<p>Hello all,
I am a high school senior looking to major in engineering, and after hearing horror stories about hard EE classes, I'm wondering if my math SAT and ability is too low. Senior year, I am taking Honors Precalculus and Honors Physics, but I hear stories about people who come into college with 12 AP credits and still get wiped out. My math SAT is 680, but a lot of people I've heard of scored in the mid-700s and still struggled at the beginning. I am willing to put in the time and the effort, but I'm still nervous. Any help? Thanks, I really appreciate it.</p>
<p>Also, if it helps, I just finished College Algebra dual enrollment and got an A, but engineering math is a lot tougher.</p>
<p>How well have you done in your math courses? science courses? A 680 is fine, I wouldn’t worry about that unless you have also struggled with high school math courses.</p>
<p>You can’t tell directly from your math sat. How do you do in math classes? Do you pick up concepts easily or do you need to study a lot to get something down? If you are struggling hard in precalc then it will definitely be a challenge to do well in calculus and above.
680 on math sat is still really good, when I read the title I figured you would be somewhere around 520 ish.</p>
<p>I’m doing fine in precalc, but I’m worried about diff equations and the like. Also, I’m afraid I won’t remember some of the stuff from precal by fall. Do most engineering students have a ton of AP math / science courses?</p>
<p>Don’t place too much emphasis on SAT scores. Really, you take the SAT so that colleges have a way of objectively profiling students… that’s it. I mean colleges have to have some way of reducing the number of applicants down since space is almost always limited. Some people read too much in to SAT scores believing they predict far more than they actually do. It’s really just a strategic test to test your level of academic determination and test taking prowess. Nothing more. </p>
<p>As long as you have a real passion for engineering, you will undoubtedly do fine. The top scoring SAT kids that fail out of engineering generally failed out because they got distracted by life, or lost focus or interest in engineering altogether.</p>
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<p>Statistically, it depends on the school. The more competitive the school, the more likely it is that the students took more AP classes. </p>
<p>However, you don’t need AP classes at all to do well in engineering math/science classes. The students that DID take those classes might have a slight advantage in that more of the material covered in class will be familiar already. However, all of your engineering math and science courses will be structured in a way that allows students without any AP classes on their record to do well with the proper amount of study/work. Schools always have to consider the minimum threshold. I’m sure there are even some engineers out there who started college with only Algebra 2 as their highest math class.</p>
<p>I had absolutely ZERO AP credits of anything. My high-school GPA was 3.0 (3.058 to be exact). The highest high-school math course I had was 1 semester past Trigonometry…something called Analytic Geometry. I did not take Pre-Calculus let alone Calculus in high school.</p>
<p>Still…</p>
<ul>
<li>B.S. in Computational Mathematics (basically an Applied Math/CS degree)</li>
<li>M.S. in Engineering (systems engineering emphasis)</li>
<li>5 of my M.S. in Engineering courses were in graduate Statistics and Math courses</li>
<li>Now entering 24th year in software engineering & systems engineering</li>
</ul>
<p>I think my SAT Math back then was around 600.</p>
<p>You should be fine.</p>
<p>Haha. Relax. First of all, the SAT is just a test that test’s how well you studied for that test. But if you want some advice from experience… I personally got a 650 Math. I got an A in every single Math class required for engineering. Btw, DiffEq isn’t really even bad. Just make sure you have calc 1 & 2 down pat when you get there and it will be fine.</p>
<p>Edit:
Never had a single AP either. Finishing a BS in Industrial & Systems in 3 more semesters.</p>