<p>How is life in college as an electrical engineer?</p>
<p>I'm planning to be one and im currently in high school. </p>
<p>Can anyone tell me how they got ready for a degree in EE? like during high school?
and how hard is EE? alot of studying? Also do you do lab work with electronics and stuff and build circuits and stuff? or is it just math and physics and all that stuff? </p>
<p>I'm really confused about all this.</p>
<p>The prep I would recommend during high school is to take physics, learn calc, and learn a programming language like C.</p>
<p>Oftentimes professors will make their exams open book or at least you get a cheat sheet, so EE is not really memorization, but instead understanding the concepts well enough that you can kind of figure out the seemingly random problems they throw at you.</p>
<p>Yes, there's lab work, you'll be building circuits physically as well as using computer software to simulate them. But if you go to a UC (as I did), your lectures will be more theory heavy and less practical hands-on stuff.</p>
<p>You usually have about two years of math, from basic calculus (waived if you took it in hs) up to differential equations. You'll also have about two years of physics, which will include basic stuff like Newtonian physics, fluid dynamics, E+M, etc and then move on to the more intensive stuff like modern physics (relativity, schrodinger's eq, etc). You'll also have programming classes and probably at least one chemistry class. Then you move on to the purely EE courses like Electromagnetics, VLSI, Semiconductor Physics, Systems and Signals, etc.</p>
<p>As for difficulty, it really depends on the person. Some people will study 7-8 hours a day and still flunk out. You may find that you won't have to study as hard as you think though, because some of the tests are so hard that everyone fails them anyways and the curve saves you.</p>
<p>My advice would be to look through the courses at the university you want to go to and see if it's really what you want to do.</p>
<p>Well, I’m a Junior in EE right now and I have a few friends who are Seniors, graduated, etc. </p>
<p>Life for the first two years wasn’t bad at all; The only thing you can really do to prepare is make sure your math skills are sharp (You’ll have to take Calculus in college anyway, but be prepared), and learning a little bit about programming wouldn’t hurt, but I’m sure you’ll have somewhat of an introductory course in college (C or C++ possibly). The first two years were reasonably tough for me, what with the Math and Circuit Analysis, but still allowed me to somewhat of a life outside of the program.</p>
<p>The last two years, however, are a different story. The difficulty in EE, at my school at least, is the amount of work you have to put in. Electronics assignments take 10+ hours each, Signals and Communications assignments can take up to 20 each. These assignments are all theoretical. Labs take at the most 3 hours here, and each respective lab report probably takes another 3. </p>
<p>So in your last two years you may find yourself stuck in your engineering building most of the time doing homework (even on Fridays… it’s kind of sad, but it happens).</p>
<p>I don’t want to deter you from this major. It’s really cool when you have the knowledge to design your own analog and digital circuits, and a lot of the classes are quite enjoyable. I find the lab-related work to not be as stressful, as opposed to the theory (Signals, Circuit Analysis, Stochastic Processes), but the theory is quite interesting as well.</p>
<p>The concepts themselves probably wouldn’t be as difficult as a Mathematics or Physics major. At my university, it’s definitely more work though.</p>
<p>The great thing is, after four years, there are a ton of different jobs for EEs. It’s a very broad field. You can work with communications systems, microprocessor design, programming embedded systems, control systems, power systems, etc. Also, after sacrificing four years in school, you’ll be living quite comfortable (very decent salary) with a challenging and demanding field. (In these economic times, it gets tough… but hopefully this will all get sorted out)</p>
<p>If you have any questions about specific classes, please ask.</p>