<p>Hey I'm a first year engineering student and I can answer as many questions as I can. Let me know if you have anything.</p>
<p>Do first-year engineering students need to commute from Busch campus to other campuses for any of their classes? My son is trying to decide if he wants to go to Rutgers or TCNJ, but the commuting between campuses by bus at Rutgers could be a deal-breaker for him. How long does it take (door-to-door) to commute to another campus for class? Any other general comments on the Engineering program workload vs. social life there?</p>
<p>^he will commute to others for some. Aside from engineering there are also general ed classes to take. Busses can get crowded 20 min before and after classes. Rutgers and TCNJ are completely different. Depends if he wants small school and classes with the same group or large school</p>
<p>hi, i am planning to go to rutgers nb this fall, and i am entering as a first time freshmen into SAS. I was waitlisted at engineering, and i just wanted to know if it would be hard for me to transfer from SAS to SOE. Will it affect my graduation year? thanks.</p>
<p>We were told at all the colleges that it’s better/easier to transfer out of SOE to something else than to transfer into SOE after even 1 or 2 semesters in another school; the curriculum is very inflexible for SOE students. You will probably be behind in engineering if you started out in SAS.</p>
<p>A lot of people ask about graduation times on the SOE forums. My friend’s son recently graduated SOE and among him and his friends, many were on “the 5 year plan”. So don’t worry too much about graduation date. It’s a hard program and you make it work, however long it takes.</p>
<p>Hey Purplechocolate,
Transferring from SAS to SOE isn’t that hard. But you have to maintain a sheller GPA (3.0+ I believe) from what I’ve heard. It may or may not affect your graduation day depending on if you took the correct classes and if they transfer over. Just check out the freshmen schedule and take those specific classes.</p>
<p>@Njmom. Commuting isn’t that bad to be honest from one campus to another (takes maybe 5-10 minutes at best if you are coming from Busch to maybe College Ave or sometimes Cook/Douglass with the exception being during rush hours). Your son may have a different class if its an elective, but a majority of his engineering classes will be in Busch.</p>
<p>how big are the classes? is it competitive, or a collaborative environment? do TAs facilitate or actually teach the classes? how easy is it for freshmen to get involved with project teams and research?</p>
<p>Most of your freshmen classes will be pretty big, but most people don’t even bother to attend after a few weeks in so you won’t even notice after a while how big it is. I think Expos is probably your only small class. Its definitely competitive. I felt overwhelmed by the amount of competition here, but I wouldn’t worry about that. Just do the best you can. But engineers also collaborate alot too so that too. TAs don’t teach the lecture. Professors do that. But TAs will teach what was taught in lecture just to get it in our heads, but it depends on the TA. Research depends on the topic. I would personally just email a bunch of professors that have research you like. I’m not sure about what you mean by projects, but theres alot of teams that need help like the formula racing, etc. So you can get involved through that.</p>
<p>Would you recommend Barr Hall or BEST for freshman housing (guy - engineering major)? What are the chances of getting in BEST? Any info on these halls would be great. thanks</p>
<p>For a freshman in your situation, I would reccomend Barr, although you can’t actually guarantee Barr because you apply for Barr/Mattia on the housing application, if I remember correctly.</p>
<p>Barr Hall is coed and all freshman engineers. You’ll meet a lot of people who share similar interests with you and are in a lot of the same classes as you. This is great for when you have questions on homework or trying to study for exams since you’re bound to find someone else in your class. The rooms are all doubles and there is a lounge on every floor. This setup is very good for meeting people. Most people keep their doors open and are very approachable. The rooms themselves are quite large for a college dorm and they are air cooled in September/Early October and in May. Overall, Barr is a very good facility compared to most other housing, but most importantly it is all engineers. For a freshman engineer, I think this is important since you are essentially guaranteed to have other engineering friends. I lived in Barr freshman year and now I have many friends who I still see today and are living with next year.</p>
<p>Mattia is the same as Barr except all male. I can’t really comment on how it is socially, but I’ve heard both good and bad. Some people were turned off by the fact that it’s all guys initially, but they later actually liked it better because of less drama, etc. Others just flat out hated it. (Note: not that Barr has that many girls. This is engineering after all. Barr was probably around 1/4 to 1/3 girls my year). </p>
<p>BEST is obviously the best facility. It’s literally like a hotel on both the inside and outside. Each suite has its own AC unit, so you can control the temperature year round. The reason why I don’t think it’s very good for a freshman is that there is little interaction with the rest of the people on your floor/in the building. The setup is four person suites: one room with two beds which is connected to a bathroom which is then connected to another room with two beds. The exterior doors also close automatically, so you’ll rarely see people with their doors open. If you do choose BEST, I strongly recommend that you be active and try to meet new people on your floor. It will definitely be more difficult than in a more traditional residence hall like Barr, where people tend to spend a lot of time either outside their rooms in the lounges or have their doors open.</p>
<p>I agree with Rhetorical13. BEST is notorious for being antisocial. If you don’t know anybody who is going to rutgers with you, I wouldn’t recommend it. I lived in Barr, met lots of people, and thoroughly enjoyed it.</p>
<p>Gotmilk – Thanks for starting this thread. When you say it is competitive there and you felt overwhelmed by the competition, what exactly are you referring to? People comparing grades? Really uber-smart students that it feels hard to keep up with? My son is interested in engineering but I am a little worried about the intensity of it all. Appreciate your insights.</p>
<p>@Lotsalego. I was referring to the averages in the classes. People overall do decently well on the exams so its hard to keep up with it. Although I can’t say I put in 100% effort, I wish I had the same work ethics as some of my peers. I think college life gives too much freedom that some students (like me) cannot evenly distribute wisely. Had I been a little more disciplined, I could have been up to date with things.</p>
<p>hard hard is it to transfer into the school of engineering?</p>
<p>Hi,
so i took the placement exam, and placed in precalc. Will this put me behind in terms of the engineering sequence? Or am i fine and will just have to double up on classes when the time comes?</p>
<p>It depends. Many engineers start in Precalc, but some end up taking an extra year to graduate, taking a math class in the summer (usually Calc 2 or Diff Eqs), or needing to get special permission to take engineering classes that have certain math pre-reqs. In certain engineering majors, if you don’t start in Calc 1, there will come a time when you don’t have the necessary math to take a class during the semester you are normally supposed to. If that class isn’t offered in both semesters, then you are now a year behind. If you know what major you want to do, take a look at the curriculum and check the pre-requisites for classes in sophomore and junior year. From that, you can figure out if you are going to have an issue.</p>
<p>Two things: What type of questions are on the Math 2 Placement test (i know it is precalc) but does it test series and sequences and conics as well? Oh, i do know that i have exponents and logs down pat though :D</p>
<p>Also if I place into Calc 1 and then have college credit that rutgers accepts, I can go directly into Calc 2 first semester and then Calc 3 right?</p>
<p>If you have credit for Calc 1, whether AP or IB or transfer credit, you will start in Calc 2 regardless of your placement score as long as you accept the credit.</p>