Engineering Majors (serious)

[recyfer]

Hey I'm about to start college here in about a week and am majoring in engineering (thinking of going either mechanical or industrial). Is their any advice you would give me about it or any personal experiences you've maybe had. Not only with engineering but with college life in general.

Thanks for the help and responses everyone

[Jem777]

I'd go with mechanical.

As for tips with college life, it's all in your priorities. Want good grades? Put in a minimum of 1 hour per hour spent in class. Write notes in class, best way to learn, and will save time while revising later on.

[Reps n Sets]

Engineering is pretty boring and dry, for the most part.

[bamatank]

I hope you are really good at math and physics.

I majored in mechanical engineering. It involved a lot of calculus and calculus based physics (not the basic your given the equations for everything and plug in the numbers crap, but the you are given the laws and theories and now you must do some integrations to get to an equation).

My sister majored in industrial engineering and it involved a lot of statistics.

Both are great majors because they are broad enough that you can find a job in just about any engineering field.

Good luck.

[kamjah]

im a mechanical. all i have to say is, enjoy your freshman year and maybe like half of your sophmore year. because the rest will be no picnic. i'm not trying to scare you out of the major, but it woudl be a lie if i told you it was easy. be prepared for 1-2 homework problems that will take up an entire night of racking your brain. if your dedicated, have a good work ethic, and are good at making friends w/ random people to form study groups, you will definitly have an easier time. this pretty much goes w/ any major that isn't a complete copout. that being said. this is a very good major, and the job market is pretty damn good as of now.

[nickrut]

Engineering is pretty tough, so expect to put in more than 1 hour per hour spent per class. My advice is to find a good group of people that you can do homeworks and study with. This will also be helpful because you will do alot of group projects as an engineer, so developing a good group of people that you work well with will be beneficial. Also, I found it helpful to get solution manuals for any textbook I could. This helps becuase there will be homeworks that you have no idea on, so having something to help you through it helps...plus it allows you to check your answers when you do your homework. I'd also suggest that you learn (if you dont know already) how to take neat/legible notes. I sucked at this, and sometimes would spend an hour just trying to decipher what the hell i wrote.

General advice...try to keep a good balance between fun and school work. Too much of either and you'll hurt yourself in the long run.

[kamjah]

also. if you plan on having any type of social life in college. your going to have to learn to make friends outside of your engineering curriculum. don't get me wrong, theres plenty of nice people in engineering, but only like 2% of them will be chicks. since your first year and a half or so will be gen-eds. meet as many people as you can. only being around engineers for 4-5 years will drive you absolutely mad. join a frat/club/organization. it will greatly improve your college experience.

[RockyIV]

Hey I'm about to start college here in about a week and am majoring in engineering (thinking of going either mechanical or industrial). Is their any advice you would give me about it or any personal experiences you've maybe had. Not only with engineering but with college life in general.

Thanks for the help and responses everyone

I have a bachelors and a masters in civil engineering. All engineering fields are very demanding so you have to learn quick how to manage your time. If you can do that you will have time to party with your freinds and still get decent grades. If you fail to manage your time well, you will be miserable. There will be times when it's 12:30 am and your friends are out partying and drinking and you're stuck with 2 more hours of homework to do, that's just the way it goes but it shouldn't come up that often IF you manage your time well. Just do all the homework and make sure you show up for every class because each one builds to the next one.

Take good notes and learn how and when to approach your prof for questions. Most are quite happy to help you in any way they can. Just don't go in there and ask a dumb question like "I don't know where to start..." that's a sure way to get on his bad side. Work on the assignment and if you get stuck approach him with specific questions.

Good luck

[bamatank]

also. if you plan on having any type of social life in college. your going to have to learn to make friends outside of your engineering curriculum. don't get me wrong, theres plenty of nice people in engineering, but only like 2% of them will be chicks. since your first year and a half or so will be gen-eds. meet as many people as you can. only being around engineers for 4-5 years will drive you absolutely mad. join a frat/club/organization. it will greatly improve your college experience.

this is very true

[recyfer]

Thanks for the help so far reps given out and more on recharge.

