<p>Most of my friends who want to go into engineering knew that they did when they were little kids. However, I decided to go into engineering a couple of months ago (junior year of high school). I always like the idea of making and designing things, but I only know that I like the idea of it. </p>
<p>Since throughout my academic career, I didn't really consider going into the science, I didn't really bother with taking hard math and science courses or working hard in junior high in order to place in them in high school. I received good grades in science and math (only A's), but they're the easy regular kind. The hardest science/math course I've ever taken was College Geology. </p>
<p>In terms of advanced/honors math and science courses that I allowed to take during science year, I allowed to only take AP Biology, AP Chemistry, Honors PreCalc, Calculus/AP Calc (if I take Precalc over the summer, but I have a job in the summer), and AP Statistics. Others are out of my game. And obviously I can't take all of these due to scheduling conflicts.</p>
<p>So with my courseload and all, many people think that I wouldn't survive engineering. Others said there can be something planned out. I think I should listen to the people that doubt me, because in reality, I don't think that I am good enough to major in engineering. What do you guys think and how would I know that engineering is right for me?</p>
<p>Stats:
WGPA: 97%
Haven't taken SATs/ACTs yet</p>
<p>Science ECs: Chemistry Olympiad, Envirothon Team (all junior year only)</p>
<p>There is no reason you couldn’t do well in engineering. Think about it, the kids doubting you are kids who literally have taken a few more classes than you. It is really not a big deal. Take honors precalc so you are ready to start calc in college, and you’ll be fine as long as you are willing to put in the work.</p>
<p>You’ll never know until you try! Its much harder to go into engineering than it is to come out of it. So, worst come to worse, you can drop the major and you’ll have already got some gen ed math/science courses taken care of.</p>
<p>However, engineering is a lot of hard work and never gets easier. If you feel really uncomfortable with it near the start, don’t be afraid to stop.</p>
<p>Calculus IS VERY IMPORTANT REGARDLESS OF YOUR BRANCH OF ENGINEERING! So I would recommend taking at least pre calc before going to college. Calc also meets some gen math requirement even if you don’t decide to do engineering. </p>
<p>AP Stat is a weird case. Easier than calc, near useless for engineers, but if you do well on the AP test and have a non-math-related major (aka not engineering or any other science), it could meet some sort of gen math requirement. </p>
<p>AP Bio isn’t useful for engineering (unless its some sort of bioengineering obviously). Chemistry is required at my school (University of Maryland: College Park) for engineers, but unless you get a 5 on the AP, you still have to take it here and then never use it again (my engineering friends always complain how useless it was…)</p>
<p>So my order would be:
Pre Calc
Calc
Others/Maybe chem a little bit more than the others</p>
<p>Basically, my advice is stick with it for now because you can always change and you won’t be any farther behind if you never tried.</p>
<p>blair, who are the people who think you can’t succeed and who are the ones who think you can. It seems that both Eddie and Kamel are encouraging you to try. Now depending on how things shake out, if you can take precalc this summer by working around your job, do it. If not take it during the year and you should be ready for Calc 1 in your first semester of college. Also, I would go with Chemistry if you can.</p>
<p>I don’t have the high school perspective you do, but word of advice. A portion of those kids who “knew what they wanted to do since being kids”, won’t stick with engineering, will change majors, or drop out entirely. So just because you know you want something early, doesn’t mean that won’t change in life or you will be able to stand up to the rigors of an engineering program. I didn’t decide to be an Engineer till I was 23 and in my 2nd year of community college, now I’m in graduate school.</p>
<p>It’s a lot of work compared to most majors I see, but compared to a tough job where you work 50 hours a week, it’s nothing different. Treat it like a job and not like something you do inbetween socializing and you should be fine.</p>
<p>Up until my junior year I didn’t want a career remotely related to science and now I’ve been accepted as an undergrad for mechanical engineering. The thing you need to know is that engineers are problem solvers and if you can put in the work necessary you can achieve it. I would recommend taking calc though. It’s something necessary in engineering and can help you decide whether it’s right for you or not.</p>
<p>Blair, there are so many type of engineers in todays market. After gaining experience and perhaps additional training/education you may be able to branch out into different types of engineering. Based on your interest of designing and making things would classify you as a design engineer. You would still need a basic engineering degree and you would rely heavily on CAD (UG, Catia, Solidworks). You have to be intrigued at the thought of designing a product and creating drawings for tooling and manufacturing. There will also be testing of your product, material selection, hands on product assemblies, design review meetings and of course various design studies you would have to perform using cad of course. Some engineers that I have worked with start out becoming great design engineers but sadly move on in an attempt to become managers at an early age. They lose track of the best practices of design engineering and end up becoming paper shufflers.</p>
<p>Not everyone knows if they truly like engineering in high school, you guys have not learned enough to know what engineering is.
Go for it, at least you will learn something way more useful in college than say business. The engineering work will make you a hard worker (assume you don’t cheat or slack off with a 2.0). Even if you don’t become an engineer, you will have good critical thinking and problem solving skills.</p>