<p>So I've heard talk about how engineering majors are spending most of their time working on labs and other projects while everyone else is partying and doing other fun stuff. To the engineering majors here, how true is this? I've heard that there are engineering majors who do party and do the fun college stuff just like everyone else and this is due to their superb time management. Anyone able to accomplish this here?</p>
<p>I was... My perpetual example being that I was drum major of the Rice band my senior year, and tutored, and TA'd, and worked part time at an engineering firm the second semester... I had time to be in a play, to form a band of my own and perform at local coffeehouses, and I had scads of friends that I'd hang out with evenings and weekends, and I still got, at a bare minimum, three hours of sleep a night. Typically, I got about six or seven. Never pulled an all-nighter in college.</p>
<p>Some of my socialization time was with other engineering majors, when we'd get together to work on problem sets and homework and study for exams and finish up projects, and then we'd all gaggle up and go out to eat, or to a movie, or something else. So, you don't have to schedule everything down to the minute, you just have to play smart. Why study on your own when you can study with friends, learn it and understand it twice as fast, and not be cooped up at your desk all the time?</p>
<p>At Rice, at least, the engineers who were worried about not having enough free time to experience college life and fun stuff were the ones who ended up structuring their time just fine, taking some awesome classes, having a fantastic time, experiencing a diverse spread of opportunities, and graduating with flying colors in four years.</p>
<p>So, sure, it's possible to be an engineering major and still do it all. You just won't be sitting on your rear with the slackademics, watching television, is all. You'll either be studying, or livin' it up. ;)</p>
<p>I'm a freshman BME student on the quarter system making the adjustment between never having to study in a rural public high school (and doing 99% of my homework in class) and actually having to spend hours every day doing homework for my classes. </p>
<p>I've been putting a lot of time and effort into making it over that first bump, but I still have enough free time to not feel overwhelmed. </p>
<p>I'm going to join a couple of Engineering clubs by the end of the month, too. My thought is that everyone in them will have lots of work to do, so the clubs won't take up too much time. I also really want to play volleyball for my dorm team, but I'm going to sit out for a while to see how much time that would take up.</p>
<p>It's all about balancing...work comes first, but once it's done you can do whatever you want.</p>
<p>I'm a senior majoring in engineering, and I've yet to pull an all-nighter for school and don't plan on it either. Typically, I'll get seven hours of sleep, but that'll go down to 5 1/2 or 6 during finals week. My grades have varied over the years, but for the past year, I've made dean's list while working 10 to 15 hours of week part time at an engineering firm. Although I do spend some time with friends outside my major, I do find myself hanging out with people in my major a lot, and oftentimes it'll revolve around studying. We still have lots of fun though.</p>
<p>It depends entirely on how many units you take and how many extracurriculars you do. If you take 18-20 units and are involved in 2-3 clubs, you will not have much free time. But taking 18-20 units isn't necessary to graduate on time, so if you want to cruise through each semester with 14-15 units and don't spend time getting into other activities, you'll have all the free time in the world to party.</p>
<p>The thing about college is you get to choose. Even in EECS there's nothing you have to take that is so difficult you wouldn't have plenty of free time with just 15 units. But most people in college aren't content taking minimal units and not getting involved in clubs, because that's really what college is for. That's why a lot of engineers don't have a lot of free time--not because it is necessary, but because we like it that way (otherwise, we wouldn't do it).</p>
<p>I am not a good person to answer this question, but I will anyways. ;) </p>
<p>My freshman year I had a ridiculous amount of free time. I probably studied 1 or 2 hours a week just because my schedule wasn't very demanding. This was the case with many of the engineering majors I met. Even when I started taking full engineering semesters, that number probably increased to 4 to 6 on a regular week. On exam weeks, it would increase. </p>
<p>The reason? I'm a procrastinator and start studying the day before the exam. It's something I will not recommend, but it works for me. And a lot of my other lazy friends do the same thing. On a side note, it's kinda sad that anyone could get an engineering degree. But such is life. </p>
<p>So I can safely say that I had plenty of free time through college. My friends and I would mostly goof around every night. It was a lot of fun! Some things to keep in mind so that you people don't think I was completely careless:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I never missed class and always took excellent notes (not just what the professor wrote on the board). Therefore, when it was exam time I simply read the notes and looked at a few examples in the text. </p></li>
<li><p>I always just had to focus on understanding the concepts and design problems. In other words, I never needed to practice the math involved with the problems. In my experience, this is where the bulk of student's time came from. </p></li>
<li><p>I visited my professor's office hours if I did not understand something in lecture. </p></li>
<li><p>I paid attention to what the professor emphasized in class because that is what usually ended up on exams. I usually have always been able to predict what problem types would appear on exams. Most students are either sleeping, not paying attention, or doing something else while the professor is lecturing. I, however, pay attention during the full hour- not missing a single point he makes. </p></li>
<li><p>I put those 4 to 6 hours a week to very good use. There was no goofing around during those times. I would not get up from my desk and was able to get a lot of work done. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>It is these factors that allowed me to have a lot of free times for sports, parties, movies, etc. while majoring in electrical engineering and math.</p>
<p>These examples really don't mean anything. We have a bunch of people who go to a bunch of different schools, with a bunch of different school bodies, with a bunch of different GPAs. You need to find a person like yourself that is going to go to a school (and major like yours). If you want to guesstimate how much you will study.</p>
<p>I know that Mr Payne. eudean goes the the school I'll be going to and is in the same major as my current prospective one so I know I can use him as a guesstimate of how things will be.</p>
<p>is that so.
what college?</p>
<p>
[quote]
I know that Mr Payne. eudean goes the the school I'll be going to and is in the same major as my current prospective one so I know I can use him as a guesstimate of how things will be.
[/quote]
Even then - many people go to his school and many of them study different amounts for different GPAs. The farther out of median he happens to be (and I believe he is far outside the median) the less applicable his advice will be to you...</p>
<p>
[quote]
is that so.
what college?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Berkeley.</p>
<p>Mr Payne, I'd like my GPA to be as high as possible!</p>
<p>In that case, study 50+ hours a week. I find that most people do not want their GPA as high as they say they want. Saying something and putting in the required amount of work are too very different things.</p>
<p>Be disciplined. When you study, STUDY, in the library. Join an engineering frat - get the old lab writeups to use as a guide. Pick your profs - not the easiest but the best. Get calc out of the way in HS as much as you can.</p>
<p>Mr Payne, that is like at least 7 hours of study each day of the entire week...</p>
<p>7 hours a day, well at home or dorm alone thats not possible.</p>
<p>but if you combine the time you studied in school, during breaks + the studying time at dorm or home then it will equal 7.</p>
<p>Dude. Sarcasm. Exaggeration.</p>
<p>Point being, if you were to forego sleep, food, recreation, sanity... you'd be able to get a million-point-oh GPA, but honestly, it's not worth that. If you honestly really truly wanted your GPA to be "as high as possible," then you'd be motivated to work your tail off in all your classes and spend your life studying in the library, but in reality, there's more to life and to education than a having a reeeally reeeally ridiculously good-looking GPA.</p>
<p>ok.</p>
<p>yes, your right there.</p>