I'm agonizing over whether to choose Physics or Engineering for my degree for Sept 08 in the UK. I'm 28, with a business degree, so I'll be applying as a mature student. I got good A levels in Biology, Chemistry and Maths 10 years ago, and I'm currently taking Foundation Year evening classes in Physics and Further Maths.
The physics I'm studying now is fantastic - I'm scoring 80s and 90s in my assignments (and would do better if I didn't work full-time) so I don't have any doubt I'd enjoy studying it for it's own sake at uni. Engineering is obviously much more of a mystery. It's attractive because I want make a real stamp in society, and contribute to building thinsg that will benefit people. But I've been looking at a variety of engineering books and and the maths is scary! I did really well in maths throughout school - not a genius, but I had good intuition over the direction in which answers could be found, and I was a hard worker. It's hard to know whether I'd withstand the demands at degree level though. The further maths I'm doing now has only just started to get harder - I've received perfect marks on my assessments so far with almost no study, but it's really just revision material for me, so it's not really a good indicator of how far I could go. So I'm worried about keeping up with uni students who've probably done intensive A levels in Further Maths and Further Physics at A level. I'm hoping to consolidate and further my knowledge with some online courses at the Open University, but they don't start until Jan. I would also love to think I had some creative juices in me, but that side of my brain has been neglected for so long it's hard to know. Aeronautical engineering looks pretty exciting at the moment, but it's so competitive to get into, and I'd settle for mechanical enginnering to keep my job prospects broader. Medical engineering and robotics would be amazing to get into, but I'm not sure how much I want to get stuck back into Biology and Human Anatomy.
And as I haven't studied so recently, I don't even know if I stand a chance of getting into uni. For lots of reasons I need to stay in London, and the gap in quality between some of the best engineering unis in the world - Imperial, UCL, and Brunel, and the rest of the London polytechnics, is huge. My lecturers are adamant I try for only the best. But it means competing against 18 y.o s who have industrial work experience, project work, entered competions, etc, etc. I probably would have a better shot at getting onto a physics degree which doesn't require so much practical experience to boost your application. (Which I'd love to get, but because I have both a full-time and part-time job, I can't figure out how it'll slot in.)
So any advice for a mature applicant would be so appreciated. I found the previous observations, that physicists and scientists face much more competion in their fields than engineers, really interesting. As much as I'd love to study something I'd definitely love, like physics, at this point I have to really think long-term and where the better job prospects lie. A physics degree for me, should end with a job in R&D or industry or something similar. I can not stomach the thought of busting my gut (and my wallet) for 3-4 years and end up working in a bank (especially with a business degree behind me already!)
Brunel do offer a foundation year for their engineering courses so that's an option I can try for. Or could consider waiting until 09 to study, and spend the next year and a half accumulating as much work experience as possible to boost my application, and also really make sure it's the career I want. Financially it'll be really hard though.
Just as a side-note, we can't switch degrees in the UK unfortunately - you decide what you want from the start, physics, mechanical eng, EE, etc, etc and you stick with it or you start over (though there may be some scope to change from one engineering branch to another depending on the uni). The core subjects in the first year are pretty different between physics and engineering.
And I need to decide pretty soon - the deadline's in January :(
Thanks for any help!
Stella