About to start colloege for engineering looking for tips other than "study hard!"

[draccanon]

I cant wait to start college for many reasons, especially just becoming more educated and improving myself as an individual. I always jump at the chance to ask people for advice on school and i typically get the same generic "balance your time" and "study hard" kind of lectures. I'm a little concerned for college math, especially since i haven't taken an algebra course since my sophomore year of high school.

Basically, I'm simply looking for some compelling discussion and advice from other engineering students. Any kinds of tips or trips on anything from dealing with teachers, classmates, assignments, group assignments, specific math problems, or any other aspect of being a college student majoring in engineering.

I'm a male and I'll be Attending Old Dominion University in Virginia. I am also a member of the drum line (tenor player) for their marching band! also i wont be taking english or literature classes because i finished them through dual enrollment courses so any tips on fun or enlightening general education classes that synergize well with being an engineer would be cool as well! Also I am leaning towards mechanical engineering but advice and opinions on other branches would be awesome!

edit for less dense text ;p

[belfpala]

Paragraphs.

Edit for the mods: not trolling. that was actual advice.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Network with people you meet, get their contact information, email, phone numbers, etc. Don't be pushy, but make lots of friends and professional contacts just by asking lots of questions and being an active member of the university. Being a recognizable face and name to professors and peers is often more influential when it comes to getting a job than your degree/grades.

[aztr0]

Intern, intern and intern for engineering related companies. Boaster your experience and you might even find your potential employer for the future during the process.

Also learn to proofread for everything. Check your thread title. :x.

[semaphore]

Get to know your classmates and lectuerers. Do your best to make friends in the first couple of weeks (or so). I cannot stress how important this can be.

Also start looking around, see what field of engineering you want specialise in (assuming you don't choose in the first year).

[draccanon]

Paragraphs.

Edit for the mods: not trolling. that was actual advice.

advice taken although tab is being a beeotch!

[NewOrleansTrolley]

Studying is only half the battle. Make sure to gain as much real world experience in your chosen field as well.

[belfpala]

advice taken although tab is being a beeotch!

There you go!

You don't have to indent paragraphs (in fact, mostly you shouldn't unless specifically following a style guide that says you should).

My real point was that it's important to present yourself well. Most professors are only going to know you by your writing or other work, so make it count. Those are the people who will be writing recommendation letters and such for you in the future.

[Badpaladin]

Your greatest resources are your peers. Make friends and don't lock yourself away from everybody else.

Also, focus on being able to write well and accept that your way will not always be the best. One of the biggest issues for technical people is many of them are ass at communicating their ideas in an effective way, and they're also horrible at taking criticism. If you can communicate effectively and not be arrogant you'll find yourself in a great position amongst your peers (and teachers).

[Shinaniganz]

...college.....

[draccanon]

...college.....

if thats in reply to my title typo believe me it broke my heart... i dont think i can change it i though...

[DEATHETERNAL]

I'm a year from finishing my bachelor's degree in civil engineering myself and there are a couple big things you need to realize right off the bat. It might look hard, they might make it sound hard, they might explain it poorly, but 98% of engineering material for a bachelor’s degree is simply as heck. Do all (yes all) of the homework you are given and if you can understand it fully, then exams really shouldn't be a problem content wise. Time is more often the deciding factor on engineering exams from my experience. If you can understand how to do something, great, but when you’re studying, make sure you can do it quickly because time will probably be what kills you on engineering exams.

In every class there will be that one person who knows everything that’s going on and gets all his work done correctly and on time. It’s very likely after your first year that you will have many of the same people in your engineering classes including that one guy who seems to know everything. One you figure out who he is, try and be in lab groups with him so you at least know of each other can talk to each other without being total strangers. Later on there will be homeworks and projects that no one is able to do. That one guy will likely be farther along than anyone else on them and if you can go to him for help, then you may just bring yourself up to his level. I would even go so far as to recommend asking that one guy for help before you ask a teacher for help. This of course is contingent on you not being that guy who knows everything. If you are him, then your golden already and I would just recommend that you be helpful to the peons who come to you for help because they know you know everything (never do their work for them but explain to them how it works).

