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Cicero posted:I think homework has a place in college depending on the subject matter. I'm a CS major and I don't think I would understand most of the core CS concepts nearly as well if I hadn't had to implement them in code. See, I'm fine with programming homework if the problem given is somewhat useful. It always has an application and forces you to think and learn. All this crap from my other courses, for the most part, is just busy work. And to OctaviusBeaver, that is not even the problem. It's that the homework is awful when there is no need for it to be.
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Oct 23, 2010 01:25
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OctaviusBeaver posted:Just do the loving homework. Don't piss away thousands of dollars to play WoW for an extra few hours. A lot of people don't need to do any homework 
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Oct 23, 2010 04:59
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Thoguh posted:I can see the "enviromental" because that is often attached to a civil engineering department, but I am confused how they have a "bio-engineering" department without having a mechanical or chemical engineering department. # Engineering Common Core (19 hrs) * EGN 1006L Intro to the Engineering Profession (1) * EGN 1041C Computational Tools for Eng (2) * EGM 3420C Engineering Mechanics (4) * EGN 3331C Mechanics of Materials (3) * EGN 3641C Engineering Entrepreneurship (3) * EGN 3833C Engineering Service Learning (2) * EGN 4410L Engineering Senior Design I (1) * EGN 4411C Engineering Senior Design II (3) Required Courses in the Major (44 hrs) * BME 3100C Introduction to Biomaterials (3) * BME 3261C Biofluid Mechanics (3) * BME 3403C Human Physiology for Engineers I (3) * BME 3404C Human Physiology for Engineers II (3) * BME 4211C Biomechanics (3) * BME 4503C Biomedical Instrumentation (3) * BME 4504C Bioelectricity (3) * BME 4632C Biotransport Phenomena (3) * BME 4722 Health Care Engineering (3) * BME 4800C Bioengineering Product Design (3) * EGN 3373C Circuits and Sensors for Bioengineers (3) * EGN 3374C Signals and Systems for Bioengineers (3) * XXX XXXX Technical Elective (4)* * XXX XXXX Technical Elective (4)* or CHM 2211C Organic Chemistry w/Lab II (4) grover posted:Safe and Secure!: Generic is GOOD! Far better than specific; opens up a lot more doors. Nobody hardly ever gets hired doing exactly what they were studying in college, the job market just doesn't work that way. Enviro is huge right now, but is another one of those specialized fields. Of those, I'd go with Civil. Also, I'd switch to an engineering school. Yours is pretty clearly not an engineering school, you're much more likely to get a better engineering education in one with a better engineering department. That makes sense. I'm actually majoring in computer science and math, but a lot of my friends transfered out this year (junior) because they wanted to major in other things, "this isn't a real engineering school," etc., so I was wondering. I mean, if they just wanted to major in something else, that makes sense, but they seemed to think that environmental engineering was basically a joke major, too. Maybe the way it's taught here, it is, I have no idea. I was pretty shocked to see the selection of engineering majors at other schools. Actually, the classes taught at other schools even for majors common to my own school really blow my school out of the water, but I'm stuck here, so  .
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Oct 23, 2010 06:44
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All but one or two of the people I know that took Environmental Engineering have ended up spending all their time writing Environmental Impact Assessments. It`s great for the one person that really loves doing EIAs. The rest, not as much. It`s one of those disciplines that has a few really cool jobs but the rest tend to end up doing paperwork and monitoring test wells and things. But really, most of engineering is like that, so hey.
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Oct 23, 2010 07:12
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Everybody hates dealing with enviros because no matter what message they bring, people get pissed off by it. If Civil, Electrical, etc, do their jobs right, nobody ever gets angry. (Well, maybe when safety concerns are raised, and the subsequent price tag, but that's another issue...)
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Oct 23, 2010 14:34
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Zo posted:A lot of people don't need to do any homework Everyone I know who didn't do the homework got lovely grades, even on the tests. Maybe you are the exception but it is horribly irresponsible to recommend this to freshmen.
