Dilemma! (Engineering)

People inherently pass off Cambridge as having the upper hand in engineering, but I've been rather tentative over the last few months in deciding which place to apply to for engineering. The advantage of Cambridge is that it has a world renowned engineering department with excellent facilities and fantastic job prospects, as well as an exchange program with MIT (which is obviously very selective but might be a nice experience).

The thing that really got me attracted to Oxford was the Engineering, Economics and Management course. I'm taking economics at IB and really love the course, and was considering keeping my options open (this is why I'm also applying to the US). I would probably apply for Engineering Science and then see how it goes from there. If I was willing to take up the extra workload then I'd apply in year 2 for EEM. They also have an exchange program with Princeton 4th year, and I also tend to prefer Oxford as a place, having visited both Ox and Cam, because it's a bit larger and I prefer a larger more industrial environment.

Looking at the standards of students, both universities have acceptance rates of about 29-ish percent, so I know that I'd be in a very competitive environment either way. What I'm hoping to get out of this thread is personal anecdotes from people who have studied engineering at either of the colleges, and what they found advantageous and disadvantageous about the courses - that way I can see what aspects of each would suit me best.

Finally, as an IB student I am potentially a victim to ridiculous offers (40+ points). However, this tends to be associated more with Cambridge than with Oxford, who always stay within the 38-40 range.

Sorry that this is such a long post, but hopefully you'll get the time to read it and respond. This is really important to me and the clocks ticking!

Thanks

Reply 1

hobnob

14

You appear to have decided to go for Oxford already, so what exactly is your question? :confused:

Reply 2

me, myself and I

1

I can understand what you're saying. Cambridge is the #1 for engineering in the UK I think (although Imperial is also excellent for specialised courses), but the differences between the top 3 are so small that it's all down to what you as a student make of it. There's no denying that while Oxford may not be the top, it won't ever fail to offer you a world-class education because that is what it has based its reputation on for hundreds of years.
You seem to prefer Oxford so I'd just go with it if I were you- if you are a capable student there is no reason why you won't succeed anywhere you end up! :smile:

Of course, I'm trying not to be biased here- but this is where my personal experience comes in. I'd initially thought of Cambridge for Engineering but then achieved less than brilliant AS grades. I still thought, deep down that I was capable of doing better than that though and when I heard that Oxford didn't want AS grades in the paper application I decided to apply there for Engineering Science as I thought I'd stand more of a chance initially, and it seemed more sensible to do so.
However, I told my interviewers my grades in the interview as I just wanted to be honest and they offered me a place anyway :smile:

I'm really nervous for results now, but if I do get my grades then I too am considering to switch to EEM (if first year goes well of course!) because lately I've been thinking I want to go into the management side of Engineering as opposed to research.

In short, you will hardly be disadvantaged whichever one of the two you choose, they are world-class institutions and you should just pick which one you think will suit you best! Good luck :smile:

Reply 3

im so academic

15

OP, go to where you want to go. At the end of the day, as known, they are two very good unis to graduate from.

If you want to go Oxford, go there. The course appealed to you, the university in itself - there's nothing stopping you!

:smile:

Reply 4

wizz_kid

16

CocoPop

People inherently pass off Cambridge as having the upper hand in engineering, but I've been rather tentative over the last few months in deciding which place to apply to for engineering. The advantage of Cambridge is that it has a world renowned engineering department with excellent facilities and fantastic job prospects, as well as an exchange program with MIT (which is obviously very selective but might be a nice experience).

The thing that really got me attracted to Oxford was the Engineering, Economics and Management course. I'm taking economics at IB and really love the course, and was considering keeping my options open (this is why I'm also applying to the US). I would probably apply for Engineering Science and then see how it goes from there. If I was willing to take up the extra workload then I'd apply in year 2 for EEM. They also have an exchange program with Princeton 4th year, and I also tend to prefer Oxford as a place, having visited both Ox and Cam, because it's a bit larger and I prefer a larger more industrial environment.

Looking at the standards of students, both universities have acceptance rates of about 29-ish percent, so I know that I'd be in a very competitive environment either way. What I'm hoping to get out of this thread is personal anecdotes from people who have studied engineering at either of the colleges, and what they found advantageous and disadvantageous about the courses - that way I can see what aspects of each would suit me best.