I have a pretty good work ethic although I do tend to slack from time to time. I guess finding the balance between having fun and studying will be the toughest part for me. :x

[jayknow05]

Hey I'm about to start college here in about a week and am majoring in engineering (thinking of going either mechanical or industrial). Is their any advice you would give me about it or any personal experiences you've maybe had. Not only with engineering but with college life in general.

Thanks for the help and responses everyone

Even though you feel that you could learn something without going to class (you will at some point), go to class. Don't get solutions to the homework before you've worked it out alone, even though there will always be somebody around who's taken the class and has all the work.

Don't do mechanical!! I'd look to see if your school has an Electrical Power Engineering program, that is currently the engineering field that has the greatest need for engineers. I've been working for 3 months and we've had 3 guys retire and the majority of the engineers left will be retiring in the next 5-10 years.

You will probably have to do more work than your friends who are business majors.... get over it you'll get them back by getting multiple high paying job offers out of college.

[kamjah]

Things to Avoid While In Engineering:
- Mary Jane (Learned this lesson the hard way)
- Addictive Online Games (WoW specifically. Also learned the hard way. Your going to want an outlet from all the work, stick to more productive stuff like bodybuilding)
- Copying Solution Manuals (using them to learn the material is good. but if you slack and just start copying the solutions, your gunna screw yourself hardcore on the midterms)
- Too Many Friends in LAS (i know i said to make as many friends as possible outside the curriculum, but having too many friends who haven't even chosen a major yet can be detrimental to your motivation. Surround yourself with driven/motivated people who have a direction chosen in terms of their education)
- Overreacting to low quiz/midterm/final exam grades. (Engineering is notorious for having an overall lower average GPA compared to other majors. Most of the higher level engineering courses will have pretty ridiculous curves. For example my test avg for my physics 3 class was like 45% and i still pulled a B in that class)

i'll add more as i think of em

[nickrut]

Things to Avoid While In Engineering:
- Mary Jane (Learned this lesson the hard way)
- Addictive Online Games (WoW specifically. Also learned the hard way. Your going to want an outlet from all the work, stick to more productive stuff like bodybuilding)
- Copying Solution Manuals (using them to learn the material is good. but if you slack and just start copying the solutions, your gunna screw yourself hardcore on the midterms)

i'll add more as i think of em

X2...

[jayknow05]

also. if you plan on having any type of social life in college. your going to have to learn to make friends outside of your engineering curriculum. don't get me wrong, theres plenty of nice people in engineering, but only like 2% of them will be chicks. since your first year and a half or so will be gen-eds. meet as many people as you can. only being around engineers for 4-5 years will drive you absolutely mad. join a frat/club/organization. it will greatly improve your college experience.

So true, you will have a lot of major nerds in your classes, which is good for group work, bad for findign parties on the weekends. I'd go rush a fraternity, join a club, and get on an intramural team.

[bamatank]

Where are you going to school?

[jayknow05]

lets guess... In Illinois.... IIT??

[kamjah]

UIC (University of Indians and Chinese) ftw!

[nickrut]

UMD College Park ftw.

[1dc23]

what is average salary for a mechanical engineer?

[recyfer]

Things to Avoid While In Engineering:
- Mary Jane (Learned this lesson the hard way)
- Addictive Online Games (WoW specifically. Also learned the hard way. Your going to want an outlet from all the work, stick to more productive stuff like bodybuilding)
- Copying Solution Manuals (using them to learn the material is good. but if you slack and just start copying the solutions, your gunna screw yourself hardcore on the midterms)
- Too Many Friends in LAS (i know i said to make as many friends as possible outside the curriculum, but having too many friends who haven't even chosen a major yet can be detrimental to your motivation. Surround yourself with driven/motivated people who have a direction chosen in terms of their education)
- Overreacting to low quiz/midterm/final exam grades. (Engineering is notorious for having an overall lower average GPA compared to other majors. Most of the higher level engineering courses will have pretty ridiculous curves. For example my test avg for my physics 3 class was like 45% and i still pulled a B in that class)

i'll add more as i think of em

Nice, would give out mor reps if I couyld but seems I repped you recently for something else.

