<p>I've heard many horror stories about how many engineering programs grind the kids into the ground freshman year but I just wanted a good gauge of how UIUC's engineering program is in terms of toughness/if there are any weedout classes.</p>
<p>I’m a freshman ECE here, and while I can’t speak for other departments, the first few classes aren’t as scary as they are made out to be. </p>
<p>ECE 110, your first experience with ECE, is relatively easy. The exams can be slightly tricky, but the material overall borders being boring. You should easily get an A or A- in that class. </p>
<p>ECE 190, your first programming class as an ECE major, is decently challenging. Your grade in the class is 85% exams, 5% MPs, 5% labs (I think), and a few various other points. There are a few weekly homework assignments in the beginning of the semester, but after about a month, your only workload becomes MPs, labs, and studying for exams. I was lucky having came in with decent programming knowledge, but for someone who has never programmed before, the MPs are insanely difficult. As an example, earlier in the semester we spent a single lecture on file I/O, then had an entire MP revolving around reading files into arrays, manipulating them, and writing them to output files (image filtering, as it happened). That being said, if you have a solid programming background or a solid understanding of the programming mindset (**see below), you’ll genuinely enjoy the MPs. Our final MP that we’re working on is making Snake, both for a human-controlled snake and an AI, complete with scorecard and GUI. How cool is that. =D</p>
<p>The exams for ECE 190 are rather frustrating. The first midterm is on paper, and you go through primarily hardware stuff, logic gates, that sort of thing. It was incredibly easy. The second and third midterms then, as well as the final, are in the labs writing code. You’re given five problems and have to write the functions for them, given main files, or write the main, etc. We got 1:30 for the second midterm and 3:00 for the third midterm. The second midterm was rather easy in execution, but there was a <em>lot</em> to cover, so you really had to be able to write your code correctly the first time. You can’t rely on having a ton of time to debug your code. The third midterm, which we just took last week, was… yeah. It was incredibly difficult. There’s no mincing words there. To give you a bit of perspective though…</p>
<p>On the first exam, I got an 88.5%. On the second, I got a 100%. On this third, I’m expecting about an 80%. And I was by no means a master programmer coming into the course - I just had a bit of Java/C++ experience from me being bored the summer prior. </p>
<p>The saving grace though, and what would really answer your question best, is that the top 60% of the class is guaranteed at least a B. So, you could call it a weedout class I guess, but assuming you’re at least average in the class, all it will hurt is your pride, not your GPA. They realize it’s hard.</p>
<p>**About the programming mindset: It doesn’t matter what language you know, or how good you are at C, etc. The programming mindset is the most important thing to have a handle on coming into ANY programming course here at UIUC. They will throw problems at you that you will have never seen, or likely heard of, and you need to be able to wrap your mind around them and solve them. This only comes by actually programming, the methodology and approach you take to a problem, so if there’s one thing you can do for yourself before coming here or taking a programming class, be sure to get some exposure to ANY language. </p>
<p>TL;DR - I haven’t encountered any weedout classes yet. My first class in the sequence was crazy easy, and the second is rather challenging, but they compensate HEAVILY so your GPA is not negatively affected. UIUC really does like its students - they want you to stay.</p>
<p>I am working on my class courses right now. ECE major.Registration will be mid-July
( that’s the only date that worked for me ). I have a lot of AP credits. - calc, chem, physics, us hist,and ACT score to skip rhet 105, 3 yrs of HS language etc. I plan on taking the following courses
Math 241 (4 hrs)
ECE 110 ( 4 hrs)
engineering orientation ( 0 hrs )
World Religions ( 3hrs )
- gen Ed req or free elective ( 3 hrs )</p>
<p>Firstly, is it OK to take this schedule.( 14 hrs ) for a freshman.
Also, should I substitute a gen ed with a programming course ?</p>