<p>I will be going to Cal Poly SLO as a major in mechanical engineering. I am kind of worried about the workload. Is college a lot harder than high school? How much time on average do you spend studying? Cal Poly says it should be between 25-30 hours/week....is this about right? Was the transition between high school and college difficult? I have taken honors science courses, regular english and history classes, and AP math courses. How many units should i take? Does the difficulty depend on the college? I would really appreciate any input and advice. Sorry for the long post and all of the questions. Thanks guys.</p>
<p>Difficulty in engineering definitely depends on the college and professors. In general, college work is more intense than high school work and more is expected out of you. I had a very rough first two years in engineering before I finally got the hang of it. Has it been worth it? I'll let you know when I graduate. I can give you more advice letter but it's time to go to sleep. Final exams this week.</p>
<p>rescuer87, i'll be going to cal poly SLO too...but majoring in materials engineering...from what my brother said (he's a 3rd year civil engineering major) college is definitely harder than high school and u have to put a lot more effort into it. i once asked him the same thing because i was afraid i wouldn't be able to handle the difficulty, but he told me once i understand the concepts/topic, i'll be able to adjust myself to it. basically it's just like learning new topics from having no knowledge of it. i'm taking honors physics in my high school and i didn't have any knowledge of it (my honors physics class is known to be the hardest course u can take in my school, and my physics teacher is really strict and college-like) i didn't have any help really in this class and i'm still okay with it (my physics teacher doesn't help at all...all he does is to talk gibberish, never understood what he said) but if i can still manage to get an A or a B without his or anybody's help, i think college'd be the same thing...except harder. anyways, sorry for this long...reply. i guess just work hard in your classes and you'll be fine...</p>
<p>College is a lot more independent. Most classes will not give homework, except for readings and there will usually only be two tests a year and maybe two papers which would determine your grade. Thats the hard part about college, theres no one pushing you to do your work and its very easy to get sidetracked and lost. The best thing to do is to set up a routine of studying, where you spend an hour studying for every hour you spend in class. Just make sure that you dont get lost or fall behind because it will be very hard in college to catch up.</p>