[Guardsman]

For those of you that may have done this, what's the best way to approach this? I want to do an Electrical Engineering program, but it will be while I am working full time, my job will be 1+ hours each way from home, and I'm in the Air National Guard.

The only schools around me that have BSEE programs are Berkeley, which is about 80 miles away, and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, which is about 250 miles away. I'd prefer Cal Poly, because they have a blended BS+MS program, where you can work toward your BS and MS at the same time.

However, the distance is going to be the biggest problem, as the vast majority of the courses are in-residence only.

I will be able to test out of a bunch of the lower-level electronics/electrical courses, as I have been an electronics tech for eleven years, so that should somewhat shorten my total time required.

So, what am I looking at here to do this?

Second question on this subject, is what am I looking at in terms of all the math calsses I will need to take? I know that I will need statistics and calc, but what will I need to take to get there, i.e., algebra, geometry, trig, etc.?

I found out that Cal Poly San Luis Obispo's continuing Ed has online math, from basic to Algebra 2, so I'm going to do those to get my textbook math skills up to where I can test into higher-level math courses.

Thanks again guys.

John

[bigshoe]

Ok, I didnt read everythign above (and that is because I don't have the time, since i work 40hrs a week, and am trying to get an engineering degree myself).

As i sit here, putting off studying and listening to music, trying to "clear my conscience" before I attack Calc II studying for an exam I know i'll screw up on monday......

ok, now i'm starting to ramble..hehe

its gonna be rough, hopefully the physical sciences and math come naturally to you, and then i'll say you'll have it alot easier than I do. Alot of my problem is motivation, and i'll mention one thing i've thought about today that i noticed:

motivation depends on the teacher, and if the teacher/prof cant motivate you through generating a genuine interest, then the rest is up to you for motivation (and in my case i'm scewed), and let me tell you, you better want it! As a procrastinator I keep putting things off, and you just cant do that. I have a genuine interest in the topics, but not so much in losing sleep to learn them.

Now, your about to embark on a hectic schedule, mine isnt as bad as yours, and let me just say that your will be greatly disadvantaged compared to you average student that lives on campus and has nothing but time on his/her hands. currently, i'm taking 12 cr hours (calc II, physics I, and C programming) and working 40 hours a week. I normally work 2nd shift, and go to school in the morning, but i've been able to adjust my work schedule this semester to give me more time during the week, so i'm doing the following..... tues, thurs 8 hours on 2nd shift..... then 12 hours saturday and 12 hours sunday. days that i have to drive to school and work, i'm driving a combined hour and 45 minutes+ total.

in your position, if i had to give you some advice, i would say the following:
stay focused
learn to love coffee
keep a positive attitude (don't let yourself get stressed out, you'll be under pressure for a long period of time)
get a freind that you can take classes with, or a study group if possible, thats gotta be a huge help that will keep you motivated.

currently that last one is somethign i really don't have, and if i had someone i can "talk school" with, that would (at least i think) greatly improve my motivation to study this.

Now, about engineering, i've previously heard the following qoute: "there are engineers, and then there are people with engineering degrees". personally, i would probably fall under the people with engineering degrees part (given I make it), since i would probably end up in a support type position, I really don't see myself on a design team, at least there isnt much opportunity at with my current company to do that (plus the experience requirements are pretty high).

I know i'm only in 2nd semester, and i'm already stooping down to the "c's equal degrees" ideology, which means i'm not doing too good!

I think i'm gonna catch some seinfeld before i work on this stuff (volumes of rotation, polar coordinates, arc length and such).

btw, to answer your question of the math heirarchy, it goes something like this:

algebra-algebra 2-trigonometry-calculus I (differential calculus)-calculus 2(integral calculus)- calculus 3 (multivariable calculus - i hear some schools combine this with either calc 2 or something else?)- Differential equations (I think this is applying calc I and beyond?)

and since i'm a Mech E major, I also have to take Linear algebra, and matrices for engineers, then Engineering statistics.

EDIT: ok, just found the curriculum sheet for EE at my school, so this will give you an idea of the classes you have to take (they don't have the bullshit general requirements listed, thats gonna differ by school anyway). Upon looking at semester 1, you should notice right away that you need to get through trigonometry before you start taking those courses (chemistry I did not require any calculus for me, and obviously none of the english courses)
Good luck man, its gonna be alot of work

another EDIT: I agree with z28barnett, with your work experience, it should be really easy for you to learn the EE material, but the theory they teach will be quite a different approach to Electronics compared to how you know it. I do not have much experience as a technician, but I did get my associates 6 years ago from ITT in EET, and engineering college already has a different way of teaching compared to when i was "spoon-fed" theory at ITT (I think we had more practical experience and preparation for use of it at ITT as well). in case your wondering, i've been in manufacturing for the past 7 years, and my fascination and interest for Surface Mount Machinery led me to become a machine operator instead of my want to be a technician at my current position (where i would be running an automated test machine and repairing what the machine believes is wrong with the pcb - in other words I wouldnt be doing too much REAL troubleshooting anyways).

On a side note, this gives me an idea of posting a thread that I'm about to do,

Miki