I made a mistake... Can I fix it? (Wrong Career!)

[Taigan]

I've entered the IB thinking that I wanted to study Medicine and become a doctor. I've done some experience and I realize, it's not for me. The problem is: I think I want to do Architecture/Engineering but I'm a year into the IB program with the subjects Bio, Chem, Business at HL and Math, French and Eng at SL. It's too late to take different subjects, but for all the universities I've checked out, I need Physics and/or Math at HL. Does anyone know any universities in Canada/England/America that might take me in for architecture/engineering if I get high grades in the SAT. Also, would taking Physics as a subject test in the SAT mean I could apply to the US for engineering. Overall, I'm very confused, and don't know what to do. I don't want so spend the rest of my life practicing something I don't have passion for...

[IB Heather]

Not even the Ivy League Schools require Physics/Math HL for engineering. It would be very helpful, but Chem & Bio are also very important. So it's no big deal.

Edited August 3, 2010 by sweetnsimple786
Please don't use IM abbreviations.

[Cynthia]

I've entered the IB thinking that I wanted to study Medicine and become a doctor. I've done some experience and I realize, it's not for me. The problem is: I think I want to do Architecture/Engineering but I'm a year into the IB program with the subjects Bio, Chem, Business at HL and Math, French and Eng at SL. It's too late to take different subjects, but for all the universities I've checked out, I need Physics and/or Math at HL. Does anyone know any universities in Canada/England/America that might take me in for architecture/engineering if I get high grades in the SAT. Also, would taking Physics as a subject test in the SAT mean I could apply to the US for engineering. Overall, I'm very confused, and don't know what to do. I don't want so spend the rest of my life practicing something I don't have passion for...

First off, you are not going to ruin your life because you made the wrong subject choices in the IB! I'm going to talk about UK because I am not at all familiar with the systems in the US and Canada, hopefully someone else can inform you on this or you can check some university websites yourself.

For UK universities SATs don't really matter if you have the IB diploma. If you can/want to do pure architecture (instead of a combination of those two) most UK universities will take you with just SL maths (a girl I know got into Cambridge for architecture with SL mathematics). For engineering, however, this might be a bit trickier. I checked a few university websites; they generally do not care about Physics but most want you to have Maths at A2 level (which is roughly equivalent to IB HL). Some universities further down the league table do not care so much but your employment prospects might not be great after such degree.

If you are willing to spend the money you could also do a one year foundation course, something like this (http://www.lboro.ac.uk/prospectus/ug/courses/dept/foundation/sef/index.htm) which would allow you to easily get into Engineering.

[CocoPop]

For Canada you may be required to take Physics SL for architecture/engineering. For the US, whilst there are no formal subject requirements, some colleges may ask you to take the Physics SAT II subject tests at worst. They might otherwise ask you to take the maths II subject test and any science (for which you will have no issues). For the most part, however, you won't have any issues applying to America without physics/maths. You can take introductory classes once you enter university to catch up. It's much, much more flexible than the UK.

[Summer Glau]

See if there are any night school/summer school classes that you could take that would be OK as an equivalent for math/physics (at the level that it is taught in your regular school system). A lot of people I know (including myself) take two sciences in IB, then whichever science we don't want to take in IB (it was physics for me) we take in summer school/night school. People just do it in case all of the sciences are required for a uni program, or if they want to change fields of study and need that extra science course. And best of all, it's free

Hopefully they offer this where you live, it works well where I live.

[CocoPop]

I checked out some top Canadian unis for engineering (Toronto, UBC, Waterloo), and they all ask for Chem, English, Physics and Maths at at least Standard Level. Architecture seems to have a more complicated admissions process (interviews, portfolios etc.).

Since you're not taking physics, I guess your best bet would be to shoot for the US, where you don't even have to declare your intended major in your application (apart from some schools like UC Berkeley where you would have to apply directly to the College of Engineering). MIT asks for subject tests in maths and any science.