<p>Sorry if something similar to this has been posted but I've always wondered whether engineering is something that almost anyone can do if they put in the effort and time or is it only for those students who have the core skills needed (math, physics skills, etc.)?</p>
<p>For me, I enjoy engineering and the work that they do but I have trouble with Calculus and Physics so that rules me out as an engineer. However, the actual work that engineers do and the projects that my friends have worked on for engineering courses intrigue me and I am able to understand the concepts involved.</p>
<p>So, is engineering, in your opinion, only suitable for those who have strong math and physics skills, or can anyone with an interest succed in the field?</p>
<p>More important is the fact that you have to like engineering enough to be willing to put that effort and time into it. There are tons of engineering dropouts who had the smarts to be an engineer but balked at the idea of spending so much time on something they weren’t truly passionate about. Conversely, there are a fair number of people in engineering who aren’t as book smart as others, but enjoy the material so much that they are willing to put in that extra effort.</p>
<p>I do honestly believe that most people do have the mental capacity to do engineering but few have both the mental capacity and the passion/drive.</p>
<p>Like other posters mentioned, most people can become proficient in many professions provided they put effort into learning said profession. </p>
<p>If you find yourself having difficulty with certain subjects try approaching your professors to ask for guidance; you may also start or become part of a study group and you may also try different learning methods and approaches. Find what works for you. </p>
<p>It’s generally a great idea to find a reliable study partner. Remember that very few humans learn in a vacuum and most of what we learn comes from others. Good luck in your engineering studies!</p>
<p>Oh, I forgot to mention, make sure you sleep well and eat well. Feeling great helps you learn better.</p>
<p>I think if you look up the meaning of IQ you’ll find a page that gives a table of professions available to people with certain IQs. Engineering or similar should be represented. Of course this is just a ballpark thing and if you’re a point and a half below the cutoff you can probably still succeed.</p>
<p>So yes, it is open to a ‘select few’. Half of all people have IQs below the median</p>
<p>^I guess it’s a great thing Richard Feynman and his 125 IQ never looked at that chart. Like Stephen Hawking would say “people that boast their IQs are losers.” If you actually believe in that crackpottery, I feel sorry for you.</p>
<p>You can call IQ crackpottery all you like, but a lot of people who have thought about it a lot more than you have seem to think it’s not an idea entirely without merit.</p>
<p>And I hope Stephen Hawking never said “people that boast their IQs are losers.” I hold the brits to a higher grammatical standard.</p>
<p>And a lot of people who have thought about it a lot more than you have seem to think it’s an idea entirely without merit. See how that cut both ways? I.Q. measuring was developed to test the level of mental retardation in mentally challenged patients. From there, it somehow was co-opted by the eugenics movement in order to promote their brand of scientific racism.</p>
<p>Take some time to read about the Flynn effect, Alfred Binet, Stephen Jay Gould, and other professionals to learn more about I.Q. measuring.</p>
<p>There are many factors that affect the mental capacity of an individual such as place of birth, socioeconomic status, nutrition, nurture by parents, genetic code from parents, culture, etc.</p>
<p>Regardless, those factors still come into play. For a person who can’t do algebra proficiently, there’s no way you can master calculus without putting a huge effort to become not only good and accurate with your algebra but efficient as well. Just an example.</p>
<p>You know there is some use to it. I don’t believe in taking it as an accurate representation of intelligence as intelligence comes in many different flavors, but ballpark estimates are usually good. Also, something else to note, there’s usually a cutoff point of maybe 120 I’d say? in which you could simply disregard anything else because those tests do not measure accurately for people of higher intellect. Simply put, if you make the ballpark range, then you’re smart enough and that’s all you need to know.</p>
<p>I think a lot of people are downplaying the difficulty of an engineering degree here. Yes, you can succeed with a great work ethic but the number of technically competant people compared to the entire population is very small. I would say that if you have an engineering degree then you are, in a way, part of a select group. Engineers are generally bright people. Moreover, an engineering degree says that you are capable of handling something that many people just aren’t. This is not elitest, it is the truth.</p>
<p>As someone who has gone through engineering in college, I can see how it might be easy for me to downplay it just because I am used to it. In reality, most people wouldn’t last 5 minutes in an engineering class.</p>
<p>"What is your I.Q.?
