<p>I was just talking to my freshman friend at University of Western Ontario, and he said that he's taking 6 classes this semester, with 34 hours of class per week. On the other hand, I'm taking 4 courses (calc, chem, writing seminar, intro to engineering) with a few "fake" courses (phys. ed, calc AEW, chem AEW, and eng. 1050), and this only totals to 21 hours per week. I'm taking 18 credits, which is more than most of my engineer classmates are taking too.</p>
<p>Does the engineering workload significantly ramp up in semesters to come? Is this workload typical of other colleges and is Western just intense?</p>
<p>maybe the canadian and the american system works differently? Because from what I hear western is not intense at all for engineering. I actually heard that it's more or less a party school, but i might be wrong.</p>
<p>i'm thinking there is a recommended yearly/semesterly curriculum guide somewhere on cornell engineering page to suggest what to take and when...</p>
<p>it's not uncommon for students to take an additional semester or year to finish...if you really want to do engineering but feel like the loads are too heavy...then take your time...consider summer or winter courses (especially for distribution credit)...</p>
<p>Although I am not an engineer, my closest friends are engineers (they are juniors; chemical and environmental/civil engineering) and they usually take 5-6 courses a semester. They usually never take less than 18 credits a semester although one of my friends got some courses out of the way over the summer so she's only taking 15 or 16 credits this semester.</p>
<p>The engineering workload is definitely intense but with great time management and organizational skills, it is definitely possible to balance academics and extracurriculars</p>