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Any engineering students here? - aslemn - 2011-04-07
Well, this is my last year, and i'll have to chose the subject i'll take in university. Since the SAT equivalent is divided in here, i already have 2/3 of my main score to analize where and what i can take. I'm applying to Biomedical Engineering, as i'm completely fascinated by "medicine without surgeries", because although i love such subject, i'm haemophobic and it wouldn't work in a surgery or a autopsy, but there's something in there that bothers me.
There's the fact you have to get past the electronic engineering part, since you must acquire knowledge on such things, and of course, get through one and half a year of calculus.
I'm a good student in the subjects i'd need in there, i have good scores, but not the "perfect scores" that are "needed", like some people say.
I have no problem in studying too much until i learn something, and i try to do my best, but it's not like i always have an A score.
What i'm trying to ask is, is it really needed to be that good? Because, it's being a little hard to me to think on such possibility, with everyone saying things like "You must love these subjects, and be just purely excellent to handle the course until it's end, otherwise, you'll get crazy at some point and will quit".
Is it that hard? I know i can't really compare the calculus, physics and chemistry i'm taking in my last year, but is it that ridiculously hard and different?
Because, i'm thinking a lot about which course i would take, i don't want to get into an university and eventually quit wasting the years i've spent in there, because i only give up of something when i can't really stand it, i don't think about studying what i like, because that's a little utopic.
Well, i'm asking for any engineering students because almost every engineering course has these subjects in it. So, is it really that dam hard, or it's more like a course that requires you to constantly study, but that you don't really need to be "da bomb" in all those subjects?
Thanks anyways
Any engineering students here? - XTOTHEL - 2011-04-07
IMO, you really need to focus and organize yourself. University really tests your independent study skills. The courses aren't hard. You need need to attend lectures, review your material. I wouldn't worry about it. First year courses are all very similar. Mostly to get everyone up to speed.
Any engineering students here? - Panacea - 2011-04-07
Your high school background will sometimes be extremely helpful in your freshman classes. However, study habits are a -must- if you want to do well.
For example, I had Calculus AB my senior year, and since I was taking it again my first semester, I figured I'd be set. This was entirely false. First test comes around and iirc I made a 69? Something around there. So like XL said, study habits are crucial to a college career.
Any engineering students here? - Dusk - 2011-04-07
As with all things in life, work ethic and luck > smarts
Any engineering students here? - aslemn - 2011-04-07
Panacea Wrote:Your high school background will sometimes be extremely helpful in your freshman classes. However, study habits are a -must- if you want to do well.
For example, I had Calculus AB my senior year, and since I was taking it again my first semester, I figured I'd be set. This was entirely false. First test comes around and iirc I made a 69? Something around there. So like XL said, study habits are crucial to a college career.
XTOTHEL Wrote:IMO, you really need to focus and organize yourself. University really tests your independent study skills. The courses aren't hard. You need need to attend lectures, review your material. I wouldn't worry about it. First year courses are all very similar. Mostly to get everyone up to speed.
Dusk Wrote:As with all things in life, work ethic and luck > smarts
Thanks. I have pretty constant studying habits, but the main thing i wanted to know was that if what people tell me is true, if "You must be born with a talent for Math, Physics and Chemistry to succeed in that, otherwise, you'll quit in less than 60% of the course".
I always found it kinda exaggerated and that was what i was afraid of, thank you, really :>
Hope i have luck when i get into one, which will be like in 10 months. :>
Any engineering students here? - WingZero - 2011-04-07
Like everyone said, having a strong work ethic will get you through any class. My Vibrations professor stressed that being book smart would not get you through his class, and that a strong work ethic would. That meant going to his office hours and practicing concepts over and over again. His class was the first engineering class where you couldn't half ass it. I made a 59 on his first test and that really put pressure on me. I started seeing him after class everyday and went to every office hour to make sure I understood the material. All that paid off when I made a 95 on the second (last) test and ended up with a solid B in the class.
Any engineering students here? - Shidoshi - 2011-04-08
You are doing university in Brazil? Guess I can give a more appliable opinion (though I can't say I'm the normal average engineer student...).
