Why Choose Engineering?

Look around you. How much of what you see has been manufactured? Engineers are involved in the design and manufacture of (almost) everything from cars to computers, from web pages to widgets, from microchips to motorways. Many recent medical advances have been made as a result of work done by engineers: from brain scanners to the drug dispensers used by asthma sufferers. Engineers these days are also concerned with many important environmental and social issues: what is the best way to improve transportation and housing? How do you make recycling work efficiently?

If you want to be an informed member of society, able to understand modern technology as well as the infrastructure on which our society is built, then there can be no better training than that given to Cambridge engineers. Graduates of the Department have benefited from an education that enables them to make a real difference to the world outside while, at the same time, pursuing successful and rewarding careers.

Keep your options open

The training that engineers receive is scientifically rigorous. The distinctions between mathematicians, physicists, computer scientists and engineers are blurring all the time. Engineers are team players and work closely with professional colleagues from other backgrounds. Very few people describe themselves as physicists or mathematicians on their passports. Nearly all 'scientists' have to apply their science at some stage and that is engineering. Studying Engineering keeps your options open.

As well as gaining a broad scientific and engineering background and in-depth knowledge of the subject in which you specialise, the training provides you with:

• the ability to apply problem-solving strategies
• a creative approach
• team-working skills
• excellent mathematical and computing skills
• the ability to analyse data
• written and oral communication and presentation skills
• research skills

These are all important transferable skills much in demand by employers. According to recent Careers Service statistics, the average starting salary of graduating engineers is among the highest of any Cambridge degree subject, and employment prospects are excellent, with 99% finding a job within six months of the end of the course.