Amount of work in engineering

College Majors Engineering Majors
101

<p>Goodness so many posts saying different things. I can understand if many of you don't believe what Zorz said, but I have to say its true in some cases.</p>

<p>Chem Eng students here (I used to be one myself) study about 9 hrs a day just for chem eng class, about 6 hrs for homeworks+ about 3 for mandatory readings. We got daily homeworks, weekly quizzes and projects/reports/essays given every friday (due Monday). Add the fact that we have to take mandatory Org. chem and calculus 3 in the same semester (also w/ daily hws), and you can imagine the rest. The workload was so heavy I decided to switch because it killed my social life, even chem eng students in my class didnt get to see each other much outside of class and group project meetings.
People get weeded out early. From my personal experience, the chem eng major started w/ 212 students in my freshman yr. It went down to 60 (in 2nd sem), and then down to 48 when sophomore yr started. It was my last sem in chem eng. When I left only 14 survived (I passed dead last at rank 14 in class). Others either gave up or simply didn't make the cut (imagine 19 students getting F, it was horrible)</p>

<p>Other statements have their point too. I know a bunch of EE kids here who spend about 3-4 hrs daily on their hw and studies, and still passed the class. ME students however, get almost as much worklaod as chem E, and lots of them looked like they're about to commit suicide.</p>

<p>I'm saying this based on what I experienced (and see) on my campus. I totally agree w/ one of the posts, it really depends on the school you go to.</p>

102

<p>
[quote]
I chose my school partly because I knew I'd be smarter than many of my classmates. I wanted to be lazy and achieve a 3.5.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>quoted for truth</p>

103

<p>What school did you go to da<em>mad</em>cow?</p>

104

<p>I told you, guys, I wasn't lying, I study a good 10-13 hours a day, everyday during the school year. Possibly you guys are excessively smart, but everybody i know in a few different engineering schools gets just about the same amount of work. Some even more than 13 hours a day.</p>

105

<p>"Grades matter! But have fun too."
Hinman, I wish I could do the same in chem eng. The only time they didnt give out homeworks is before midterm and finals week.
Gator, I go to wsu (transferring soon). not the most famous school I know, but the chem eng dept. is just crazy. Sadly it was also unorganized (they claimed to have fixed the problem now) and have serious faculty shortage. They didnt even have enough TAs (with the way they weed out students, I surely aint surprised) that time, I'm not sure about now.
My advisor was never available (I managed to meet him once, all other communications done via email) since he went somewhere to finish his PhD research, and the dept. refused to reassign me to someone else because noone's available, ugh...
Hey btw is it easier there at UFL? I wonder if mine's just particularly insane or actually common (my prof said they usually teach less than 10 seniors every yr). I cant even begin to imagine what its like at the Ivies...</p>

106

<p>at university of maryland of college park, i get plenty of advising. we NEED to submit a 4 year plan and every semester we need to meet in person with a professor (as our mentor) then we meet with our advisor (4-5 in the ECE department, all full-time staff) before we can register for classes. not to brag, but i did get into cornell but i love umcp. its only because I am a slacker my gpa is so bad. 3.49 is above average for UMCP. 3.6+ puts you in the top 25% of the engineering class. so yea, 1/4 of the people have an OVERALL gpa of 3.6 and above. if i recall correctly, the average GPA for an engineering major is around 2.7 - 2.9 (on pick-a-prof, ECE classes' avg gpa is around a 2.5, but i gues the CORE classes boost people's GPA). professor who curve usually give a C+/B- to the average grade. and we don't use the +/-'s in the GPA system. I have gotten 4 B+'s which suck cuz B = B+ = B- = 3.0</p>

<p>At maryland, if you get past the chem, physics, math, and lower-level weed out classes, around 40% of the people get an A or a B. Getting B's are not that hard. I personally wished the +'s and -'s counted. Since C is the minimum passing grade, if someone knows just a little more than the person who just passes (dude who gets a "C"), the professor is nice enough to give them a "B-" which is a 3.0 So when I get a lot of B+'s, it ****es me off. the saying at UMD(or UMCP) is this "get a 3.0, got a job, get a 3.2, pick your job. get a 3.5, get a free grad school, get a 3.8, pick w/e grad school for free."</p>