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Oct 23, 2010 16:20
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:30 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Oct 23, 2010 17:21
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:30 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Oct 23, 2010 17:27
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Thoguh posted:You'll have to do things that you think are "busy work" all the time in your professional life as well. Part of being an engineer is sucking it up and putting in your time doing the crap work until you get enough experience and seniority to do the fun stuff. I would go a little further and say that the overwhelming majority of your job in the real world will be "busy work". Of course, I'm in biomed right now. Speaking of which, for that biomedical engineering curriculum to be more representative of my experience it needs to be all courses about safety engineering, project management, and regulation. Figuring out what the hell the MDs are talking about seems to be covered at least. I get a kick of a 3 hour "Engineering Entrepreneurship" class as a core requirement. I'm hoping thats a fancy title for "general business sense for engineers" (ie, "This is a 1099-MISC, get used to seeing them and writing checks to the IRS")
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Oct 23, 2010 17:43
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Thoguh posted:Want to reinforce this. Yeah, homework sucks, but if you want to obtain mastery over a subject, it has to be done. Even if you think you can skate by without doing it, it is better to do the homework. Even when you get enough experience to do fun stuff there is still lovely work that has to be done. Getting up at 5:30 to prepare 2 morning reports before they get emailed out at 7? lovely. Reviewing and approving invoices? lovely. Filling out paperwork for BLM filings? lovely! But if I want to be the engineer in charge of this project guess what I get to do?
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Oct 23, 2010 17:58
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:30 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Oct 23, 2010 22:00
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Haha "anti-social genius", that's the opposite of what I recommended. Skip your homework and go have fun during college if you know you can pass. Most of your classes, even your core classes, are complete bullshit and "mastering" those subjects will not benefit you in any way, shape or form after you graduate. Grades are also absolutely a non-factor after you have even half a year of experience, and I say that as someone who had good grades. Wish I slacked more and barely scraped by, efficiency!
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Oct 23, 2010 22:07
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Zo posted:Grades are also absolutely a non-factor after you have even half a year of experience, and I say that as someone who had good grades. Wish I slacked more and barely scraped by, efficiency! That said, mediocre grades will always look poor on your resume, regardless of how much experience you have. Not as important when you're 50, but will always be there, with the hiring official going "hmmm... this guy always struck me as awesome, but he only got a 2.5 in college?" I slacked my rear end to a 3.0 and have very little regrets, but I do blame that 3.0 in costing me an astronaut job with NASA 
grover fucked around with this message at 22:27 on Oct 23, 2010 |
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Oct 23, 2010 22:23
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My job has plenty of busy work, but I don't really mind it because I can see that it has a real effect, instead of just feeling like a waste of time (which is what homework often felt like in school). I understand that most people need to do homework to learn the material well, but I don't, so it was frustrating to be forced to do homework. And contrary to Zo's experience, the stuff I learned in college has been incredibly useful, even the stuff I thought was useless. I'm a test engineer for consumer electronics, so I deal with a huge variety of issues all the time. I would be much less efficient if I hadn't mastered a bunch of different subjects.
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Oct 23, 2010 22:27
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I don't know about "real" jobs but I do know that for coops and interns a lot of larger companies won't even look at a resume with a sub 3.0 gpa.
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Oct 23, 2010 22:39
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OctaviusBeaver posted:I don't know about "real" jobs but I do know that for coops and interns a lot of larger companies won't even look at a resume with a sub 3.0 gpa. Right, and if you want to get a five year Masters at my school you need a 3.3 and up. That's drat hard to do if you don't complete 15% of your grade in every class. Besides, by sophomore year the homework is actually kinda fun (if you like engineering). I had a blast with dynamics and naval architecture. We learned a bunch of old school analytical techniques that still get used by old fogies who hate computer analysis.
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Oct 23, 2010 23:33
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Zo posted:Haha "anti-social genius", that's the opposite of what I recommended. Skip your homework and go have fun during college if you know you can pass. Most of your classes, even your core classes, are complete bullshit and "mastering" those subjects will not benefit you in any way, shape or form after you graduate. Whats worse is being stuck with people like this in your academic teams. Not only do they not care about the class and likely only show up for quizzes and tests, if even that, but also probably will eventually stop doing their part of the homework. And yet somehow they always end up passing the class. So frustrating If you want to have fun in college and an engineer, time management is a must. Or at least spend another year in college. seo fucked around with this message at 06:49 on Dec 16, 2010 |
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Oct 24, 2010 02:48
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Zo posted:Grades are also absolutely a non-factor after you have even half a year of experience, and I say that as someone who had good grades. Wish I slacked more and barely scraped by, efficiency! This was probably good advice in 2006 but its terrible today.
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Oct 24, 2010 06:15
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I decided to piss away three years of my life by receiving a BA in Political Science. I am now going back to school for Chemical Engineering at Colorado School of Mines. I was very good at chemistry, calculus, and physics in high school and managed to pass a weed out engineering physics course in college with a B+ without buying the textbook. I think I will be fine. I am very excited and hope that one day I may work with a fellow goon on a project.
