<p>I've been reading some threads on engineering in general and for the schools I'm admitted to, and I'm kind of worried about whether or not I should still do engineering in college. I got the impression that engineering is a ton of work and is really stressful. I'm not really used to this; I'm used to never staying up past 10:30 doing homework (done it once), studying for a test for about 1.5-2 hours max, and breezing through homework sets. I definitely pay attention in class and learn most stuff from there (I don't learn well from textbooks) and generally I can get As on tests if I just pay attention and study for an hour or so the night before. Note: These are for math and science classes. And my math/science courses are AP classes at a top public school. </p>
<p>So, here come the questions. As you can probably tell, I'm really not that into working/studying and I absolutely hate stress. Will I have to pull all-nighters (or stay up really late) and stuff in college engineering? Will I have to abandon sports, TV, non-engineering classes, and a social life to get a decent GPA and still do a few engineering clubs? Is the stress level really that bad for engineers? If anyone here was similar to me in HS (didn't work/study much, naturally smart, etc.), can you share your experiences at college? As of now, I'm probably going to study mechanical, aerospace, or compsci at a top engineering university (not sure exactly which one, yet).</p>
<p>Will you have to abandon ECs, focus, work harder? Maybe you will, maybe you won’t. If you need to, you’ll adapt. People can change their habits. Your life is not cast in stone. If it was easy and anyone could do it without effort, it probably wouldn’t be worth doing anyway.</p>
<p>I am in a very similar position as you. I’ve been looking through threads that are dealing with the same topic and most so far say yes there is a significant amount of work but youre still going to have time for a social life (one said he worked hard but still became a halo master). You get the idea.</p>
<p>I’d still love to here more from experienced students</p>
<p>“but youre still going to have time for a social life (one said he worked hard but still became a halo master)”</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>I’m sorry but I cannot help but laugh, hahaha!! </p>
<p>You’re going to have to adapt in your effort but also in your social life. I’m sure for an engineer, there’s plenty of time for games because video games just sit there in your room and aren’t going to go anywhere. It will be hard to keep up with your friends who aren’t engineering majors, and your friends who don’t go to college. Your life is going to have to adapt to what’s going to be available in other words.</p>
<p>I’d agree with what’s been said so far. You’ll definitely be doing more work than you’re doing in high school, but not so much that you’ll be doing nothing but studying. I went to Georgia Tech for Aerospace Engineering (graduated last year) and had time for some intramural sports, took classes for fun, etc. I don’t think you’ll be able to do everything, you want - some sacrifices have to be made (for me it was usually sleep), but you can certainly have a decent social life and get good grades while studying engineering. </p>
<p>I consider myself fairly smart - a lot of the “extra” time you have to spend in engineering is just the nature of the beast. HW problems are just long with many steps and equations. Test cover a lot of material and it takes time to review it all. It isn’t conceptually that hard (if you have a good grasp of chemistry, physics, and math), but still takes a good bit of time.</p>
<p>Alright, I am just finishing my undergrad this year, so here is my perspective.</p>
<p>In high school, I can’t remember studying for a test… ever. I got straight As through high school without studying. College, however, is much different. I still study much less than I should (owing to my 3.3 GPA overall) but I find it a lot easier to study for classes I like, which are the ones in my major (where my GPA is over 3.5). Honestly, I have had plenty of time for a life. I have been in a leadership position in the student fan section for our football team here at UIUC, and an active member of the Orange Krush, the basketball fan section. I have done undergrad research on the side, as well as been a member, though not particularly active, of ASME. I still find time to go out with friends when we feel like it.</p>
<p>I think the biggest thing about engineering, though, is you need to learn time management. You will not be pulling all-nighters if you manage your time well. I am not the greatest at this, but in the past year I have gotten much better and can’t even remember the last time I pulled an all-nighter. Really, you just have to stay on top of the work. If you fall behind in engineering, you have like triple the work to catch back up to where you should be as opposed to just staying up to date in the first place.</p>
<p>The biggest thing, though, is that engineering is more than just a course of study. It is more a way of thinking. If engineering is right for you, then putting all that extra work in should not be that much of a hassle, because, while you might not like certain classes (for me it was signals processing and controls), on the whole you will like your course of study and will be willing to work that extra bit to study something you actually enjoy instead of something you are going to breeze through but hate like business (personal opinion there, not all-encompassing fact).</p>
<p>I think it really depends on what type of learner you are, your interests, and unfortunately, how quickly you can process large amounts of information(intelligence). These things coupled with time management skills will really determine what kind of experience you have. I have had to work very hard, much harder than I would like to in order to do well. However, some of the guys I study with dont even look over the stuff except for when were studying together - whereas I spend ours before we ever meet. Overall, I would say that it is very possible to have a moderate social life and still do well - but it is highly unlikely that you will be out partying on the weeknights other than just occasionally. Like another poster said, I really didnt study at all in high school and still did fairly well, so for me it has been a major difference. Also, your interests will have a lot to do with it - classes that interests you tend to seem much easier and enjoyable, but there will undoubtedly be hard classes that you have very little to no interest in - that is where discipline determination come in. Without those two things I couldnt have made it through some of the classes that Ive had to take. All in all, I still manage to have girlfriends, party a little bit on the weekends, am a member in a one club and an honor society. </p>
