UH Petroleum engineering - should it be THIS hard?

<p>I'm currently in my third year in petroleum engineering program at the University of Houston. The program has opened in 2009 and just had its first graduates a year ago. Perhaps thats one of the reasons why they are making it so hard- there's no encouragement whatsoever, all we hear from professors directly or indirectly"- _% of you aren't gonna pass, by the end of this class one third of you will be gone, etc." I GET IT- ENGINEERING PROGRAMS ARE TOUGH. but when out of 300 students in thermo class more than a 100 don't pass ( and we're talking about students who already went through advanced math, chemistry and physics classes- if you're not fit for it, you'll get lost somewhere in there, IMHO), something doesn't seem right here. They are making hell of a money here, that's for sure. I supposed to take the infamous thermo next semester, but at my wits end. Was even thinking about just quitting, but then reconsidered, I've invested too much time energy effort and money. However, that's not why I'm here. Wanted to ask those who are in their junior senior years and those who recently graduated - what was average on engineering classes where you go/went? How hard that was?
Thanks in advance</p>

<p>Purdue’s average GPA is a 2.8. A good third of my summer thermo class dropped the class, I’d bet more failed out. However most of the students were sophomore ME students, with a few upper classmen from other majors taking it as well. I took it as a sophomore Civ E and got an A. It was hard work, but definitely not impossible.</p>

<p>This isn’t elementary school anymore. Professors are there to teach (and do research), not to be your personal cheerleaders. </p>

<p>That being said, I love my professors and they do try really hard to help the students (that try and listen). I’ve spent a lot of time in office hours and talked with a lot of my professors. They’ve been encouraging to me during those periods.</p>