I have no idea. People who boast about their I.Q. are losers. "</p>
<ul>
<li>I can believe he said that. Apparently my humor is lost on you people. Note the word “grammatical” in my post.</li>
</ul>
<p>“And a lot of people who have thought about it a lot more than you have seem to think it’s an idea entirely without merit. See how that cut both ways?”
I’m not saying that there aren’t people who know more about it than me who think that it is not all it’s cracked up to be. I do doubt that any researcher seriously thinks the IQ system is completely without merit. Perhaps you could find a paper in the literature declaring IQ to be a completely useless measure of anything. Who knows, maybe such papers exist. The difference between me and you seems to me to be that you already know all the answers.</p>
<p>“I.Q. measuring was developed to test the level of mental retardation in mentally challenged patients. From there, it somehow was co-opted by the eugenics movement in order to promote their brand of scientific racism. Take some time to read about the Flynn effect, Alfred Binet, Stephen Jay Gould, and other professionals to learn more about I.Q. measuring.”
As a matter of etiquette, it comes off as a little… what was the word you used… snobbish? … when you suggest I read up on the history and theory of IQ. I don’t pretend to know a lot about it, but I have developed an casual interest in the subject over the years.</p>
<p>"There are many factors that affect the mental capacity of an individual such as place of birth, socioeconomic status, nutrition, nurture by parents, genetic code from parents, culture, etc. "
And who says there aren’t? I fail to see how this has anything to do with the discussion at hand, namely, whether is engineering only for a select few or not. Clearly it is only for a select few in a variety of senses such as place of birth, socioeconomic status, nutrition, nurture by parents, genetic code from parents, culture, etc. I hope you’re starting to see how lots of things “cut both ways”, Enginox.</p>
<p>Look, I’m not claiming that an individual can simply do “X” and all things will somehow fall into place. What I refuse to accept is that people are born predetermined to be good at something and lousy at another. Yes, genetic ancestry plays a role in determining what you may end up doing in life but it is just one part of the whole.</p>
<p>The only thing an engineering degree says about you is that you successfully completed an engineering program and nothing else. It does not confer you “special” status nor denotes “intellectual superiority.” I know it’s a human thing; we like to think we are more special than others because we have a skill that few others have. Professional baseball players, doctors, lawyers, cops, actors/actresses, musicians, etc. “suffer” from this.</p>
<p>The problem I see is when someone claims that certain professions can only be attained by “special kind” of people. This is the claim many pharaohs, caesars, kings, and emperors have made throughout history.</p>
<p>@AMT:</p>
<p>My apologies. I did not see your post before I posted mine. Since you think I.Q. has merit would you mind sharing your last officially tested I.Q. score for us, please? Also, recommending books to another person is hardly snobbish. ;)</p>
<p>^ I’ve never actually been tested. After all, my IQ is my IQ, and there’s not much I can do to change it. And I don’t necessarily trust the results of some silly online IQ tests I’ve idly taken in the past. I’m pretty sure all that stuff is fake. Do you have any results you would like to share?</p>
<p>This isn’t to say that I don’t think people have IQs and these IQs do hold some sway over the course of people’s lives. I think people can have vastly different innate abilities and still be equal in a sense that’s more important than how fast, smart, or good looking they are.</p>
<p>I do think that it is possible to not be smart enough to do engineering, and also to be just smart enough that engineering is possible but much harder than for others. I also think it is possible to be very intelligent so that engineering is not so difficult at all, and I believe it is possible to be so intelligent that a usual person’s deepest thoughts would be utterly trivial.</p>
<p>No one said anyone was predetermined. No one is saying that people can’t achieve things like being doctors, engineers, pro athletes, etc. What we are saying is that sometimes it takes a truly brilliant mind to unlock some things in what they’ve been working on.</p>
<p>That only way to do that is to be blessed with the gift from our lord and savior Jesus Christ.</p>
<p>While I don’t think that anything is necessarily predetermined, I do think that certain gifts - or a lack thereof - can “hold sway” over the course of one’s life. This seems to me to be a trivial statement.</p>
<p>Hard work is certainly necessary, but I think there comes a point when a mature adult realizes that it is not sufficient to achieve everything.</p>