question for the engineers, or those in engineering school Options

[bruecksteve]

well, you guys are really scaring me!!

I work with people with engineering degrees that probably cant even do simple maintainance to thier cars, yet i hear these stories and i'm starting to question myself even more....

Miki

If engineers had to actually work on the cars, our cars would be very different. My friend that has owned his own repair shop for years and worked for GM for about 16, cusses the engineers everyday for the lack of concern for ease of maintenance.

I say let them design something and THEN make them R&R and see if they still like their design.

[sgarnett]

Actually, in my opinion engineering, marketing, and executives ALL need to learn to think like a customer. I'm not talking about any particular company, either.

[pknowles]

I can echo a lot of what Sean siad, getting ANY technical degree is hard work. I can also say cooping was one of the best things I ever did. Most people (me included) didn't have to really study in High School because it was spoon fed to you so much. Well in College you have to really figure it out and that's the biggest difference; you can't just go to class an expect to get it, you have to work at it to really understand the concept. Take encouragement from this, my first semister I got a 2.4 GPA in Mechanical engineering and ended my undergrad with a 3.5 GPA overall, so it's not over from a bad semester. Now I'm 2 years away from my PHD in Mechanical Engineering. Work on understanding the concepts behind the class and that will take you a lot father then just memorizing. Remember, you can train a monkey to memorize eqations, but you can't train a monkey to understand the concepts. (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[CrashTestDummy]

Heck, getting just about ANY degree is difficult. I worked about 1.5 jobs all while finishing my undergrad and graduate degrees in Geology. I did take it slowly, especially for my MS, but that was to allow more time for studying. Two classes a semister, on top of my thesis project was about it.

To put it bluntly, you have to stop doing all the extra carricular activities, sadly, like this forum. When I was working on my BS, I built a CP car, and autocrossed it, and a couple of other cars, as well as restored and showed a 72 4 speed Trans Am. The last two years of my MS degree program, I realized I wasn't going to get anything done school-wise unless I started spending more time doing schoolwork. By then the cars had been in the garage, under covers for some time. I basically dropped out of circulation to get the school stuff done. No going out on weekends, no calling on friends, etc. I would take about 20 minutes every couple of days to go ride my bike, but otherwise, was either working, or doing school work.

Interestingly, the month after I defended my thesis, I got RIFfed from the oil company I was working at and went into the IT industry. I DO have my degrees, though, and have the satisfaction of a job well done. They can take my job from me, but not my degree. :-)

Good luck on your chase.

Gene Beaird

[bigshoe]

oh, and since i work on the weekends now, there is NO MORE autocrossing and roadracing for me. I would have take vacation days for that, and well, in the past year, i have only taken 1 or 2days of my 3 weeks vacation for MYSELF, the rest has all been something school related, usually to prepare for a test or write a big paper or something like that.

if my schedule changes again, there may be mroe time to play with the car, but its really getting pushed aside.

gotta eat and go to work, later guys

[00 SS]

There is a lot of good advice in this thread already, but I add what helped me. With the exception of the pure math classes, I was able to equate everything back to a system on a car. I have been building cars and engines since I was 10 and the mental images really helped me understand the concepts and not get so lost in the details. (Make sure you can see the forrest through all the trees)

Secondly, get in a study group. But be careful who you pick to study with. I found that those with far less understanding of the material than me were difficult to study with as were those with far more understanding of the material. Our group met in one of the engineering student lab rooms as often as possible and we decided that we would NEVER leave campus until all of our homework was done. No one did and we all made it through the program. Some did a little better than others, but we all did pretty well finishing with GPA's from 3.0 to 3.7. You still have to take your own tests.

Don't be afraid to to drop a class if you have a problem with the prof. I dropped 2 classes and retook them with a different prof. That made all the difference in the world. Mt first calc 1 prof looked like Vincent Price and sounded like Elmer Fudd, I couldn't take it. My first Statics prof. spoke such broken English that I couldn't understand him. I retook both classes with different profs and passed easily. In fact I liked my calc prof so much, I took all the rest of my math classes from her. Silly little woman, but she presented the material in a way that made sense to me.

Stick with it and find out which profs teach what classes and try to stick with the ones that make the most sense to you.

[sgarnett]

gotta eat and go to work, later guys

Hang in there (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[CrashTestDummy]

<SNIP>

Secondly, get in a study group. But be careful who you pick to study with. I found that those with far less understanding of the material than me were difficult to study with as were those with far more understanding of the material. Our group met in one of the engineering student lab rooms as often as possible and we decided that we would NEVER leave campus until all of our homework was done. No one did and we all made it through the program. Some did a little better than others, but we all did pretty well finishing with GPA's from 3.0 to 3.7. You still have to take your own tests.

Don't be afraid to to drop a class if you have a problem with the prof. I dropped 2 classes and retook them with a different prof. That made all the difference in the world. Mt first calc 1 prof looked like Vincent Price and sounded like Elmer Fudd, I couldn't take it. My first Statics prof. spoke such broken English that I couldn't understand him. I retook both classes with different profs and passed easily. In fact I liked my calc prof so much, I took all the rest of my math classes from her. Silly little woman, but she presented the material in a way that made sense to me.

Stick with it and find out which profs teach what classes and try to stick with the ones that make the most sense to you.

Yes, by all means, study groups! Probably more important than having a clue, is being dedicated to do the studying. I got in a group who would be on the way out to go partying whenever I showed up to study. Found some folks at school who were interested in studying, and we helped each other.

I found it really helped to rewrite your notes at least once. If you are in a class where the tests are mostly essay questions, rewriting your notes, especially if the rewriting is geared to answering potential questions is priceless.

Definitely drop the class if your prof sux, or you are getting behind. Taking a little more time to get through school, with the GPA intact is MORE important than finishing in 4 years, MUCH more.

Like you said, vacations are for school. Think of school as another job, only you are working for yourself and your future. Hang in there, it won't last forever. I found I could do almost anything, as long as I knew it wouldn't last forever.

Gene Beaird

[Crazy Canuck]

hang in there... it gets tougher as you get closer to the end.
I did the opposite as most people do, I did it @ a x2 rate.
Full-time is 12 credits, and I was taking 23 credits per semester... got over it quick, though.
That's 7 courses + 1 lab per semester.
Started in Mechanical Engineering, almost finished it to then switch to Computer Engineering, where I did 3 majors (Software, Electronics (hardware), Telecom)
all of it in 4 years (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Good luck and keep the good work, it's very rewarding.