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Oct 24, 2010 07:25
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:30 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Oct 24, 2010 16:02
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I'm a "first-year senior" physics/math double major at UCF and I hate it. It took me four years to realize it, but I can't stand the insular world of theory and research. I'm basically on the home stretch of physics and on track to graduate in spring 2012. Since I've decided I can't do research, I've been doing job searching and internship hunting, but I'm worried about my prospects, as my only skills involve a pencil, paper, and my brain. My GPA is a tiny bit above a 3.0.  However, I love the outdoors, the environment, and everything related to it. I hike all the time (well, as much as I can with my course load). So, I've been considering jumping ship to environmental engineering. I'm sure I've got all the math requirements done, and perhaps I can get the physics dept. version of thermo (stat mech) to transfer. How many more years am I looking at for undergrad? Is this a good idea? Will my job prospects improve (in the area I want)? Am I barking up the wrong tree? Basically, any enviro engineers want to share their experiences with me? What kind of jobs can/do you do?
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Oct 24, 2010 16:56
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Thoguh posted:Whoa there buddy. Nobody is saying you can't have fun. I had a hell of a time in college. Doing it as an engineer just takes more time management skills than doing it as a sociology major. I agree, being an engineer and have fun requires mighty organizational powers. I do everything I must on weeks and spend my weekends free to do whatever.
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Oct 24, 2010 19:47
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NomNomNom posted:As someone actively hunting for internships and co-ops, my best advice is this: go into Electrical Engineering. Those guys have 100% employment, . lol somebody should tell this to all the people not hiring me! its not impossible to have fun and be an engineering major, I had a pretty great time on the weekends but I'm also unemployed as poo poo. dxt fucked around with this message at 00:15 on Oct 25, 2010 |
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Oct 25, 2010 00:12
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dxt posted:lol somebody should tell this to all the people not hiring me! Dude then you aren't looking hard enough or aren't willing to consider a position elsewhere in the country. I've had recruiters begging me to drum up some EE's for them to interview. Who were these recruiters? Northrop Grumman, Lockheed, Bath Iron Works. The defense industry in general needs you guys. Edit: Really, what year are you and what's your GPA? NomNomNom fucked around with this message at 00:20 on Oct 25, 2010 |
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Oct 25, 2010 00:16
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I graduated in may with a 2.8, not great but I should be able to find something. I've been applying all over the country every day since july.
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Oct 25, 2010 02:12
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Thoguh posted:Whoa there buddy. Nobody is saying you can't have fun. I had a hell of a time in college. Doing it as an engineer just takes more time management skills than doing it as a sociology major. Haha gently caress you. I actually have a BS in sociology and working on a BS in comp engineering
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Oct 25, 2010 04:00
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God, a 3.0 is considered good for an engineering major? Is that similar for people who want to get software engineering jobs after school?
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Oct 25, 2010 04:47
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I'm thinking about going to Colorado School of Mines next fall after I graduate high school. I can assume Electrical Engineering would land me a job in the Defense Industry, but would Mechanical Engineering offer the same opportunities? I find the whole electricity thing too boring as a big part of my major.
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Oct 25, 2010 05:01
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Safe and Secure! posted:God, a 3.0 is considered good for an engineering major? Is that similar for people who want to get software engineering jobs after school? Pretty much. After you get your first job it doesn't matter much though. I did manage to get denied on my first application to grad school because my undergrad GPA was only a 2.87. They let me in after a few letter of rec. and me agreeing to take some pre-reqs before I was allowed into the program. I also had my resume handed back to me at career fairs when they asked my GPA and I said 'about 2.9'. The response was 'oh, we only interview people with a 3.0 or higher, sorry.' Dr. Goonstein posted:I'm thinking about going to Colorado School of Mines next fall after I graduate high school. I can assume Electrical Engineering would land me a job in the Defense Industry, but would Mechanical Engineering offer the same opportunities? I find the whole electricity thing too boring as a big part of my major. It really depends what you want to do in the Defense Industry. I graduated with a EE and write software for Radar System and accompanying tools, analysis software...etc. We also have a bunch of EE people that do antenna design, components design...etc. I doubt I would have ended up here with a Mech E. degree. I'm not exactly sure what our Mech Es do around here, but we've got a few. Also inside of EE you can do a lot of different things, it really all depends what you're interested in. In reality you might not know what your specifically interested in until you get through a few semesters. Do you enter under a general engineering curriculum or do you declare right away? vv -- My major GPA was something like a 2.5 which didn't help at all. I had two internships and got a patent (just application at the time) during one of them...I think my experience was the only reason I got a job. This was like 4 years ago though. Plinkey fucked around with this message at 05:13 on Oct 25, 2010 |
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Oct 25, 2010 05:04
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Seems like for every arbitrary hiring, there's two more that just don't care about GPA. Course what a lot of people do is list their "major GPA", and just drop really whatever courses are holding them down. Worst case scenario, the employer will want to see your transcript which is a pretty nice opening.
