<p>I'm a natural tinkerer. I've always wanted to be an engineer, but I'm worried about the math involved. I generally do well with math, but I haven't had the chance to take challenging math courses. I really want to be an engineer though. I'm just worried about ruining my GPA trying.</p>
<p>I'm taking a few of the prereqs as a freshman in the other part of my uni next year...</p>
<p>Engineering's hard but not impossible, right?</p>
<p>Success follows passion. If you really want to be an engineer, you'll do fine. If engineering was impossible, there wouldn't be any engineers. Instead, 31% of the bachelors degrees awarded in the United States are engineering degrees (which is still pathetically low compared to China, India, and South Korea).</p>
<p>Actually engineering represents only about 5% of all bachelors degrees awarded in the US. </p>
<p>Computer science is another 3.2%. If you include all of science and engineering the total is close to 32%, but the biggest chunk of that are the social and behavioral sciences (psy) at 18%.</p>
<p>I'm going for it.</p>
<p>not being exposed to challenging math doesnt hurt your chances. I know some eng students who didnt even take pre-calc in highschool but still make it to engineering classes.</p>
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<p>Computer science is another 3.2%. If you include all of science and engineering the total is close to 32%, but the biggest chunk of that are the social and behavioral sciences (psy) at 18%.
I am quoting Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat,on p.331 where he quotes Shirley Ann Jackson, the president of RPI.</p>
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<p>I'm curious where you are getting this information - the chapter is about hard sciences and engineering, explicitly excludes social sciences like economics. I'd be interested if he missed that 18 of that 31% comes from social and behavioral science degrees (as he's arguing that we, the U.S., are falling behind in terms of engineering and the hard sciences).</p>
<p>no way 31% of USA undergrads are engineering majors. that's totally flase. MAYBE that's the case at RPI, a tech school.</p>
<p>He said "science" and engineer degrees. Which sounds about right.</p>
<p>Which would include life sciences, physical sciences, all engineering degrees, etc. Sounds about right, I agree.</p>
<p>It was including hard sciences (bio, chem, physics), math, computer science, and any engineering. He was explicitly excluding soft sciences like economics and political science.</p>
<p>michiganman: as I have also said on a few other posts, Engineering is dificult but maybe not in the way you would expect. While different majors will require you to take courses/master concepts of varying difficulty, the challenge for most is not the intellectual difficulty of any one subject but the day-to-day "grind" over four years. You simply have to stick with it, cover all your bases all the time, and falling behind is not an option- wating till jsut before a test to do some studying is usually disastrous. The majority of engineers are certainly not brilliant mathematicians. I think what helped get most of us through, besides professors taking pity on us sometimes, was the applied nature of the math courses in general and being able to see its uses to solve engineering problems.</p>
<p>If you happen to be a chem e, you'd better know your math well. Eventually you will take a class called phycial chemistry and man, I thought I was good at math....</p>
<p>I'm probably majoring in industrial engineering or mechanical engineering...maybe petroleum engineering.</p>
<p>Go for it, michiganman.</p>
<p>i'm sure everyone in this thread felt that way before freshman year- I know i did. i thought only super geniuses take engineering and do well in it- not the case at all- It's more about how much time and effort you put into assignments/projects etc. You'll naturally develop the habit of spending more time on studies as the classes get progressively 'harder.' I'm not even like 'passionate' about engineering or anything- definitely not a genius either- and i've done well so far(junior)- so i'm positive you'll do very well.</p>
<p>I'm no genius and definitely not what you would consider to be passionate about engineering. I was never involved in a lot of technical things as a kid and I couldn't handle the rigors of a top engineering program either, but I finished my degree (MechE) at at another school through lots of hard work and effort. Most of the guys in my class weren't gifted but we put in the time and effort that was needed to succeed. And the hard work and daily grind trains you for some real world jobs. I am a power plant engineer and the job is very demanding but having been able to plow through hard work before lets me know that I can face what is ahead of me. But instead of an exam grade pressuring me to do well, I have a manager on my back.</p>
<p>justinmeche: I don't know how you Power Plant guys do what you do- from what I've seen, the pressure is definitely a big step up from school (maybe big money has something to do with it, huh?)</p>
<p>You are taking the pre-reqs so you will be fine. I am in the same boat as you, except for the fact that I am interested in the arguably easier of the engineering degrees (Civil). Man, I wish I had taken those AP classes in high school pre-reqs in math can set you back a year due to the fact that you can't really move on to the specific field until all the math and sciences are done. What a pain in the butt. However, this just proves motivation is the key.
Whatever your dream is man, pursue it, don't let absurd thinking like "I'm not smart enough to pursue engineering" look at it this way if your IQ is 120 you are in the 98th percentile of the population. 5% of the degrees awarded are engineering degrees. so you would be brighter than 60% of the students in your class lol. - half witted Ideology? Sure, but whatever keeps you motivated.</p>
<p>The fact that I don't understand how you got 60% is an ode to my mathematic ineptness, lol</p>
<p>Only 5%? Where did he get 60%?</p>