<p>seriously. who the HECK studies over 10 hours a day???? I will tell you a busy day for me:
wake up 10am for my classes (11am - 5pm) then dinner (6-7pm) homework from 8 or 9pm to like 3am for the homework due on Friday and the quiz . That's 7 hours MAX, on a very busy Thursday night. That is studying and homework. But in engineering, you only get 4 exams MAXIMUM in a class per semester. Most classes have 1 or 2 midterms and then the final. i SHOULD study 1-3 hours a night and do w/e homework I have. So if I have homework every night and I study (go over lecture notes, which I never do until before a test) I guess I could possibly study(wrong word, "do academic work" sounds better) 7 hours a day, so that can be 8pm to 3am(im not a morning person)</p>

<p>my whole point is if you tell me you do 10 hours of "academic work a day" please tell me the 24-hour schedule u have for a typical busy day.</p>

<p>like i said, UMCP's undergrad is 25th in the nation (respectable) and it has nice professor, awesome research (top 20 grad school), good advising, and there is plenty of competition (people turn down MIT for full rides here). Trust me, there are a # of people with 4.0's because we are from the DC metropolitan area (Fairfax county from VA and Howard and Montgomery county from MD are all in the top 10 richest counties in the USA). Which means most of us got rich parents that send us to good schools and a lot of us (me included) got into better schools but go to UMCP to save money for the pimp grad. schools we wanna go to. so please don't tell me that UMD is easy because 40% of people get A's or B's in an engineering class as opposed to your 2 or 3 (there are some profs who give only 5 A's in a class of 35). everyone in UMCP wants to do well and when I say do well, I mean it.</p>

<p>wow this is long. please, everyone tell me your college, year, major, gpa (and avg gpa for an engineering class), and a typical how much homework and how much studying you do in a typical week. and to make things "standard" assume you got a test (just one) sometime this week.</p>

<h2>college: University of Maryland, College Park</h2>

<p>year: finished sophomore year</p>

<p>major: ENEE or EE (same thing)</p>

<p>GPA: 3.49/4.0 (40 credits of technical, 15 of humanities; i got less than 60 because my AP credits which don't count towards GPA fulfill some classes)</p>

<p>GPA(from pick-a-prof average in ECE in four 200 level classes, three lectures and a lab(easy)): 2.7</p>

<h2>busy week: close to 22(three hw sets) hours of homework and 8 hours of studying. only average over 5 weekdays, thats only 6 hours of "academic work" per day. I mean sure I might go online while doing homework so instead of studying 8 hours, I spend 12 hours, but only 8 hours of "real studying".</h2>

<p>So there, when I got one test and three hw sets, I spend 30 hours to study/hw. Say I got two quizzes and I study 5 hours total for both, then I average 7 hours a DAY. MAX. for that ONE HELL week. three hw sets, two quizzes and a test.</p>

<p>I am sure you can add papers/projects to your schedule to make it tougher. but PLEASE tell me why you need to spend 10 hours a day or more. </p>

<p>sorry if I sound arrogant, I know I am a lazy bum with a decent GPA, but I just can't believe some of you (unless you got to MIT/Caltech/JHU/CMU/Cornell, etc) would need to study 10 hours PER day. </p>

<p>24 hrs a day. 6 hours of sleep. 10 hours of "study", 4 hours of class, 2 hours to eat. what's left? two hours!!!! when do you go to the gym? club activities? fun? breaks? this is assuming you only spend 2 hours eating and only 4 hours of class, and when do u go to office hours or go shopping?</p>

<p>ok i am done</p>

107

<p>Hinman, thats similar to what I did. The only "slight" problem is even 6 hrs is sometimes not enough to finish the hw, many times it covered materials we hadnt discussed in class yet. Why? "because chemical engineers need to stay ahead of the program" our prof said.
The time schedule I posted was specifically for sophomores, freshman yr was a lot more relaxed. It was my worst semester by far. Like I said it killed my social life (in sophomore), plus most of the chem eng students hated me (they said I'm just one of the "common socs", whatever that means I never know). No gyms, no movies, 1 party, my girlfriend dumped me cuz I didnt have enough time to see her. It was just plain terrible
In the end I got tired of it. I stopped doing the daily mandatory reading and skipped quite a few homeworks and essays. Its a miracle I still passed (well, barely)</p>

