I’m wondering if any electrical engineering majors here have any tips/regrets regarding highschool.
What year are you?
11th.
Academically, continue taking four years of math and science. If your school offers it, take Physics C.
Take math to as high a level as available. Take physics and chemistry in high school. Take all of the other usual college prep courses (English, history and social studies, foreign language, art, etc.). Consider electives to determine or confirm interest in the subject if available (e.g. PLTW engineering courses).
Concur with @ucbalumnus. Take as much math as you can consume. Also, pick up a coding language if you don’t already have one. For example, Python, MatLab, and C/C++ are valuable tools for EE studies.
Make sure you can do all the math/physics problems in the book, not just the ones assigned.
You don’t have to literally do them all, but the more you do, the better prepared you’ll be - especially word problems in Calc. I’d add Physics, but all problems in Physics are word problems.
Strong foundation from the most advanced math/sciences/coding classes your school offers will go a long way.
Sophomore EE D has taken dedicated Python and C courses while learning Verilog, Assembly and Matlab in her EE courses so far.
Learn NOW how to ask for help.
Don’t wait until you’re struggling freshman year in college (everyone struggles, that’s ok) to figure out that you need to go to review sessions, you need to ask the teacher to clarify something you don’t understand (not just in math and science classes- but in all your classes), etc.
Asking for help is a great life skill to have, and a fantastic thing to master before college.
That is such great advice! Ask early & ask often
(also, work ahead- do the reading for a class before the class, not after!)
Great advice above also don’t lock yourself into EE. In other threads I think you said your a perfectionist and don’t like physics. Look into Industrial engineering and work in the power sector or the like. Lots of electrical doesn’t have to be in EE. Explore all options but you won’t escape math. Get a great foundation and as above yes, ask for help. My son when in engineering school told me “we all struggle together”. Get used to that.
I’d suggest he focus on the non-math and science subjects. Most kids heading into engineering love the math and science but don’t like the English and history classes so much. If we had to do it again with my daughter (who loved science and math but hated to read), I’d have had her take English as a DE class. She took it as an AP class and did well in the class but not on the AP test (she wasn’t a good test taker). It would have benefited her more to get the credits for English, maybe a history or government class as a DE and then she wouldn’t have had to take them in college.
She was actually a pretty good writer and so did fine taking them in college, but it just would have been easier to have had them out of the way. She had to take math and chemistry and physics in college anyway (just the level she started at depended on her high school classes, and she started at the beginning and did just fine with that path too) but if she could have knocked off English 1 and 2 and some of the other 15 credits required in non-engineering classes, she could have taken more electives and frankly enjoyed them more than English and civics.
It all worked out. Daughter entered college with not one credit for AP or DE courses, needed 131 credits to graduate, and did it in 4 years, 8 straight semesters. She just didn’t have much wiggle room.
I would also say learn now how to be efficient. The volume is higher in college and the speed required is much faster.
Even if you are already a 4.0 student, I can’t overstate how good Cal Newport’s book How To Be a Straight A Student is. Get it now. Read it and put the advice to use.
Yes, yes, yes, she said in “Harry meets Sally”!!