<p>
[quote]
do colleges tend to split engineers up from the 'normal' other students? (in different majors etc)
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Not at mine, at all. YMMV, depending on the school. I would expect there to be less "splitting" at tech schools, but I have nothing to back that up with.</p>
<p>Yes you can. I do. Although a good amount of that time is spent with other engineers working on problems and discussing engineering topics, but there is time for other things as well. I couldn't survive if I was working all the time.</p>
<p>My son is a freshman at a big university with a small engineering school in a great city. He lives in a dorm just for freshman engineering students and that has been terrific for him for exactly the reasons others have mentioned - the people he lives with have the same work loads, most of the same classes and similar schedules and they study together and help each other out. At his school, many of the first year classes (i.e. calculus, chemistry) he takes are with the general student population, so he's met lots of students who are not in engineering. He has an active social life and has been able to take advantage of what the city has to offer. And he got about a 3.8 gpa last semester! (He and his roommates do have very odd sleeping patterns, though...)</p>