One thing that so many people don’t seem to get is that if you show the teacher that you do your work hard and well, most will take that into consideration strongly. If the teacher knows you work hard and turn your work in complete, correct, and on time, they quite often will base part of their grading off of your performance. If you’re a hard working student, you may find that your mistakes are penalized less than others simply because the teacher knows you put more effort into your work. On the same note, teachers and graders like it when you make their life easy. Do your work neatly, logically, and on time and again you may find that your mistakes are penalized less than others. Beyond grading advantages this will help you later especially if you plan on getting a master’s degree at the same university. There generally aren’t enough Chinese and Indian grad students to fill all the research positions and you have a far better chance of getting a one of the research positions that is left which you can use to write your master’s thesis if the teachers know you to be a dedicated hard working student. It isn’t hard to get a department wide reputation if you’re a hard working dedicated student and it really does make your life easier (as well as require you to learn better which also helps in the long run).

On the math subject, I wouldn’t be too worried. The math involved in most engineering is either relatively simple or the engineers just look up solutions to complicated stuff instead of actually doing it (“We aren’t teaching you to be mathematicians, we are teaching you to be engineers, you look up the solution to that differential equitation.” from one of my professors after telling us we needed to do a homework revolving around a ridiculously complicated differential equitation.) You will need to be able to do algebra quickly and easily but outside of whatever math classes you have to take, you’re barely required to do much integration (and most students have calculators that can integrate for them, something I never used but would recommend as a time saver for exams). As long as you can juggle around variables and numbers between two sides of an equation and eventually get some understanding of integration, you should be fine.

The one thing most students lack that is vital to being the best you can be (and be extension better than everyone or most everyone else) is the will to choose to be the best of the best. Even if you know you aren’t going to achieve it, always make being the top of your class your primary goal (aside from learning of course but they go hand in hand). Just having the attitude of “I’m the greatest and I’m going to show them all I’m the greatest through results not talk” and being able to maintain that attitude even if you aren’t actually the greatest is invaluable. Having the pure will and drive to succeed and be the best within yourself is infinitely more valuable than being a genius who isn’t motivated and doesn’t care.

Most teachers will let their students cheat (sometimes it funny how obvious it is that people are cheating) and others will patrol the isles like a hawk when exams are being taken. Don’t give the hawks any reason to suspect that you are cheating and don’t get used to cheating from classes with teachers that don’t care such that you aren’t able to function adequately in the hawk teacher’s classes without cheating.

The last thing I can think of right now is PLAN OUT ALL YOUR CLASSES AT LEAST ONE YEAR AHEAD OF WHAT YOU ARE CURRENTLY TAKING. I’m serious this is important. If you don’t do this you are going to screw up prerequisites and either have overloaded semesters or end up having to stay an extra semester because you didn’t take what was needed to take that last class you needed for graduation.

EDIT: Thought of one last thing. The books they have you buy are usually wastes of money that you will only use to get homework problems out of. Don't kill yourself reading a massive book if whats going to be on the exam was explained completely in class and you understand it.

EDIT2: Also, everyone complains that finals are hard and stressful and horrible and bla bla bla. They don't have to be. If you do well enough the rest of the semester you can endup having very low grade requirements for the final. Keep your homework lab and project average up at 95% or higher with exam average of 90%, and youll find that you only need 60s or 70s on the finals for an A. Finals are only as bad as you make them.

[Xista]

I'm an engineer also still in college. What to expect is not as many hours in classes, but more time studying. You won't have as many assignments as high school. If you know all of the content in your classes, then you'll have a lot of free time your first year (like me).

What engineer teachers really focus on is problem solving and group work. I had to take a math class where each problem could be up to 3 pages solved. The professor didn't really care if you got the problem right. As long as you went from point A > B and it looks like you understand how to deconstruct the problem, and how to move through each step, you'll get most of the credit.

