The Dark Truth of Becoming an Engineer
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- Опубликовано: 3 окт 2024
- From my Podcast: open.spotify.c...
This is a clip from my Podcast where Rafael, a Mechanical Engineer, discusses some of the challenges of being an engineering student. Engineering is a very difficult major and it takes a lot of time and effort. Do you have any advice for people? If so, please leave a comment below.
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Thank you:)
I used to speak to an apprentice who was assigned to me. He asked me whether studying IT was hard. I told him "No, as long as you don't have a social circle it's pretty easy" ...
hahahahaha so true , sad but true:)
You're not wrong..
Jajajajaj😂
Damn 😅 it's true
Got my BSEE from Penn State 40 years ago. I remember talking with someone who left engineering because the professors demanded 100% of our time while other majors had time to have a social life. He said that he felt that he was kissing the professor's ass and giving up his life. I told him that he'll end up doing the same thing for a boss after college, and the better his education, the more options he'll have. I summed it up with the statement: "You can kiss ass for four years and kick it for 40, or kick ass for four years and kiss it for 40." Life has proved me right.
Computer Engineering student here. It is extremely hard , but the idea to be able to help people , create technologies , become smart and badass is what is keeping me going.
👍👍
But most classes are theoretical.
Have you ever tried just approaching from a different perspective. You see a problem or you have an idea that you want to implement but you ask the internet or the LLMs what you need to learn for this project and you do self study. You don’t spend 4 years to get a degree which then gets transformed into jobs, but you spend a variable time constantly learning about things but you get to implement faster or slower. Essentially you see a problem, you break it down to things you need to learn…
@@rashedulkabir6227embedded systems/robotics, FPGA, Programming, and some digital electronics classes were pretty practical for me
Computer Engineer here, currently in my second year, and I feel I'm really slacking, CGPA is 2.2, it's depressing
My first year of Engineering - back in the 70s at University of Waterloo - I had 6 subjects, 37.5 hours per week of classes, and the rule of thumb was 2 hrs homework for every hour in class. So that's 112 hrs per week, and there's only 168 hrs available per week. So like Rafael said : social life, hobbys - forget them for a few years.
i feel happy that i can cut corners and there are enough ways to get knowledge without spending every bit of your time, but i commend you for surviving hell like that!!
How long was this program? I was on a 5 year-ish path and I was on about 60-70 hours a week (not talking finals time) including the classes and none of that time was half-arsed “multitasking” workload. It’s definitely a schedule that requires sacrifices especially if you commit to regular exercise and sleep, but it’s not all-consuming. Sounds like you did a 2 year program.
@jmass4207 It was the almost- 5yr Co-op engineering program at Waterloo, in the mid 70s. 4 yr bachelor degree but with the co-op/semester schedule the whole thing stretched out to just under 5 yrs. It was easily 100+ hrs per week for classes and homework/assignments
@philt7003 Not sure how you managed that. If you don't sleep you can't do the work. Less than 4 hours of sleep a day on a consistent basis causes long-term health consequences.
And alot of those parties and nightclubs are overrated as fuck anyway.
I still remember a classmate of mine telling me that he only slept for 4 hours a day. He attended school full-time and worked full-time because he needed to support his family.
thats just so sad
I couldn't imagine working full-time and doing school full-time. It's hard enough for any degree but I really couldn't imagine doing it for Engineering.
The hard part hasn't been the 4 hours of sleep during school as much as getting much more than 4 hours of sleep after graduation. I go to sleep 2-3 and get up 7-8.
But I can say that senior year, I really tried to timebox homework and get as close to 8 hours of sleep as possible, it really helped my health and mood. You also can't do well on exams when you're exhausted and depressed.
That’s what I’m doing. I work full time as a baker at Costco. I work from 6-230, taking 13-15 credit hours per semester and 6-8 during the summer to make it up. I have two great kids, a 3 yo and 1 yo. It’s hard, but I’m currently holding a 3.87. I don’t like how I’m treating myself currently, but I’m not going to just not do something I want to do.
The internship thing is so true, especially in this economy. If you don’t get internships finding a job after graduating going to be a big challenge in most cases.
Yeah it really helps!!
