<p>After finishing a BSEE, I look back and wonder why most people are so afraid of going for engineering. They seem to have this fear of engineering being so difficult. They think that only geniuses with no lives can finish.</p>
<p>It's not like engineering courses are really that difficult. If you want to get the most out of a course, you will spend a considerable amount of time on homework and projects regardless of whether it's a control systems course or a history course.</p>
<p>I have spent a considerable amount of time learning about certain EE topics, but that's mainly because I spent about as much time working on required course material as I have on other non-required topics that interested me and that I thought would be valuables skills. But that simply comes with being passionate about your field.</p>
<p>On the flip side, I know people who put very little time and effort into their EE degrees just like I know people who put little time and effort into their non-engineering degrees. If you don't love what you do, you wont be willing to go the extra mile and you won't be very good at what you do.</p>
<p>And I have a hard time believing that between all of the various engineering fields, most people can't find an area that interests them.</p>
<p>Anyway, the point is, I don't think engineering is really as hard as most people think and I certainly don't claim to be some "genius". I think it's really just a preconception that most people have built up in their minds. Then they end up going for the "easy degree" just to ultimately get stuck with a topic they hate and the low wages that come with it.</p>
<p>What do you guys think? Did engineering really turn out to be as hard as you guys heard coming into college?</p>
<p>No, it wasn’t really that bad. You just have to come in with the right mindset. If you believe in yourself, are willing to work and are reasonably intelligent, you shouldn’t have many problems, plain and simple.</p>
<p>Might be because you only hear of the horror stories about the people who really struggled through it or flunked out. It’s really not that interesting for someone to write about how they had an “okay” workload in engineering compared to someone who’s warning everyone to stay away.</p>
<p>Plus, people always exaggerate for a better story and to show how smart they are.</p>
<p>Engineers as a group are proud of how much time they sink into their studies. It’s only natural that they would give themselves a reputation of being difficult.
Classes are harder than average though, that much is true.</p>
<p>I’m a computer science major, but I’ve had a similar experience. I think a lot of the fear comes from not having any experience at all when you start out. A couple of years ago, I heard all these horror stories about classes like Operating Systems (I couldn’t imagine how hard it must be to write even a simple OS). When I actually got around to taking it, I found it to be complex and time-consuming, but it was approachable. The steady progression of courses had prepared me well enough.</p>
<p>So I think the takeaway is to not worry about how hard it must be later if you are struggling on basic material now. By the time you get to the advanced material, you’ll likely be ready.</p>
<p>I’m not an engineering major, but for me personally a lot of it had to do with my rather shaky background in math. I would really need to spend a lot of extra time catching up, and it would probably take me a least a couple extra years to graduate, and I’m really not THAT interested in engineering. </p>
<p>Going back to the OP, I took several honors/advanced science classes in high school, did alright, but I was always really intimidated by the super science nerd geniuses (no offense to anyone here).</p>
<p>It’s all a mindset thing… At 17/18 you really have no clue what college is like. You’re just going off what you hear from other people.</p>
<p>I agree, however. College was a lot more enjoyable than I thought it was going to be. And engineering, although not a cakewalk, was very managable (and actually a lot of fun).</p>
<p>I always figured it was because most people think the idea of writing a paper that is judged somewhat subjectivley a lot easier than solving a problem that only has one right answer (or set of answers). I personally find defending a thesis is similar to a math proof, though perhaps not as formulaic, it must at least be logical.</p>
I didn’t expect engineering to be a difficult major coming into college. I was better at math and sciences in HS than humanities classes, so I expected engineering courses in college to be easier for me than humanities courses. The reality wasn’t far from my expectations. The main surprise was the large difference between majors in number of credits required for a bachelors degree at my college. My EE major required 113 credits, while the median for humanities majors was about 65 credits, with some as little as 45.</p>
<p>Please stop all this talk of how easy it is :)</p>
<p>We must maintain our image of a bunch of really smart folks who study all the time. We cannot let anyone know that at some level we are actually normal. If word gets out, the world will be overrun with engineers.</p>
<p>Based on the constant traffic jam in my city, that philosophy major must have gone into traffic engineering…</p>
<p>I think most folks in this thread are engineers (or will be), so of course the math doesn’t seem that bad. However, a lot of folks simply can’t stand (or understand) calc 2. Heck, they hate “business” calc…</p>
<p>Engineering takes some time to figure out what’s expected and what they are trying to teach you. </p>
<p>It’s not really science, it’s not really math, it’s really it’s own beast. </p>
<p>Personally, it took until my junior year before I was consistently able to ace the engineering classes. Before that, I wasn’t really sure what a class was really trying to teach, because I didn’t know what to look for, and I often zigged when the course zagged. Eventually, I saw some patterns and was able to discern what was important.</p>
<p>Yes, I used to think that students who struggled in math were just not trying. Then a lightbulb went off in gym class, when the instructor accused me of not trying in whatever physical activity we were doing that day. I was trying my hardest! That’s when I realized that what comes easily for some people is very hard for others.</p>
<p>I loved college. I thought the engineering classes were challenging, but manageable. My hardest classes were physics and architectural design (I was an architectural engineering major). </p>
<p>If engineers were to overrun the world, all the buildings would be boring cubes! There would be no buildings that are curved, asymmetrical, or interesting in any sense of the word!</p>
<p>I’m really glad this thread was created. I’m currently struggling with the decision of whether or not I should stay in Management information systems or change to Computer Science. To be honest, I have no doubt I want to work on the business aspect of technology a lot more than on the actual hands-on technological aspect of it (like becoming a programmer) but I know there’s more prestige and better options with a Computer Science degree (right?) but I’m TERRIFIED of physics and calculus. Just the words make me shudder.</p>
<p>Engineering is feared because there is a certain attrition rate for engineers. I remember when I was in undergraduate (the first time), a bunch of my friends who were engineers eventually switched out into something else. Of course, it was one of the best engineering schools in the world. Still, you never hear of English majors at Harvard fearing flunking out of English.</p>
<p>I decided to go back for a 2nd Bachelors in engineering as an older student and had no idea how I would fare. There was a thought in the back of my mind that I might fail out. Ends up I did much better than I could have ever imagined.</p>
<p>The thing is, engineering is a lot of studying. And that does not mix with pot, binge drinking, and immaturity.</p>
<p>I think most people of fair intelligence can succeed in engineering. It’s a time investment thing, more than a genius/rocket science thing.</p>