The beginning of the course will be a little bit difficult, with getting used to the new speed at which things go at university and all the different ambiance.
I particularly LOVED doing pretty much all courses but experiences may vary. At the beginning you'll be having general courses that all engineer students have, specific courses only come much later (think at least 4th semester).
I'd be a hypocrite if I told you to study very hard, but, from what my collegues told me, you really should study hard.
My advice is: study hard and attend all classes for the first semester and see how things go, then you can change your behavior accordingly. It's really personal whether going to classes works for you, or doing all exercices. You should really experiment and see how well you fare.
It is much harder than HS, for sure. Specially if you are in a good university (not the private, easy to enter ones).
Experiences may vary a lot in between different engineer courses and different universities.
Any engineering students here? - madanthony - 2011-04-08
Sup. EE senior here. No biomed experience though. Rambling response incoming.
Don't believe the hype. Pretty much every company I've ever seen looking for interns and entry level employees has a loose standard of wanting a 3.0 GPA or better. Some want a 2.8, some a 3.2. But if I had a 2.5, extracurricular experience in design or research, and could give a solid interview, I could still get hired. Just keep doing what you do, and you'll look great on paper. I got 2.5s in Calc 2 and 4 and a 3.0 in Calc 3. Not so much because I didn't grasp parts of it (although this is true), but because I never did nightly math homework.
Math and science are very important. I would call AP Physics the most valuable class I took in high school. At the same time, we have computers. At this point, I rarely need to do math more complicated than basic integrals, 3x3 matrices, and partial derivatives by hand. It's been a long time since I did an integral by hand that even needed a substitution. I do use a lot of more complicated math though. I need to know how to set up volume integrals and I use Laplace Transforms from Calc 4 in half my classes. But I haven't actually done a Laplace Transform integral since Calc 4. We have tables with common transformations, Matlab, and Wolfram to do that. Most (but not all) of my professors have an attitude of "If there's a big table with all the information you need to know on it, you'll get it on the test and you'd be wasting your time to memorize it".
Quote:Because, it's being a little hard to me to think on such possibility, with everyone saying things like "You must love these subjects, and be just purely excellent to handle the course until it's end, otherwise, you'll get crazy at some point and will quit".hahaohwow.jpg
I do not "love" electrical engineering. I think physics and math in their purer forms are just "okay". I think signal processing and the very hardcore E&M physics can have a stick shoved up their asses. But circuit design and stuff like digital logic and microprocessors? That's fun for me. You won't love every class you take. That would be stupid. What's to love about dry, non-applicable, introductory level math? You'll probably have some classes you despise and have to limp through (ECE 366 :< ) or awful professors that really ruin otherwise interesting material (ECE416 D
. You'll have some classes you do love and enjoy going to and doing work for. But I find most of my classes are just "okay". I have a mildly positive feeling for them and that's enough to keep me going. But when I graduate I can cut the stuff I don't like and aim for a career in the stuff from classes I did like.This was my last Applied Analog Integrated Circuits homework
I could analyze that by hand and eventually get it right. It might take me hours, but I've learned everything I needed to know at some point. But that would be stupid. Instead, I had to plug it into a circuit simulation program and verify that it works as expected with an altered resistor value. That takes 20 minutes. What did I have to know? I had to predict the response similar to what you see in figure 4, and therefore had to understand how a 555 timer works. All that takes is a little multiplication of resistors and capacitors. The internal schematic of a 555 timer is on the bottom of page one. I know how to analyze transistor circuits, but I've never done one with more than two in it by hand. But if I got a job at Texas Instruments I'd be a kung-fu master of designing circuits like that within a few years.
The important stuff:
I don't think it's that difficult. Time-consuming and challenging, yes, but it's something I can succeed in. I may not be able to speak for you, but that's how I feel.
Always keep it in the back of your head that your intro classes are nothing like your what your upperclassman classes will be like.
Get good at approximating and using reasonable estimates. Get good at having a vague clue of how something works by looking at schematics and designs. Get good at finding and using resources like part data sheets similar to the 555 one I posted. Being an engineering student is about learning how to problem solve, think logically and getting exposed to the very basics in your field. You'll learn the specifics you need on the job and practice them. University is a tour de force of concepts across a broad stretch of subtopics within the overarching area of Electrical/Mechanical/Chemical/etc Engineering.
