<p>I'm considering engineering (maybe biomedical) for my undergrad and I would like to hear some of your experiences to help me learn more about the major and decide.</p>
<p>Can you share your experiences in this major?
What kind of engineering are you studying/studied?
What was it like in terms of difficulty and time spent studying? what were the intro classes like?
How much physics is involved in the major (how much do you have to apply it)?
How did you get into engineering? How did you know it was the major for you? Are you happy about your choice?
What things did you do to be successful? (extra help, group study, etc)
How different was it from what you thought it would be?</p>
<p>Wow that’s a lot of questions. I’m third year PetrE. I’ll give you the magic formula to engineering success. You ready? Time management. You’re going to have to study a lot so you’re going to have to manage your time well if you want to get anything else done. You can go out drinking almost every Friday night and make straight A’s if you can manage your time effectively. You will think that the first year classes are so hard (calc 2, calc 3, physics, statics, chem) but the truth is they’re are not that hard they just require a lot of time. When you get to your second year you will laugh at how easy calc 2 is compared to your second year classes and wish you spend more time on it to get an A. Stay on top of everything and do about 30-35hrs of work out side of classes per week and you should be fine.</p>
<p>If you aren’t entirely tied to biomedical engineering, I can give you some insight into CompE.</p>
<p>Can you share your experiences in this major? So far my classes are not too bad, and if you enjoy or at least like math, you will do just fine in most classes.
What kind of engineering are you studying/studied? Computer Engineering.
What was it like in terms of difficulty and time spent studying? That is quite subjective. I personally only spend about two hours studying a week (then again, I’m a math tutor), while others I know spend 10+ hours.
What were the intro classes like? Fairly easy, math-heavy.
How much physics is involved in the major (how much do you have to apply it)? Physics I and II (with labs) are required, as well as Chemistry I. Physics is more involved than chem, but chem comes in handy with circuits and electrical theory.
How did you get into engineering? I love math and science, and this is a great way of applying them.
How did you know it was the major for you? Shortly after declaring my major, I took a weed-out class called “foundations of engineering” (lots of thesis-style writing and reports) that explained all branches of engineering and had some recent graduates give presentations once a week. I realized that I was in the right major and made me look forward more to my department classes and graduation.
Are you happy about your choice? Yes, very much so.
What things did you do to be successful? (extra help, group study, etc) The better you are at math, the better off you’ll be because it won’t feel much like “work” to you.
How different was it from what you thought it would be? It’s definitely more math-heavy than I thought it would be, but that’s ok with me.</p>
<p>Can you share your experiences in this major? Not really, no. I’ve spent a little bit of time doing system support work, a bit more time doing low-level component design, and a fair amount of time doing system architecture. Most of it was behind a desk, a little bit in the lab, and some in the field.</p>
<p>What kind of engineering are you studying/studied? Electrical Engineering</p>
<p>What was it like in terms of difficulty and time spent studying? what were the intro classes like? It was difficult, but not incredibly so - I was able to get A’s in most of my major classes. The intro classes were among the hardest - not a ton of fun.</p>
<p>How much physics is involved in the major (how much do you have to apply it)? A lot, especially for my specialty - remote sensing is all applications of electromagnetics in free space…</p>
<p>How did you get into engineering? By taking classes.</p>
<p>How did you know it was the major for you? I used to be an electronics technician, so I had some exposure prior to getting my degree. I tried another major and hated it, so…</p>
<p>Are you happy about your choice? No, I wish I had gone into investment banking or some other field that had even a miniscule chance to provide more than my currently really good salary, fantastic working conditions, and sense of enjoyment with my daily work.</p>
<p>What things did you do to be successful? (extra help, group study, etc) Nothing special. Made sure I got all the work done.</p>
<p>How different was it from what you thought it would be? Not very, but I knew ahead of time what I was getting into…</p>
<p>Regarding the physics question: Engineering majors take a year of university level physics “for scientists and engineers” (as opposed to the pre-med, biology major, or non-major physics courses). The topics covered include mechanics, thermodynamics, and electricity & magnetism, using calculus and multivariable calculus. Engineering majors commonly take an additional course in modern physics as well.</p>
<p>The physics topics used in later engineering courses depend on the type of engineering. For example, mechanical engineers are more likely to use mechanics and thermodynamics, while electrical engineers are more likely to use electricity & magnetism.</p>
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<li> I would like to add that most of the intro classes are the most “hard, busy work” classes, so they’re very much considered weed-out. I think (at least in my school) that all engineering majors have the most weed out courses than any other major. Then again, my school doesn’t let just anyone be an engineering major…</li>
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<p>I have looked at some CS programs out there (yeah, I do this on my spare time because I do like to talk to future engineering/CS students) and some good schools are now getting lenient on the Physics…even as far as allowing other sciences and/or the non-engineering Physics.</p>
<p>If you are a CS major…PLEASE take the harder engineering/scientist Physics.</p>
<p>True, you may not have to design systems to transmit signals but you may have to write software to support these systems. It does help knowing about something like E&M concepts in case you need to create computational procedures and/or data structures to hold such data. Not every project will have the luxury of staffing some PHD EE or Physics major as a subject matter expert.</p>
<p>Especially for first year, bookmark khanacademy.org and patrickjmt.com. For someone who doesn’t really pick much up from lectures, I can’t even begin to say how much these two guys have helped me. Great for calculus, linear algebra, physics and chem.</p>