The shit I deal with...

I will...I will......

thumbed you guys both up.
you guys deserve better!

Thanks, you get my thumb too. Little OC's most prosper

Engineers

'cause we need to make sure what you design is possible to build.

Liberal Arts majors

'cause engineers need coffee.

I never complain about my job but when someone decides that he wants some major last-minute changes and then complains that I'm too slow, I might just get mad

im going into structural engineering, starting freshman year after this summer. You got any tips for me? At orientation they already started scaring us about how its going to be hard to graduate in 4 years and most people take 5 or 5 and a half

I'm not going to lie to you. Its a LOT of hard work. I attend Oregon State University for my engineering degree and the program there is quiet difficult. Be expected to put in at least 50 hours a week in classes and homework to pass with at a minnimum c average. I put in about 70 hours a week on top of working part time and volunteering haha.

I am currently the mentor chair for the ASCE student chapter at my school (American Society of Civil Engineers) so if you ever have any questions feel free to message me and I'll send you my personal email :). I'm starting a new mentoring society for civil engineering students next year too.

As for if its going to be hard to graduate in four years.. no, its very possible as long as you work hard and set your priorities correctly. Basically you are trying to prepare yourself for the professional world. What my professor told me my freshman year sticks with me now into the professional school: "do your work, check it, and check it again. Because we are not surgeons where our mistakes only kill the patient we operate on, our mistakes have the potential to kill hundreds, even thousands" and it weighs heavy on me. So there is purpose in why those people are trying to scare you.

Your first 2 years is also a big test, its what we call the "weeding out" and your biggest classes that you will need to pass and at least a B are Statics, Dynamics, Differential Equations, Sums and Series, and of course your 3 calc-based intro to physics classes.

If you have any other questions feel free to pop me a message!

thanks a lot for your help, ill be sure to use it if I need it.
I have my courseload already picked out, freshman year isnt going to be too hard. First semester I have chem 1,, calc 1, speech and FIQWS(stupid writing class). Im not worried yet. 2nd semester I have Chem 2, Physics I(Calculus oriented so it's 207, not some pussy 201), introduction to computer and writing for engineering. That doesnt sound too difficult.

But starting sophmore year I have Calc 3, structural mechanics, Physics 2, Structural and Site Plans and Data Analysis. And 2nd semester sophmore year is where the real shit starts that theyve been scaring us with: Differential Equations, Fluid Mechanics(which i heard is hard), and Mechanics of Deformable Bodies (civil engineering mentor said that last one I listed is what most people fail at.) Then junior year we got your typical linear algebra/vectors, Structural analysis, hydrology. Thermodynamics is gonna suck. But whatever. Ill get through it.

How do you put in 70 hours a week+work and volunteering? Thats like 15 hours a day. Wtf do you sleep??

haha you kind of get use to it. The summer now really kind of confuses me since my workload is literally non-existent... But yeah my average day (16 creds a term) starts at 7 am and i usually get home at about 10 pm. Your assignments start looking something like.. per class : 10+ questions a week, half an hour per question to... 2-3 questions per week, 2 hours per question haha. Basically people who tell you that college is the best 4 years of their life, probably weren't engineering majors. But I do it cause the subject intrigues me, and you really grow an appreciation for the stuff you take for granted such as the highway or plumbing/treatment system we have for potable water!

The work gets deceptively "easy", what i mean is, don't start slacking when you start seeing homework that only involved 2 or 3 questions because what you end up lacking is repetition! and those exams hit hard. I would say, if the difficulty of the classes don't get you, this might. I've seen few of my friends this term get caught off-guard by this simple fact. Technology advances, but time stays the same, so we as students are responsible for knowing more, in the same amount of time. And because of computers we are given more complicated problems (something that was expected to be done in a week can now be done in a few hours!).

Also I'm not sure what they require at your university, but by my experience, the 2 classes that hit hardest were Geomatics (surveying) and Soil Mechanics 2.

would you recommend me taking summer/winter credits? So that I can reduce my workload throughout the actual fall and spring? And if so, should I take the 'hardest' classes? Or should I take the 'easier' ones and leave the hardest for the actual school year so that they can be incorporated with the other things ill be learning?

I have to take soil mechanics 1st semester junior year. And also something like cement or concrete mechanics 2nd semester

I can only recommend you take only enough credits that you can feel comfortable with. The issue with summer classes is that they are accelerated, so I'm not sure what your situation would be like.

However I do recommend taking summer classes if they are Bach-core classes. But it probably wont make your junior/senior years any easier since there are classes restricted until multiple disciplines are met so that even if you took a class during the summer its no guarantee that you can take other classes that you may need but havn't met the requirements for.

what does Bach-core mean? Like those classes that all engineers, or all students in general have to take? Such english or a liberal arts if they make us?

well.. yes an no, they are all the prerequisite classes you take before taking your engr-oriented classes. So a liberal arts student wouldn't have to take 4 terms of calculus but you will haha. chemistry, physics.. etc etc. All important non-engineering classes.

well too bad I didnt sign up for those THIS summer.....those are the courses Im taking my 1st and 2nd semester.

unfortunately I was logged out when i posted that.

They really aren't, hell as an engineering student we have to learn all the software drafters use on top of tons of analysis software.