Is a double-maths, physics, psychology and french a good combination to become an engineer ? (A-Levels)?

Question

If not, could u suggest a subject I should take. Thx.

Answer 1

Math and physics are good enough to get you into Engineering school. You may need biology or chemistry depending on which branch of engineering you're interested in. Psychology and French are not going to make a difference. However there is certainly nothing wrong in studying them. At least they give you the option of changing majors if you find that engineering sucks.

Answer 2

It is not a bad combination, but why psychology?

Chemistry would be better, a requirement for most engineers and more relevant to the profession. Of course as an elective it isn't bad, but then I would suggest drafting; how else do engineers communicate if they can't draw it out. Computers are fundamental to any field so a good typing course makes it so much easier to use them. Then there are computer programming courses which will help you program or at least understand the engineering programs.

I knew a lot of people in the engineering field in College and my father was mechanical engineer. At my college the basic courses required for ALL engineers were:
- advanced math to calculus
- chemistry
- basic drafting
- computer programming
- the standard college level history and English courses.

Psychology isn't a bad choice, engineers tend to be too narrow and focused and are often nerds because they don't communicate well with others. Psychology will help you in that area and it will help a lot with management of people when you understand their motives.

Trying 4 advanced courses in one semester is a pretty bold move, but if you can handle it then go for it. I found that when I was in college 15 credit hours was about my max. I had a roommate once who took 21 and made a straight B average, which was very good. Just remember the formula for college courses is that you spend two hours per 1 hour of class or lab. So an 18 credit hour schedule; which most colleges recommend would be equal to a 54 hour work week [(1 credit hour + 2 study hours) X 18] = 54.

I felt cheated by my high school and it was a top school. I was not prepared for how hard college was. I took a few advanced courses but not many and that was a mistake; the advanced courses in high school were like the easy courses in college. One good thing I did was take a heavy math curriculum and when I went into college to take college math that helped me.

Most colleges prefer that a student take a foreign language course, Spanish is easier and more usable in the US, but if you live in the north near Quebec then French would be more logical. German is a good language, but you need to be aggressive to speak German with the proper accent. Latin is the fundamental language and our source for a lot of our words. It is also still used in scientific names, but you won’t have to use to many of those in engineering.

Answer 3

That's a very scientific selection, and very academic. If those are the subjects you enjoy/are good at then go for it, although I would say if you're predicted a B for French then don't do it - it's a huge leap from GCSE. Unless you're after a specific job or degree, then don't worry too much about the subjects and just take a wide range - for example, english literature, chemistry, maths and french would give you room to do whatever you wanted at university, pretty much. I struggled to pick my courses too - if you don't think you'll enjoy one then you can change it within the first few weeks of college if you talk to your senior tutors, so don't worry about being stuck in them forever. I changed one of mine after going to a taster session and loving it (changed from psychology to politics after landing in the politics class by accident, and loving it) and changed another after the first lesson (I thought english language would be like it was at GCSE with the poems and things - it wasn't, so I changed to maths and haven't regret it since). It was very easy to change them, too. Bear in mind that universities will only look at three of your A-levels when you're applying, so if you really wanted to and thought that so much academia would be tiring, you could take an easier subject as your fourth choice. I'll tell you now that with french, biology and geography there's a lot of learning of new theories and such, so you may want to change it to something like maths where it's simply applying a few rules (although it is quite hard). Ultimately it doesn't matter what you choose right now, so don't panic and don't let people pressure you into making the "right" choice, because you'll find out and be able to rectify it later on.

Answer 4

It depends on the branch of engineering you want to study. But English is always worth considering

Answer 5

Yes. It means that you can physically psychoanalyse French engineers with a maths bias....twice.

Answer 6

I didn't come here to answer the question.. Dan S has already given the fantastic answer, better vote his as the best one. I couldn't think of a better thing to say.. :) :) :)

Answer 7

Sounds good to me--while youre in France, could you straighten up the leaning tower of pizza please?