How do you know if you can do engineering? What are the weed out courses? What grades should I expect to get in calculus and physics to know if I can do engineering?
In my last post some people said that just because you graduate with a degree doesn’t mean you’ll be a good engineer. This is very disheartening. So it goes back to my question of how do you know you can do it and be a good engineer?
If you picked engineering because it makes sense to you because you know it’s what you want to do, or even because you geeked out on making things with Legos, chances are you’ll be fine.
If you’re more of a “doing it for the money” type you might (or might not) have some problems. The coursework is helping you build a set of tools. Without a little fire from inside no amount of tools will be enough. With enough motivation and creativity, even a pretty crude set of tools will get one by. Nobody really knows until they try, I think.
I’d like to know the answer to this as well; it seems like there’s a pretty large gap between academia and practice for most engineers.
This is what internships, co-ops and your capstone design project is for. In all of these activities, you get to integrate what you have learned and apply itto a practical end.
@xraymancs But isn’t that your junior and senior year? So you won’t know if you’ll be a good engineer until then?
My husband interviews engineers and basically looks at experience, coursework, and GPA. He then asks candidates to explain a concept from a course or team design.
If you can explain yourself, without arrogance and conceited BS, (which apparently is occurring frequently), and actually like the principles of engineering, displaying a passion, then you’ll do fine in the internships and career.
Another thing, show up for meetings, be punctual, be reliable with integrity, and mostly, be NICE, and you will have a job for life.
@NotAlwaysMe - You should start looking for internships after your second year. Whether you will be a good engineer is mostly up to you. Once you have competence it is a matter of putting in the effort and enthusiasm.
Wait do doctors ask the same question before they charge us money?