Incoming college freshman

[MF DOOM]

I majored in MechE in college. Undergrad was a mix of the best and worst times of my life lol. I made some amazing friends and had a ton of fun, while at the same time being stressed out by the work load and trying to get decent grades. If there is one tip I can offer, it is to NOT skip classes. Seriously. Going to class will save you a ton of studying time. I almost never studied in college, at all, and finished with a 3.2GPA. That's not amazing or anything, but considering how much fun I had, it's pretty decent. Going to class and doing the homework was more than enough to prepare well for mid-term and final exams. The classes that I did the worst in were the ones that I skipped and/or didn't do the optional homework for.

Here's the thing with engineering. It is NOT about memorizing things. Yes, there is some of that, but the main thing you need to do is look at the subjects as systems and understand HOW they work. Once you see how it all comes together and interrelates, tests are a relative breeze because you can figure out the answer rather than just trying to regurgitate memories. Developing the "figuring" skill is vital both in your college studies, and even more so if you want to do well as an engineer when you are out and working. TONS of people graduate with engineering degrees while being lousy engineers because they relied more on memorizing than figuring.

Really happy to read this. The more I read about engineering and the more engineers I talk to the more excited I get.

And I got the partying out of my system in about three months in high school. Its just boring to me.. meh..

[slaterd]

Don't pay retail for text books. There are always deals. Same goes for selling back text books.

OP: Do what I did. Buy your books, take digital pictures, transfer to pdf form and take them back the next day. Other than workbooks, this will save you THOUSANDS!!

[BobombETA]

OP: Do what I did. Buy your books, take digital pictures, transfer to pdf form and take them back the next day. Other than workbooks, this will save you THOUSANDS!!

Plus you gain access to CTRL + F.

Win win.

[Jorgen]

Really happy to read this. The more I read about engineering and the more engineers I talk to the more excited I get.

And I got the partying out of my system in about three months in high school. Its just boring to me.. meh..

There are other ways to save money on books that don't cost you days of taking pictures.

I am not sure what the website is anymore but I was able to download a bunch of my grad school books from some site in Russia for like $1.50 each and these were like $200-500 books.

[325i_swap]

OP: Do what I did. Buy your books, take digital pictures, transfer to pdf form and take them back the next day. Other than workbooks, this will save you THOUSANDS!!

This is so perf

Sent from my HTC Glacier using Tapatalk 2

[BobombETA]

This is so perf

Sent from my HTC Glacier using Tapatalk 2

There is a cool app for iOs called genius scan that will help you in this endeavor if you do it.

[325i_swap]

There is a cool app for iOs called genius scan that will help you in this endeavor if you do it.

Looks like I should invest in an iPhone lol

Sent from my HTC Glacier using Tapatalk 2

[Sea Aych]

As well, if you really want the hardcopy of some textbook, for whatever reason, go online to ebay or whatever and look for the "international edition" of that book. I've gotten a couple $250 textbooks i really wanted on paper for $40 and $50. The international editions are more than often completely identical except for the cover and sometimes the page numbers

[ThatOneEuroE30]

My best tip don't pass out drunk at a phrat party bad things WILL happen to you.

[RUFFLZ]

My best tip don't pass out drunk at a phrat party bad things WILL happen to you.

When I go to college, I sure I hope I get a bid to a phraternity; would love to phrat it up w/ my phrat bros.

#phrat4lyfe.

[ThatOneEuroE30]

I rather not get hazed

[evandael]

do everything you can to make your name a good name.. within your college, your professors, your social group, your extracurriculars.


college is kinda a freebie for a lot of people nowadays, with the side effect of this being that a degree doesn't mean as much as it used to. a hugely important factor post-college is the good relationships you create.



don't be an idiot, and fucking enjoy it man.

[bmwman91]

Photographing every page in textbooks and returning them.......motherofgod.jpg. I don't see that actually happening when you have to buy 3-6 300+ page books every semester. I second the suggestion to buy the International Edition version of the books. You will want actual paper copies for following along in class.

So I was done with college in 2007. In my time in college, I did not have a single class where you were required to have a laptop, nor do I remember anyone ever bringing one to class. At that time there weren't that many students with laptops anyway and most people had a desktop still. Does everyone bring a laptop or tablet along with them to class these days, or are people still using paper & pencil for notes? If we had had laptops in class, I would have fucked around the entire time lol. Note taking with a computer or tablet just seems painful.

[rturbo 930]

If we had had laptops in class, I would have fucked around the entire time lol.

That's basically what happens.

Laptop use varied by class. Some of my professors didn't allow them, some didn't care. They seemed common in the physics/chem classes, not so much in math and writing classes.

I never bothered bringing it unless the class was really fucking dreadful, but that was before I had a smartphone.

[BobombETA]

That's basically what happens.

Laptop use varied by class. Some of my professors didn't allow them, some didn't care. They seemed common in the physics/chem classes, not so much in math and writing classes.

I never bothered bringing it unless the class was really fucking dreadful, but that was before I had a smartphone.

Some professors make their powerpoint available during the lecture so you can take notes within the slides... helps with context later on when studying....