<p>Hi, I'm a rising sophomore and I'm currently in the School of Arts and Sciences. I applied to Rutgers with the intention of being a Biology major but I changed my mind about Bio as the school year was concluding. I'm average at math (have always received Bs & above) and I have already completed Calculus 135 at RU during my freshman year. </p>
<p>For this upcoming semester, I have adjusted my schedule to be that of a first year engineering major, so it's almost like I'm a freshman all over again. I realized I may graduate a year late. Is it normal to graduate a year late? Like does it happen often at the SOE? Any tips/ advice concerning the engineering program? Specifically biomedical engineering?</p>
<p>Among engineering majors, BME has less major classes and more technical electives, which gives you some flexibility in terms of meeting all the major requirements. What classes did you take freshman year? All engineering majors take the Math 151/152/251 sequence or the corresponding honors versions, so you would need to look into whether or not Math 135 suffices.</p>
<p>Have you actually applied for transfer into SOE? If you seriously want to switch, you should probably do that before adjusting your schedule. I’m fairly certain that you won’t be able to register for engineering-specific classes without being a SOE student.</p>
<p>I have heard of some engineers graduating in five years, but I do not have any specifics on that.</p>
<p>I took a bunch of classes that literally have nothing to do with the engineering program lol. The only important requirement classes I have completed are Calc 135 and Expos. I also took a semester of General Chemistry 161, however, I will be retaking because I didn’t do well and its credits won’t transfer if I try to transfer.</p>
<p>Fortunately, I have been able to register for Calc 151, Analytic Physics Ia, Gen Chem 161, and Engineering Orientation Lecture. The only course I had difficulty registering for was Intro. to Comp. for Engineers. WebReg wouldn’t let me because I’m not in the SOE yet. </p>
<p>Oh and I don’t know if Gen. Psych is an important elective for SOE, but I took that as well. I’m also currently taking a foreign language and I’m at the intermediate level.</p>
<p>According to a friend who has a son in the SOE, many of the students utilize the 5year plan, that is, graduate a year late. It’s not uncommon to have to retake a class or take less classes in order to maintain GPA. So don’t worry about it taking longer, but remember it will be more expensive paying for another semester or 2 of school.</p>
<p>There is no foreign language component for SOE, but they introduced something last year where if you complete the four courses of a language from introductory through intermediate, three of the classes count as lower level humanities electives and one counts as an upper level. This means that you only need to take Economic Principles and Problems in the spring and some other upper level humanities elective (maybe something in psychology?) before you graduate to complete your humanities electives for engineering. Search for the Humanities/Social Sciences electives requirements on the engineering website for more information.</p>
<p>It is unfortunate that you cannot take the engineering version of Chem 161/162 (Chem 159/160 Gen Chem for Engineers) because the engineering one is much easier than the regular one. Make sure that you also take Intro to Experimentation (Chem 171) as well.</p>
<p>If you are able to get into Intro to Computers for Engineers, keep in mind that it is a very time consuming class with the programming assignments.</p>
<p>Difficulty varies from person to person. Some people find it brutal and never get into the programming mindset. If you have any prior programming experience, you are at an advantage and learning MATLAB shouldn’t be that difficult. Even if you haven’t programmed before, you can still become pretty good after a few weeks of practice and carefully completing the programming assignments.</p>
<p>Whether or not you find it difficult, I will guarantee that it will be time consuming. There are programming assignments every week. The first few could take you 5+ hours if you have never programmed before. My advice is to not get frustrated and find a group of friends to do them with at the same time. Sometimes staring at code for so long makes you miss easy mistakes that someone else can easily point out. Try not to flat out copy other people’s code (TAs have caught people doing this). You are only cheating yourself and your performance on midterms and exams is going to suffer. By working with my friends, I was able to actually become pretty good with MATLAB and the whole learning process became somewhat bearable.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to scare you. You could find it really easy and breeze through. Just be prepared to work though, because that is likely not the case.</p>
<p>i go to rutgers nb too and i’m also trying to transfer into engineering from sas. i emailed the dean this past summer and he said calc 135 was sufficient for transfer but i’d have to take 152 this fall which im currently enrolled in. i’m also bugging out about matlab because it would most likely take up a lot of my time to study for other classes like statics. oh and i was able to get into matlab because i personally went to b100 (the engineering building) in busch and asked them to enroll me in engineering classes. </p>
<p>Thank you so much, jkim670 for all this info. Very helpful. I got a B in 135 (could have done better if I practiced more), do you suggest I move on to 152 or just take 151? All the Matlab courses are close but I’ll still try to get a special permission #.</p>