My education REQUIRE(D/S) an internship to finish the degree. Of course both my thesis (which had to be with a company) and my internship were unpaid, so that was fun...
Yep, I graduated in May of 2020 with a mechanical engineering technology degree and it seems that every entry level job I apply to wants 3 years of experience. I'm still working retail.
@David S. James Seriously??? Isn't that the degree that is needed to work in a manufacturing plant?
@@setsu2221many schools close to me also require an internship/co op as well. A sign of a good school.
An engineering degree requires you to be disciplined and to study math and other hard subjects in science. Once you graduate, the real work in industry begins, and you have to meet industry standards and be responsible for things that can hurt people. So very scary some times. Lots of tight deadlines and a lack of hours to do all the work. Prepare yourself for a stressful job!
Thank you for this comment!!!
@@TheMathSorcerer I’m a fully licensed Professional Mechanical Engineer in Canada with 11 years of experience. This has been my experience in Engineering
@@mr_noodlerThanks for sharing
I’m ready for this🙏🏾
Stressful but also very satisfying and meaningful job
HERE IN INDIA THE DARK TRUTH OF BECOMING AN ENGINEER IS THAT AFTE YOU HAVE COMPLETED YOUR COURSE YOU WOULD DO EVERY JOB EXCEPT FOR THE ONE YOU HAD STUDIED FOR . 😂😂
LOL!
@@TheMathSorcerer SAD BUT TRUE
The same here in middle east bro 😅
if you are good at math you could become a math tutor especially high school math
Same thing, in Brasil and in Italy. I 've been living in both countries as Italian/ Brazilian citizen.
The thing that offen bothers me was ask electronics engineers some tip or suggestion regarding electronics circuit problem and always received the answer " Oh! I am sorry, but a studied it a long time ago..."
None of them keeped practicing technical or scientific works after university.
Of course I know there are great engineers around, but I just didn't personally know anyone.
We appreciate your content. We will support you no matter what.
Thank you!!!!!!!!
Really cool to see some guests on! I am doing mechanical engineering and math majors and I relate a lot to Rafael. It totally does consume your life, but as Math Sorcerer said I think embracing it is the best thing you can do for yourself. You can only do so much in a day, week, month, etc. Would love to see more stuff like this.
I am Master's first year ME( Design) and it feels like the classes just fly by especially the maths
Been an aerospace engineer for 38 years.........graduated from Vanderbilt Engineering in Mechanical Engineering. Worked at Bell Helicopter for 20 years and they paid for my MBA in engineering management. The trick in engineering is the love of learning and teaching what you know. Oh the pay ? ...........It is very good............I am multi millionaire but you got to be a hard worker and like teaching others. Good luck all the hard work will pay off in the long run.
You must be a kind person❤
Mechanical Engineering does not pay well. Most engineers are not multimillionaires either.
What is your linked in user?
What facility are you at? Bell is paying for my education as well, but I’m on shop floor
Mechanical engineer here with 18 years in automotive. It pays ok but definitely not GOOD. I would have been so much better off with a degree in Computer science or business. Lawyer or doctor would also pay much much better.
Even with my husband’s pay combine üd with mine, (both engineers) we are unable to buy a house. Will probably ever reach a million dollars in our lifetimes.
Times have definitely changed. But I love my job and wouldn’t trade it even for a fat pile of money.
Good advice! I once took 5 engineering courses at once. After finals, I remember coming home and laying down on the floor.
Love these types of podcasts with people in careers related to math
Thank you! Me too!!!! I'm going to do more of these:) It's a TON of work but it's soooo fun for me:)
This kind of podcast is so interesting!
Got my engineering degree ages ago, I found the diversity of subjects one of the most interesting and rewarding aspects of the whole program. I didn't find it that hard though, most of the subjects came down to understanding rather than learning.
@gauthapandith I've come to the conclusion that the difference between the general population and an 'engineering mind', degree or not, is old mate can pick up any technical datasheet for any product and read through it and understand how it works exactly to a tee. Not everyone can do that, most people don't know what a datasheet is
I'm an IT major somewhere in Tanzania🇹🇿(East Africa). You guys' chat has really inspired me to delve right back into my studies, which I was right about to give up.
