University advice

[quickshot89]

What is the difference like between studying a Bachelor's and a Master's Degree?

I was considering applying to study Engineering at Bristol, but the only engineering degree which seems to have a year in industry was this one.

Unless I'm missing something but I always thought you had to finish a BEng before you could start a MEng degree.

I'll let you know in a few weeks, but generally the Masters has a minimum pass mark of 50 compared to 40 for a Bachelor's degree

 

[Nitefly]

In short - MEng is better. You can go straight into a masters if you are doing something beyond a regular bachelor's degree, typically done with an additional year of studying.

 

[Dave]

What is the difference like between studying a Bachelor's and a Master's Degree?

I was considering applying to study Engineering at Bristol, but the only engineering degree which seems to have a year in industry was this one.

Unless I'm missing something but I always thought you had to finish a BEng before you could start a MEng degree.

The MEng is not really a masters per-se - it's an "undergraduate masters", so a 4-year one. When I did mine, the pass mark was still 40, but you had to have at least a 2:1 to get onto the fourth year of the course, else you were booted out with a BEng. Principal difference was in the design project in the third year (chem eng) - the BEngers were given plant specifications etc. whereas the MEngers had to do some research to find out what is typically done in industry, what flowrates/pressures are used etc.

At Sheffield it was offered to do a 3+1+1 course for an MEng with a work experienced year sandwiched in between the BEng year and the fourth year - I think this was the same for all engineering courses and not just chem eng. Shirley Bristol do something similar? Can you ask an admissions tutor if you can't see one on the website?

I'll let you know in a few weeks, but generally the Masters has a minimum pass mark of 50 compared to 40 for a Bachelor's degree

Presumably you're doing an MSc - this does not have the same grading system as MEng, which is still graded as 1st/2:1 etc rather than distinction/merit/pass. At least this is the case in Sheffield/Cambridge anyway!

 

[Hxc]

Bristol certainly do Engineering with a year in industry, I'm living with someone who is on one of the varieties of that course!

 

[Diagro]

Pitchforks degree is lauhable.
Easy crap degree

 

[Scythian]

The MEng is not really a masters per-se - it's an "undergraduate masters", so a 4-year one. When I did mine, the pass mark was still 40, but you had to have at least a 2:1 to get onto the fourth year of the course, else you were booted out with a BEng. Principal difference was in the design project in the third year (chem eng) - the BEngers were given plant specifications etc. whereas the MEngers had to do some research to find out what is typically done in industry, what flowrates/pressures are used etc.

At Sheffield it was offered to do a 3+1+1 course for an MEng with a work experienced year sandwiched in between the BEng year and the fourth year - I think this was the same for all engineering courses and not just chem eng. Shirley Bristol do something similar? Can you ask an admissions tutor if you can't see one on the website?

Not sure if you where referring to the same course that I had linked, but I'm assuming that the 5 years for that degree would be the Bachelor's degree for the first three, followed by the sandwich year and the Master's year during the final that you described. However I was concerned if I apply for that degree it was a case of Masters or nothing.

 

[semi-pro waster]

I started a degree but very quickly got bored with it started working at a telecoms company as a call centre advisor and within 3 years had moved up to Project Manager yes as a foot in the door if you don't want to start on the bottom rung degrees can be useful however they are definitely the be all and end all.

While I'd certainly agree that a degree is not the be all and end all it is vital for a few select occupations and it's useful for a number more. It's not always even that the degree proves you know the subject but much more fundamentally that you can learn to a set standard - in many cases the subject isn't actually of much importance, it's the proven ability to learn that is what is wanted.

A surprising thing I learned at university was that girls/young women are actually much messier to live with than guys. Every time I shared a house with a girl / girls, the mess was just incredible. Not necessarily dirty in the same way that a boy's household will become... but messy, cluttered, never in a state of tidiness

This is true from my experience although every so often there would be a massive clean up operation and just sitting in the wrong place would be frowned upon but it never took long to go back to being a complete state of disarray. I'm not the tidiest person in the world and can easily cope with a certain amount of mess but I'd aim to always keep communal areas reasonably tidy.

 

[quickshot89]

Presumably you're doing an MSc - this does not have the same grading system as MEng, which is still graded as 1st/2:1 etc rather than distinction/merit/pass. At least this is the case in Sheffield/Cambridge anyway!

Both my BSc and this MSc will be graded as First, 2:1 etc

Edit: Since when did degrees not come with a class of honours :S

 

[flibbage0]

Medicine is a totally different ball-game though, since all the content is regulated (and pretty much the same) across all Universities. Much like there was Edexcel/OCR/AQA at GCSE/A-Level, since ALL doctors graduating need to be of the same calibre; hence, there's no such thing as a league table for Universities when it comes to Medicine. Besides, league tables are nonsense for most other subjects as well. For other subjects there's a much wider variation in workload and difficulty. I know that at Oxford and Cambridge you cover in the first year what some other Universities take 2 years to cover, for mathematics.

Pretty much the same for Pharmacy as well, you have to do the 4 years and then a pre reg year, you then register with the Royal pharmaceutical society. You all have to be up to the same standard.