<p>My son is considering looking at UB for engineering. I went there many years ago and all 3 of my close friends dropped out of the program for other majors (BTW-they were all very smart).</p>
<p>It seemed as though in the freshman year at least there was a huge weeding out process going on.</p>
<p>Is it the same today or is there pretty good retention of engineering majors in freshman and sophomore years now? </p>
<p>Anyone have any experience in that area?</p>
<p>I know a few people who dropped out after freshmen year and they all had one thing in common- they were smart and told they should go into engineering but weren’t really dedicated to it. It was a path everyone else told them to follow. </p>
<p>I only had one friend who couldn’t handle the chemistry class, but I don’t think they had any previous chem experience and engineering chem is harder than the normal chem. </p>
<p>Physics does seem to be a bit of a weed out course, but it’s more of a personality weed out. It discourages all those people who want something to come easy to them and get all As. Though some people do get As, an advisor told another of my friends not to worry if he received a C in the course because the course was testing to see if students were determined enough to keep going and just work harder- those are the people the engineering department wants to graduate. </p>
<p>The first year the engineering department offers a bunch of resources (small groups- a study group led by a professor to review a science or math class for each semester- was one of the best) and the professors I’ve had so far really seemed to care about their students. </p>
<p>Although I am only starting sophomore year, so I don’t know anything beyond the first year stuff. :)</p>
<p>I wouldn’t look too much into the dropout rate of UB vs. other schools…if you’re going to drop engineering at one, you’ll drop it at the other. Either you can handle it or you can’t.</p>
<p>Now, whether to go into engineering or not…I guess that’s the better question.</p>
<p>Honestly, I never thought of any courses as “weed out” courses…because the ones that seemed more difficult freshman/sophomore year are easy compared to what’s to come. The difference is they probably fail a lot more students, but those are the students that won’t continue on and fail future courses. It’s not like you just need to get through them and it gets easier - they just get harder, but you get adjusted and learn how to do well in them.</p>
<p>Seriously, physics and calc are not hard. Even if the professors are tough to understand (physics), the concepts are easy enough that you shouldn’t have any trouble - and recitations, small groups, etc provide enough resources that you can get a good grade if you want it.</p>
<p>I see two groups of people that do poorly in the early courses, in general. One are those who just don’t have what it takes to be in engineering school - and sadly that’s usually the effort/motivation. They expect things will be fed to them like in high school, and can’t adjust to the extra responsibility. Sometimes it’s also people that just don’t have the technical competence either - but that’s less frequent. The second are those who do poorly, and use it as a wakeup call to turn things around. It’s better to find out early that you can’t BS your way through. Several of my friends did this and managed to turn things around and graduate and get good jobs.</p>
<p>I see there is a consistent message to the replies here. I’ve already told my son
that college will be tougher than high school- he finds academics pretty easy right now- so I’m getting him on the path to studying more even if he feels he doesn’t need it so he’s prepared.</p>
<p>Thanks for the comments and advice.</p>