<p>for entering freshman, who are in Engineering, to start off with a low gpa? I took 17 rigorous course hours my first semester in college and ended with a 3.2~ GPA. I'm also in ChE , so i'm just kind of worried whether or not it usually goes up?</p>
<p>I don’t know why you freshman engineering students try to kill yourselves. Do NOT attempt that 4-year plan. Most engineering students go 4.5 to 5 years anyway. If you don’t want to stay over 4 years, use the summers to knock out some of those “general education” credits and transfer them over (if at another school).</p>
<p>I wasn’t trying to knock it out in 4.5 to 5 years. I was planning on switching majors at the end of the semester but decided against it so my advisor put me in a bunch of upper division classes.</p>
<p>I would take 12-14 credits during Fall or Spring semesters and make up the rest using a couple of summers. Take that Geography, Psychology or World History Before 1850 class during the summer.</p>
<p>I have AP credit for my History, Government, Humanities, Social Science, so i’m set on those. Would you advise me to take Engineering Physics II at a local community college since Physics II is strenuous at my school?</p>
<p>Any course that is not a junior/senior level and can be transferred without a hassle should be knocked out at a cheaper (and maybe easier) community college. I know that statement may not be popular on this board, but after 20 years in engineering/I.T., employers care about where you graduated from INITIALLY…not where you started nor attended as a transient student.</p>
<p>Where you graduated from is cared about even less once you have a MS/MEng degree because there is still more open positions than available candidates. This is not the business administration industry.</p>
<p>I would never suggest taking Physics or Calc at a community college instead of your university simply because it is easier. It is usually easier for a reason, namely that it is not as rigorous. If you just want a high GPA and don’t intend to do anything technical after school, then that is fine, but if you intend to do an actual engineering job after graduation then you should take the harder, more rigorous courses at your university.</p>
<p>Eh?</p>
<p>If you are going into Computer Science or Software Engineering…those little 2 required Physics courses at a local CC won’t hurt a bit. It isn’t like, there are a ton of jobs writing software to Maxwell Equations. In CS or I.T., he would be worried more about inheritance or some abstract data type.</p>
<p>My GPA went from just under 3.5 first year to 3.75 my second year. The first semester is often seen as a transition period because the college experience is new to you. A 3.2 isn’t bad – it’s actually above average. I wouldn’t suggest taking physics at a CC just for the grade. Your upper level courses will get harder so an easier physics might put you at a small disadvantage later on. Although, in ChE electricity and magnetism might not matter as much to you.</p>
<p>Also, I disagree somewhat with Globaltraveler. If you end up spending 4.5-5 years getting your degree that is fine, but I wouldn’t start with that attitude freshman year.</p>
<p>I am looking at this from working in the industry for years and seeing how these corporations put together teams and responsibilities. Students (and I did also) stress WAY TOO much about courses, non A+ grades and whatnot when you end up really more than prepared academically for the jobs.</p>
<p>If you are an engineer and need some answers regarding advanced Physics and your area is not Physics, your project team will have a SME (schmee) or Subject Matter Expert who does nothing else but answer Physics questions. It’s up to the chemical or software engineer to convert the knowledge given by the SME to be used in their specialty (Chem E or Software Engineering).</p>
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<p>OP is a chemical engineering major.</p>
<p>The other thing you have to worry about is being able to transfer credit from other schools. My college was especially strict about that. We were NOT allowed to take any core courses such as math or physics elsewhere.</p>
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<p>Agreed. This attitude would also make it very difficult to get any internship or research experience.</p>
<p>Globaltraveler, you are also looking at this from a very jaded perspective and from one where you didn’t even read the background of the OP. He is not CS or IT, he is ChemE, and as such, he DOES need to know calculus and physics. Community colleges flat out do not teach at the same level as full universities due 99% of the time. If he wants any kind of technical job when he graduates, he needs to take those core technical classes at the university, not at the community college.</p>
<p>If there are more job openings than available graduates, he will get hired. It’s simple supply and demand. Also, you can only take Physics I and Physics II and maybe Modern Physics at a CC anyway. That is as high as anyone can go in Physics at a CC. Subsequent classes will be at a university level anyway. Physics I or II is HARDLY a core requirement for anything.</p>
<p>My point is for all of these postings with folks thinking “Awww my career is ruined because I got a “C” in Physics I…what do I do?” It is not the end of the world or career.</p>
<p>As for me being jaded? Oh no…It’s that after 20 years in this industry, I have noticed that there are more loopholes in and around all of these “not quite 100%” rules that these freshman and sophomores are stressing over. I have been doing I.T. all of these years and neither of my degrees from Michigan State (math) or Univ of Wisconsin (engineering) are in Computer Science and didn’t need to be and were deliberate.</p>
