<p>Without going into my personal pity story, I will just give the basics. I dropped out of high school in 9th grade due to severe mental illness (please don't think it's because of grades, I've been on the honor roll my entire life and even though I missed over four months of school that year I was still making A's and B's.) I started going to community college at 18 and still suffered from severe mental illness (still do, just under control now) and after 40 credits I have a 4.0 so far.</p>
<p>I have a very good work ethic and I learned last semester that I like math and would much rather do math than write an essay.
My problems are this, I obviously wasn't able to take precalculus or any physics whatsoever in high school. I am taking college physics this semester and I like it, but I'm not sure how good I am at it since this is my first physics class and according to my professor I shouldn't even be in it since I don't know any trigonometry and am not in trigonometry. I do like math though. I plan on taking physics again no matter what just go get a better understanding of it and I hopefully plan on taking precalculus next semester.
Really my question is if you have to be a genius in math and physics to be an engineer? I like math and I like physics so far, but I have never taken higher level math like calculus and again I'm not entirely sure how good I am at physics.</p>
<p>Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks for reading!</p>
<p>Yes, Engineering is only for geniuses. I think it is better for you to change your major now Just kidding. I took Physics I at a community college and all our department asks for is a C or higher.</p>
<p>I know Mechanical Engineering has a lot of Physics but for my major, Industrial Engineering, all we need to take is Physics I, II and Statics. Not easy classes by any means but oh well, if I can pass Physics, you can too!</p>
<p>If you could take Physics I, II and Statics at a community college, I think it would save you some frustration and also save your GPA just in case if you do badly.</p>
<p>You can do fine with a lot of hard work, however, my suggestion is that you take all three semesters of Calculus plus Differential Equations as well as 2-3 semesters of Calculus-based physics before transferring. This will really tell you if you have the math chops to make it. And I don’t mean that you have to get straight "A"s. You just need to be able to complete all of those courses.</p>
<p>Thank you both for your advice!
If I do go into engineering it will be mechanical.
Thank you for the encouragement bschoolwiz!</p>
<p>xraymancs that is good advice. Do you say that to save money at community college rather than transfer to a university? The only problem is I am already behind. =/ Or at least behind my friends. I know it’s not a race or anything, but I honestly want to graduate as soon as possible.
I have a question for you, what do you believe I do need to make in calculus? I mean you said I don’t need to get straight A’s, but what do you think is an adequate grade to tell if I truly am able to major in mechanical engineering?</p>
<p>Physics as well as the rest of engineering is calculus based. I’d get going taking calculus classes as a priority. It will make everything else a little easier to understand.</p>
<p>And no, you don’t have to be a genius to be an engineer. Good visualization skills does help.</p>
<p>I don’t know what these people are talking about. OF COURSE you have to be a genius to be an engineer, plus good looking, witty, and stylish. In fact, although most people don’t realize it, the correct way to define these terms is by benchmarking them against the engineering profession. True story.</p>
<p>You don’t need to be a genius. You just need to learn to approach problems effectively. Engineering is all about problem solving but many people actually lack effective problem solving techniques. For example, some people may be trying to work on problem sets but when they encounter a problem, they may blindly just try some other method without considering why their initial approach failed. Another example is that some students have difficulty with problems that are not in a familiar format because they simply absorb and memorize the process but not the reasoning. An engineer cannot do that. An engineer cannot be inflexible and strict in his approach to a problem because this may result in the inability to solve a problem or simply produce a less than optimal result.</p>
<p>To be a successful engineer, the key is to learn to be a great problem solver and not someone who plugs and chugs numbers and formulas.</p>
<p>You can certainly try to enter a 4-year university but because you have not taken Calculus or Calculus-based Physics yet, you will have to start there and because you have a lot of transfer credit, you might have already completed all of your general education requirements. This puts you in the position of having to be full time with ONLY math and science courses. This will be a rough 4 years as many of the engineering courses you need to take require 4 semesters of mathematics before you can even start.</p>
<p>If you take the 4 semesters of Calculus and the Physics at your CC, you might not have to be full time and you can focus on really mastering the material. You will still have 2-3 years of Engineering courses to take but that is at least one year less of tuition to pay.</p>
<p>Bottom line, you need to take the same courses whether you decide to go to a 4-year school or stay at the CC. I would say that if you have the Calculus and physics under your belt, it might give you a boost for transfer admission.</p>
<p>You also have be able to deal with a lot of frustration, be able to tolerate incredible amounts of BS and be the kind of person that will not give up even when everything seems to have gone to hell. These three qualities are perhaps more important than intelligence.</p>
<p>I apologize for responding so late and bumping this post. I had a busy spring break and a busy school week.</p>
<p>j814wong: How do you learn to solve problem like that? Is that something you would learn through school or do you think you must already have an aptitude for solving problems like that?
