Engineering curious

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: HS was easy for her but she is getting her butt kicked with first year classes.

Engineering is hard for anyone at any engineering school. Many engineering schools curve to a 2.7, even though liberal arts majors at the same school curve to a 3.0 (sometimes their curve is even higher). If one perseveres, then most students are capable of graduating with an engineering degree, but there will not be a lot of playtime while doing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:6% of bachelor's degrees are engineering and 3% are computer science. Yet by reading DCUM, you'd think that most students go to school for those two degrees.

That’s because a TON of them wash out and never make it past their Organic Chem class.

Most engineering students do not take Organic Chem at all (or P Chem for that matter). Those are weed-outs for pre-med, not engineering.

Excepting the Chem E majors, a typical engineering student usually does not take more than 1 chemistry course. Most do take 2-3 semesters of Physics and 4-5 semesters of math (though the math sequence and set of math courses will vary with the major).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:6% of bachelor's degrees are engineering and 3% are computer science. Yet by reading DCUM, you'd think that most students go to school for those two degrees.

That’s because a TON of them wash out and never make it past their Organic Chem class.

Most engineering students do not take Organic Chem at all (or P Chem for that matter). Those are weed-outs for pre-med, not engineering.

Excepting the Chem E majors, a typical engineering student usually does not take more than 1 chemistry course. Most do take 2-3 semesters of Physics and 4-5 semesters of math (though the math sequence and set of math courses will vary with the major).

I didn't have to take Orgo but had to take two Gen Chem courses. Orgo is not required for most (if not all) engineering majors. I don't even know if ChemE requires Orgo courses

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:6% of bachelor's degrees are engineering and 3% are computer science. Yet by reading DCUM, you'd think that most students go to school for those two degrees.

That’s because a TON of them wash out and never make it past their Organic Chem class.

What a weird comment.

my neighbor is a first year at Purdue Engineering, taking calc and chem and whatever else they require, living in the engineering dorm, and knows quite a few women who have already changed majors out of engineering. HS was easy for her but she is getting her butt kicked with first year classes.

Cool, but the comment was about organic chemistry. Engineering students don’t have to take that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:6% of bachelor's degrees are engineering and 3% are computer science. Yet by reading DCUM, you'd think that most students go to school for those two degrees.

That’s because a TON of them wash out and never make it past their Organic Chem class.

What a weird comment.

my neighbor is a first year at Purdue Engineering, taking calc and chem and whatever else they require, living in the engineering dorm, and knows quite a few women who have already changed majors out of engineering. HS was easy for her but she is getting her butt kicked with first year classes.

Cool, but the comment was about organic chemistry. Engineering students don’t have to take that.

I have a a freshman mechanical engineering major. They definitely have to take chemistry - and it's a weed out class too. Engineering and pre-med. For many of these freshman, it's the first time they encounter a grade besides A. There's also multivariable calculus. Another weed out.

Freshman year is hard for engineering majors. DC is rolling with it. But it's tough in a way that the social science and humanities majors will never understand. Engineering is full on right from the beginning. I think it gets easier when the prereqs are done with and they can focus on the engineering courses.

Engineering is a hard degree. And chem and math are part of it.

This is at a top 20 school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:6% of bachelor's degrees are engineering and 3% are computer science. Yet by reading DCUM, you'd think that most students go to school for those two degrees.

That’s because a TON of them wash out and never make it past their Organic Chem class.

What a weird comment.

my neighbor is a first year at Purdue Engineering, taking calc and chem and whatever else they require, living in the engineering dorm, and knows quite a few women who have already changed majors out of engineering. HS was easy for her but she is getting her butt kicked with first year classes.

Cool, but the comment was about organic chemistry. Engineering students don’t have to take that.

I have a a freshman mechanical engineering major. They definitely have to take chemistry - and it's a weed out class too. Engineering and pre-med. For many of these freshman, it's the first time they encounter a grade besides A. There's also multivariable calculus. Another weed out.

Freshman year is hard for engineering majors. DC is rolling with it. But it's tough in a way that the social science and humanities majors will never understand. Engineering is full on right from the beginning. I think it gets easier when the prereqs are done with and they can focus on the engineering courses.

Engineering is a hard degree. And chem and math are part of it.

This is at a top 20 school.

Not talking about gen chem, pp was talking about orgo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:6% of bachelor's degrees are engineering and 3% are computer science. Yet by reading DCUM, you'd think that most students go to school for those two degrees.

That’s because a TON of them wash out and never make it past their Organic Chem class.

