<p>Wongtongtong,</p>
<p>“Most of the engineering courses simply test problems covered on homework or basic concepts.”</p>
<p>This has nothing to do with what university you are in but who is teaching you. I remember in one of my classes in graduate school we were assigned to read 200 pages each week as reference and tests were not from the text book or the reference books. By the end of the semester we’ve been through 6 books plus the text book - then the final exam was open book. (you could open any of the 7 books but the questions were nowhere to be found: means you had to completely understand the subjects.) And I am not talking about any top 20 universities. I think you won’t experience anything like this in any undergraduate colleges because that’s cruel to do to undergraduates. </p>
<p>But I think if you go to graduate school you will feel challenged enough and be free to read any articles you want to explore for a class or research.</p>
<p>Maybe I should say undergraduate years are the time you are supposed to enjoy friendship, build connections with like-minded people no matter they are students or faculty, learn in classrooms as much as you like to, and do extra if you could.</p>