<p>Just got done with my Finals and frustration is the best word to describe my First Semester of Engineering. I know the vast majority of people in my class had similar experiences but I walked out of my last Final thinking "What the hell!?"</p>
<p>I am finishing with a GPA of about 2.6 and I know most people ended up with something between 2.5-2.8. It is frustrating to get such a low GPA after working your ass off but hopefully at least now I know how hard I will have to work to make better grades. </p>
<p>Also, I feel like now I have a better understanding that sometimes, you can work your ass off and still end up with a mediocre grade- that is the part that I found the most frustrating about my first semester.</p>
<p>It was a great experience in some ways but very frustrating overall. I am not trying to scare anybody thinking about majoring in Engineering but all I can say, it is not going to be easy and there will be a lot of very frustrating moments. Fun? I don't think so</p>
<p>Are you in an undergraduate program? And what engineering field?</p>
<p>Hahaha who said that it would be easy? Just about every person I talked to when I was thinking about being an engineer tried to discourage me from it because it would be a lot of hard, bitter work. But then again, I’m a girl, so gender norms and all that.</p>
<p>Work your ass off and then some. Get A’s on all the homeworks, or if you don’t at first, figure out what you’re doing wrong and improve your homeworks until you get A’s. Do practice tests/ find them. Get into productive study groups (it isn’t always a group of friends). Was it classes like Calc and Physics that tried to murder you, or your Intro to Engineering class?</p>
<p>what classes did you take?</p>
<p>The difficulty of engineering is all about motivation. If you are truly motivated to be an engineer, the technical topics aren’t going to be all that bad. Yes they will be a lot of work if you aren’t one of those who just gets things immediately, but if you are truly motivated to be an engineer, you probably don’t mind doing that works all that much. This will become much more apparent as you get further along in your program.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Your message is a bit confusing. Are you a freshman? The first semester is not usually engineering but pre-reqs in science and math with maybe one intro to engineering class.</p>
<p>I agree with bonehead. How many people want to become enginneers? Alot. Now how many people make it through, 60% probably. Its all about wether you REALLY want it or not. This might sound a little harsh but Work hard and never give up.</p>
<p>Work smarter, not harder.</p>
<p>Work hard at working smarter, then work harder smart.</p>
<p>I think all posts in the engineering sub-forum of CC should be auto-signed:</p>
<p>“If you’re reading this right now, you should be studying!”</p>
<p>Nah. No need I study all the time social lives are important for mental health: precisely the reason I had a mental breakdown while studying for the PhD qualifying exams.</p>
<p>So you’re Dr. Boneh3ad now? Quite the oxymoron. lol Or it could be seen as an indication of the level of boneh3aded-ness? lol…</p>
<p>Give me roughly another year; then I’ll be Dr. Boneh3ad.</p>
<p>I’d consider changing my username to that when that time comes but that would just sound too pretentious. Haha</p>
<p>Pretentious? Nah. You will have earned your PhD and after all that hard work, why not flaunt your title? i wish you all the best sir (or ma’am)! Hopefully the OP responds to our comments!</p>
<p>Ha! It’s sir. And guys who hold a doctorate can often come across as elitist or pretentious, particularly when they rub it in your face by forcin you to call them doctor even casually or signing casual emails that way. I don’t want to be one of those guys… so I won’t be. :-)</p>
<p>Well, I hope this can be helpful to someone going into Engineering but the two classes that got me this semester was Calculus I and General Chemistry for Engineers and I will explain why it is frustrating:</p>
<p>Calculus I: I had already taken this course before at another university. I knew the material, First test, I had more than 15 points taken off because of notation alone even though I am very good with limits. </p>
<p>Lesson learned: if an anal, unreasonable professor decides that notation is a big deal, you are screwed. From them on, I had to work extra hard just to maintain a B average. Now I understand that acing the first test of the semester is very important, also psychologically.</p>
<p>Final was a joke. It was mainly designed to screw you. Believe me, I know the material and although some questions were easy, they always have like 2-3 “impossible” questions out of 18- so if you worked your ass off to maintain a A average, a stupid, unreasonable Final like this can easily bring your average down to a B or worse</p>
<p>General Chemistry for Engineers: Worst class I have ever taken in college. I love Chemistry but this class was painful. Once again, the purpose of this class is not teach you anything relevant to Chemistry but to see how much crap you can take. I am more than convinced that the professor makes the class as uninteresting as possible just to see who continues to go to lecture and who withdraws.</p>
<p>Final was a joke, 30 multiple questions mostly unrelated to anything relevant we covered in class and 2 very hard problems-the “impossible” one being an Electrochemistry problem which most of us had never even seen before.</p>
<p>Anyways, I am not frustrated with the difficulty of the material or the fact that I will have to work harder, it is just the amount of BS that you have to go through- I just don’t understand how all this stuff is going to make me a better engineer but I know I am not giving up, so I am trying to learn from my “mistakes”. That’s all!</p>
<p>Maybe you should take the rest of your pre reqs at a community college instead</p>
<p>The experience described here by the OP is not typical. Professors are, in general, not out to screw you. I cannot stress this enough.</p>
<p>My advisor encourages all students to take both Classical Physics I and II at the local community college, so that is what I am doing this Summer. </p>
<p>Once again, I am just describing my first semester experience, I am sure experiences may vary at different institutions.</p>
<p>Iowa State is just an average Engineering school, so I would imagine a lot of the big state universities go by similar methods,policies and procedures. </p>
<p>Maybe better schools do things a little different but this is what I have seen so far.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Iowa State is a well above average engineering school. Don’t sell it short.</p>