What a weird comment.

my neighbor is a first year at Purdue Engineering, taking calc and chem and whatever else they require, living in the engineering dorm, and knows quite a few women who have already changed majors out of engineering. HS was easy for her but she is getting her butt kicked with first year classes.

Cool, but the comment was about organic chemistry. Engineering students don’t have to take that.

I have a a freshman mechanical engineering major. They definitely have to take chemistry - and it's a weed out class too. Engineering and pre-med. For many of these freshman, it's the first time they encounter a grade besides A. There's also multivariable calculus. Another weed out.

Freshman year is hard for engineering majors. DC is rolling with it. But it's tough in a way that the social science and humanities majors will never understand. Engineering is full on right from the beginning. I think it gets easier when the prereqs are done with and they can focus on the engineering courses.

Engineering is a hard degree. And chem and math are part of it.

This is at a top 20 school.

Bolded are not true. Freshman year is the easiest and gets harder as you get into 300-400 level engineering courses

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP: he loves physics and will take multivariable calculus as a senior (in calc. BC now as junior) Spends lots of time building train sets and legos in our basement. Has taken CS and liked it too but doesn’t want to major in it. Appreciate the suggestion of summer engineering programs, but I’m feeling uncertain about paying thousands of dollars for one if there’s a book or a YouTube series or something he could do now for less $ that would give him a more concrete sense of engineering path. High school has robotics club but it conflicts with his sport and there are no other engineering activities at school.

Look into UVA Engineering. They open their dept up for free tours. Follow them on Instagram or call the school for more info on when a good time would be to visit the dept. Even if he doesn’t want to go there, it would be a good way to see what life as an engineering student would look like and what they do. I’m sure Virginia Tech offers something similar as well. Look into whichever school as they prob offer engineering days!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:6% of bachelor's degrees are engineering and 3% are computer science. Yet by reading DCUM, you'd think that most students go to school for those two degrees.

That’s because a TON of them wash out and never make it past their Organic Chem class.

Most engineering students do not take Organic Chem at all (or P Chem for that matter). Those are weed-outs for pre-med, not engineering.



Excepting the Chem E majors, a typical engineering student usually does not take more than 1 chemistry course. Most do take 2-3 semesters of Physics and 4-5 semesters of math (though the math sequence and set of math courses will vary with the major).

I didn't have to take Orgo but had to take two Gen Chem courses. Orgo is not required for most (if not all) engineering majors. I don't even know if ChemE requires Orgo courses

I have a Chem E student taking Orgo courses

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:6% of bachelor's degrees are engineering and 3% are computer science. Yet by reading DCUM, you'd think that most students go to school for those two degrees.

That’s because a TON of them wash out and never make it past their Organic Chem class.

What a weird comment.

my neighbor is a first year at Purdue Engineering, taking calc and chem and whatever else they require, living in the engineering dorm, and knows quite a few women who have already changed majors out of engineering. HS was easy for her but she is getting her butt kicked with first year classes.

I know someone like this at Duke for engineering. Straight A student, super high stats in HS, but chem class is kicking their butts.

[Anonymous]

Going on the college tours specifically for engineering programs helped my kid learn a lot about what being an engineering major would entail. They were often also smaller and more intimate than overall tours.

I recall seeing at U Delaware the ability to meet with the dean of the engineering school as a prospective applicant. That sort of opportunity could be very helpful too.

[Anonymous]

Johns Hopkins summer program engineering innovation. It's essentially their engineering 101 for high school students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:6% of bachelor's degrees are engineering and 3% are computer science. Yet by reading DCUM, you'd think that most students go to school for those two degrees.

That’s because a TON of them wash out and never make it past their Organic Chem class.

What a weird comment.

my neighbor is a first year at Purdue Engineering, taking calc and chem and whatever else they require, living in the engineering dorm, and knows quite a few women who have already changed majors out of engineering. HS was easy for her but she is getting her butt kicked with first year classes.

Cool, but the comment was about organic chemistry. Engineering students don’t have to take that.

I have a a freshman mechanical engineering major. They definitely have to take chemistry - and it's a weed out class too. Engineering and pre-med. For many of these freshman, it's the first time they encounter a grade besides A. There's also multivariable calculus. Another weed out.

Freshman year is hard for engineering majors. DC is rolling with it. But it's tough in a way that the social science and humanities majors will never understand. Engineering is full on right from the beginning. I think it gets easier when the prereqs are done with and they can focus on the engineering courses.

Engineering is a hard degree. And chem and math are part of it.

This is at a top 20 school.

Maybe in the wrong major.
My engineering classes were much easier than my Humanities distribution requirements.