Worried about majoring in engineering...

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>Next year i'm going to Penn State Main as a CivE major. I'm kinda worried that the coursework may be more than i'm bargaining for. Yes, i've had Honors Calc, Physics, and Chemistry in high school and got decent grades in all of them. I am by no means a stupid person, i'm in the top 10.5% of my class and i like to do well in school. BUT I'm worried that college courses will just run circles around me and i'll get lost in the shuffle. Is this something i should really be worrying about? How did you guys deal with the transition between h.s. and college? What happens if i get in over my head? Do you ever feel that you missed out on anything in college because of your major? I like to go out and have a good time, but i'm afraid that will get squashed due to difficulty/amount of work.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance for any advice.</p>

2

<p>AT first I didn't know what you meant by "run around in circles". If you were in the top 10.5 % in high school because you studied hard and you bring your hard work to college, then you should be fine.</p>

<p>Transitioning from high school to college is different for everyone but for the majority, it is hard and get homesick often and therefore flunk or don't do as well the 1st year. But hey, it's all part of growing up and getting out of the teen state.. As long as you make friends and have the support of them and especially counselors, then then they will do whatever they can to help you and address your issues.</p>

<p>After the 1st year, you're a different man and you're going to have a BLAST the rest of the college years.</p>

<p>As for missing something in college, I know that engineering takes up ALOT of social time depending if you're working full time or taking over 16 credits. importantly, try to balance your time and you'll have fun and study hard at the same time. I know for me I had a hard time balancing school work and social and eventually stressed out and flunked calc 2 even though I was a part time student.</p>

3

<p>You'll be okay.</p>

<p>At Rice, there were twelve civs my senior year. I was drum major of the university band, another was the founder of Rice for Peace, another was a captain of the ultimate frisbee team, another was double-majoring in history, another was sports editor for the newspaper, and another was in probably three or four theater productions every year. Everyone had several other things that they did <em>aside</em> from studying engineering. You're not going to live in a crazy engineering bubble unless you decide that you want to.</p>

<p>First year kind of sucked, but after that, it evened out and we all hit our stride.</p>

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<p>As long as you are studying something you are interested in you wont find it hard.</p>

5

<p>
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As long as you are studying something you are interested in you wont find it hard.

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<p>And also, there will be unicorns running around the quad, and everyone will fart rainbows, and it will be sunshine all the time.</p>

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Is this something i should really be worrying about?

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<p>It's not something to obsess over, but it's not something you should dismiss either, with cliched pablum about how nothing is difficult if you enjoy it.</p>

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What happens if i get in over my head?

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<p>Find out what the support resources are in your school when you get in. Find out what tutoring services are available and whether they cost anything. Find out if there is an office charged with student support - at my alma mater, it was the counseling deans. </p>

<p>If you get in over your head, get tutoring, talk to the professors and TAs, talk to your student support people, talk to your housemaster or resident tutor if you have them. Talk to your advisor if he/she is any good. Make sure that you are getting reasonable amounts of food and sleep. Get help from your friends, if class policies allow it. Go to office hours if you can make them. Consider dropping a class if you can still maintain full-time status - better to pass three classes than to finish four but fail two of them.</p>

<p>You may also want to consider whether you're in the right major. Struggling doesn't necessarily mean that you're in the wrong major, but you might be. I have a friend who took the simple step of changing from straight MechE to the flexible MechE option with a robotics concentration, and it actually helped her quite a bit.</p>

<p>Don't stick your head in the sand, and don't take an attitude that you are too tough to need help. Don't put off finding out what the support resources are until you urgently need them.</p>

<p>If worst comes to worst and you fail out, all is not lost. At that point you can either transfer to an easier school, or you can take some time to work (possibly in an engineering internship), regroup, fix whatever problems or mistakes caused you to fail out, and go back for another try. I have known success stories with both approaches.</p>

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<p>LOL. Jessiehl, well-said.</p>

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<p>The subject won't be easier if you like it, BUT the difficulty will be much more tolerable if you do, so you'll have a better chance of graduating</p>

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<p>Matt H -</p>

<p>Your first year will be much more intense than any year you have experienced in high school. If you have developed good study habits, you will do well. Since many students do not have the study habits needed to get through the first year of engineering, how well you do depends on your priorities. If you choose to use your freshman year to socialize and cultivate friendships by partying, you will find your course load to be difficult.</p>

<p>However, if you are able to achieve a healthy balance between studying and partying, you will probably do reasonably well. Begin the first semester with the goal of making friends during orientation week. Once school begins, make a pact with yourself to not fall behind in your classes. Studying with friends can serve two purposes; first to continue your cultivation of social interactions (study groups do provide primary and secondary social interaction, with secondary meaning access to the friends of your friends) and second, to use your commitment to the group to keep up with the class.</p>

<p>One study technique I developed during my sophomore year was to use the library and upperclassmen textbooks to read about the topic I was studying by an author other than the author of the textbook we were using for the course. Reading different approaches to teaching the same topic paid of in better understanding and better grades.</p>

<p>Many before you have done it and you can too. Good luck!</p>

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<p>My son had really deplorable stats--500s on the SATs in high school and average grades--and he is a senior now in civil engineering at a 4 yr fairly decent technical university. He had to work really really hard,and he found that he couldn't settle down to do homework or study unless he had gone swimming in the college pool for an hour or two to calm himself down first. He doesn't have much of a social life, just goes out on Friday nights, and didn't have time for a girlfriend, he discovered for himself by having a few. He does waste some time--who doesn't?--but he also works pretty hard.</p>

<p>You are going to college with a better foundation than he had. I'm sure if you work hard that you will be fine.</p>

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<p>Perhaps a summer course in one of the required freshmen courses would make things a little easier and give you a glimpse of what college courses are like. If that isn't your cup of tea, I'd suggest reviewing materials from textbooks and free college video sites.</p>

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<p>i second what everyone said before, and in addition, i'll say that the key to success in engineering or any anything else in college lies in establishing good habits. You need to have a set schedule of when to do stuff(study, IM sports, tv, when you sleep/when you get up everyday), follow through with it, then it becomes easy. </p>

<p>Someone's said this before, get help when you are stuck for a long time, make appointments with the professor or TA, sit in front of the class, ask questions in class and after, you should never be afraid to ask a question because you think it's stupid, because it's only stupid if you don't ask and get hammered on the exams. (let them laugh, and you can laugh after your exams)</p>

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<p>Thanks for the replies everyone. I guess i'm just looking to have it "all", a great social life and a great academic life, but there just arn't enough hours in the day i suppose. I'll have to make sacrafices but i feel that i owe it to myself to have as much fun as possible during college. I'm going to summer session at PSU and i'll be getting 2 classes out of the way by doing that. Maybe that will help me lighten up on the course load to get everything i'm looking for.</p>

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<p>Good advice given above. I told my CE nephew not to be ashamed of working hard and of skipping social events. You will be surrounded by people who seem to have nothing to do, while you have more studying to do than hours in the day. Do the studying and be the grind until you know you can spend more time doing fun things. Make school the priority until you're sure you can spare an evening for a concert, etc. If you flunk out, you won't keep those people as friends anyway, and your future is more important than playing cards, etc.</p>

<p>Yeah, you can do it, but you've got to commit.</p>

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<p>I found study groups to be a great way to socialize with friends. Sure, I might have been able to do the homework a little bit faster, but that just means I'd go to sleep maybe an hour earlier. Instead I worked with friends all night and had a lot of fun. Often we'd wind up taking a break to go out for some food together, maybe a drink or two, and then go back to doing homework.</p>