Too late for engineering?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>I'm a senior in high school and in the middle of freaking out about college admissions right now.</p>

<p>Throughout most of my high school, I was interested in going into something related to business, social sciences, film or biological sciences while shying away from more of the physical sciences and maths after being turned off from them by my Dad who is an electrical engineer, simply believing that I was not going to do that and wanted to try something different.</p>

<p>But now, speak of the devil, a number of events happened recently that got me considering engineering for the first time, in particular, civil, environmental, and biological engineering as well as possibly Computer Science, which I've heard is sometimes considered a subsidy of engineering and in some respects it's own separate beast entirely (could someone possibly shed some light on that?).</p>

<p>But the part that scares me is, I'm a senior in high school and have not taken Calculus nor Physics, both of which I know are vital for many careers, but engineering in particular. This wasn't particularly by my choice, as I go to a competitive public school that is VERY inflexible about schedule changes, but it still doesn't make me feel any better about my situation atm :(</p>

<p>I'm taking an online physics introduction course atm (doubt I'll get any credit for it though since there is no lab for an online course) but for the most part, I doubt that I can do much at this point in my high school career to explore things in engineering.</p>

<p>So do you think it's too late to consider trying engineering at all? I'm more than willing to put in the work, but since it seems that even at state and community college engineering is crazy impacted, I'm just worried that it may be too late even though I haven't even started college yet at all :P</p>

<p>So what do you think? I can post more information on anything you need and will appriciate any advice.</p>

<p>Muchas Gracias :)</p>

2

<p>Most universities start you off with the basics anyways. Don’t worry too much, you’ll do fine if you learn quickly.</p>

3

<p>Dude, seriously, you’re still in high school, you have it allllll in front of you. I went back to engineering school at 30, and have will graduate in 1.5 years at 33. I even have great career prospects and a long career ahead of me. You have all the time in the world to do this.</p>

4

<p>Even at good engineering schools there are plenty of students who have not taken Calc, Physics, Chemistry, or Programming in high school. It’s fine, and unless you are trying to go to MIT you’re not going to be alone.</p>

5

<p>Haha, noooo MIT is DEFINITELY out of my league regardless of major :stuck_out_tongue: I’m actually shooting for a UC, UC Davis, Santa Barbara or Irvine in Particular with Santa Clara University as a safety/2nd choice.</p>

<p>The thing is, I know at most schools including the UC’s, Engineering schools are often completely separate from the main college of letters, arts and sciences and I’ve heard its sometimes impossible to transfer in.</p>

<p>Any thoughts?</p>

6

<p>Apply to all reputable in-state schools and a few community colleges. If you’re not really ready, a community college is a nice way to help you brush up on the way in, assuming you actually do the work.</p>

7

<p>Yeah, I’ll admit I haven’t done as well as I would have liked to in high school :/</p>

<p>Thus I’ve had to consider community college for both academic and financial reasons (I’m the oldest of 5 kids to go to college, it’ll make it easier financially for the parents)</p>

<p>Any thoughts/ideas?</p>

8

<p>How are you too late as a HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR?!? I didn’t start college till 22, and had to spend 2.5 years in community college before I could even transfer to an engineering school (though I only spent 3 years there). If you are too late then how did I manage? What I mean is if you want it bad enough you will get there. Maybe it will take you a year of community college to take the preReq’s you need, don’t put a timetable on life. You will drive yourself crazy. The people who do that are the ones who end up in careers and situations they hate because they rushed into something instead of finding your passion. When everyone is skipping class and goofing in community college (having seen the difference first hand between that level and University is staggering), work your ass off. When you show up with a 3.9 GPA, 36 college level credits, they won’t care what you did in high school, most places after a year of community don’t even ask for high school transcripts. Hell I never even took the SAT’s and I’m in Graduate school for engineering.</p>

<p>I say go for Engineering, and feel free to write about your experiences when you have a PhD and are a top researcher, have faith!</p>

9

<p>I didn’t take those classes until I was 25. You’ll be okay.</p>

10

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<p>I don’t know these schools, but I can tell you where I go (Michigan) it’s is absolutely not uncommon for freshman admits of have not taken any of Calc, Physics, Chem, or Comp Sci. It’s actually rather uncommon that people have taken all of those subjects. Michigan has more prestige that the schools you mentioned so I imagine the situation would be even more favorable there. </p>

<p>Are you not allowed to enroll in the engineering college freshman year and take prerequisite classes in the liberal arts school?</p>

11

<p>The UCs’ engineering major degree programs all have sample schedules that assume that entering freshmen are ready for calculus (meaning that they have completed precalculus and trigonometry in high school), but have not taken it already – i.e. they start off in first semester calculus. Starting in a more advanced math course due to AP credit is a bonus, but not required.</p>

<p>High school physics is often recommended as a prerequisite for college physics. However, you should still be able to take college physics even without, but it may be more difficult or require more work if you have not already had a high school level overview of the topics.</p>

<p>If you start in community college, then you should be aware that many community college students do transfer to engineering majors in UCs as juniors. However, some “catch up” work may need to be done after transfer, since not all community colleges have all of the lower division engineering courses normally taken by freshmen and sophomore engineering students at UCs. See [Welcome</a> to ASSIST](<a href=“http://www.assist.org%5DWelcome”>http://www.assist.org) for course equivalency and course selection for each major at UCs (and CSUs).</p>

12

<p>It’s fine to start at any age, and it don’t make you’re behind anyone.</p>

<p>I have a friend who graduated in 2006 from HS in either top 1-5% or 5-10%… not sure which. He graduated from University of Texas in Dallas with a Bachelor in Business with full scholarship in 2010. He never had a job that’s related to his degree, in fact he’s has been working at Dish Network doing installation maybe late 2010 or early 2011 which doesn’t pay more than what I do. I spent 7 months in a trade school to be a pharmacy tech. </p>

<p>He have more potential with his degree, but so far I don’t feel bad for starting college late with only about 2 1/2 years left to complete my Bachelor in Petroleum Engineering.</p>

13

<p>I’m a college freshman, majoring in mechanical engineering (very slowly, I might add) and I STILL haven’t taken calculus or physics. The closest I’ve gotten to that was dabbling in a little bit of physics and calc from home using books I’ve purchased online. Trust me, you will be totally fine. Just take the stuff in college. You have plenty of time.</p>