"In my year out I went to work in aerodynamics at Red Bull racing"

I always wanted to be an engineer since I was really little, I always liked Science, I always liked Maths and Physics. Consequently choosing to study the MEng seemed like an obvious choice.

I’m from a small town in northwest Germany – so coming to London was a big change. However everyone was nice, making the adjustment easy.

The BEng/MEng in Mechanical Engineering is quite a tough course. It’s rewarding in the end, but it’s very intense and it takes a lot out of you. You have to really want it, otherwise it’s a drag.

There’s a lot of contact hours; in your first and second years you’re usually at uni from 9–5 for lectures. Then you do another two hours of study a night say, then you study weekends as well. After the first two years there is a lot of coursework.

The highlight of the course for me has been the year out in industry. I went to work in aerodynamics at Red Bull racing. I came back with a different perspective.

What I like about university life is being in London and, while you have a lot to do, perhaps more so than on other courses, it’s your own choice how to manage this time. If you really don’t want to study one day you don’t have to - obviously you have to make it up later on - but you are not told you have to do it.

The key thing I have learnt is how to manage my time. I’ve also learnt how to pick things up very quickly: as you’ve got so much to learn on the course with a limited amount of time to learn it in, you really improve that ability.

I would advise any prospective students to think carefully first. It’s a good course - it’s fun, it’s interesting - but it’s not for someone who’s not fully into it. It’s not something to do because you could potentially do engineering, I wouldn’t come here if I was unsure. 

At the end of my course I’m going back to Germany to work as an engineer with Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes.