What type job/field would be what I'm thinking of?

[rollcast]

I am doing my gcses and have to decide what A levels I want to do, which of course involves deciding what university course I would be aiming for(oh god the pun in there is terrible, lol)

I enjoy and would like to do the following subjects for A level,

Maths, w/ Further Maths if possible, Physics, Chemistry, Technology and Design w/ Electronics or Mechanisms, I probably would go for the Electronics.

I have thought of doing Electrical, Mechanical or Chemical Engineering, but what I really want to do is design large physics or chemistry machines, I think when I got a tour of the accelerator mass spectrometer made me love this sort of field.

But where does something like that fall, is it electrical engineering with all the electrical components, mechanical as it has pressurised valves and stuff or chemical because of the reactions occurring inside it?

Thanks
AL

 

[quantum13]

There are tons of things you could do, all the engineering fields and even experimental physics could let you "design large physics or chemistry machines". Most people end up deciding based on some random factors, like getting an internship with a EE firm, scoring high on a CE test, having a superb ME prof... I'd say go for the field with the most money

 

[rollcast]

Thanks,

Suppose the next logical step is to ask which area that would allow me to design physics or chemistry machines, is most likely to experience growth in the future and is the best paid?

 

[ashnek]

In the end the big machines are designed by teams, sure you can't get knowledge of many areas at same time in the design but you will always become experienced in very little of them so i would suggest you that, you will be appreciated by what you are a specialist at and not that you know some about many subjects (that doesn't mean you shouldn't learn some basic stuff).
I liked medical devices/machines, they are pretty complicated and cool and i always thought if you were going to spend time in something it had to be in how to make your life better so yes that. Theres a lot of electronics involved as mechanical engineering and ofc electrical so ye i also liked it because it has a lot of fields involved

 

[Mépris]

Reading through course descriptions of universities you're interested in would be a good idea. A good way, imo, to choosing a university would be based on grades you think you can achieve (mostly A*s or As and Bs?) and location.

This is just my opinion but I think you're getting too carried away with your a-level choices. Further Mathematics is a challenging and time consuming subject and doing more than 3 subjects alongside it is going to make your life very hard. I would suggest picking 4 or 5 subjects to study during your AS year and then drop whatever number you see fit when starting your A2 year. Six is too much.

Some people have pulled it off, so maybe you could do. I also don't have any experience with A-Level DT or Electronics, so I wouldn't know. If this might help your decision, Cambridge colleges (and the LSE but I doubt you'd care about 'em) have a list of subject combinations that they consider acceptable. Here is an example.

 

[rollcast]

Mepris, It would only be five as Technology and Electronics count only as one subject.

Would Electrical Engineering w/ physics be the sort of thing I would need to do what I want then?

 

[Mépris]

Mepris, It would only be five as Technology and Electronics count only as one subject.

Would Electrical Engineering w/ physics be the sort of thing I would need to do what I want then?

Five is more reasonable. Try reading bits and pieces of what seem interesting in your AS books to get a feel for it.

I don't know of any university in the UK who offers that kind of degree. You will find that kind of flexibility in Australian and North American universities.