I'mean, is there anywhere else on Earth where a junior developer, with like 3 months experience of HTML,PHP,CSS,Javascript,MySQL is expected to concoct a world class fully functioning website in a matter of 4 days 😫😫😫 😢
Fellow Tanzanian here don't give up yet man! The journey is just in the beginning for you, it's very competitive in IT but impossible is nothing
@@derekndosi 😀 Thanks pal 👍🏽🤘🏽🇹🇿
I did a B. Eng and M. Sc in electronics engineering - forgetting to eat, 4 hours of sleep, social life being doing projects and assignments with classmates, yep all that was absolutely routine. I went on to work industry for several years, back uni now doing a PhD while working. Still have to do all nighters now and then in my mid-30's. I do wonder if it ever stops, I get email replies from my profs at 2am sometimes, and on weekends.
You're managing your time badly. Keep your PhD to office hours or you'll burn out.
Bruh 😅
Why though? Isn’t your salary high enough with a masters?
super relatable. got my degree in civil and environmental engineering. our program was highly planned out for us. but we had summers off, and that's when I did my internships and research experiences.
uff the last point about having a focus nearly slipped me. This is a really big point.
Engineering school is not "hard", or require you be "smarter" than average, but it does require real WORK! I worked on two engineering degrees at the same time, and yes, I got very little, if any sleep. I worked as a surveyor to pay for both. When I graduated, and looked into graduate degree, my advisor said he'd blackball me if I stayed at the school for engineering, but would write a recommendation for any other school or discipline. The math department offered me a full-ride PhD in Mathematics if I got a B or better the following semester. It's work, but there is a reason engineers are always in demand!
The wash out rate for my undergrad engineering class was about 90%. 90% of the incoming freshmen class were not there at graduation! That in itself says something about the difficulties of the curriculum.
You have to have the mental capacity to do this challenge.
You have to have the tenacity to continue above all else.
You have to sacrifice everything so you can make it - and forget about friends or parties or social life - all that goes out the window if you want to succeed.
The sacrifices you make will more than pay off for the rest of your life! It is hard but it will be one of the best investments you will ever make in yourself.
And don't be too concerned about getting average grades in engineering school - just realize the classes are very hard, like nothing you've ever seen before! In addition, if you were in the top 3% of your high school graduating class, realize all your engineering classes at the university level will also have those top 3% students from all over the country and the world! So now you are competing against an entire class of very smart students so your high school A just got reduced to a C, that is if you even can make it that high! ! !
Listen engineering students!! Good nutrition and plenty of restful sleep are critical to learning, brain health, and academic performance. Get some socializing, but concentrate on studies more. Also, aerobic exercise like running or swimming, etc. will condition you and aid in learning and clear thinking. Get a good night's rest the night BEFORE any exam. I am a soon retiring EE, and I am trying to pass on sage advice learned through experience. . The Math Sorcerer is one great dude!!
Loved every minute of this video. As a mech engineer I can say I lived the same experiences. But it worth! Thank you!
Glad you liked it! I loved making this video! More coming soon:)
I’m taking pre reqs for mechanical engineering, does this field revolve around alot of coding?
I attempted to go into Engineering going the transfer route from community college over the span of 10+ years. During that time I attempted physics 9 times, specifically basic Statics. The material was not hard, in fact I was getting A's in the associated Lab, Calc 3, DiffEQ, and so on. What was ridiculous was the 3/4-unit courses where they wouldn't teach in any effective way, so the hours you'd need to spend just to receive a passing grade maybe something like 28 hours for that one class if you could get in to have tutor services teach it if there was an issue, in addition to 9 hours for each other 3 unit class with 12 being a full load (40 hours but really 60+ in some cases on a per week basis for 12-16 weeks straight), and you had to hope you didn't get another class just like that concurrently or it pushed back your education a full semester requiring a withdraw and loss of funds for the misrepresentation, or a further setback threatening financial aid/financing.