Anyways I am going to Texas Tech and I was told I won't have time for a fraternity is that true? Also are there any clubs that do with bodybuilding or anything similar?

[kamjah]

what is average salary for a mechanical engineer?

from what my dean was saying, i think the avg starting out of undergrad was liek 53-54k

[I3uilt]

dude im in electrical going into my third year and im going to tell you if you dont love it get out while you still can. It is not something to do just because you couldnt find anything else because it is VERY difficult. the benefits in the end are pretty pimpin though

[kamjah]

Nice, would give out mor reps if I couyld but seems I repped you recently for something else.

Anyways I am going to Texas Tech and I was told I won't have time for a fraternity is that true? Also are there any clubs that do with bodybuilding or anything similar?

well. i guess that depends on the school itself. see my school is primarily a commutor school since its smack dab in the middle of the city. so we don't have like frat houses or anything. its basically just an organization. if its a frat w/ its own house thats throwing parties twice a week, its probably something you might wanna avoid. theres fraternities that are more focused on academics (even engineering frats if thats your thing), that you can put on resume's. i personally never did the frat thing, but i've heard good and bad things about em. so its really up to you.

about the bodybuilding clubs, im gunna say yes. because pretty much every school is gunna have a gym, and where there's a gym, theres bodybuilders. i know at my school there is a bbing club. not sure if i would join though. i would just find a workout partner w/ a similar schedule/workload as you.

[kamjah]

dude im in electrical going into my third year and im going to tell you if you dont love it get out while you still can. It is not something to do just because you couldnt find anything else because it is VERY difficult. the benefits in the end are pretty pimpin though

yeah, definilty agree w/ this one. you have to realize early whether or not you really wanna go through with it, and whether or not you can handle the steadily increasing coursework difficulty. my friends and i always say stuff like "man... why the hell did we choose to be engineers?" but i mean thats pretty much the attitude among all engineers. theres a hint of seriousness there, but we have no intentions of switching majors at this point. (because its pretty much too late). moral of the story, if you really can't handle what their throwing at you, definitly consider switching majors as EARLY as possible. that being said, having faith in myself and pushing through it is one of the most gratifying experiences i've ever had.

[dontcare]

what is average salary for a mechanical engineer?

dont know the average starting salary but my brother is 3 years out of college making 75,000 a year. hes already worked with 3 different companies. everytime he quits with one company he finds another job in a week and they always give him more money

[kamjah]

dont know the average starting salary but my brother is 3 years out of college making 75,000 a year. hes already worked with 3 different companies. everytime he quits with one company he finds another job in a week and they always give him more money

did he get his masters? or is he working straight out of undergrad? oh man i hope its the latter

[nickrut]

Average starting salary is around 50k for straight out of college with a ME undergrad. Usually it ranges from 45-55 depending on where you get the job/how many internships/who you know. Generally, if you knwo someone that can get you into a company, you are in better shape than those who know nobody.

[dontcare]

did he get his masters? or is he working straight out of undergrad? oh man i hope its the latter

straight outta undergrad. dont get me wrong though. he worked his ass off in college

[kamjah]

straight outta undergrad. dont get me wrong though. he worked his ass off in college

righteous man, props to your brother. id be super happy making anything higher than 60k two years after i graduate.

[recyfer]

Wow so I was no supergenius in high school or anything but had decent grades and a pretty good work ethic.

So basically what you're saying in terms of school work I should be ready for hell?