MSU doesn't have a biomedical major, but a concentration within EE.
http://www.egr.msu.edu/files_egr/MSU_Electrical_Engineering.pdf
Those are our graduation requirements. The biomed info is on page two.
Do the homework, go to lecture, and do any other sort of practice given to you. This isn't hard to do, and is enough to do well in just about everything. "Well" may mean a 3.0 or a 3.5 in some instances. If what you're doing isn't enough, go to office hours and study like a machine, but it's not really necessary for every class you'll ever take.
Any engineering students here? - modular - 2011-04-08
Bachelor's Engineering Physics
I only loved Lagrangian Mechanics and General Relativity. Those are 2 very small subjects. And for my degree, I "got through". You don't have to love something to be able to do it, but a good payoff can be motivating enough to help you slog through the bad parts if you can keep your end goal in mind.
I sure as hell didn't get all A's... DifEq and GR were about the only A's I got in undergrad. But I'm doing "math" now in grad school too, degree is a math masters but doing stuff physicists who like math physics would do -- underwater acoustics.
Again, good study habits are make or break.
Any engineering students here? - aslemn - 2011-04-08
Thanks for the advice guys. The main problem i found out, was the fact everyone was hypeing too much about such things. Exaggerating, being more specific. Of course it's not something easy or that doesn't require effort, because such thing doesn't exist, but i found the fact people were talking about loving a subject a little scary.
Shidoshi Wrote:You are doing university in Brazil? Guess I can give a more appliable opinion (though I can't say I'm the normal average engineer student...).
The beginning of the course will be a little bit difficult, with getting used to the new speed at which things go at university and all the different ambiance.
I particularly LOVED doing pretty much all courses but experiences may vary. At the beginning you'll be having general courses that all engineer students have, specific courses only come much later (think at least 4th semester).
I'd be a hypocrite if I told you to study very hard, but, from what my collegues told me, you really should study hard.
My advice is: study hard and attend all classes for the first semester and see how things go, then you can change your behavior accordingly. It's really personal whether going to classes works for you, or doing all exercices. You should really experiment and see how well you fare.
It is much harder than HS, for sure. Specially if you are in a good university (not the private, easy to enter ones).
Experiences may vary a lot in between different engineer courses and different universities.
Yes i am. Actually, there's no private university in here with any engineering courses. Only the hard to get into ones. Three, being specific in the town i live, since it's the capital city of my state. Due to the SAT equivalent being split up into 3 exams, one at each of the three last years of school, i can have at least an idea of what i can actually get in. Due to having 2/3 of the exam score already, if i repeat the same score from the last two years, which will be a little easier, since the third phase of it is actually the easiest one, i'll be with something like a 650.
That grants me to be in every course, other than Medicine. Actually, Biomed works a little different here, where the course itself isn't available. Where i am, Biomed has EE as a prerequisite, and after it, i'd have to take a special course for like one, two years at max to get into that area.
I'd have to study for one more year, all the health part about Engineering, that is commonly found in the Biomedical engineering course, but that can be attended after doing EE too.
My biggest fear was about it, because i like those subjects, but sometimes, i don't really learn something immediately or have such a ridiculously high score in those like some of the guys in my class.
Good to know it works like that, anthony. Because the same way i do like some subjects, some i just do nothing other than getting through it.
I have pretty constant study habits. But i'm not much into the "Study for 70% of your free hours or you won't get in" culture that's been grown in people in here. It's just plain terrible. I don't really study for more than 2 hours straight. I lose my concentration after it, and i can learn things in much less than that, but it's annoying about getting with the fact people tend to judge you for the time you spend on reading.
Unnecessary, at all. :S
Any engineering students here? - Shidoshi - 2011-04-08
aslemn Wrote:Thanks for the advice guys. The main problem i found out, was the fact everyone was hypeing too much about such things. Exaggerating, being more specific. Of course it's not something easy or that doesn't require effort, because such thing doesn't exist, but i found the fact people were talking about loving a subject a little scary.
