Maths Or Physics Degree?

taz488

taz488

taz488

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Joined
29 Jun 2006
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Manchester
just looking for some advice and/or personal experiences into which degree would be better, i like both subjects and am doing physics/maths/further maths/computing at AS level atm, taking them to A level next year. and this is the time we get attacked by ucas into getting our application ready, yet im still not sure what degree i want to apply for.

any advice on which to choose? or how to chose between two degrees that you fancy?
 
maths is more universal and get better paid jobs, but is boring
physics less jobs, not as much money, but potentially fun jobs.

but really depends what your grades are and if you can get a first from a top uni.
 
I'm in the same boat as you:

Maths
Engineering
Medicine

Doing medicine work experience at the moment and really enjoying it, to be honest. Struggling to decide though, I quite fancy Maths at Oxford but not sure if I'd get in for Medicine there?

OK real reason I'm struggling to decide on medicine is it would be fairly embarrassing to have a family of 5 doctors ;)
 
quick replies! :D

well i got 4 A's in january exams and i think ive done pretty good in the summer ones, so with a bit of luck im hoping for A's all round again. im thinking of applying to oxford but thinking im not likely to get in cos i dont do too much 'extracurricular activties' and i aint too good at interviews. but i am going on the sutton trust week at oxford doin maths, so maybe that will be a deceider.
 
sod oxford, good if you want to work abroad.

maths look at warwick, it certainly was top of the listings for maths and if you can get a first there, you'll be sorted.
 
AcidHell2 said:
maths look at warwick, it certainly was top of the listings for maths and if you can get a first there, you'll be sorted.
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Reminded me about something I've been wanting to ask - is it harder to get a first at Oxbridge at say a good Scottish uni (Edinburgh), or anywhere else really?
 
markyp23 said:
OK real reason I'm struggling to decide on medicine is it would be fairly embarrassing to have a family of 5 doctors ;)
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Embarrassing? Hardly, would make it easier if anything. You'd rarely struggle, put it that way. Mate of mines family are mostly doctors and pharmacists. He's doing medicine too. Just seems to follow.
 
markyp23 said:
Reminded me about something I've been wanting to ask - is it harder to get a first at Oxbridge at say a good Scottish uni (Edinburgh), or anywhere else really?
Click to expand...


any top university will be harder to get a degree than not a top uni.

but you need the list per subject, the list as a uni as a hole doesn't mean a lot.
 
markyp23 said:
Reminded me about something I've been wanting to ask - is it harder to get a first at Oxbridge at say a good Scottish uni (Edinburgh), or anywhere else really?
Click to expand...

yes. getting a first at a top uni really is incredibly difficult. They don't lack to issues first class honours unless they have to. And there is the fact that 1st class should be issued to the top 5% of graduating students only. In a place like ox-bridge the general ability will be higher and hence getting into the top 5% will be harder.

But it is better to get a 2.1 (or even a 2.2) from a good uni than a 1st from Garden shed universities and ex-polies.
 
oh forgot to say, why not do combined physics and maths?

After first year you should then have the choice of one or the other, or both.

In Scottish universities you can do 3 subjects through 1st year and second year and then choose your direction. Scottish system doess offfer much better flexibility in that respect.
 
AcidHell2 said:
maths is more universal and get better paid jobs, but is boring
physics less jobs, not as much money, but potentially fun jobs.

but really depends what your grades are and if you can get a first from a top uni.
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What rubbish. Which subject you find more interesting depends completely on you as a person. There's nothing intrinsically 'more fun' about either mathematics or physics. I love both, I have friends that love one but hate the other, and I have friends that dislike them both.

Also, don't get hung up about getting a first. For a start it's way too early to think about something like that - at the moment you just want to be going to university open days and finding a place that you can see yourself studying in for three or four years. For me, one visit to Cambridge was all it took to know that I wanted to spend a lot of time there, but you could easily have the same reaction about Oxford, Warwick, Bristol, Bath, Edinburgh or any number of London universities - and they're all good for mathematics and physics.

As regards job prospects, it's probably true that a mathematics degree is applicable to a wider range of careers, but to be honest you're unlikely to end up doing a job that specifically requires knowledge from your degree anyway, so I wouldn't even bother thinking about it.
 
D.P. said:
yes. getting a first at a top uni really is incredibly difficult. They don't lack to issues first class honours unless they have to. And there is the fact that 1st class should be issued to the top 5% of graduating students only. In a place like ox-bridge the general ability will be higher and hence getting into the top 5% will be harder.
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In sciences (including mathematics) it's more like the top 20-25% getting firsts - at least at Oxbridge.
 
Arcade Fire said:
What rubbish. Which subject you find more interesting depends completely on you as a person.
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Thats taken for granted, do i really need to put n imo after i say it's boring, it's kind of obvious that its an opinion.
Arcade Fire said:
but you could easily have the same reaction about Oxford, Warwick, Bristol, Bath, Edinburgh or any number of London universities - and they're all good for mathematics and physics.
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which are all top university's for maths.
depends how far and what career you want, if you want a top job, then getting a first is a huge bonus, certainly not the only way though.
 
I would say that if you really enjoy maths as a subject and have a great thirst for knowing exactly what is going on behind it all, then you are better off going for maths. Mathematics, and especially the course at oxford places a strong emphasis on riguour.

However if you prefer to find out how the maths is applied and are not too bothered about the fundamental underlyings of what you are working with (mathematically speaking), then you are probably better off with physics.

taz488 said:
quick replies! :D

well i got 4 A's in january exams and i think ive done pretty good in the summer ones, so with a bit of luck im hoping for A's all round again. im thinking of applying to oxford but thinking im not likely to get in cos i dont do too much 'extracurricular activties' and i aint too good at interviews. but i am going on the sutton trust week at oxford doin maths, so maybe that will be a deceider.
Click to expand...

Don't worry too much about not having enough extra-curricular activities, especially if you are going for a subject like maths or physics. good luck with the applications!
 
Hiroki said:
Don't worry too much about not having enough extra-curricular activities, especially if you are going for a subject like maths or physics. good luck with the applications!
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This could do with re-iterating, very strongly. For technical subjects they (i.e. the Oxford/Cambridge admissions tutors) won't care about what instruments you play or what level Duke of Edinburgh you've got. They just want to see that you're interested in your subject and able to think clearly about it.
 
I'd only recommend doing maths at uni if you REALLY enjoy maths and want to know more about it. It gets much much harder when you go to uni.

I'm at edinburgh doing a maths degree and while the maths dept. does really well in all the rankings things, my problem is that in 1st & 2nd year you have to do other subjects as well... I chose physics in first year and found it stupidly dull and boring. I did well in physics at school too.
 
I'd probably say Physics but from speaking with people who have done both there isn't much in it. As far as I could work out there isn't much of the interesting stuff you find in A Level physics, it's mainly maths anyway. When I worked in engineering there were a lot of guys who had physics degrees as well as people with engineering degrees.

Depends what you want to do at the end of it. ;)
 
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