Engineering in College

Make friends in classes, the chances are there will be few chill people but put in the effort anyway and it'll pay off, helps shitloads when you have bad lecturers
 
To be fair, I did have 29hrs scheduled one semester. It was only the standard 5 classes (15 credits) but when 4 classes have a 3hr lab as well as a 3hr lecture and you add in a couple of seminars it adds up quick. That semester I also wound up with all of my exams scheduled for evenings/weekends and had either a Friday night or Saturday morning exam every weekend from late-January through to April (excluding reading week) as well as a Monday night exam several weeks.

That said, when I was spending that much time in school I was not spending nearly as much as he claims studying. I did assignments but in general counted on being familiar with the concepts from lectures and labs so studying really only consisted of memorizing the details prior to the exam.
 
For me, the intro classes I need to take before I can get into my major (hopefully electrical engineering) suck balls, and I'm sure it's similar at all big universities. They're weed-out classes that aren't hard, but are a ton of busy work (intro physics, gen. chem etc.). The classes that are actually part of the school of engineering are really fucking hard, but also a lot more interesting. My grades are higher this quarter in the two 300-level math courses I'm taking this quarter than my grade in general chem, just because I'm more interested in them. It's a lot of work, but I think it'll be worth it.
 
my school has this too. i heard today we are one of the few that still make students do a general year before choosing their type of engineering
 
Alright. Just like anything else your free time and work load (in hours) all depends on what kind of student you are.

I am halfway through my PhD in Geotechnical Engineering and today was Day 51 for me. Don't let people tell you that you won't have free time. Sure things will get busy from time to time but that happens regardless of your major.
 
I'm in my fourth semester of MechE. It is a lot of work, but as long as you stay motivated and manage your time well, you will be fine. Spend your time to really learn everything you can in your Calc, Chem/Physics and intro classes, because it will not be the last time you see the material. There will be times where you are fed up and frustrated, but you've just got to stick with it if it's something you enjoy and really want to pursue. Good luck, man.
 
I'm in my fourth semester of MechE. It is a lot of work, but as long as you stay motivated and manage your time well, you will be fine. Spend your time to really learn everything you can in your Calc, Chem/Physics and intro classes, because it will not be the last time you see the material. There will be times where you are fed up and frustrated, but you've just got to stick with it if it's something you enjoy and really want to pursue. Good luck, man.
 
I'm in my fourth semester of MechE. It is a lot of work, but as long as you stay motivated and manage your time well, you will be fine. Spend your time to really learn everything you can in your Calc, Chem/Physics and intro classes, because it will not be the last time you see the material. There will be times where you are fed up and frustrated, but you've just got to stick with it if it's something you enjoy and really want to pursue. Good luck, man.
 
I'm in my fourth semester of MechE. It is a lot of work, but as long as you stay motivated and manage your time well, you will be fine. Spend your time to really learn everything you can in your Calc, Chem/Physics and intro classes, because it will not be the last time you see the material. There will be times where you are fed up and frustrated, but you've just got to stick with it if it's something you enjoy and really want to pursue. Good luck, man.
 
I'm in my fourth semester of MechE. It is a lot of work, but as long as you stay motivated and manage your time well, you will be fine. Spend your time to really learn everything you can in your Calc, Chem/Physics and intro classes, because it will not be the last time you see the material. There will be times where you are fed up and frustrated, but you've just got to stick with it if it's something you enjoy and really want to pursue. Good luck, man.
 
I'm in my fourth semester of MechE. It is a lot of work, but as long as you stay motivated and manage your time well, you will be fine. Spend your time to really learn everything you can in your Calc, Chem/Physics and intro classes, because it will not be the last time you see the material. There will be times where you are fed up and frustrated, but you've just got to stick with it if it's something you enjoy and really want to pursue. Good luck, man.
 
I'm in my fourth semester of MechE. It is a lot of work, but as long as you stay motivated and manage your time well, you will be fine. Spend your time to really learn everything you can in your Calc, Chem/Physics and intro classes, because it will not be the last time you see the material. There will be times where you are fed up and frustrated, but you've just got to stick with it if it's something you enjoy and really want to pursue. Good luck, man.
 
I'm in my fourth semester of MechE. It is a lot of work, but as long as you stay motivated and manage your time well, you will be fine. Spend your time to really learn everything you can in your Calc, Chem/Physics and intro classes, because it will not be the last time you see the material. There will be times where you are fed up and frustrated, but you've just got to stick with it if it's something you enjoy and really want to pursue. Good luck, man.
 
I'm in my fourth semester of MechE. It is a lot of work, but as long as you stay motivated and manage your time well, you will be fine. Spend your time to really learn everything you can in your Calc, Chem/Physics and intro classes, because it will not be the last time you see the material. There will be times where you are fed up and frustrated, but you've just got to stick with it if it's something you enjoy and really want to pursue. Good luck, man.
 
