<p>My, my. I never thought I'd see myself here.</p>
<p>After swearing up and down that I would not go into a science or mathematics intensive field, I declared a major at Baylor University as a contender for a Bachelor of Science in Engineering at the Baylor School of Engineering & Computer Science. </p>
<p>I've been in a bit of a frenzy about declaring a major my freshman year. I had thought about international relations, English, business administration, and even philosophy, but I never felt too confident about pursuing those studies. It wasn't until I went to a JETS competition when I saw science and math in a new light - call it a 'Paul in Damascus' sort of deal (hey, I'm going to a Baptist school next semester - besides, the reference seemed to fit well, haha).</p>
<p>However, I do have a few concerns. Since I was uninterested in math and science in high school, I didn't focus too much on those courses. For the sake of my academics, however, I took all the math and science courses in school and did well. I can do most stuff up to calculus, but that's about it - perhaps I'm making myself look like an idiot here by confessing that I'm not as strong in math as I need to be, I'm just wondering how I'll fare in freshman level engineering classes. Perhaps any of you seasoned engineering students (perhaps seasoned engineering students at Baylor?) can talk about what to expect in my classes or offer any other helpful information. I'm also in the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core and the Honors Program at Baylor, so I'm hoping that I'm not committing academic suicide by trying to incorporate other studies on top of my major.</p>
<p>The purpose of school is to educate you. Not knowing what you haven’t been taught is expected. Even those who took AP whathaveyou in HS can still struggle in college engineering. It is 90% perspiration after all.</p>
<p>Japher: Yes, I have taken calculus but I didn’t take the national exam.</p>
<p>silence_kit: Wow, that wasn’t what I was expecting at all, haha.</p>
<p>Thank you both, for your insight. I guess I got into panic mode after declaring a major. Call it the pre-college jitters I guess.</p>
<p>I know for sure that engineering is an intensive major when it comes to the workload, but do any of you have tips on how to stay on top of it? Would getting a planner of some sort help?</p>
<p>If you lack confidence in your math skills you will be torturing yourself by choosing Engineering and Computer Science. Get a calculus book, teach yourself this summer and gain some confidence.</p>
<p>Just take calculus when you get to college. Big deal. If you’re in CS, you’ll never use calculus, very much anyway. In the other engineering majors, it’s more important, but… I’ve never met an engineer who “liked” calculus (I’ve never met a math major who “liked” calculus either, by the way).</p>
<p>Just don’t get behind. If you have a problem set that has 5 questions and you have 7 days to do it try just doing 1 problem a day instead of waiting until day 6, or even doing at all in day 1. This type of thing burns you out. If you do a problem one day then review it do the next problem the next, and so on you will being to understand what you did and not just how to do it.</p>
<p>If it helps, treat school like a job; give it 8 hours a day regardless of how much work you have to do. If there is enough work to keep you busy 40 hours a week by midterm than you are either crazy smart or not getting very good grades.</p>