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Calvin Asks: Is having Physics A-level a 'must have' to do an Engineering Degree?

CalvinTheEngineer
My son wants to be an engineer when he grows up. He is doing his GCSE’s this year and getting ready to choose his A-Levels, but his school has a new physics teacher, whom he HATES! He is now adamant he won’t be choosing physics at A-Level, but I’m worried that he’ll struggle to get onto an engineering course at a good university without it.


He doesn’t want to change schools as all his friends are staying; it’s one of the best schools in the area and local too, so I don’t really want him to have to move either. So my question is, does he need a physics A-Level or can he get by without it?


A-Level dilemmas - Darlington

 
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    Emma Blackburn:

    I actually did Chemistry, Geography and English A levels. [...] It also had the advantage of broadening my knowledge ...




    Personally I couldn't agree more. I think at least one non-science subject is really useful for broadening the knowledge of undergraduate engineers - I wrote at length elsewhere that excellent engineering is about communicating with non-engineers to use technology to understand and then solve their problems in the context of their society. So pretty much any subject is going to come in useful here: English (or language of choice) and geography as you say, or history, art, drama, or (as in my case), music, sociology and psychology. (Ok, due to various constraints I only got half way through the first two at A level, but they were still very useful.) Probably lots of others I can't think of at the moment.


    I'm honestly not sure how university admissions departments view this - I expect it very much depends on the university?


    Excellent post!


    Cheers, Andy

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  • 0

    Emma Blackburn:

    I actually did Chemistry, Geography and English A levels. [...] It also had the advantage of broadening my knowledge ...




    Personally I couldn't agree more. I think at least one non-science subject is really useful for broadening the knowledge of undergraduate engineers - I wrote at length elsewhere that excellent engineering is about communicating with non-engineers to use technology to understand and then solve their problems in the context of their society. So pretty much any subject is going to come in useful here: English (or language of choice) and geography as you say, or history, art, drama, or (as in my case), music, sociology and psychology. (Ok, due to various constraints I only got half way through the first two at A level, but they were still very useful.) Probably lots of others I can't think of at the moment.


    I'm honestly not sure how university admissions departments view this - I expect it very much depends on the university?


    Excellent post!


    Cheers, Andy

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