I'm in my fourth semester of MechE. It is a lot of work, but as long as you stay motivated and manage your time well, you will be fine. Spend your time to really learn everything you can in your Calc, Chem/Physics and intro classes, because it will not be the last time you see the material. There will be times where you are fed up and frustrated, but you've just got to stick with it if it's something you enjoy and really want to pursue. Good luck, man.
 
8th semester ChemE, going to grad school for ChemE or NucE next year.

Engineering is difficult and it can and does suck your free time, but it is one of the most fulfilling careers. You get to imagine, create, and solve problems that no one has ever solved before. The impact and significance of engineering is huge and affects people all over the world. If you want to make a unique difference in this world and are willing to work to do it, try engineering. You don't have to be brilliant at math (I'm not) - you just have to be willing to work.

I went out 2-3+ nights a week my first three years. I can't do that now, but there can definitely be time for fun. Don't think that your major determines what happens to you in college. You determine that. You determine not only what you study, but how much and how hard you study and also your involvement in everything else that college has to offer. Balance it well and you will easily get a full college experience. My balance was/is "work hard, play hard." To each their own.
 
If you don't wait until the last minute to start/finish your work, the work is not bad at all. Space out your assignments and studying and you will still have plenty of time for extracurriculars

Time management is key
 
Thats cause youve never actaully worked in the field.

You sound like my father who still bases all his knowledge of engineering on what he sees in NOVA documentaries and such haha.

Do engineering because you like the lifestyle it creates, solving the small, mundane, everyday problems, and the job security.

It doesnt pay overly well, you wont be involved in anything big picture for at least 10-15 years minimum, and you WILL NEVER solve a problem that no one else has solved beofore(unless you are the top 0.00001% in your field).
 
I can tell you for sure that physics, math and astronomy majors have much less free time than the engineers. I have flipped through my brothers thermodynamics textbook, and it was a joke compared to what the physics majors have to take. They don't need any advanced mathematics or physics. They have dumbed-down courses for solids and fluid mechanics.

Engineering is not easy, but it's also not that difficult.
 
If you pay attention class, I mean like try to the learn as the professor goes, and take good notes, and spend a little bit of time everyday getting work down, you will find that you will have plenty of free time. It's really about time management and getting shit down when you need to get shit done.

There will be weeks where you don't sleep, finals/midterms etc, but there will be weeks when you don't have anything at all to do. I made it through with a 3.6 and i went out 2-3 times a week and during the winter skied 2-3 nights a week. It's not easy and you will spend alot of time doing work, but you will also have alot of time to goof off and have fun.
 
I wouldn't have argued if you had just said physics. But there is no argument trying to say a biology/chemistry degree is anything compared to any engineering degree. You chose physics, one of the hardest non-engineering stem fields as your example. I also know quite a few people that would consider applied physics an engineering discipline
 
Sounds like somebody hasn't had the right jobs. I've already applied for one patent and it is turning into a business, and I'm not even out of my undergrad yet. I'd say there is plenty of room for innovation
 
You could be one of the exceptions, who knows? You might be one of the people talented enough to get a "cool" job at a company that does something cool.

Or you could just be high on a school project and then get into the workforce at a medium-large company and never have the same type of creative freedom again, who knows?

Which do you think is more likely?

 
Nothing worth doing is easy. I've been an engineer in offshore oil and gas now for nearly 11yrs. I'm in the market for a 458 at the minute, own a big ass house, have my own company and get paid a lot to travel the world. It all starts right where you are right now..... See the bigger picture and be motivated. Good luck, at the end of the day college will still be fun and easier than anything in the real world. You won't start to really learn until your first job... So don't sweat some academic graft. Enjoy it!
 
I'm a freshman at CU majoring in environmental engineering. So far it's not hard at all, just a lot of busy work. And I need to study 5x longer for tests versus high school.
 
Engineering is applied science. Not pure science. Of course the theories are more basic. The challenge in engineering is with the equivalent amount of class time, and more unique problem solving. Physics you learn about theories and how things work, but neglect how to create something with it (to some extent, I know this is a generalization). Engineering is difficult in a much different way than a pure science course, the same way not all biologists could be nurses.
 
well physics you just don't have the option to fill your schedule up with easy courses. If a biologist or a computer science major or a chemist take all difficult courses, then they are going to have it just as rough as the engineers do. And lots of them do that.

Engineers first of all don't have a whole lot of choice about what they take, kind of like the physics majors. But the physics upper level courses are just straight up more difficult than the engineering ones. For example, the fluid mechanics for engineers at my school requires vector calc. The real fluid mechanics course requires two courses in ODE's a course in PDE's, Advanced Calculus and The first half of advanced classical mechanics. It's a much tougher course.

I've done most of these courses, and I have helped engineers with their physics, so I am sure about this. I also know people in computer science and biology who have to work just as hard as me. They just took more of the difficult courses in their program. So overall I stand by my initial statement. Engineering is not more tough than the sciences. They just bitch about it more.
 