108

<p>Id be glad to</p>

<p>I wake up at 7AM eat then Go to library by 7:30 and study, first class usually at 9. I sit in the library from 7:30am till 6p, If I have a class or lab I go and then come back. Also give or take a hour lunch. All together this come to about 7 hours of studying.</p>

<p>I then at around 6pm go to my dorm and eat and go back to the library at around 8, after a little relaxing and a shower. I then stay at the library till 2-3am. </p>

<p>I then go back to my dorm and go to sleep and wake up the next morning at 7AM</p>

<p>In total it ads up to around 12-15 hours a day. I do this everyday. During the weekends I like to sleep a little bit, I go to bed around 3am and wake up at 9am, then I head to the library and get back to studying.</p>

<p>My school has 5 huge library's, they are always packed, even at 5Am.</p>

<p>you asked when do I have fun or to the gym, well I don't. I am not allowed to.</p>

109

<p>At UMD 3.6 is 75th percentile. Wow. That does seem easy...</p>

110

<p>can da<em>mad</em>cow and goat4d list ur college, year, major, gpa (and avg gpa for an engineering class)</p>

<p>college: University of Maryland, College Park
year: finished sophomore year
major: ENEE or EE (same thing)
GPA: 3.49/4.0 (40 credits of technical, 15 of humanities; i got less than 60 because my AP credits which don't count towards GPA fulfill some classes)
GPA(from pick-a-prof average in ECE in four 200 level classes, three lectures and a lab(easy)): 2.7</p>

<p>goat4d, you got a super work ethic, I am sure you will do very well in w/e grad school you go to. </p>

<p>college is not JUST about grades, it is about balance. I go to two bible studies a week for my spiritual health, i got to the gym 1-3 times a week for my physical health, i am in a business frat and I am in IEEE for connections.</p>

111

<p>yea man, 3.6 is the overall gpa though for umcp's 75th percentile. like i said, UMCP's engineering program steals from MIT, Cal, Caltech, Princeton, Cornell (im one of them).</p>

<p>thats why I'm not happy with my 3.49. But remember in engineering classes, 2.6 is the average class GPA.</p>

112

<p>average GPA for engineering classes: 2.6
average GPA for engineering student at UMCP: 2.8 (50th percentile)</p>

<p>75th percentile = 3.6</p>

<p>conclusion: half of the engineering students at UMCP have BELOW a 2.8!!! 1/4 have between a 2.8 and a 3.6 and 1/4 have 3.6 and above!</p>

113

<p>I don't know. That seems like a very strange distribution. Responding to your PM, I go to Cal Poly and I think that a 3.5 is around 80th percentile and the average GPA of engineering students is around ~2.7 (I've actually heard it's 2.5, but that's just really hard to believe). Of course, this is speculation because Cal Poly doesn't release rank.</p>

114

<p>University at Buffalo
Junior
Computer and Electrical Engineering
My GPA 2.84/4.0
Average Eng gpa= 2.7, my school is not on pick-a-prof</p>

115

<p>wsu
sophomore (technically speaking)
previously Chem E, now undecided
gpa 2.83
avg eng gpa: 2.71 (chem E avg usually significantly lower)</p>

116

<p>your gpa's are not bad at all. in fact, the GPA of our colleges are about the same. and trust me, i study much less than most people because I work in groups, i get help from upperclassmen(i asked them for their old exams to study), and i did get into cornell. i am sure there are plenty of people at UMCP that need to study 6+ hours a day on average. but WOW, i must applaud u guys on the work ethic. BUT you might want to rethink your study strategies since I think you guys can do better than a 2.8 due to the amount of time, sweat, and blood you put in.</p>