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Oct 25, 2010 05:09
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Safe and Secure! posted:God, a 3.0 is considered good for an engineering major? Is that similar for people who want to get software engineering jobs after school?
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Oct 25, 2010 05:54
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NomNomNom posted:Dude then you aren't looking hard enough or aren't willing to consider a position elsewhere in the country. I've had recruiters begging me to drum up some EE's for them to interview. Who were these recruiters? Northrop Grumman, Lockheed, Bath Iron Works. The defense industry in general needs you guys. Yes, many large companies seem to be desperate for people with 10 years of experience in several disparate fields that will work for $45k. They sure aren't considering recent graduates for jobs.
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Oct 25, 2010 09:12
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Dr. Goonstein posted:I'm thinking about going to Colorado School of Mines next fall after I graduate high school. I can assume Electrical Engineering would land me a job in the Defense Industry, but would Mechanical Engineering offer the same opportunities? I find the whole electricity thing too boring as a big part of my major. . Beer4TheBeerGod fucked around with this message at 00:47 on Dec 24, 2019 |
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Oct 25, 2010 15:55
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dxt posted:I graduated in may with a 2.8, not great but I should be able to find something. I've been applying all over the country every day since july. I'm in nearly the same situation as you but I have a temp IT job which is paying my bills for a little while. Hang in there man 
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Oct 25, 2010 16:12
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Cicero posted:Cutoffs are usually 3.0 or 3.2 for the places I've seen. Those are just minimums, though, it's probably better if you're like 3.5+. Sweet then my 3.4 cum. gpa with 3.7 major gpa makes me a baller
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Oct 25, 2010 16:16
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seo posted:Sweet then my 3.4 cum. gpa with 3.7 major gpa makes me a baller Indeed it does sir. IF you graduated from a top ranked accredited engineering school.
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Oct 25, 2010 16:20
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I'm 23 and am currently doing a Master's degree in microbiology. I also have a Bachelor's in microbiology. I have realized that I do not want to spend my life doing academic research and need to get a job in industry. The prospects for my degree are pretty dismal. After a couple of local company closures, it seems like the job market is saturated in my field. Any job I could get would be near minimum wage, no chance of advancement and would be short-contract work. I'm looking into doing a degree in Mechanical engineering at McGill University. I've always been good and calculus and physics and I have lots of family connections in engineering so I don't think a job would be hard to find as long as I keep my marks up. I guess my major questions for you engineers are: Does anyone have any experience with MechEng at McGill? Are most engineering jobs today short contracts are are people still hired long-term? Are there lots of people starting an engineering degree at 23? Would my a Master's in biology give me an edge in getting any jobs? By the way, I found out about MIT OpenCourseWare online. You can stream a huge number of video recordings of MIT lectures on your computer. You can also download exams, assignments and course notes. I've been using it to refresh my calculus and physics and they are really great.
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Oct 25, 2010 16:21
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:45 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Oct 25, 2010 16:30
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If you want to be pretty much guaranteed jobs as a Mech E, learn to be a machinist. I went to machinist school because I wanted to learn and have been offered 3 internships two of which I have done and I am not even in my junior year. The pay for them was $12/hr, $12/hr and $20/hr and in both cases I learned new useful skills and enjoyed my work and who I worked with. Also you lucky bastards who get 15+% of your grades from homework. Mine are usually 5-10%.
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Oct 25, 2010 17:41
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Geoduck posted:I'm looking into doing a degree in Mechanical engineering at McGill University. I've always been good and calculus and physics and I have lots of family connections in engineering so I don't think a job would be hard to find as long as I keep my marks up. McGill's pretty good from what I've heard. Honestly, if you're doing one of the major engineering disciplines, any school accredited for Engineering in Canada is going to get the job done for undergrad. Some are better than others in different ways and they focus on different things, but I've never seen anyone care what school a person went to in hiring decisions unless it's an "I went there too!" thing. The general content of the programs will be fairly similar. I assume cost is an issue. You might want to look into doing the first two years at a college or technical school and transferring over. Lots of universities will have an affiliation with a local college where the college has a two year course that is directly transferable to the university with no hassles. It's significantly cheaper and you'll still be getting the same basic courses. People that went that route seem to have a better handle on some of the practical applications of things right out of university, just because trade schools and colleges are more likely to focus on that than the guy from the Chemistry department teaching a a few hundred second year students about Materials. That route also seemed to have a higher rate of non-traditional students where I went, so you might fit in better instead of being with a bunch of 18 year olds. My experience may not be representative, but it's worth looking into alternative paths.
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Oct 25, 2010 20:15
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