High school Senior engineering question.

Student Lounge College Life
1

.

My main question is if it is normal or alright in engineering programs(classes) to 3.0 or 3.5 courses such as multi-variable calculus. I know the math gets a lot harder, but I am conceptually pretty good at this, I just tend to screw up on timed tests a little more than I wish. I am afraid I may get in a little over my head at U of M, but I am quite good at most subjects. I know that a Community College course is usually easier, but our teacher has modeled hers with many questions and assignments that are similar in difficulty to larger state flagships. Am I in for a rough time if I can’t do everything extremely well at Calc 3 in 12th garade , or is that somewhat normal to have difficulty with the course?

My question requires a little backstory, but it is a question about difficulty. To sum it up though, I am going to a 2 year pre-engineering program that has a variety of hard classes, robotics competition, and opportunities(all students complete an internship. The info below is an expansion.

"For a little bit of background, I go to a 2-year technical engineering tech program at our local career-tech program. We compete in robot competitions such as first or nrc, build bridges (m-dot), and have a lot of difficult english reports. Also honors chemistry, light and lasers, honors economics and other fun stuff.A large portion of classes are on projects such as a (plan,do,study,act) teams training, which incorporates a problem solving method to a local manufacturing plant. Students define a problem, and create tools to find a solution. This takes about a week, and this work is presented to the company. After this the technical presentation is digitized and turned into a 25 page technical report.

Another project was alloy research. Tensile strength, properties, forming, alloy component, impurities, and use were part of this lesson. Then we made a presentation, and performed tensile and Rockwell tests. A metallurgist came in to help us with these tests, and critique (tell us we were wrong) on our research. That was difficult because of how in depth it was, and how many article and technical reports we had to sort through.

Then for our robot competition, we are doing MATE ROV this year. We learn about tech stuff, like operating robot arms, programming lego robots, doing statistical QC, using CAD programs. Our program is actually housed in a Community College, and they are being very supportive. We are learning a lot, but it will be a challenge. I am also dual enrolled, and will have around 33+ CC and 6-8 AP credits by graduation. I have taken english, cultural anthropology, drafting, history etc… This includes Calc 1,2,3 and Diff Eq. Multivariable is much tougher than I expected, no 4.0 like calc 1 and 2

Oh yeah, and each student is required to do an internship at a local manufacturing company. I did a lot of soldering, troubleshooting, basic electronic work, potting (to protect electrical components), and assembling in my 80 hour one. We present this info to the juniors so they can learn.I really loved my internship and enjoy the academy, even though it is a ton of work with Dual enrollment credits."

I have been accepted to all the engineering schools (or most likely will be) in Michigan, expect University of Michigan. That is a reach for me. GPA 3.99, ACT 30(27Math, 32 Sci, 35 Read, 26 English, 30 STEM)

"I am taking Calc 3, and diff eq next semester. Right now I am hoping to 3,5 the class (I have a bad habit of little mathematical mistakes such as writing bounds backwards even though I know the correct order) and currently have an 89 in the class. If my fifth and final test goes alright I will have a 90 going into the final exam. I need an 87 to 3.5 the course or around a 70-75% on the final. "

2

Is this the wrong place to ask?

3

I am not an engineering student, but my daughter is a freshman in engineering. She was an excellent high school student, however, she did not spend hours every night studying at home during high school. In fact, she managed to get most of her schoolwork completed during the school day and rarely had homework in high school, even with honors and AP classes. That being said, she has excellent work habits and is working very hard in college. She does not skip classes, and she works for hours every day doing her problem sets and studying. She also works a great deal throughout weekends. So far her grades are excellent.

It sounds like your engineering tech program is going to give you a great foundation for an engineering program and if you work hard at it you will do well. In fact, your experiences in this program may give you a leg up in some respects because you will have participated in a lot of projects and activities that require application of what you are learning.

Don’t let your fear of making less than perfect grades prevent you from pursuing a challenge.

4

Thanks.

5

What school does your daughter attend?

6

Calc 3 is a challenging course anywhere, it is just difficult to work through all the theory and the algebra in a limited time (whether limited by amount of time for homework or the 2 hour test time). You can do more problem sets, consult on-line resources, etc, but … you do not need to get an A in Calc 3 to become an engineer.

Did you get into U of M ? Are you still a high schooler (under 18) ? I am not quite following your story, but if you are getting even a B in Calc 3 in HS you are actually way ahead of your peers (Calc BC is Calc 1+2, not Calc 3), almost no one is placing out of Calc 3 in college and almost no one finds the class easy. U of M will be harder than MSU, but if they accept you and especially if you are in their top 50%, you will likely do well there.

To put it in perspective, I remember getting one of the few As on an exam where I got no single problem completely correct … but at least could follow the flow and get the problem completed with just minor algebra errors. Math has always been my strong subject … and I had a 3.8 at a flagship in ChE, 4.0 for my masters at a top 10 school.

7

I am a high schooler, senior. I applied EA to U of M, will hear back at end of month. 3.99 GPA-may lower to 3.9x from Calc 3.
30 ACT: 27 in Math. I am retaking once more for the math in case I get deferred.

I go to a tech academy, which is public (30 class limit (60 kids in total), interviews by retired engineers, academic lookover, essays, and you can be denied based on academics). There is an early college program (same as dual enrollment) in which students take college classes at local community college. I am enrolled in this. I took Calc 1,2,3 and will take diff eq at this community college, the classes transfer well at U of M and MSU.

I already got accepted to Michigan Tech and MSU.

Our home school (separate from the academy), only offered AP calc AB, not BC. This is partly why I went to the academy.

8

You’re going to be absolutely fine. Grades are not nearly everything, and a 3.0-3.5 range is perfectly fine.

9

At the engineering school I went to, it is assumed that you start with Calc 1 as a freshman. Calc 3 (Multivariable) is not until Sophomore year. Some people are ahead of that but you should not feel like a failure because you are getting a B or B+ in a College sophomore level class as a HS senior.

10

Thanks for all the advice as usual. The fact is that our class is s 75-25 split with high school students being the majority. The other students are from the engineering program, and share in the struggle.

We have 3 juniors (high school) who are doing better than me, but It shocks me that they are so far ahead. My peers (2) from my home school are both doing a little better than me. One has never studied for a single test, from calc 1,2,3, including finals, and still does better than me on everything. I tend to study at least 10-12 hours per exam if possible, but usually my homework supersedes studying.

If I could ask, what class did you guys find the most challenging from your freshman and sophomore classes, and the most interesting?

11

In high school and college frosh/soph level math, it is often no surprise that the youngest students are among the best students – they have to be really good at math to be that far ahead (3 grade levels ahead if they are in multivariable calculus as high school juniors).