EN ROUTE TO MAST… MAKING MY NEXT BIG DECISION

Four years later. Last semester of my bachelor’s studies. If everything goes well in few months’ time I will submit my undergraduate dissertation and be awarded the BEng degree. Here comes the big question. What’s next?

This brings me directly onto the topic of this blog. Rather than listing all universities and grad jobs I have applied for so fat I would like to introduce to my readers some of the options I have considered for my next adventure.

First option. Graduate job. It is not uncommon that many fresh graduates go onto try and get a job straight after they graduate their bachelor’s studies. One of my course-mates from last year went straight to Renault Sports to work as a Wind Tunnel Project Engineer and so options are bright if one tries hard enough and spends many hours honing their CV and tailoring.

Second option. PhD. As weird as it might sound another not that uncommon thing in the UK is the fact that one can go straight onto PhD with only bachelor’s degree. Sometimes the PhD is structured in a way that there is an MPhil course ‘’attached’’ to it where one first has to obtain the master’s qualification to then move onto the PhD itself. But still, highly considered option for those who are certain in there are of expertise and want to focus on research that’s of their interest. As I am quite greedy in a way that I always want to do everything and am interested in more topics I haven’t really found myself scrolling through pages of PhD programs hoping to find the one that’s the right for me.

Third option. Master’s degree. Most likely the most common and familiar option for anyone. I have heard many times from my peers back home: ‘’What’s the point of studying if you don’t get Master’s.’’ Encouraged by this slightly daunting approach I started researching master’s degrees that would be of interest to me. The ones that caught my eye, in particular, were MSc in Automotive Engineering and Loughborough and Bath University and then MSc in Advanced Motorsport Engineering at Cranfield University. I will leave the exploration of these universities and their academic reputation to the reader if they are interested in it and instead will briefly summarise the syllabus of these courses.

MSc in Automotive Engineering at Loughborough an MSc in Automotive Engineering at Bath – same names but slightly different areas of interest. Whereas the research at Loughborough is, among others, mainly focused on Hybrid Powertrains, System Integration, Calibration, Autonomous Vehicles and Calibration and is hence more focused on the ‘’electrified’’ side of Automotive Engineering the MSc at Bath covers aspects of Turbocharging and engine boosting, engine and powertrain technologies, vehicle engineering, and vehicle dynamics and aerodynamics and is hence more focused on the powertrain (propulsion) side of Automotive Engineering. Last MSc course on my list of the ones I have applied for is the MSc in Advanced Motorsport Engineering at Cranfield University. Being a specialist postgraduate university (no undergraduate courses are taught at Cranfield) with its own airfield for specialist Aerospace and Aeronautics Master’s courses make it quite an extraordinary place for studying. The MSc I applied for consists of Structural Analysis, Electronics and Data Acquisition, Vehicle Dynamics, Aerodynamics, CFD and many more.

So here it is, all the possible outcomes considered and now it is just a waiting game to see what comes back after application deadlines.