<p>In conclusion, I wouldnt let the workload stop you from majoring in engineering - but just make sure to start out on the right foot, know what to expect, and manage your time well - you should be fine.</p>
<p>OP- How do you know you hate stress? By your posting, you’ve never had to deal with any. You are correct to be concerned about how you will cope when you can’t breeze through college courses. Don’t fool yourself to think your high school study habits will work in college. If graduate school is in your future then you have to an above “decent” gpa. Time to grow up. You can manage your workload and get good grades and a have social life but may be stressful at times to achieve your goals. Good luck.</p>
<p>PurdueFrank, thanks for all the posts on CC - very helpful. I am admitted to Purdue Engineering, but will probably switch to CS program before enrolling. Still a small doubt about leaving the engineering program, but I have 6 courses in programming, etc in high school and love it. Engineering enrollment was from pressure at home and school because I earned a 104 in AP calc and physics and they say engineering is a better degree to have over the life of a career. Any thoughts on this?</p>
<p>More importantly, I have two other Purdue questions.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Writing is not my strong point - what should I do to prepare and what should I look out for?</p></li>
<li><p>If I am honest, I am somewhat shy, but getting better. My dad says I should go to IU and meet more girls as long as I am switching to CS.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Comparing Engineering to lets say Natural Sciences; My brother is doing double majors biochemistry(i think) and maths. Compared to him,(I’m going for EE) would I have to spend more time, the same or less? I’m not for all out partying or that kinda thing but I’m not one to ‘enjoy’ extra studying and want to spend free time in sports or hanging out with friends etc. So should i switch to natural sciences or stay in engineering?</p>
<p>In my experience, engineering requires more work then mathematics or the natural sciences (at a school with a rigorous program). But mathematics requires more abstract thinking and raw intelligence, I think.</p>
<p>I don’t necessarily think that engineering is a more useful degree than CS. It seems like CS has become a widely accepted degree to me and a well compensated one at that. If that’s what you enjoy and are good at, I wouldn’t look back. As far as IU over Purdue because of your dad’s comment, I’m not really sure what to tell you there lol. There are plenty of girls at Purdue, perhaps not as many as IU - but I don’t think I would factor that into your decision. In my opinion, the thing to keep in mind is that IU has virtually no name recognition outside of Indiana. This might be important if you ever decide you want to move to a different part of the country, Purdue is pretty well known all over. English deficiencies will not hinder you all that much, at least in engineering, and it’s probably similar in CS. Just try to get as much out of your English classes in your first year here as you can because at some point it really is important to know how to write.</p>
<p>Thanks again PurdueFrank - you will go down in the annals of CC history. One more question - much is written about the “weed out” courses at Purdue. What are they? In all areas or just math and science. Just trying to strap my helmet on tight enough.</p>
<p>I guess it really depends on who you ask. You say that you have a very strong aptitude for math and physics, if that is true you should be in good shape. In general, myself and most of the people I know would agree that calc II was pretty tough, not so much bc of the material but because they put a killer curve on it and killed us with the final. Your programming courses will be a lot of work and take a good amount of time. E&M or E&O are both tough classes. And usually there is one or two tough classes right at the beginning of your major - for ECE it would be circuits, for ME it would be Thermo, for IE it would be Stochastic Methods, etc And if your really lucky, like myself, you get to take everyone else’s weed out classes :)</p>
<p>The difference between engineering and the College of Arts and Crafts is in engineering courses the answers tend to be right or wrong. </p>
<p>Keeping up in engineering works something like this. In each course you will have to eat at least 300 pancakes–or 1200 pancakes for 4 courses. Each prof will give you 5 pancakes every day. That’s about 20 pancakes a day with the average course load. Probably at least double what you ate in high school. You can eat them on the same day when they are still warm or you can leave them in your backpack while you play video games. If you do the latter, the following day you will have 40 pancakes to eat, and half of them will be cold. By day 5, if you have not eaten any of your pancakes, you will have 100 to eat, some of which will be cold, some stale and some getting a little moldy. Of course, you will have to eat the moldy ones first, so by the time you have finished you will not have much of an appetite for the warm ones. If you have eaten only half of your pancakes by the time the mid-terms roll around you might have to cram down 200-300 moldy and stale pancakes in a day or two. This will not be a pleasant experience and might make you want to transfer to the aforementioned College of Arts and Crafts.</p>
<p>To complicate matters, some profs make really lousy pancakes, but you still have to eat all of them. The one constant is that no matter who does the cooking, the pancakes always taste better and are easier to digest when they are warm.</p>