Yes i am. Actually, there's no private university in here with any engineering courses. Only the hard to get into ones. Three, being specific in the town i live, since it's the capital city of my state. Due to the SAT equivalent being split up into 3 exams, one at each of the three last years of school, i can have at least an idea of what i can actually get in. Due to having 2/3 of the exam score already, if i repeat the same score from the last two years, which will be a little easier, since the third phase of it is actually the easiest one, i'll be with something like a 650.
That grants me to be in every course, other than Medicine. Actually, Biomed works a little different here, where the course itself isn't available. Where i am, Biomed has EE as a prerequisite, and after it, i'd have to take a special course for like one, two years at max to get into that area.
I'd have to study for one more year, all the health part about Engineering, that is commonly found in the Biomedical engineering course, but that can be attended after doing EE too.
My biggest fear was about it, because i like those subjects, but sometimes, i don't really learn something immediately or have such a ridiculously high score in those like some of the guys in my class.
Good to know it works like that, anthony. Because the same way i do like some subjects, some i just do nothing other than getting through it.
I have pretty constant study habits. But i'm not much into the "Study for 70% of your free hours or you won't get in" culture that's been grown in people in here. It's just plain terrible. I don't really study for more than 2 hours straight. I lose my concentration after it, and i can learn things in much less than that, but it's annoying about getting with the fact people tend to judge you for the time you spend on reading.
Unnecessary, at all. :S
About the time studying, different people have different needs of study. I didn't get in to UFRGS at 5th place in Chem. Eng, got mostly straight As in all courses and got to do a 2 year double-degree program in France for nothing and I'm one of the people that studies the least in my class. I mainly just go to classes and learn pretty much everything there, then do a little 30min-1h revision before tests and it has been working for 22 years now.
Any engineering students here? - Manu - 2011-04-08
Didn't read the posts really but some tips for passing, very basic and obvious but you have to remember them:
-If you don't get something ASK IT, anywhere, professors, classmates, or here on SP or a math specific forum or anything.
-Do LOTS of exercises is what most people would say, the key is doing DIFFERENT exercises, if you know how to do that type of exercise, then do another one, if you don't have any left, you can always search in books and the internet.
-Don't study 24/7, take breaks between studying so your mind doesn't get tired, personally I study in 30 min~ lapses, once I do about 30 mins I stop and play a game or something then continue.
Any engineering students here? - Hamedo - 2011-04-11
Hey Aslemn, I study Chemical Engineering(last year) if u have any question about it just contact me on MSN xD.
Any engineering students here? - Flirtini - 2011-04-12
i have a B.S. in EE, and my roomate in college has B.S. in B.E. (bio-eng). Any eng major will tell you it's all about discipline to make it through and get your degree. Of course, interest in the subject helps a lot too lol
Any engineering students here? - Chicocl - 2011-04-12
i am studying mechanic engineering (3rd semester), and i can tell you some tips to pass your test:
1. like someone said above ask if you don't know something, all my teachers usualy say that an engineer must know where he is and what he is doing, if you don't know you are in a bad situation on your career.
2. Be creative, well this tip for me is the most important, theachers aren't going to teach you everything you need to pass exams, sometimes you'll have to ask what would happen if...., if you don't ask for some variations of the same exercise you can lose a good opportunity to learn something very helpful.
3. Don't think you are well prepared for a test, in the engineering course, you are always bad prepared, because it is a extense world of knowledge you can't just learn everything you need without studying hard.
4. Have everything organized, sometimes you'll need something from already passed classes.
5. Stay cool, you can pass studying 24/7 thats true but in the long term you are going to be tired and just drop it for a while, so i recommend you to take breaks so you can relax a bit, for example when i had Physics I (god i really hated that teacher) I studied with the Serway guide to engineer's physics, that book is the best for physic to me so far, i studied 1 or 1 1/2 hours and the took a break of 1 hour or 45 minutes to relax, chat a while, even play maple, everything but just don't study in that time.
6. Have friends from higher semesters, they are very helpful, they can tell you what books are actually good, some web pages etc
Well i think thats everything you need to know, let me tell you that this is a difficult course not everyone is made for it, but in the end it is very satisfactory to see what you've done with your own effort, So good luck my friend.