Hello everyone,this is my first post and it’s nice to meet you all.
I thought of taking up engineering next year,what worries me the most though and here I am writing my greatest fear is:
I’m afraid I won’t have this so called fun in College,having this fun social life and that is because I hear that engineering classes are so hard and you’ve got to study all the time,is the workload really that high to a point in which you find that you have to sacrifice a lot of time/stop going out (meet people) in order to study?
I want to have this so called and heard of “college is the best time of your life.”
Will I miss out on the fun stuff by picking engineering as a major? Am ready to put in the work but I hope to have just a good social life and a fun time.
Do you engineering students or graduates find that you’re having a fun social life while in this major? Am I exaggerating?
Please enlighten me!
You are exaggerating. The workload of the average engineer is a little heavier than many majors, sure. That said, there is still plenty of time in the day to socialize.
Anyone in any major can CHOOSE to spend all their time studying and not have a social life. Just choose to have a social life.
Just know your priorities - a due date is more important than a social event. Other than that, it’s easy enough to make time for both school and a social life, especially if you work as efficiently as possible.
When my kid was at USC, every time I passed through the sorority row, I saw the frat boys prepping for parties and I bet lots of them were engineers. Work hard and play hard. But I also heard there were more female graduates who were valedictorian in engineering school than male, from all the years my kid attended USC. So that’s maybe why.
It’s all about time management. You have to develop good time management skills and you will be fine with having a social life.
I attended all but two home basketball games and one home football game while studying engineering, plus “went out” probably 3 nights per week on average - maybe 4 nights.
If all you want to do is drink and party and whatever, it might make more sense to just work as a lifeguard or waiter in some beach town for a while and then go to school after you get bored of that. I guess that is not parentally as acceptable as wasting 30-40-50-60K getting horrible grades at college, but it likely should be.
Engineering does require say 30-40 hours a week of your time even freshman year, it goes up every year after that. If you went to a fantastic high school or are just really smart, freshman year might be easy and you may be able to party a lot. The work load and new material goes up every year after that, so don’t expect a lot of wild drunken nights say junior year and a high GPA.
Assuming you have some interest in the actual engineering classes you take, you should use that interest to make studying not just a chore but something you want to do. You can then party within reason, after the homework is done and not on test nights.
Drinking and other pursuits every night can also be very detrimental to you actually getting anything done during the day, you likely can’t do that and keep up your studies. If fun is playing basketball with friends or actually socializing with women while sober, it won’t be that big a hit on your studies.
If this sounds too negative, I think being in a college with lots of fun people your age and a endless supply of activities and facilities, is really really fun. Just keep the actual drunken crazy parties to a rational limit that allows you to prepare for a good life as an adult. One more frat party a week could end any hope of those trips to the Caribbean with your girlfriend or friends or family where you get to also have a nice time, so plan for the future and live your college years well too.
A lot depends on the student, the hs prep, and the college program. In some cases (especially at STEM schools) doing the work/projects gets interwoven with social life. But from the tone of your post, you may be happier at a school that offers a variety of majors and activities.
It’s a valid concern. At least it was for me at MIT
I did poorly initially until sometime sophomore year when I figured out how hard I needed to work to get the grades and started working that hard.
I sacrificed sleep rather than social life, though really Saturday night was all I really had to socialize anyway. I made the most of the limited time. Met my wife and we had study dates in the library.
A funny thing happened though when I started working hard enough to learn the material. I found that I liked it. A lot!
First semester senior year, I was getting about 4.5 hours of sleep a night. That was actually better than 5 because dream cycles are roughly 90 minutes long and it’s better to wake up after completing one. I aced and feel like I learned 3 out of the 4 courses really well and got a generous B in the 4th.
^ The first cycle can be less than 90min though. So it is likely to be a little less than the multiple of 90min to be optimal. If you are tire, you will get into deep sleep faster.
Honestly though, anyone who is giving up sleep to do their work is shaving off a few years of their life (and more than a few years’ worth of degradation of mental functions) for the illusion of increased productivity. In reality, when your body tells you it is time to sleep, it is. Plan accordingly, and time for everything else will come more naturally - doing homework while well-rested is very easy and takes a small fraction of the time it does when you are exhausted. There are exceptions of course, which means once a year rote assignments with unreasonable deadlines. But those are rare, and little else should justify minimal sleep.
The prevalent “sleep less do more” culture is propagated by idiots who prefer the illusion of success to a less glamorous reality. Sleep is one of the most vital functions that is necessary to both your productivity now, and your health later.
NeoDymium, the 50ish me is with you 100%, but the 20ish me felt invincible and it was only 4 months of doing that my senior year when I had to take 4 technical classes at once.
That’s why I said that the OP’s concern is a valid one.
It’s not an easy call which two of Colorado Mom’s “work, play, sleep” to pick.
I should point out that “work, play, sleep - pick any two” was said in a lighthearted way. They students still find ways do things like this campus wide “Rube Goldberg Machine” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Any6bCAmnlo
Most people will do significantly worse on exams if they do not get enough sleep the night before. You may be able to get a B with some kind of cram studying, but you will likely not be able to solve the harder problems that involve thought and get an A. So you could easily slip into that 2.9 range where you can’t get a job (don’t personally believe this, but it has been stated elsewhere).
Also, for engineering, short-term memory is rarely a good place to store ideas that will keep coming back class after class and year after year. So cramming and staying up late to study, while it may get you an A on a quiz, just means more time to relearn. What helps a lot more is studying during say the day between classes every week during the semester, understanding the material, and putting all the important stuff in long term memory so you still can do simple physics junior year.
Cramming works better for folks studying US History who just need to remember a timeline for one class.
A fact that is unfortunately all too often lost upon 18-year-olds who are really trying to find their place in life. At first, the idea of “sleep less get more done” seems so alluring, that you start to forget what it really does to you in the long run…
Sleep less, party more, and study sometimes (or mostly when tired or hungover) is a quick recipe for getting kicked out of college. You can then move back home, work part-time, sleep more, party less, and work harder at your local college or CC.
Engineering is hard and requires a significant amount of study. If you want to be an engineer, that’s what you sign up for. With that said, a well organized engineering student can still party plenty, just not as frequently as say a business student. Be on top of your studies, be efficient and you’ll be fine. If not, you might as well start in business, because that’s where you’ll end up anyway.
I also agree with the others who’ve said don’t compromise your sleep. Every once and awhile you’ll have too. The volume will be too high. If it’s a steady strategy though, it will lead to decreased performance or even failure. Learn to use your time wisely BETWEEN CLASSES. Treat your 8-5 time as sacrosanct and you’ll still have time to party AND sleep enough.