ECE Student taking questions

<p>You said in my chances post that I cannot only major in biomedical engineering, but I have to have another core engineering class as well. Which major do you think will most closely match BME?</p>

<p>Goldfish:</p>

<p>It matters what you're interested in. Go on the BME website and check it out. </p>

<p>Here's what it says on the site:</p>

<p>"
* Biotechnology Track (for Chemical and Civil & Environmental Engineers)</p>

<pre><code> - any of the 03-xxx Domain Courses
- 42-501 Bone Tissue Engineering
- 42-511 Polymeric Biomaterials
- 42-604 Biological Transport
- 42-621 Biotechnology & Environmental Processes
- 42-622 Bioprocess Design
- 42-739 Biological Processes in Environmental Systems
- 42-200/300 Sophomore/Junior BME Research Project

  • Biomechanics Track (for Mechanical and Materials Science Engineers)

    • 42-502 Cellular Biomechanics
    • 42-377 Rehabilitation Engineering
    • 42-311/27-311 Polymeric Biomaterials
    • 42-652 Introduction to Biomechanics
    • 42-200/300 Sophomore/Junior BME Research Project
  • Medical Imaging Track (for Electrical & Computer Engineers)

    • 03-310 or 03-311 Computational Biology
    • 42-377 Rehabilitation Engineering
    • 42-503 Advanced Signal and Biosignal Processing with Wavelets
    • 42-644 Medical Devices
    • 42-200/300 Sophomore/Junior BME Research Project </code></pre>

<p>"
link: <a href="http://www.cmu.edu/bme/undergrad/courseinfo.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.cmu.edu/bme/undergrad/courseinfo.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>So any of the fields you listed would be fine as a core course?</p>

<p>Hey Waldon,</p>

<p>I have a question. Are students in CIT allowed to minor or double major in humanities like International Relations or maybe Economics?</p>

<p>YES, its allowed.</p>

<p>Walden -- approx. how many hours/day do you spend on homework or studying (outside of clas)? Do people work together on tough assignments? Are students competitive with each other?</p>

<p>I would say I work a good 2-5 hours a day on homework (on average). People (especially ECE people) do work together on tough assignments. Students are NOT competitive with eachother.</p>

<p>I heard somewhere that for one hour of class, 2 or 3 hours of study+homework will be required. Is it a correct ratio?</p>

<p>It matters what class you're talking about. I would say that's a bit of an overkill... but I'm not sure.</p>

<p>I am an international freshman for Fall 2006. What I am referring to is an average numbers of study/homework one has to do for each hour of class. I was told normally one attends three hours of classes per day. Is it correct? So it comes to somewhere between 6 and 9 per day for an engg-ece student. How many hours of study per day will be expected of a student? i just want to know.</p>

<p>My days varied. I never had an all-nighter and I never spent more than... 3 STRAIGHT hours studying. While I may have studied more than 3 hours, I never did more than that in one sitting.</p>

<p>Thanks, Walden. But what about weekends? is one completely free or one needs to put in a few hours during week end also?</p>

<p>How much knowledge are we expected to have coming into the ECE program. My school never offered any classes dealing with Electrical Engineering, and I havn't taken any math other than Calculus (i.e. Stats). </p>

<p>Will I be playing catch up from day one? Would you reccomend any books to read to get some early preperation in?</p>

<p>Thanks,
Max</p>

<p>Hey, I was on the same position as you. People have taken these kinds of classes before but you won't be playing catchup. Those people will be going over a review as you learn the material. Don't worry about reading any books - they teach you all you need. I got an A with no prior ECE experience.</p>

<p>How hard are the exams? In looking at the Cornell thread, current students seem to be complaining that while the course material is manageable and they can grasp all the concepts, the exams are insanely hard. Is it similar at CMU or do you find that if you feel comfortable with the material you do fairly well on the exams?</p>

<p>"Comfortable" with the material doesn't cut it. You have to know the material inside and out. Being an engineering student means applying simple tasks to a complex problem - and that is exactly what the tests are like.</p>

<p>I just applied to the ECE department and I have my interview coming up soon. I'd really like to show the admissions people this is my number one choice out of everything, but I'm quite terrified they're going to bring up my less than stellar math grade this year (AP Calc AB and I'm making a C, partially because my teacher believes my class is hopeless and sometimes refuses to answer questions, partially because I seem to be quite bad at it [though it's my favorite subject]). Should I mention the reason why, or will this just make me look incompetent and irresponsible? More importantly, are they just going to ignore me completely because I'm so bad at calculus? I did manage an A in my engineering class and a B+/A- in physics, but calculus is IN all of these (I know, I don't get it either), ergo I'm afraid. Any suggestions on how to not look stupid at my interview?</p>

<p>I was also wondering if maybe my chances of admission are a little higher because I'm a girl. I've gotten the impression I'm in a very small boat in this department. It seems most pertinant to ask an actual student; if I by some miracle of God do get in, am I going to have around 1.6 other girls in my classes? I'd just kinda like to prepare myself if this is the case.</p>

<p>There will be more than 1.6 ECE girls in your classes, but don't expect to be in the majority, either. I'm a CS major, and we have approximately 25% girls; I'm pretty sure there are less in ECE. I live next door to two ECE major females and know another one. They do exist. :) However, outside of CIT/SCS there are a bunch of girls that are all in the art school (my floor has a ton of them), so you will see lots of fellow girls that just aren't in your classes.</p>

<p>If you are borderline on admissions and there's a while male that's borderline and they only admit one of you, they will choose you.</p>

<p>recently accepted male here.</p>

<p>my precalc grade last year was a C.</p>

<p>This did come up in my interview. I basically just said I had been struggling with the material early in the year and decided to hire a tutor to help and began increasing my grade slowly.</p>

<p>I think here having solid (700+?) SAT and SATII grades in Math may be especially helpful.</p>

<p>Also, during my interview, I made it pretty obvious that Carnegie Mellon was my absolute top school. During the interview, it is encouraged for you to ask a lot of questions, so I took a campus tour prior and saved any questions I had until the actual interview, which I think made things more comfortable for me at least.</p>

<p>Good Luck!</p>

<p>Bump. Any more questions?</p>