Those classes would be advertised as 9 hour/week, but in fact were fraudulent in that advertising. Not just that, you would be set up to fail from the get go. Certain structures designed to disadvantage students were common, for example; the grade would be solely test based, 2 exams, 3-question each test, where the test has been engineered with systems properties containing causality built into it as a failure spiral. So mistakes snowball; as an example, 3 questions, first question must be correct to get the 2nd question right, and same thing for 2nd to get 3rd right. To pass you have to miss only one question between two tests, and that question must be the last question on either test. Perfection or you lose everything (time, cost, financial aid, etc).
Critically, they would also not communicate the proper way to round, normally you round at the end of a problem to a specific amount of significant digits, you do this at the end and not as an intermediate so the error does not propagate forward, but when you have dependent questions like that, the error would propagate if you stopped at just the question. Well they would mix the significant digits up in unknowable ways for a student just to keep the pass rate at something like 10-12% for basic entry level college. The only people passing were the people who kept the test from the previous year or bought it from the people who had. Ethics and academic honesty are weeded out at this stage; if you aren't on the take you don't get into a transfer program because you don't pass. Additionally the test would be just after the withdrawal date so you didn't get a refund, and it wasn't just one teacher doing this, every single teacher across three different school districts did this.
Half or more of your engineers never even make it into a program because of deceitful arbitrary gatekeeping like this and its systemic. I ended up dropping out and teaching myself System's Engineering in IT with MIT courseware videos and the Oppenheim book, I already knew the math so it wasn't difficult with the videos and material. Needless to say, academic honesty in academia is abyssal, and if you think reporting it to the Chair or Dean will do anything; I've had Deans say they can't do anything because the professor has seniority (but isn't tenured). They were teachers too, and apparently they are all in it together. Board of Trustees at the time kept cancelling public meetings with little notice so didn't want to hear anything.
Testing is supposed to be deterministic (as defined by system's theory), and there are very specific requirements to have valid inference. Determinism requires one unique output, given the same fixed inputs, and what you learn is supposed to be the methodology being taught to get that based on input, you generate the output or infer missing information to show you know the material. Many places have 3 or more correct answers, with no valid inference to get a single correct answer that doesn't involve futuresight or mindreading.
A very high percentage of the education system's outcomes have no basis because those properties often don't exist in the material you are given as an exam. A great many courses and among a great many people calling themselves teachers; this is just travesty. Also these issues seem concentrated in bottleneck transfer courses that are typically overloaded as well as classes that teachers don't want to teach. This would be fraud in any other industry. Conveniently, these places do not track how many failed attempts people make on these courses (i.e. how many repeats), and they've insulated themselves and instead blame the students for being unable to control inherently uncontrollable and chaotic academic outcomes.
Just last year, I had a class where the teacher did the same thing, but worse; simply referred us to Khan Academy lectures, used an autograder with mismatched untaught material, and was chronically absent. The guy apparently still has his job, and the Chair/Dean have been a non-response. From what I can see, the guy's collecting a check, not doing his job, and not teaching; he's also registered as teaching most of the Micro Econ courses for the business program transfer across the south part of the state. Getting a degree is an exercise in futility fighting-unfightable fraud in a corrupt system. Its hard enough having the brains and discipline to do this type of work, dealing with fraud with no effective due process with loans that can never be discharged by bankruptcy; its beyond the pale for almost everyone. By now I thnk its pretty clear, I never became an engineer. I had ethics.
These things are the things people don't talk about when going into college/engineering. I'm sure there are other challenges further along the way; but few students in their 20s will ever be able to articulate these issues because they honestly believe its them when they are blamed for failure instead of just bad pedagogy that's designed to optimize repeat profit centers.
They dont teach study strategies. Professors also dont care aboout you AT all.
Sounds tough. Maybe I’ll get a better view when I get there, but I also think I can do it very well. Hell I had classmates complaining about Chemistry and how it was so hard, I passed with a B only because I did 1 lab meanwhile they showed up every class to get a C mind you I work two jobs. Who knows, I’ll come back in a couple years when I transfer over and tell you.
@@lonely-lo1153college was another ball game, I was the only one in my class who though chem was hard and I was the only 1 who got an A, for Cal 1-3 tests were 100% tests and only 2 people got As, in college it starts to level off everyone becomes the same it just turn into a battle of hard work.