Finally, as an IB student I am potentially a victim to ridiculous offers (40+ points). However, this tends to be associated more with Cambridge than with Oxford, who always stay within the 38-40 range.

Sorry that this is such a long post, but hopefully you'll get the time to read it and respond. This is really important to me and the clocks ticking!

Thanks

EEM at oxford is harder to get into than Engineering Science as EEM has less places than Engineering Science.

Reply 5

CocoPop

OP

18

wizz_kid

EEM at oxford is harder to get into than Engineering Science as EEM has less places than Engineering Science.

Yeah, that's why if I were to apply to Oxford, I'd apply for Engineering Science first. This is not solely because it's a lot harder to get into EEM (acceptance rate around 12%), but because I'd rather decide later on whether or not I want to do EEM as I'm not entirely sure yet and want to keep my options open. I know that some people switch from EEM to ES, but I wouldn't want to work myself up as an international trying to get one of the few places at EEM only to switch to ES afterwards...

fumblewomble, thanks for the info. It's really helpful, and shows that offers do vary quite significantly. King's seems to be the most generous. I'll try and find something similar for Oxford and will post it up in case anyone else wants to check it out as well.

Reply 6

Derek_the_Sheep

8

CocoPop

I'll try and find something similar for Oxford and will post it up in case anyone else wants to check it out as well.

http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate_courses/international_students/international_qualifications/index.html
[INDENT]International Baccalaureate: A total score of at least 38 points including core points, with 6s and 7s in subjects taken at the Higher level.[/INDENT]

This is standard across the colleges; they have agreed to adopt a "common framework" for admissions.

DtS

Reply 7

Smeh

14

CocoPop

Yeah, that's why if I were to apply to Oxford, I'd apply for Engineering Science first. This is not solely because it's a lot harder to get into EEM (acceptance rate around 12%), but because I'd rather decide later on whether or not I want to do EEM as I'm not entirely sure yet and want to keep my options open. I know that some people switch from EEM to ES, but I wouldn't want to work myself up as an international trying to get one of the few places at EEM only to switch to ES afterwards...

fumblewomble, thanks for the info. It's really helpful, and shows that offers do vary quite significantly. King's seems to be the most generous. I'll try and find something similar for Oxford and will post it up in case anyone else wants to check it out as well.

Yeah I had this same dilemma as both family and friends are pushing me to apply for cambridge but I just prefer oxford as a place and yeah I know it sounds kinda silly but it just felt nicer...maybe because it was really sunny for the oxford open day but for the cambridge open day it rained :p:

And the engineering guy I spoke to at Hertford college said that it's definitely possible to switch between ES and EEM after first year as the course in general in first year anyway...but I'm not sure if that's specific to that college.
But yeah have you thought about colleges?

Reply 8

CocoPop

OP

18

Yeah, I'm particularly interested in Balliol college. I have checked and they offer both ES and EEM, giving the option to switch over in the second year (after, I presume, a fairly rigorous selection process). I have also heard that they have quite a large crowd of international students, which I would really love because I've been in international schools my entire life. There were around 5 colleges that I was looking at that offered both ES and EEM and I narrowed it down to Balliol. I was initially almost certain that I would apply to Cambridge but then after doing a bit of research I got increasingly interested in the Oxford course. My parents are totally behind whatever decision I make.

Hobnob (lol @ the username), it's true that I'm edging more towards Oxford, but the reason I posted this was so that I could hear from students with experience in either of the courses to get closer insight on what they're both like.

Just two quick questions:
First, does anyone know what kind of job prospects there are for Oxford engineers. I know that Cambridge and Imperial have a lot of people coming to recruit students for jobs. Are there similar recruitment opportunities in Oxford.
Second, how difficult/competitive is it to switch over to EEM in the second year. Will things like having done Economics HL at IB and receiving year awards for it make any difference or is it purely interview based? How does the application work.

I know that I'm delving quite far into the whole applications process, even looking at later university years and so on, but I just want to get an idea of what it's all about so that I can make a fully informed decision.

EDIT: Thanks and sorry for the long post again!

Dilemma! (Engineering)

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