credit I've gained from doling out legal careers advice over the last 15-odd years!
Cheers

I wouldn’t do DT, pragmatically in some roles having an understanding of prototyping and machining is useful for an engineer but theoretical competence is more useful especially once you work past entry level roles, even test and dev engineers are largely working with technicians who are far more knowledgeable on hand when it comes to working with machining, although it is fun. Although i would recommend either further maths or computer science both as more relevant for aerospace engineering unless he is interested in materials aspects.
Yes an MEng is definitely worthwhile although you can typically upgrade from BEng to MEng at university.
Yes a placement year or multiple internships are definitely very worthwhile.
What should he be doing now? Just doing as well as possible on his A-levels this is by far the most important factor for keeping as many universities in play as possible. Although if he wants to do some reading of technical papers/articles this will be useful and interesting, perhaps a project learning MATLAB or Python scripting towards an “engineering problem” even something trivial like running SUVAT level mechanics (he should know what this is).
What unis? Well a lot of this is very personal, I would recommend looking at Rolls-Royce (aerospace) partner universities as the best place to build up a list of the most highly employable aerospace universities, they are by far the biggest aerospace player in the UK especially if he is interested in working at an OEM versus a supporting organization or supplier: https://www.rolls-royce.com/about/our-research/research-and-university.aspx

Hi all,
I've been a poster on this site for many years, providing advice on the legal careers and Law forums. It's now my turn to ask for advice!
My son is in Year 11, and on course for a strong set of GCSEs (9s and 8s across the board). At present, he's leaning towards aerospace engineering as he's been passionate about all things aviation, astronomy, design and tech for many years. If he maintains his academic progress, it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect As and A*s at A-Level. His grammar school prefers students to take 3 A-Levels plus an EPQ, not 4 A-Levels.
Key questions for us:
- He'll definitely chose Maths and Physics at A-Level. Third choice is between Chemistry and DT. My sense is that DT wouldn't be as well-regarded as Chemistry, but do I have that wrong?
- Is it best to do a broader engineering degree, or go straight for an aerospace/aeronautical engineering course?
- Which Uni's would people recommend given the above points?
- Is MEng the better route than BEng from a careers perspective?
- Should we be looking at courses that offer a placement year?
- What should he be doing now to strengthen his future Uni applications?
A lot of questions, I know! I'm cashing in all the credit I've gained from doling out legal careers advice over the last 15-odd years!
Cheers

Hi all,
I've been a poster on this site for many years, providing advice on the legal careers and Law forums. It's now my turn to ask for advice!
My son is in Year 11, and on course for a strong set of GCSEs (9s and 8s across the board). At present, he's leaning towards aerospace engineering as he's been passionate about all things aviation, astronomy, design and tech for many years. If he maintains his academic progress, it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect As and A*s at A-Level. His grammar school prefers students to take 3 A-Levels plus an EPQ, not 4 A-Levels.
Key questions for us:
- He'll definitely chose Maths and Physics at A-Level. Third choice is between Chemistry and DT. My sense is that DT wouldn't be as well-regarded as Chemistry, but do I have that wrong?
- Is it best to do a broader engineering degree, or go straight for an aerospace/aeronautical engineering course?
- Which Uni's would people recommend given the above points?
- Is MEng the better route than BEng from a careers perspective?
- Should we be looking at courses that offer a placement year?
- What should he be doing now to strengthen his future Uni applications?
A lot of questions, I know! I'm cashing in all the credit I've gained from doling out legal careers advice over the last 15-odd years!
Cheers