<p>I had a “it’s all about academics” viewpoint when I was a fresh grad. Now, it’s about knowing the rules…not being jaded.</p>
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<p>GLOBALTRAVELER, I would like you to try convincing that to anyone who has an ME degree. Physics I is VERY important to doing ME, Civil or Aero. If you don’t have a good grasp of Physics I, then the rest of the curriculum is going to be a lot tougher. Similarly, a ChemE needs to know physics (and chemistry) as the basis for higher level chemistry like PChem. An ECE major would need to know E&M pretty well, or at least certain parts of it.</p>
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<p>Once again, the OP is not interested in doing IT. He is doing ChemE. A chemical engineer better have a pretty good grasp of the basic physics or they are going to have a really hard time understanding anything in their physical chemistry classes or any of the finer points about electron energy levels. It doesn’t matter what YOU got your undergrad in, the fact is you are giving advice based off of a career in IT, which is not what the OP wants.</p>
<p>Bottom line, I have seen many people with many backgrounds in undergrad, industry, and grad school, and the ones who struggle the most are the ones who have a poor grasp of the basics. Once you remind them of the basic underlying principles, they do just fine and can even excel, but they are always depending on that input from someone who knows the basics better than them. Taking those basic courses at a CC is more likely to put you at that disadvantage than taking them at the university level, so again, I must reiterate, if the OP has ANY interest in a technical job in the future, take those fundamental courses at their university.</p>
<p>BoneH3ad,</p>
<p>We will have to agree to disagree because I have come across many an engineer and their resumes (civil, mechanical, and otherwise) have started their academic careers at CC/Jr. Colleges and hold very good positions now. Now whether those engineers holding a security clearance factored in, I don’t know…but it can happen. Some of these engineers were former military and took classes where and when they could before settling on a 4-year university.</p>
<p>My advice is NOT to convince someone to attend a CC. My advice is to let them know that it is NOT the end of their career since SO MANY of these postings seem to emphasize it when it comes to academics and hiring.</p>
<p>I never said it was the end of your career, only that it has the potential to handicap you in higher classes. If you are handicapped in your higher classes, it could potentially hurt your grades, and you grades in higher classes are much more important to an employer than your grades in lower classes. I think that is a point everyone can agree on. Once you get a job and have been in the workforce for a while, it is far more important to have good work experience and results than having an A in physics, and I will freely admit that. At that point in time, it no longer matters if you started at a CC or University.</p>
<p>My one and only argument is that at a CC you are likely not going to get as rigorous a course in those fundamentals which has the potential to handicap you in higher courses, and those courses DO matter to your initial employer and to your future job function for technical careers.</p>
<p>3.2 is pretty good for an engineer. I don’t see what you’re worried about.</p>
<p>@boneh3ad As a junior mechanical engineering student whom started out at a CC, I have to say that you are correct for the majority of the CC transfer students. However, there are exceptions such as myself. For example, I was terrible at the statics portion of the Physics I class that I took at a CC and ended up making an “A” in my university’s statics class. Then again, my CC professor was terrible at communicating information so a little clarification is all I needed to excell at my university. Even if the kids don’t learn the basics as well, most lower-level engineering courses such as statics, strength of materials, and thermo, all have a week or so of review of concepts discussed in physics.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the quality of the teachers at universities are better and can communicate the material more effectively. I only see problems with the CC students who expect to be handed an “A” for doing homework and taking tests. If you have the determination and actually study, I see no problems in the future for a CC transfer student.</p>
<p>Btw, boneh3ad, how is college station treating you? I am on the other side of the rivalry, and I quite honestly I wish I could be over there rather than here :-.</p>
<p>College Station is treating me pretty well. I suppose that I am personally not really taking sides very strongly in the rivalry given that I did my undergrad in Illinois and here in College Station I don’t have as much time to get into the rivalries as much as I did during undergrad. Honestly, I like the city of Austin a lot better than the city of College Station but the schools are kind of a wash to me. I wouldn’t be able to do the research I do now at UT though, so that is why I am here.</p>
<p>And yeah I realize that for some people, a CC will not set you back at all. I think I was pretty careful in my posts not to say that everyone would have that problem but that it only makes that problem more likely to occur due to the lower quality of teachers (I won’t say professors since a lot of the teachers at some CCs only really hold a Masters).</p>