"Get out and about as much as possible and meet as many people as you can."
William Darler
Age: 24
Course: Architectural Environment Engineering (second year)
“I chose Nottingham University because it was one of the highest placed in the league tables for the subject I wanted to study. Plus, it had a nice campus and a great town.
After my gap year, I worked for the building management company, Costain, then decided I wanted to study architectural environment engineering at university.
The course at Nottingham is accredited by The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers and the Engineering Council, which is great for people who want to go on to work for an engineering-based company. One of my favourite modules is Building Services Design, because it combines a mixture of physics, maths and some of the more practical aspects of building services. We were shown how to use CAD and 3D modelling, and in one project, had to apply our skills to plan a heating system for a University building.
Another module I enjoyed was Professional Studies as it allowed me to learn about the history of engineering. We even had guest speakers from companies such as Shell to give us an idea of what life after university would be like if we chose to work in the engineering sector. I’ve been to quite a few careers fairs and am interested in working for management consultancy after graduating.
Societies are a fantastic way of meeting people but I would definitely recommend going into halls too because you can ease yourself into university life and not do everything at once.
Nottingham as a city is great – it’s like London compressed into a small space. There’s such a huge variety of shops and bars that you could probably go somewhere different every time for the whole three years of your course.”