<p>Should I try to find a roommate or leave it up to chance? How does the school pick roommates, do they try to match us?</p>
<p>I check this facebook page pretty often, just to get a feel for what is going on. There is a thread on the discussion board about finding a roommate. Its pretty long, but hopefully useful if you decide to go that route. From the looks of the wall posts, it seem like most kids are trying to do that.</p>
<p>Back when I was a freshman (2002) everything was basically “random”. I think the housing application asks a few basic questions, but nothing compaired to the facebook thread. If you find someone based on that stuff, you just need to request eachother when you apply for your housing contract.</p>
<p>Personally, I would recommend going random. Part of college is learning to get along with people you have nothing “incommon” with, and having to live with a roommate is a pretty good was to do that. </p>
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<p>Hey there, I am going to be an incoming freshman, come Fall 2011 and I just have a few questions:</p>
<p>1) I am going to Penn State for Engineering, however, I am not entirely sure which type of engineering I want to pursue just yet. The kinds that I am interested are Bioengineering, Mechanical, or AeroSpace Engineering. Would I have to decide which one I want to pursue early on or do I wait a few semesters? Also, if I was say, studying Mechanical Engineering, but decided to join an AeroSpace club and found out that I was actually much more interested in AeroSpace than Mechanical, could I switch? </p>
<p>2) My second question is, how much free time do you think engineering majors have? I know it is going to be a TON of work and I am going to have to study a lot, but I am a big football fan and I hope to go to a lot of the games. Since you are studying architecture, which I assume is a similar workload to engineering, how much free time do you have?</p>
<p>3) And lastly, one of my friends who is a junior studying Engineering told me to choose the E-House as a Special Living Option since I would be surrounded by other engineers which could be very beneficial. Do you know anything else of this E-House?</p>
<p>RedSox629…</p>
<p>1) You won’t need to declare a major until second semester sophomore year, so you have time to figure it out. As far as switching your major, I suggest you talk to you academic adviser about that as soon as you get a chance.</p>
<p>2) Engineering is pretty demanding as far as workload. The only other downside of the engineering majors are they don’t give you much leeway for elective, which would allow you to balance your schedule with some easier classes.</p>
<p>3) As far as E-House goes, I can tell you a little bit about West Halls. I lived in Hamilton Hall for two years, and I loved it. You’ll have the best dinning commons on campus, and you will be close to most of your classes, even the ones across Atherton Street. Most of the freshman in West will be athletes and a few engineers. Also, the location is nice, basically right across the street from the library, and Rec Hall.</p>
<p>What do I need to have ready in preparation for talking to my advisor. What questions will I be asked?</p>
<p>
I graduated from Penn State engineering, and the first few years are pretty similar. As noted above, you don’t apply to a major until the fourth semester after you enroll (NOTE: this is REGARDLESS of whether or not you actually attend all those semesters - if you enroll in 2011 you will make this decision spring 2013 whether you have 3 full semesters behind you or just 1).</p>
<p>There are two major issues with actually getting into a major:
First, many (not all) engineering majors are under enrollment caps. This means that if they have X spots open for a given major during your major application semester and X+Y students apply, then the Y students with the lowest GPA’s will not get in. It also means that transfers into this major are flatly no accepted – if aerospace is controlled, you CAN NOT GET IN if you do not make it during that initial selection. Switching into non-controlled majors is not difficult. Please note that ALL THREE OF YOUR INTENDED MAJORS ARE CONTROLLED.</p>
<p>Second, while the first few years of each engineering major are very similar, there are subtle differences – some majors require easier or harder versions of certain courses. As an example, MATH 251 is a 4-credit version of MATH 250 (3 credits) – if your major requires 250 and you took the harder 251, no problem, but if you took 250 and your new major requires 251 then you will need to take that course and swallow an extra 4 credits. For this reason, I would recommend that you examine your potential majors and make sure that you schedule the highest-credit versions. Please note that Aerospace only requires MATH 250, while Bioengineering and Mechanical both require MATH 251.</p>
<p>
Engineers have lots of free time, just not as much as other college students. Engineering students regularly go to football games and parties, they just don’t make a living of it.</p>
<p>I believe that any student who the meets minimum grade point average for a particular program is guaranteed admission to the program, even if that puts the number admitted over the enrollment cap.</p>