<p>I'm not sure which branch of engineering I'll study, but I know for sure I'll more than likely study at Louisiana State University. </p>
<p>How difficult is it to maintain a 3.5+ at a big state university? It just seems to me as though the engineering program at LSU would be more rigorous compared to the smaller engineering colleges in Louisiana.</p>
<p>If the schools all have ABET accredited programs then they will all be fairly rigorous. Maintaining a high GPA is always a challenge in an engineering curriculum.</p>
<p>GPA 3.5 is usually for scholarship and the school thinks you can do it based on your stellar HS records. If you , however, have any doubts for some reasons then just take four classes just like any regular FT students. What’s the rush?</p>
<p>I want a 3.5 so I can graduate with honors. I spent my whole life pretty much under-achieving, so I’d just like to aim high and work hard for once.</p>
<p>Secondly, my mother is sick. I would like to finish the B.S. program as soon as possible so I know that I’ll be making enough money to keep everything in order before she passes away. This is the only reason that I’m even bothering with the A.S. in Electrical Engineering Technology first.</p>
<p>@xraymancs I understand that, but the admissions standards between LSU and the other engineering schools I’m considering are significant. Fore example, you can get into UNO, ULL, and Southern A&M with an 18-19 on the ACT. However, LSU rarely considers those with less than a 22 ACT composite score, and they still want at least 20 on the math portion. LSU also rarely admits students with a sub 3.0 GPA, and I know a number of people who have attended those other institutions with less than that. I’m aware that most of the primary engineering courses are graded on a curve; if I went to any of the previosly mentioned schools besides LSU I’d be likely to be competing with a higher Tier of students in those classes.</p>
<p>Do you mean 5 engineering classes, or 5 classes including H&SS requirements and electives? If you mean the former, it’s going to be hard if you haven’t been a very strong HS student. You’ll have to change your life drastically, and you’ll have to find tons of motivation and healthy hobbies that keep you sane but don’t take up too much time. If you gave us some more background on what kind of a student you are, that might help.</p>
<p>Most curricula I’ve seen start you with one math, science, CS, and H&SS course per semester for your first year, and then start replacing H&SS and CS courses with engineering courses depending upon your major, usually maxing out at 4 STEM courses per semester. I’m not sure about the relative difficulty of LSU, but just the amount of material in 5 courses is pretty overwhelming, much more so than anything in HS.</p>
<p>When you go to school and start talking to people in your prospective majors you will see how well that will work. There can be a big disparity in the difficulty between two different engineering classes, even in the same major. This can be further exaggerated (or possibly evened out) by your personal interests or natural abilities. For some combinations, 5 classes will probably be fine, for others it will be impossible. </p>
<p>You should not count on taking 5 engineering classes (or any schedule of more than 18 credits) however, if you’re trying to plan something out now.</p>
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<p>Be aware that H/SS courses are not necessarily easy or low workload courses. English composition courses, often based on literary analysis of English literature, are often difficult for engineering majors. Other H/SS courses can have voluminous reading or term projects.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if a student seeks out H/SS courses known to be “easy” or “gut” courses (the courses that the “party and beer” majors gravitate to) and takes them passed / not-passed, then they may be little work or difficulty.</p>
<p>The workload of engineering and science courses can vary considerably depending on whether the courses include labs, computer programming assignments, or term projects.</p>
<p>@TaciturnType: I was one of those students that would regularly score high on standarized tests. Unfortunately, I would usually only score high on the reding comprehension portion. Basically I only showed up to class in K-12 when I felt like it, I failed 7th grade, barely passed 8th, and due to poor attendance, basically failed 9th grade. In Psudo 10th grade I dropped out and got my GED.</p>
<p>Fast forward 5 years later to CC. I finished my first semester with a 3.76, and Aced a class that a chick that graduated HS with a 3.8 only got a ‘C’ in. I know that doesn’t make me objectively smarter than her, It was just a huge confident booster. I already know for a fact that she’s pretty bright. I tested out of remedials, the only “remedial” I had to take was “Intermediate Algebra”, which I got an ‘A’ in with no problem.</p>