I went to two different ABET accredited engineering schools. One you would struggle to understand the immigrant researcher who was placed in a teaching job until his NASA spot opened up.....the other school had professors that cared and would answer a question. One school I struggled to make Cs.....the other I made As and Bs. I finished with a cumulative just over 3.0 and was a 4.0 HS student with academic scholarships. It definitely makes a difference where you go. I watch MIT free courseware on RUclips. The caliber of teaching and lecture is very understandable because the professors,are good at teaching and seem to care.
In differential equations at that one school you miss a sign you get a zero. Every problem has to be 100 percent correct. Zero partial credit for using the proper methods. You could do everything right until the last line and miss the sign and get a zero.
I had a guy with a master's in Math and a PhD in Engineering tutor me.....the homework he helped me with got a C......that professor was brutal.
@@bmphil3400 hey I wanna transfer to a suny school I was thinking new paltz or stony Brooke what is your opinion I'm close to np and can drive there but stony has a batter program?
Social life? Girlfriend? We, engineering majors don't do that.
Hahahaha, so there was a social experiment somebody randomly conducted in my country asking nursing students what majors rejects them the most, they all mostly answered Engineers XD
Congratulations for your channel brother, very powerful content. I have been watching you for a significant amount of time through your videos. Being an engineer is a very serious business and it requires effort and determination. Bear in mind that in order to succeed in your studies you have to become strong in your mathematical knowledge. I can name two men who were engineers and became mathematical legends : Norman Levinson and Stefan Banach. By reading their biographies I came to the conclusion that being an engineer is something that requires years of sacrifice, patience and determination. Keep up with great work brother and I hope that your channel grows even more. I also have a channel producing content and any feedback from you would be highly appreciated. Have a nice summer my friend!
It's a good point that was made towards the end about deciding whether to go for good grades or whether to concentrate on internships to gain work experience. If you want freedom to pursue knowledge and an academic career, then internships are probably unwise. During your vacations it would be better to rest your mind by doing some work that is physical only. But you could use some of the time to supplement your in-term learning, but be careful not to exhaust yourself as a tough year lies ahead. Learning to learn on your own and chart your own course through knowledge is a vital skill. You have merely dipped your toe in the ocean. But for working for a company in a career, your whole emphasis is different - that life is for you if you like that environment and enjoy it, and envision yourself in that role, you don't need great grades to be successful in that route. But for some people it is exploration of knowledge and intellectual challenge that is the appealing thing, and if you want to go down that route my advice is DRINK DEEP, DRINK DEEP, DRINK DEEP, DRINK DEEP, DRINK DEEP, DRINK DEEP, ie of knowledge, allowing of course time to rest your brain periodically to recharge it. Find your passion, do what you love doing. But try out different areas to get a grounding in them and a feel for them. Pick a major theorem in an area and see if you can fully understand how to prove it from first principles, and learn a lot of interesting things along the way, eg Number Theory - try the Prime Number Theorem, start with Tom Apostol 'Intro to Analytic Number Theory' chaps 1-4. Always remember the old couplet of Alexander Pope from 1711, and keep it in mind :
"A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again."
If things get on top of you, stop working immediately, and go and watch a good film, listen to some good music, or go for a walk. Surprisingly quickly you can come around and a light bulb could suddenly come on re that tough problem.
As someone who has a friend who studies mechanical engineering and we barely talk probably due to the amount of work he has, this is incredible!
As a physics major, I'd like to see you do one on the dark side of studying physics. I think physics is probably the hardest of all majors. Talk about consuming your entire life! I worked 12-15 hours a day 7 days a week!
I was a CS student and this was also my conclusion while doing my math sequence. I used to go to my university's tutoring lab and receive help from students of various majors. The best help I received was always from the physics majors.
The other math people utilized exceptional memory or exceptional mental computation. I'm sure physics majors have that, but their ability to simplify the problem prior to solving it was what blew me away. The physics majors would start solving a problem by rejecting the original framing of the problem and reframe in such a way that a person with average memory and average mental computation ability could solve it. Its been a long time since my mind was blown to such a degree.
@@darylallen2485 Yes, each field seems to have it's own way of doing things, and the approach of physics seems to be the most logical and fundamental. I was an engineering student after getting my degree in physics, and I remember having difficulty solving the problems in a statics class until I just threw away their approach and solved them like I would any physics problem. From then on I had the highest grade in the class.
