How can a high school student begin to prepare for engineer career?

Hello,
Just a student here who loves math and haven’t taken physics well yet but I am interested in studying engineering but I have not been exposed to it in any way besides looking online videos lol. So, should I join robotic teams in school or start coding (always start but never finished)? What should I do to make sure that I know not just basic math and physics (which I will by the end of my HS years) but also get hands on experience?

Oh and what study habits should I develop now that will help me later on?

Thank you!

Any of the above. Most students entering engineering programs don’t have any real hands on experience, so any that you can get is a bonus. Most just have the math and science background from high school.

The best study habit I can recommend is learning how to study without just memorizing the steps for solving problems. Pattern matching may help you get an A on a test, but it is an awful way to learn the material and apply it later.

Hi! I’m a sophomore engineering student at Cornell (majoring in CS).

I never did any coding or any engineering work prior to college. I took my first coding class at Cornell, liked it, and decided to get more into it (eventually deciding to major in CS). If you’re interested in robotics or want to start coding, it doesn’t hurt to get involved early. But don’t necessarily think you’re obligated to do these things to ‘make up for lost time’. Colleges understand alot of their engineering students have little to no experience; they use freshman year to guide students and introduce them to clubs, resources and courses that they might be interested in.

As for study habits, it’s a combination of working on problems constantly but not overworking yourself. So I’d say take a subject topic, study it for 20-30 minutes, take a 5-10 minute break, rinse and repeat. Also, simply reading material doesn’t maximize your study potential. Do problems, ask questions, pursue topics further in depth.

Sure - join the robotics team . That will expose you to a variety of interesting areas. Even more important… make sure you take physics as soon as you can.

As boneh3ad says, don’t just learn for the test. So much of engineering is applying the principles you learned in previous classes. The material just builds on past knowledge.

Learn to visualize what you are learning. See the WHY and not just the HOW in solving problems.

Good study skills are the key to understanding engineering ( and learning to work in groups)

Engineers are dealing with the application of science in solving real world problems. Real solutions are rarely as straight forward as a classroom test. Good engineers don’t just remember formulas, but need to exercise judgement and imagination.

A kitchen robot might need to ask its owners the right questions before it makes your soup. An engineer’s ability to design a better bridge requires a sense of adventure. Perhaps the usual materials are not available or the ground in the area is made up of materials you have never studied. Welcome to Mars! Anything that helps your imagination helps here. We have to learn how to teach ourselves as we will be solving problems no one has seen yet.

Projects such as building a robot or finding a solution to a pollution problem can help you develop your engineering imagination.

Bonehead is right. Memorizing a process can get you through high school, it can even get you through some college classes, but once you get into your major classes, the problems often get too complex or abstract for that to work any more. If you have that habit (and I did, 100%), it will have to be fixed sooner or later, so high school is a good time to start.

Taking a different apporach. I have a few family members and neighbors who have been engineers for a long time. Getting their perspective was very helpful for me last year. I sat down and questioned them about their past, how they showed interest in engineering, and most importantly the day to day life of an engineer. Reaching out to any practicing engineers can be really informative.

Look for STEM related clubs at school. Also, look into engineering summer programs at universities. I know there is one at UT Austin, Texas A&M, and MIT.

Consider participating in the Science Olympiad team if your school has one. The competitions have events that are written tests, timed designs (you get the materials and design something at the competition), and events in which you test something your team has designed and built prior to the competition. It is a wonderful activity for encouraging independent study, developing critical thinking, and building teamwork skills outside a classroom. A great mixture of both science and engineering.

Don’t worry too much about high school. Basically all engineering programs (including highly ranked ones) will teach their intro courses as if you never had engineering experience. When you apply for jobs and internships, employers only care about what you have done after high school.