Incoming college freshman

[rturbo 930]

Are there a lot of people taking notes in your classes? Because there weren't in mine. And I sure as hell didn't.

[lambo]

School is important but so is life. As others have said, study hard but also party hard. Beer is good.

As for engineering, I am incredibly lucky as I have an internship at a kick ass company and it really reminds me why I am going through with an engineering degree. Calc II and Thermo were the weed out classes for my school. It's hard but it's fuckin' worth it.

[Peterkaczynski]

look into Greek life; trust me

[thatphysicsguy]

OP, you said you only had precalc in high school?
So odds are you're going to be in calc 1 first semester.
You'll either have a good head for math and everything will click pretty well, or you'll have to put your man-pants on and study like the dickens to internalize that stuff. If you try to memorize it you'll have a hard time. the secret to calculus is to wrap your head around the big ideas and concepts the go from there.

Some people like me have a knack for it, others don't so be warned you might have a hell of a time trying to get on board with that stuff...and it is VERY important!

[325i_swap]

OP, you said you only had precalc in high school?
So odds are you're going to be in calc 1 first semester.
You'll either have a good head for math and everything will click pretty well, or you'll have to put your man-pants on and study like the dickens to internalize that stuff. If you try to memorize it you'll have a hard time. the secret to calculus is to wrap your head around the big ideas and concepts the go from there.

Some people like me have a knack for it, others don't so be warned you might have a hell of a time trying to get on board with that stuff...and it is VERY important!

Actually I havent taken precal yet so ill have that first semester most likely. So far ive been good at math so hopefully it clicks for me

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[bmwman91]

OK, so in light of that, I would recommend easing in to the partying thing and make sure that you attend your math courses and do the homework. When I started freshman year in college, I had the equivalent of Calc-II done in high school***. I know that all of us in here have made it a point to tell you to enjoy yourself and have fun, but keep in mind that the reason you are there is still mainly to get that degree and actually understand the subject matter. Plenty of people get the degree without understanding the material, and it makes finding/interviewing for a job difficult. I'm just guessing here, but I assume that you will have some student loans, and you'll need a job if you want to pay those off.

My E30 was basically my motivation to dig deeper into most subjects. Materials Science, Mechanics of Materials, Thermodynamics, Fluids, Controls, Mechatronics, etc...they all gave me crazy car project ideas, 99% of which never really panned out, but it kept me engaged in the material (after my freshman year obviously!). It doesn't have to be your car, but having some sort of personal interest that can relate to the subject matter will really do wonders in terms of keeping you excited and motivated. Having fun in college is not just drinking and partying. If you are majoring in the right thing (for you), the subject matter will also be a lot of fun once you get past the weeder-classes.

Finally, as far as technical material you learn in college goes, it is maybe 10% of what you will actually need in your career. You are mainly in college to learn how to learn, as vague as that sounds. Your future career will teach you all sorts of specific technical things and broaden your horizons well past the confines of your major. In school, you should be learning how to solve problems, manage time and the best ways for you, personally, to absorb and utilize new knowledge. This will prepare you to get a job and become proficient at it since you will go into it with 10% of the knowledge you need and the other 90% has to be absorbed by you while doing your job. This is why I HIGHLY recommend doing at least one engineering internship. Speak to your faculty adviser about this, or someone in the engineering department.




***This led to mega irony. I decided to take Calc-I & II in college anyway for "easy A's". Those were the classes that I slept through most of the time and ignored the optional homework during my freshman year. This was largely due to me chasing girls and partying 3-4 nights per week. Welllllll...I subsequently forgot a lot of that high school material that had prepared me so well and I barely made it through Calc-I with a C and Calc-II with a C-. SO. Build up good study habits before building up party habits because the math classes are going to require your attendance and attention if you want to make it through. My only saving grace was that I still remembered a fair amount of it from high school and it sounds like you are starting from scratch, so to speak. The math material always seemed sort of dry to me, which didn't help my motivation, but once I got to the later engineering courses where actual applications of the math were shown it all made perfect sense and seemed really cool. Yeah, math is cool to engineers. dealwithit.gif

Just for fun, here are some car projects that I started well after I finished school, but that did utilize a good amount of what I learned in school and in my career.
FX-R Projector Retrofit Part I: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=231842
FX-R Projector Retrofit Part II: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=318371
CD43 Faceplate Swap: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=190202

Largely due to my car, and my interest in audio, I got heavily into electronics and even had an offer to be an EE designer from another group within my employer. I decided to stick with ME since it is more fun to me and I could still do some EE stuff on the side, but that sort of goes to showcase the importance of "learning how to learn" and how it can serve you in life.

[freeride53]

I had to duke it thru calc and that was all for econ. I have another 1.5 yrs till i get my degree but like phil said, having an internship or two whilst doing it all really motivates you, once you get a taste of the professional career/$$$ u can make.

my calc foundation was weak AF in high school so i struggled, and stlll ocassionally struggle.

[RUFFLZ]

Opie hasn't taken precalc yet he knows he's good at math?

[Benjamin_Button]

Build connections with your professors and get those letters of recs. Pay attention in class and don't follow the international students' examples... They are on a whole other level

[slaterd]

Who knows maybe he will be good at it.

OP: Calc is a completely different ballgame than what you're used to. I'm not saying it's really harder, it's just a different concept and process in solving the equations.I will put about 75% of how "easy" it will be will be dependent on how well your professor can guide you through it. I failed my first attempt at Calc 3 because my professor was horrible. My second attempt I had a better teacher and passed it with a 96.5% without really studying.

[rturbo 930]

Opie hasn't taken precalc yet he knows he's good at math?

Lol yeah. I was good at math too, until I took precalc. Trig is fucking hard. I did finally manage to get a decent grasp on it, but probably still not good enough for an engineer.

OP, make sure you know your trig like the back of your hand. You're going to be using it a lot. Don't slack off like I did, I can't even tell you how far that set me back, and I took it in highschool.

Calc 1 isn't hard if you know your trig. It's a pain in the ass if you don't.

[bmwman91]

OP, make sure you know your trig like the back of your hand.

Word. You will need it when you start doing CAD design. Building parametric models and using geometric relations in an x-section definitely requires you to have an intuitive feel for trig and geometry. Statics and Dynamics classes too. IMO, Statics class was the real weeder class that finished off the people that scraped by year 1.

[325i_swap]

Word. You will need it when you start doing CAD design. Building parametric models and using geometric relations in an x-section definitely requires you to have an intuitive feel for trig and geometry. Statics and Dynamics classes too. IMO, Statics class was the real weeder class that finished off the people that scraped by year 1.

I took a CAD class in high school but we only used autoCAD which didnt require math pretty much. Although I did pass my geometry class with a 102% so hopefully I can understand it all

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[TheTacoMan]

Check out Khan academy and Wolframalpha, great resources for math.
But yes get trig down, its a huge base to Calc 1, 2 and 3.

[jrobie79]

100% serious....its a quote by Tom Petty btw haha....but yes, I mean obviously don't be retarded about it, but hit up trivia nights on weekday nights, at UMass we had "guitar guys" at the bar on wednesdays, stuff like that

Cant tell if serious lol

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