117

<p>hinman, lol you sure got a point. but try doing my hw once, then hand it to the prof in class. I did many homeworks that end up w/ a 0 (aka F) just because i wrote down a slightly off writing, ex: when i wrote down 2.87 instead of 2.871 or "c" instead of "cc".
Since I used to do the hw in a group of 18 we usually end up w the same grade lol... Our prof never hesitate to give a 0 to the slightest miscalculation or error in writing, I got more zeros than I ever did in life (which was none cuz I never got a 0 before chem eng)</p>

118

<p>you got an anal prof. pun intended.</p>

<p>my differential equations prof was no other than dr. brin (father of s. brin (co-founder of google)) he would give you a 10/20 on a question even if you got it right, but had an error in the middle of calculations that you knew was wrong.</p>

<p>ex.
correct answer: a= c
my work:
given: a = b, b = c
my calculations: a = -b, b = c, thus a = c.</p>

<p>as you can see my answer was right, but i wrote down a = -b but accident, i knew a = b since it was given, but i got 50%.</p>

<p>i feel your pain in the lack of partial credit. what a lame teacher.</p>

119

<p>I'm amazed by your comment about me having a serious work ethic, my advisor and professor said I lacked both commitment and work ethic. Well truth is I didnt study in such a timely schedule cuz I wanted to, but it was the only way to catch up in class. Skip a required reading and you'd be surprised at how you didnt understand a thing the prof talked about in class.
I'm posting my last sem schedule to give you a little description. All the courses I took that particular sem were mandatory except one (I'll put an * for the non-req class)</p>

<p>Chem E 1
Mon-Wed-Fri 1-2pm + Tutorial Tue-Thurs @ 10-11am
Daily homework + weekly quizzes (Fri) + weekly Essay/Project given Friday, due Monday
Expect to spend 6 hrs / hw, add about 3 hrs req text rading</p>

<p>Org Chem
Mon-Wed-Fri 8-9:30am + Tutorial Thurs @ 11am
Daily hw + bi-weekly group projects + weekly quizzes given @ turorial
Yes quizzes @ tutorial, and they count towards your gpa</p>

<p>Org Chem Lab
Mon-Fri 4-7pm and 3-6 pm
Nothing to say just plain insane</p>

<p>Phys 3
Mon-Wed-Fri 11am-12 + Lab Tues @1-5pm
Daily hw + weekly quizzes (wed) and "pop" quizzes mondays
Extremely tough hw and quizzes, so tough the class average remained @ 38% or less the whole sem
Btw does pop quiz still considered "pop" if its given every monday?</p>

<p>Calculus 3
Mon-Wed-Fri @10-11am + (*)Tutorial Tues @10am
Daily heavy hw + bi-weekly quizzes
This one is probably the only class crazy enough to give minimum 40 problems for daily hw</p>

<p>Biology 2
Tue-Thurs @ 8-9:30 am + Lab Thurs @ 3-6pm
Weekly hw + weekly quizzes
By far my easiest and lightest class</p>

<p>Whats amazing is all these courses I took that sem totaled only 15 credits, very deceiving wasnt it? (credit deflations, ugh just nasty)
To sum tings up I got about 1-2 hrs free time every weekday, about 4 hrs weekend IF I'm lucky. Thats if youre want to sleep for 6 hrs weekdays, if you want more just forget it. Weekends were totally spent on projects, weekend reading and friday hws, but the good news was I could sleep for 8 hrs. I spent so much time in library I managed to notice when they changed the trash can from blue to grey that sem.</p>

120

<p>your school is ridiculous. three classes with daily homework and that lab class that meets twice a week. insane.</p>

<p>not to be mean, but perhaps your school is ranked as high and perhaps your school accepts "less-qualified" students compared to say Hopkins or something. in order to produce engineers just as good, they work you all to death? haha</p>

<p>daily homework = killer.</p>

<p>truth is though i think all that practice will make you really tough in the long run. truth is I do not do homework or study everyday of the week. im so tired after classes, i just want to go to the gym, and i am very involved in 3 on-campus extra-curricular groups (frat, bible study, table tennis). if i went to wsu, i doubt i could do all that and have a 3.49 [ so close to an A- :( ]</p>