<p>English 101- A
Math 118 (Intermediate) - A
ELET 101- A
ELET 103- B (the grade was only based on the average of 3 tests)</p>
<p>Next semester I’m going to try to challenge myself by taking 5 classes total, with four of those five classes being honors, WHILE working ~30 hours a week. I know it won’t be easy, but it’ll give me the opportunity to further develop my time mangement skills as well is prove to my CC’s TRIO program that I’m not the average student that they’re used to working with.</p>
<p>Also, I mean 5 classes a semester with at least most of them being engineering/math classes. I know LSU will be harder than CC, but I willing to go to office hours, see TA’s, go to tutoring sessions, and do as many problem sets as I need to do to succeed.</p>
<p>You said: “Next semester I’m going to try to challenge myself by taking 5 classes total, with four of those five classes being honors…”</p>
<p>What are those classes? Calculus and four real Eng. courses?..good luck. Confident is very good but over confident plus working 30 hours a week and wanting to get GPA 3.5+?..only John Wayne could do it. I have been able to maintain GPA 3.8 (sophomore in Tulane) but not working at all, getting full ride and honors. Whatever works for you and may the Force be with you.</p>
<p>@Jan2013: I’m still at Delgado. for spring 2013 I’m taking:</p>
<p>ELET 102 - Electrical Circuits
MATH 130 - College Algebra
HUMA 150 - Structure of Western though
FNAR 126 - Art History Survey I
ENGL 102 - English Composition II</p>
<p>The last 4 are Honors, but I’ve even had one of the Honors directors tell me that the Honors courses aren’t more difficult than their normal counterparts. So it probably isn’t even worth mentioning.</p>
<p>I feel the same way about under achieving for a while and actually wanting to put forth effort to do something remarkable.</p>
<p>I think a lot of people would benefit from taking more time (4+ years) and fewer courses at a time (4 not 5). You are learning a valuable profession. I don’t see the point in learning it poorly. In the long run, you want to be good at it. </p>
<p>The idea that it should always take 4 years is dated and many people flunk out from overloading. Just read this board. I’d take someone with straight As over 5-6 years over someone with mostly Bs and Cs over 4 years any day.</p>
<p>OP: Your spring schedule should be easily doable - but the prospect of continuing on at LSU at 5 courses/semester + working 30 hrs a week as an engineering major sounds like an impending trainwreck. During one particularly grueling semester at CC I took calc 1, physics 1, and two CS courses while working 40 hours/week - I wouldn’t even think to attempt that courseload at a state university, let alone 5. Studying for physics alone took up a huge chunk of my time.</p>
<p>It’s one thing to be ambitious, and another entirely to be unrealistic.</p>
<p>I don’t plan on working at all once I get to LSU, I’ll only study. I just know that I can pull this off at DCC, but at LSU I want to do at least five classes a semester and graduate with honors.</p>
<p>@art2CS CC did you go to that had CS as a major?</p>
<p>Be careful overloading on classes. Engineering classes are tough. You might be able to do it for a semester or so. But as a standard way to go, darn near immpossible.</p>
<p>I know several people that have tried it (including myself) and the best way to describe the results is “crash and burn”. You are spreading yourself pretty thin and you go from a little behind to a lot behind very fast. At that point you end up dropping a couple of your classes to salvage what you can in the others. You end up with fewer units than normal rather then more. I ended up on the 4 and 1/2 year program because of it.</p>
<p>I think that most folks whom graduated with an engineering degree would say that all ABET undergradute programs are quite rigorous, it’s just that some are more rigorous than others. I think the smart course is to take no more than three ENGR classes at a time, until you’re well into your junior year. At some schools, this means either summer study or a 5-year B.S.</p>
<p>I guess until I’m a junior I can do 4 classes a semester and two during the summer.</p>
<p>@Lakewashington: Why wait until my junior year though? Wouldn’t the classes be more rigorous in those final two years?</p>
<p>Because by the time you enter the spring of your junior year, presumably you’ve finished all of the engineering base or core courses, particularly the math requirements. Having that foundation, you’re prepared for more advanced coursework.</p>