PROCESS ENGINEERING SORRY BRO, PHYSICS DEF TOUGH...BUT ITS NOT ABOUT DIFFICULTY , ITS THE AMOUNT OF WORK U DO STUDING A B.ENG THATS ABOVE ALL
Physics is not the hardest. At least you can get done in 4 years taking normal workloads.
@@lancercncs1822 What would you consider to be the hardest?
As a practicing structural engineer I will say that nothing at the office compares with the demands of being an engineering student.
Likewise, being a structural engineer is much much more demanding than any other field in civil engineer.
My father has a Masters in Civil and Structural and is a Chartered engineer. He spent 6 years getting that degree studying around the clock. I tried that course when I finished school, didn't even get past first year. I was very interested in it and loved learning about steel and concrete, but the maths and structures were just impossible for a 17 year old average joe like me.
I've been told by a very successful doctor who did 3 years of engineering before switching to medicine that when he made the switch he was surprised about how stupid the medicine students were compared with the engineering students. I'm doing an electrical engineering and business finance double degree and it is no joke.
Love to see interviews in this channel. I think you’d find James Scholz (Computer Engineer) interesting, he made 12 hr study with me videos on RUclips for over a year! Literally studied 12 hrs a day
Thank you! More coming soon hopefully:)
I'm one of those who forget to eat and sleep, but I prefer that to breaking my flow.
me too!
I spent my junior and senior years in undergrad taking nothing but chemistry, physics, and math courses. Oddly enough, I think I had an easier time than some of my friends with more varied schedules, just because a lot of the material was mutually reinforcing. For example, one semester I took multivariable calculus along with electromagnetism (which uses a lot of vector calculus), and another semester I had thermal physics and physical chemistry (which includes thermodynamics and statistical mechanics). It was interesting to see similar material covered from different angles.
I want to become a biomedical engineer because I want to make a difference, a change to create prototypes to change in a good way the life for so many people, especially patients.
that's awesome!!!
@@TheMathSorcerer Thank you
Salut Octavian, good luck, a wonderful field. I studied chemistry and physics but worked all my life with engineers. Biotechnology is part of the future the new wave.
@@cristinan.6009 Thank you very much,I know is a wonderful field with so many paths choose from it
When I was in the 5th semester (CS) we had to deliver 4 projects for 4 courses, A social media app like reddit (Laravel), A compiler with your own language, A custom search engine (C++) and a Desktop app (JAVA) in 2 months time.
I remember near the end I did a brutal 3 day coding sprint, I did not sleep, only took 2 bathroom breaks and ingested not more than 8 glasses of water. My room mates (seniors) got worried and pressured me to take a break to eat. When I stood up, I took a step and blacked out for 15 minutes. I lost 25 KG in that semester.
Been working in the industry for 4 years now, never once had to work that hard. Universities are shit .....
losing 25kg is insane
You sure you didn't mean 25 lbs ????
As a physics student at Ga. Tech who taught math to large classes of engineers (my way of paying for school), I did not see any disruption of social life. Certainly my own life was fine, and my friends were fine, and the bars and pizza joints and morning grills we ate and drank at were packed with engineering kids. IOW there is nothing any harder about engineering than most other degrees. Talk to medical and law students about work and expectations. I considered my own program in physics to be more or less a breeze. My buddy who was an electrical engineering student had it somewhat harder, but we had plenty of time to hang and BS and play with his guitars. He made his own amplifiers.
I did my undergrad at UC Santa Cruz; tutoring was a regular gig to help others and earn some extra coin.
Did a Masters' in Physics at Tech where I learned that my "knack" was in the lab. *That* was an interesting revelation.
PS: "TO HELL WITH GEORGIA!!"
The guest speaker mention taking 5 Engineering classes, last semester I took 11 and this semester 9. I study Electrical Engineering but still have to do courses in Statics, Dynamics or Fluid Mechanics. The Curriculum feels old and I believe we do not go as deep as we should when we do those courses. I am from Nigeria BTW
Wow that is so many classes!! Maybe that's why it's not as deep. Crazy!!