Thank you by the way, that gives me a better insight and more to think about!</p>
<p>Thank you for the advice xraymancs!</p>
<p>bschoolwiz: What do you mean when you say you have to be able to tolerate incredible amounts of BS? I’m assuming you say frustration because the classes are so difficult?</p>
<p>Lectures teach you concepts. To learn how to apply those concepts to problems sets, you have to work through them. If you get stuck, think of why you got stuck and try a different method. Eventually, you will be able to see small patterns that can point you in the right direction.</p>
<p>When you are given formulas, don’t just rote memorize them. I find it helpful to learn how the formula is derived and how it relates to other formulas. This knowledge lets use properly use a sequence of formula to get to where you need to be. </p>
<p>Also, draw diagrams. Free body diagrams are very helpful in helping you understand what forces are acting on what and you will find that if you draw a wrong free body diagram, your answer will likely also be wrong. Good engineers need to be able to visualize concepts and ideas as well as to communicate it so drawing good and accurate diagrams (That is not to say it needs to be excessively details. Put down only what you need to work with) will help you approach a problem while also serving as visual aid to communicate the problem to others.</p>
<p>It also helps to related concepts to realworld examples. For example, to help myself understand some thermodynamics stuff, I did a bit of reading on how refrigerators work. Consider this, when a liquid changes into gas when pressure is release, it absorbs heat. The liquid is ciruclated around a refrigerator under pressure then released into and expands into gas which then absorbs heat. Another system then compresses that gas back into liquid away from the food compartments then recirculates it in liquid form before allow it to expand into a gas again. This is a simplistic explanation for how a refrigerator works but it does the job in making the science concept memorable.</p>
<p>Thank you very much j814wong for such a wonderful and informative answer! Your input is greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>You said to understand thermodynamics, are or were you a mechanical engineer major?</p>
<p>What personality traits do you think you need to have to be a good engineer? I’ve been described as detail oriented, very analytical (almost to a fault), I can be very organized when I need to be, I like math, and I like physics (the deal with physics is I’m not sure how good I am at it.)</p>
<p>“bschoolwiz: What do you mean when you say you have to be able to tolerate incredible amounts of BS? I’m assuming you say frustration because the classes are so difficult?”</p>
<p>Sometimes, it does not matter how motivated you are, you are always going to find hurdles and obstacles along the way and you have to be able to stick it out and keep going.</p>
<p>I remember when I took Chemistry for Engineers-typical first year Engineering course, I remember getting a 52, the lowest score I had ever gotten on a test, the average was about 46 I think. </p>
<p>I remember a lot of people freaking out in recitation, most of these kids were used to getting A’s and B’s in high school with little effort and a lot of them were devastated.</p>
<p>First day of class, we had about 150 people in the classroom, the week before finals, we were down to about 35, 40 people. Lots of people dropped this class after getting a low score on the second test. I would say, quite a few people changed majors after dropping this class.</p>
<p>Anyways, if you are a person who easily gives up on things, you are not going to make it.</p>
<p>tag570, I’m a mechanical engineering major. </p>
<p>With regards to personality traits, there isn’t any set of personality traits that an engineering must have. But in general, successful engineers are diligent when approaching a problem (they don’t give up when they are stumped). Some are also perfectionists who seek perfection in all their designs but this of course has some downsides because achieving perfection takes a lot of time and effort beyond what is already a good design. Sometimes, you just have to know when something is good enough and leave it at that. Additionally, good engineers are good at working with teams because one is rarely a specialist in every field so relying on others is important.</p>
<p>Of course, there are many different traits and it varies from person to person.</p>
<p>I have to jump in and say there isn’t a defined personality type for good engineers. At least, they aren’t any different than the personalty types of good workers. I have good classmates that have my respect that are frat bros, prepsters, southern/ country, etc. But they all try their best and work well. </p>
<p>That being said, I also have an extremely detail oriented and analytical, and he is universally hated by classmates and professors alike for being rude, thoughtless, lazy, uninterested, egotistical, criticizing and entitled. Meh.</p>
<p>bschoolwiz: I see what you mean. So what would your advice be? Stick with it even if you don’t do well in certain classes, but you’re sure you want to be an engineer? </p>
<p>j814wong: Thank you again for your valuable advice and input. Do you have any advice for someone who wants to do a mechanical engineering major?</p>
<p>Seirsly: Thanks for your input! I see what you mean…</p>
<p>Different question although related(please comment if I should open a new thread).</p>
<p>What type of ACT scores are likely needed to be an engineer? For example lets say you have a twenty-one(being the average) would you likely have more difficulty(and therefore less satisfaction) then somewhere in the thirties in the top percentile of students.</p>
<p>Or for example if the ACT isn’t good for measuring aptitude, what type of tests would be good to determine such aptitude?</p>
<p>Obviously looking through the appropriate textbook can give you a general idea, but the actual day to day work can vary.</p>
<p>I’m particularly interested in EE, but again the question really is intended to be fairly general towards all fields of engineering.</p>
<p>I would say that the math portions of either the SAT or ACT are a decent measure, but not as good as your performance in math and science classes in high school. A lot of it depends on what your specific ambitions are and how hard you are willing to work to achieve them.</p>
Just kidding. I took Physics I at a community college and all our department asks for is a C or higher.</p>