I've gotta still disagree. Like I said previously, I will have a minor in chemistry (+ 2 classes) and will be 1 class away from a minor in bio by the time I finish school. I have also taken graduate level courses in both disciplines, and I can say for a 100% fact that they don't even compare to my engineering course load (at any level). I also don't know where you go, but our "fluids" class (biotransport, which is wayyyy more basic than any MechE fluids) its required to have ODE's, advanced calc, and our systems classes (which teach PDE's) to take the course.

Honestly, go look at any ranking in the entire scope of the internet and I would bet every single one of them has engineering as the #1 most difficult.

 
You are comparing base level/prerequisite engineering classes to upper level physics. No shit one is going to be harder. You daft?

What do you know about seismic design? How bout advanced structural, water, or geotech classes? And FWIW the school i went was set up so that with 1 extra math class, i earned a minor in math.

 
this is comparing a third-year engineering course to a fourth year physics course. There is no difference in difficulty between third and fourth year courses, at least in physics and math.

Does your math minor include courses that were required for your degree? I don't see how engineers would have time to do that. I have taken 11 math courses so far, and would need an extra three to get a math minor...

I never said engineering was easy. I have a ton of respect for engineers and I realize a lot of them are much smarter than me. If you are going to try and argue that an engineering undergraduate degree is more difficult than a physics one, you are just plain wrong.

You can argue that an undergrad in engineering is more work than you average bio student and would be correct, but once you strip away all the pre-med students and other people just breezing through those degrees, you will find people who have to work their asses off just as hard as engineers.

In a way we are also comparing apples to oranges. I look at people like my brother and my dad and can just tell that they have engineering-type minds. They are always designing stuff, always sketching things on napkins, etc. My dad has no idea how electricity works, but he knows every well what it will do and how he can use it. Whereas someone like myself has a fairly good understanding of what electricity is, but if you asked me to design a circuit I would definitely fuck something up.

 
You're right, I haven't "actually" worked in the field - I've had internships, which one could argue are insignificant relative to actually working for an extended period of time. Even based on such an insignificant experience, I'd still stand by what I said with the assumption that with more time comes more impact.

"you WILL NEVER solve a problem that no one else has solved beofore(unless you are the top 0.00001% in your field)."

I think you misunderstood me. I didn't mean that all engineers come up with a new theory, correlation, industry standard, etc. I mean that engineers apply what they know and what others have done to something original and unique. Their contributions TO THAT SYSTEM are novel and are significant in achieving a measurable and meaningful outcome. It's easy to feel like your contributions matter (but that depends on circumstance and attitude).
 
I'm in my junior year for Mechanical Engineering at Penn State and it's definitely alot of work. I fucked around my first semester and almost changed my major but busted my ass and got my GPA back up to get accepted into the major here. I enjoy it now and always wanted to be an engineer in high school which was a breeze. Like others said, if you have a decent work ethic and really are interested in the field, go for it, I have no regrets other than trying harder that first semester. Don't however take it just to have a "good major" or get a good job or you'll hate it. Feel free to PM me any questions and good luck man!
 
Engineers who can't maintain a high enough GPA get put into science. Its a fact.

But seriously you're making weak comparisons. I know tons of people who are great with theory, but as soon as an application question comes up, they're screwed. Its a different set of skills.
 
I've watched it happen. At Queen's they become an Art/Sci student. At uOttawa I know lots of people who couldn't do chem eng and end up completing a chemistry degree. As a faculty, science has lower standards than engineering. Also, the passing grade in engineering is often higher than in science. It obviously depends on the program and the year, but from my experience, thats what happens.
 
you are just wrong.

the joke is:

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And it actually is very true.
 
This is spot on. It's tough, but you can find plenty of time to party/ski and still do well in school.
 
This seems to be true for most science degrees. If you cant make it, go to business. Honestly, my .02 but a business degree that isnt an MBA is worthless. You will plateau very quickly with your pay and rank in a company. Go do something you enjoy.

/claim but I had an interview with a guy who was a psych major (at a very well respected school) that went into the business world (investment banks) after graduating and realized quickly he needed an masters in business, ended up going to Dartmouth, and now is bringing in 6 figures.
 
I am not an engineer myself, but I work with countless engineers as I am employed by a very large chemical company (I am non technical, and on the business side of things). I can attest that the engineers that I know are all very hard working, incredibly smart people. I can say that if you have any interest in business, and can become skilled in both engineering and business (say B.S. in some kind of engineering with an MBA), you will quickly rise in the ranks of any technical corporation and make a lot of money while your doing it.
 
We can compare who our sources are, but I can also confidently say in todays day and age there is a plateau with an undergraduate degree. An MBA will allow one to reach a much higher position.
 
I am currently a freshman at UMD in Duluth and am studying mechanical engineering. As a freshman it's not too difficult to ski and study, but I would assume it is going to get a lot more difficult after you are accepting into your major. Overall you just have to prioritize and be smart about it!
 
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