Today was the last UCAS day of this admissions round. UCAS days are where we invite along prospective students who have applied to do physics at Surrey. They come along, often with a parent or two, and we show them the Department, they talk to our students, and to academics like me. 

I enjoyed this year’s days. I spent most of one interview learning about the philosophy of Descartes and others, and any day in which you learn some philosophy can’t be all bad. In most of the interviews I was impressed by the prospective student’s enthusiasm and how much they had thought about what they wanted to do.

A couple of questions came up quite frequently. They are:

Does it matter whether I apply to the MPhys or BSc?/Can I change from one to the other? These are easy. The answers are: Not really no, and yes, most years several students change (in both directions) at the end of the first year. The decision on what course to study, and which university to study at, are both important decisions. But as our MPhys and BSc courses are the same for first two years it does not matter much which you come in.

The second type of question is from students interested in a particular area of physics: quantum mechanics, astrophysics,  green technology, etc, who want to know how they go in the direction of astrophysics, green tech etc. I always say that the way to do a lot of the physics you love, and to help start your career in this field, is to try and do an MPhys Research Year or a BSc Professional Training Year doing it. Interested in physics applied to green technology? Spend a year doing it, as one of our students is doing at a lab in Spain.