<p>I will be going to Cal Poly SLO as a major in mechanical engineering. I am kind of worried about the workload. Is college a lot harder than high school? How much time on average do you spend studying? Cal Poly says it should be between 25-30 hours/week....is this about right? Was the transition between high school and college difficult? I have taken honors science courses, regular english and history classes, and AP math courses. How many units should i take? Does the difficulty depend on the college? I would really appreciate any input and advice. Sorry for the long post and all of the questions. Thanks guys.</p>
<p>Engineering is a very difficult for anyone, whether it be a C student or a straight A student. Chances are you will be putting 2x or 3x times the hours that other students are putting in just to pass your classes. The material is very difficult but it's certainly doable. Sometimes you'll be just happy that you passed the class. If you're cut out to be an engineer, then you'll like it. If you're doing it for the money, more than likely you'll be miserable. Give it a shot!!!</p>
<p>You have to stay up to date with the material. Once you fall behind, it's like swimming against a rip tide-it's too hard to catch up to where you should be. You will find yourself spending 8-10 hrs a day on academic matters (classes + hw + review sessions), if not more at times. But when exams come, you'll see that if u understood it when it was brought to you, all you need to do is practice problems. Final exams aren't too much to worry about, since if you know how to do the lastest type of problems, you probably know most of everything else because engineering subjects are the type that each new material builds on the previous (like for a freshman Vector Mechanics and Statics class that I just finished on Monday, you probably need to remember how to do free body diagrams and rigid body diagrams in order to know how to solve trusses, frames, and machines).</p>