Did majoring in engineering allow you to enjoy college life?

<p>I've heard/read that the engineering majors are some of the most difficult undergraduate degrees to obtain. Does majoring in one of these allow you to enjoy college life like- attending your schools sporting events, joining a non-academic club, intramurels, etc? </p>

<p>I think everyone knows in order to major in an engineering, be it Electrical, Chemical or what have you a student has to have discipline in the sense of school work is top priority. But does that priority not allow any extracurricular activities for you?</p>

<p>When I was an undergrad, I frequently saw many of the science and engineering majors at parties…maybe not the same set all the time, but most were at parties and were in clubs.</p>

<p>I can only speak for myself, but some of us wanted to kind of disprove the “stereotypes” of engineering/science/math majors.</p>

<p>Yeah stereotypes stink. I’m an IT guy and there are plenty of stereo-typical IT nerds that I work with…but then again there are many that are not. </p>

<p>MIT has a football team- if that doesn’t break all strerotypes I don’t know what does.</p>

<p>Can you party? Sure! Can you party as much as a golf major? No way!! But another question is: as an engineer 5 years after college, can you enjoy life? Sure! Can that golf major? No way!!</p>

<p>i think studying hard and having a challenging and fulfilling curriculum makes the time we have for social activities feel that much sweeter, even if it’s just a few times a week. this is true of anyone who studies hard irrespective of major. </p>

<p>look to your peers, there will be students with excellent study habits that never slack off and that allows more time for social activities.</p>

<p>I want to be that stereotypical IT guy, but alas, they are too cool for me. :(</p>

<p>As difficult as everyone makes it seem, people aren’t spending hundred hour weeks studying, doing homework, going to class, etc in engineering. You’ll have free time. How you spend it is up to you, but there’s plenty of time you can allocate to any of those activities you listed, or to partying.</p>

<p>It did. I am very much enjoying my high GPA, as did certain scholarship committees.</p>

<p>It depends on the person.
Some are extremely gifted but they don;t party. But they are normal people… they are fun
Some are extremely gifted, but they party a lot and still can As.</p>

<p>Some are average students, and they can’t party and barely get As.
Some are average students but they party alot, and still can get As.</p>

<p>Some are not really students, but they are here on CC and they are working engineers.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA</p>

<p>Golf major? what the hell…never knew there was such a thing…</p>

<p>Anyways I will be starting my first semester in a few weeks and was wondering the same thing. Good to see it isn’t as hard and time consuming as some people on this board made it seem like.</p>

<p>If you do not work in college and do not take 4 classes with 4 labs per semester then you should have ample free time.</p>

<p>It’s all about how you manage your time. Are you going to receive as much free time as your liberal arts or business major friend? Generally, no. Will you have to put in more time studying and/or doing sets of problems than your liberal arts or business major friend? If you want to succeed, generally yes. Can you make engineering the only thing you do? Yes, very easily. Will the hours you spend studying in college greatly increase from the hours you studied in high school? Again, generally yes.</p>

<p>Time management and what you do in college are up to YOU. I think this is the big shocker for many high school kids these days, I know it was initially for me. You don’t have your parents there to tell you to finish homework/projects, clean, etc., you have new found obligations other than school, and in many cases you are trying to completely re-establish yourself as a person by making a new set of friends. </p>

<p>It’s a drastic change to the way things were, but if you manage your time correctly and make school your number one focus, you’ll be fine.</p>

<p>I studied hard and partied hard. It was great.</p>

<p>Time management! I’m surprised it took until post #11 for it to even be mentioned.</p>

<p>Well I’ve seen time management taken to the extreme, where a CS guy did homework from Monday night to Monday night the next week. Never went out. Never really went anywhere. He did homework thru the weekends so he wouldn’t be completely miserable during the week. Instead, he was just so-so miserable all the time.</p>

<p>I recommend against that. Don’t do homework on Fridays and Saturdays unless you really need to, and party hard or relax or sleep or whatever. Then during the week you may be a bit more miserable, but big deal? You’d be miserable regardless.</p>

<p>Well, you should be doing homework every day, review your classnote all the time, and do stuff outside the classroom… and of course, hang out.</p>

<p>It’ll depend a lot on the college and the person. Me: I enjoyed my first year to an extent, though there were some things I should have done. I should have studied more though. Studying on a Friday or Saturday isn’t a bad thing. Everyone does it.</p>

<p>As an undergrad engineering major I studied hard and had time to enjoy college. I played in the school jazz ensemble, managed a student theatre, played intramural sports, and had time for a social life. I always took 5 classes and was was in NROTC.</p>

<p>DS is at Rice and works hard, but still seems to find time to be captain of his club sport team, travel and practice with the team and attend lots of parties and events. Rice is a pretty happy and balanced place to be.</p>

<p>The more I went out the better I did.</p>

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<p>Most would agree that isn’t “time management”. Time management involves multitasking and balance, that is just devoting all of your time to one thing.</p>