Some other classes they'll teach you some very confusing stuff, that will never be practical in an engineering job. You have to learn how to analyze a problem, and formulate a solution based on what you know. The books will not tell you how to solve problems. They'll teach you how to work through problems. Part of my physics courses you had to make up your own equations based on what you know about potential, kinetic gravity to solve word problems. This really tests if you know your physics, and not some equation.

Don't be afraid to approach your teachers for help. Don't be hesitant, be confident and act like an adult. They really, really emphasize coming to them for help. You may think only dumb kids ask for help. But in the teacher's eyes, it shows that you are willing to learn. The smartest kids I know in college are the ones that ask questions constantly. Both in class, and out.

As for the social side, i'm assuming you'll have a roommate. You may not get along with him, but learn how to work together to not have a painful year. It's give and take. If he likes to play video games until 2am, don't be afraid to ask him to use headphones. If you're a messy person, you better learn to clean up after yourself.

As for parties and etc... just don't do dumb shit that you'll regret. Safest place to drink is in your dorm room. If you want to smoke pot, unplug the smoke detector and cover the door with clothes + get febreeze. Exhale through a paper towel roll filled with dry cleaner sheet thingers.

[ambigiouslynamed]

dont procrastinate, get things done, study. success in college isnt easy unless you are really smart, the road isn't glamorous, fast paced or even fun. but ya got to got to do it if you want to succeed.

[haxartus]

Don't study hard, study better than anyone else.
Learn to synthesize the most important stuff of what you are learning since you can't memorize 100% of the material. And learn to look for outside sources of information. Sometimes it's explained way better and with more detail than the recommended textbook.
If you get bored easily, study in breaks. 5 minute study - 5 minute break, 10 minute study - 5 minute break, 15 minute study - 5 minute break.
If you are going to give a paper, make sure it looks good. Looking good is as equally important as what's in it. No scratches, everything has to be perfectly readable, understandable and overall it has to look neat. Use pencil if you have to.
Don't argue with the teachers over stupid things, even if you think you are right. It's not worth it.

[ambigiouslynamed]

Don't study hard, study better than anyone else.
Learn to synthesize the most important stuff of what you are learning since you can't memorize 100% of the material. And learn to look for outside sources of information. Sometimes it's explained way better and with more detail than the recommended textbook.
If you get bored easily, study in breaks. 5 minute study - 5 minute break, 10 minute study - 5 minute break, 15 minute study - 5 minute break.
If you are going to give a paper, make sure it looks good. Looking good is as equally important as what's in it. No scratches, everything has to be perfectly readable, understandable and overall it has to look neat. Use pencil if you have to.
Don't argue with the teachers over stupid things, even if you think you are right. It's not worth it.

mostly good but some professors are too by the book. THEIR book. i dont mean they necessarily wrote the book but that they are too focused on the assigned course book.

[Jegerhellig]

Get laid...

#1 in college..

[Khoranth]

What I found to be the most helpful in college was always taking notes.

Quite often you are going to run into "power point" teachers, who will just hand you a copy of the slides and then teach by clicking through the power point slides.

If you just try to follow along, since you already have all the notes, you will be sleeping or your mind will be thinking about everything but the class.

Just get a pencil & paper and follow the teacher and take notes on everything. Even if you don't really need the information written down again, it will help keep you paying attention and writing stuff down always helped me with memorization.

[Arkhias]

1) Don't skip class unless absolutely necessary. Occasionally you will run into a professor where you are better off not attending, but this is very rare (for me at least).
2) Some what related to #1, don't try to cram. Cramming for engineering courses is very hard to do, and few people can pull it off.
3) Don't be afraid or ashamed to take 5 or 6 years to graduate, if you can afford it. Many people consider the college years to be the best of one's life, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with taking a lighter course load to have time for an internship/coop (very important), extra social activities, more sleep, etc.

[saffi]

student activities, I know I'll miss it the most