Today I am releasing an apology blog. I have my ukulele ready. I’ve mastered sighing and crying without actually crying. I read the other blogs, I know how cool they are, it’s like I’m an imposter playing among us with the infinite XP the other bloggers are sharing and I’m here giving absolutely nothing. You should read my blogs for a self-esteem boost and probably the other bloggers for actual advice. Today’s blog is not for you Part Is, apologies, you have your infinite resources and you still can’t pick 😭? I know the feeling. I realise the point of Part II blogs is to help Part Is pick their spec but what’s one blog not dedicated directly to them? I wouldn’t be saying anything that no one else has. My GOAT AjayKrishna Amberkar already went through the courses and it’s only been a year so nothing has changed (well… for the most part). I’ll link the electives night video to make up for it.
The Biomedical Science to Engineering Pipeline
I swear so many people do this but I couldn’t find a morsel of info on what the process is like or other people’s experiences. I’m actually kind of glad because SPOILERSSS y’know. (guys send help, it’s the last 2 weeks of uni and I’m not ready for part 3). For the one person out there who’s antisocial, lost, maybe kind of gutted and looking for any kind of resource on this, this one’s for you.
So you’re in highschool and you’re tossing up between biomed and engineering (awwwrrr you’re such a smart little cookie). You’re working pretty hard to get that rank score and you don’t even know if you can do it (you can do it !! ). Finally– the end of the year rolls round and YOU’RE IN, you’ve got an offer for both engineering and biomed. Now… which do you choose?
Ummm, if that’s you, I have no advice for you actually lol. Unluggy. I don’t have advice but rather I like sharing stories and experiences. Where advice would be shaped on my perceptions of those experiences, I’d like for you to take on messages with the relevant context for yourself. (bro, catch me switching to the arts next year.) I don’t really feel like telling you that you should do engineering because there’s so many caveats I have to explain. My experience might be completely different to other people. Personally, I am enjoying my time in engineering as a Part II Computer Systems Student. I find that there’s so many clubs that are engineering specific and I’ve been able to make friends through them. I mean no matter what you do, the experience is probably what you make it. During my first year (in biomed) I found it hard to make friends, or at least ones that I would stay friends with. It’s a canon event. (People in engineering know more biomed/med people than I do). I went to lectures and went home and eventually I only came for labs/tutorials. I can’t pinpoint why I didn’t make friends, it’s completely possible that I would have had the same experience in Part I if I kept to myself and didn’t seek opportunities. Content wise, I actually really enjoyed biomed, it was a lot of memorising and understanding but interesting nonetheless. I am very annoying and reference them a lot. From what I’ve done, engineering content is interesting too… maybe I’m biased but I prefer the first year biomed content to what I’ve heard about the P1 other courses, what is buckingham pi? I don’t regret taking first year biomed, again, I liked the content and I also don’t have to wonder ‘what if?’
For people who are thinking of switching to do engineering. Starting from Part I might be daunting, it’s another four years 😔 but it might help to think of it like there’s no rush to finish uni since all that’s left after is work and taxes. You have more chances to take advantage of uni facilities (maker space 👀👀) and it’s like a fresh start. Also, starting from Part 1 you have so much time to explore those really cool options/specs. Oh right, there’s also direct entry to part II if you happen to get avg. 7.0 gpa in biomed and also have to get more than B or B+ in PHYSICS160. I think you can do it for science too but I’m not familiar. There’s a page with info for that. You also have to had met the entry requirements in the first place for Part 1.
What’s Direct Entry like?
For me it was the day before the 2nd MEDSCI or PHYSICS test that I applied for engineering. At some point I got an email that was like ‘heyyy, you can pick a spec and subject to availability and summer school grades, you might be accepted into Part II, oh, except software.’ Basically, just had to email them which spec I would prefer and had to apply for 2 summer school papers ENGSCI111 and another that was relevant to the spec I wanted (ELECTENG101 for COMPSYS) and ENGGEN115 in Sem 1 (Spaces for this close really quickly so you have to apply ASAP even if your application isn’t gauranteed). In the email there was a point that entry was super competitive so I was quite nervous.
My 2 Summer School papers meant I was at uni everyday and I had 3 days with two 2 hour sessions of lectures back to back. There was no way I’d watch all that at home man. Part 1 students will know but the bloody 101 assignments. That was actually torture. I was fortunate enough that they had a support programme running which made it so much easier to learn the content, I was probably the only one who used it though so I don’t know if they’re actually continuing it 💀. Exams were sooo much harder than the tests imo but somehow I got good grades overall so I thought I’d get in. 1 week before the semester was starting… NO RESPONSE.
At that point I thought I was cooked, THEY FORGOT ABOUT MEEE!! 😱😱. I forgot when the spec acceptances came out but it was wayy too close for comfort, and I believe it’s released at the same time as the rest of the engineering students as ’round 3′ or smth. I emailed them like heyyy, did you guys forget about me?? 😭😭~~ but eventually the acceptance emails were out and I was in 😎.
“ERROR: You don’t meet the prerequisites to apply for SOFTENG281, the classes for Sem 1 115 is full” FUU– Thank goodness my concessions got approved but technically you might need to do extra Part 1 papers so it would be good to check with the course coordinators of courses with prereqs you won’t have, if that ever happens. When I emailed the course advisor for CompSys they informed me that it was a hard no, you can’t do a part 2 paper without the prereq (ironically, I absolutely ate on that course) so I’m not too sure what to think and I don’t really want to question it.
Anyways 115 was a pain, if you didn’t do 121 which is the course on forces on buildings and stuff (idk) it’s doable but it sucks. The course is double pass where a 1/3 of the questions is stuff you’re not taught extensively. You’re also juggling a content heavy semester with concepts you’ve barely grasped. I genuinely didn’t think I’d pass any of my courses. Oh, also, it’s in the requirements that to graduate that you have to pass all the part 1 papers but that doesn’t apply to direct entry students. You also don’t have to change your programme even if it says biomed since apparently they’ll change it for you eventually (It was Sem 2 and it still hadn’t changed so I went to student hubs so you don’t have to 😔).
Anyhow, after all that, you’ll finally be a fully fledged Part II engineering student!!!
As promised resources for Part 1 students considering Computer Systems:
Link to ECSE electives night 2024 (I promise it’s not a rickroll)
Also who says this isn’t useful for helping Part 1 students? Stories vs advice am I right? This might not be completely relevant but I think it’s reassuring to see that it’s ok to not completely know where you’re going and to take a step back. You might find yourself wanting to switch specs and finding that what you wanted to do and your interests have changed or maybe they aren’t playing to your strengths or something.
What my 209 group would say to y’all:
“Make sure you start on the design early for 209 it will make the latter part of the semester a lot more chill especially if you learn the content faster then they teach which is definitely possible ”
“Tell them to do really well that then they will do really well”
“watch out for the display current loading”
SHRIRANG
“tell them they should decrease their limit resistor for their regulator”
LIAM