Incoming college freshman

[325i_swap]

Do you have your schedule yet Op?

not yet, orientation is on July 22nd for me

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[325i_swap]

At most schools Either Calc 1 or Calc 2 and maybe one of the physics courses are the weeder courses, attend those and study a lot for those and you should be okay. Once you get past that into the actual engineering courses and not just math and science they really are interesting most of the time so studying is more entertaining and passing those classes is usually a cakewalk.

Well I havent even taken precal yet in high school but I was always pretty good at math even though I dont like it lol. I did take honors physics though and enjoyed it ! Even though the teacher was a Dick.

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[Sea Aych]

not yet, orientation is on July 22nd for me

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Are you living on residence on campus? (I assume so since you said meal plan earlier). That's one of the best university decisions i ever made.
During orientation and the first few weeks, make an effort to meet as many people as you can. It still surprises me four years later how many times i run into people and we recognize each other from way back in the beginning

[2mAn]

Hit the books during the day, hit the hunnies at night.

but seriously, does US Merced have a Formula SAE team?

[Sea Aych]

Hit the books during the day, hit the hunnies at night.

but seriously, does US Merced have a Formula SAE team?

SAE is super cool. I got unlucky at my school in that the group of people running it back when i was in first year were seriously power-tripping, and it was extremely difficult to get in on doing anything significant unless you'd been there for a long time. a loooot of people get attracted to SAE, so sometimes that kind of stuff can happen..

For me, i found a solar racing team that was much smaller and more horizontally organized and so I got to go right into design work and ended up doing parts the braking system for the car that raced the Darwin to Adelaide "world solar challenge" a year and a bit ago. Super awesome group of people, and with a smaller organization, much more freedom to do stuff i was interested in learning about instead of menial tasks.
Take a look and see if your school has it running!

[mbonanni]

Mechanical Engineering major here as well. I have only done general ed classes so far, and this fall will be doing my first intro to drawing/engineering class. I am horrible on computers, love math, love physics, and hate to read/study. I have already thought about changing my major. After this semester I will know.

Seeing as my first year went by really fast and was a blurr, I would say to appreciate your time as a freshman, do as much as you can, have fun, party, but never let any of that get in the way of your schoolwork.

[jrobie79]

“I've learned one thing, and that's to quit worrying about stupid things. You have four years to be irresponsible here, relax. Work is for people with jobs. You'll never remember class time, but you'll remember the time you wasted hanging out with your friends. So stay out late. Go out with your friends on a Tuesday when you have a paper due on Wednesday. Spend money you don't have. Drink 'til sunrise. The work never ends, but college does...”

[325i_swap]

“I've learned one thing, and that's to quit worrying about stupid things. You have four years to be irresponsible here, relax. Work is for people with jobs. You'll never remember class time, but you'll remember the time you wasted hanging out with your friends. So stay out late. Go out with your friends on a Tuesday when you have a paper due on Wednesday. Spend money you don't have. Drink 'til sunrise. The work never ends, but college does...”

Cant tell if serious lol

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[bmwman91]

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.

Have fun while you are in college. Don't go out binge drinking too frequently or anything (binge drinking is just plain stupid), but it is perfectly possible to party fairly hard a few nights a week while still doing well at your studies. I probably partied too much my first 2 years and my grades suffered a little (ignoring those 2 years, my GPA would have been 3.6 instead of 3.2), but I had a blast. By 3rd year I had a lot of that out of my system and the engineering courses got a lot more interesting which helped get me motivated to work harder and party a lot less. If you are doing it "right" you'll party hard enough to get it out of your system after a year or two and then settle into better habits by year 3. By the time I was 21, all the novelty of alcohol was long gone and while I still enjoyed having a drink or two, partying became mostly a weekend thing (and the weekend starts Thursday when you are in college FYI). In my earlier years, weekends were 7 days long lol. I don't really recommend that, truthfully, especially since the first year is mainly geared towards weeding people out. It's hard to get to those morning classes when you are hung over!

Also, if you can get connections for engineering internships, DO IT. Internships will teach you an incredible amount about engineering and what you want/don't want to do with your life. They also make it easier to get a job when you graduate.

[325i_swap]

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.

Have fun while you are in college. Don't go out binge drinking too frequently or anything (binge drinking is just plain stupid), but it is perfectly possible to party fairly hard a few nights a week while still doing well at your studies. I probably partied too much my first 2 years and my grades suffered a little (ignoring those 2 years, my GPA would have been 3.6 instead of 3.2), but I had a blast. By 3rd year I had a lot of that out of my system and the engineering courses got a lot more interesting which helped get me motivated to work harder and party a lot less. If you are doing it "right" you'll party hard enough to get it out of your system after a year or two and then settle into better habits by year 3. By the time I was 21, all the novelty of alcohol was long gone and while I still enjoyed having a drink or two, partying became mostly a weekend thing (and the weekend starts Thursday when you are in college FYI). In my earlier years, weekends were 7 days long lol. I don't really recommend that, truthfully, especially since the first year is mainly geared towards weeding people out. It's hard to get to those morning classes when you are hung over!

Also, if you can get connections for engineering internships, DO IT. Internships will teach you an incredible amount about engineering and what you want/don't want to do with your life. They also make it easier to get a job when you graduate.

Wow, thanks for the info ! I move into the dorms on the 24th and school doesnt start until 4 days later I believe, and I heard that tine is all parties so hopefully in that time I can get some good times in so I can focus when school actually starts haha

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[Thizzelle]

should of started at community college to see if you like it and get all the scrub ass classes out of the way for cheap.

[Thizzelle]

Partying became mostly a weekend thing (and the weekend starts Thursday when you are in college FYI).

not true for engineers. I always had classes or labs on Friday. was only 1 so you can manage.

[itskingsteelo]

advice: party like theres no tomorrow, but study like youre going to start working in your field tomorrow. college parties are the shit!! dont be the awkward silent guy that wants to party but doesnt like to talk much because then youll never be invited. figure out what beers do and dont give you a hangover, once you figure that out youll be good.

[BobombETA]

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

[bmwman91]

not true for engineers. I always had classes or labs on Friday. was only 1 so you can manage.

Oh yeah, I had a chem lab on a friday, and a fluid mechanics lab. The *rest* of the school's weekend started Thursday, meaning that there were big parties starting in the evening. I don't think too many people outright blew off classes on Fridays though.