@@TheMathSorcerer I believe the same too and I also believe most of the courses taken once were also split into smaller courses. Hence, an Engineering degree takes five years to get
You are comparing apples and oranges, and also assuming a lot.
Firstly, you chose to take 11 courses, than 9. The course schedule in any proper university is set so that you have enough time to adjust, study and learn.
Second, the content for courses varies greatly depending on your discipline field, and all engineers in Brazil also have to take the same courses for the first 3-4 years, with the 5th and sometimes a 6th year focused solely on your discipline. I am a Civil engineer (structural and geotechnical), and I had to take courses in Electrical Systems as well, surely not to the same depth as an Electrical Engineer.
This is base knowledge for an engineer, as is Static and Dynamics, which surely you also had more of an introductory class then a deep, focused study.
Lastly, to be an engineer means SOLVING PROBLEMS. For that you must have a wide range of tools to fully understand all variables, or at least understand where your knowledge falls short and look for support from a person that has more knowledge on that field. If you only have skills in a given unidimensional area, you are analyzing things through a keyhole.
"The dark truth of becoming an expert in any career." _Beautiful Young Minds_ was a UK documentary about teenagers competing for the Math Olympiad, and it struck me how one young lad boasted about not being able to make a cup of tea for himself, with very poor personal hygiene including very bad teeth. He learned Chinese within a few months, married a young Chinese girl, who then left him shortly after. Yet he saw his type of mind/brain as being at the cutting edge of human evolution.
We're all relative experts in what we know about the world, but similarly we should also have a think about stuff outside our comfort zone and change the path we're on, if it's in our interest to do so.
I'm a mechanical engineering student with a comp sci minor, I can relate but I think my experience with studying and social life balance has been a little different.
For my first year up until the end of the COVID pandemic lockdowns, I definitely had that experience where it was studying virtually 24/7. Getting something to eat or even going outside for some sunlight was something I neglected but felt amazing once I remembered to do it.
After the lockdowns, I joined clubs on campus and started going to the school gym, which allowed me to meet a lot of people and make a lot of friends. I wanted to add that networking is so important when it comes to finding internships and jobs. I think many people see social circles as unproductive, but networking is valuable, a lot better than sending 100+ job applications online. Besides networking, hanging out with friends is good for your mental health. My grades definitely slipped a little, but it was worth it for my physical and mental health.
Just wanted to add onto what you guys said at the end, because it was important to me.
side note: I've had many of my professors say as long as you have a 3.0, you should be okay. I've even had a professor said a 2.8 was not the end of the world LOL
I did a lot of studying outside during warmer months. Zoom school in the yard could be difficult due to connection issues but I'd be outside for studying as much as possible. It helps a lot.
The degree can get you the interview but performance and speaking the lingo aka nomenclature for that field will get you in. My grades fluctuated when i was in school. I worked full time and went to school full time. Its easy to lose yourself. I stopped taking care of myself dropped weight and got very sick. Ill never forget that semester. Chemistry trig& precal together as one class physics 1a kinematics and english. Just. So i could be full time. By spring break i collapse and spent it recovering in the hospital. And i got written up when i went back to work. Time management is something people need to master when going into engineering
I dropped out of Electrical Engineering after 2 years. I intended to take what is now called a "Gap Year". I got a job repairing audio equipment with Panasonic. It was what I taught myself in high school that got me the job. Chemistry and physics were useless.
Graphics electronic simulators did not exist when I was in school. I wonder how necessary brick and mortar schools are now.
*Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics* by Stan Gibilisco
A smart 7th grader could start with that. But what engineer cannot figure out Planned Obsolescence these days.
This kind of podcast is so interesting!
A video about the dark side of teaching math would be interesting. I don't know if there's a dark side to teaching it in college, but I think there might be a dark side to teaching math in junior high or high school based on stories I read about schools today I just mean all the interference from parents and interference from other entities like politics
There definitely is and I think this is a great idea thank you !!!!!!!
This is a great idea
There is a very dark side to teaching math in college and it has nothing to do with math.
@@Number6_ As an outsider looking in at the teaching profession, I would think the dark side is interference. Just as someone looking at it from the outside, I think there is too much interference with the school and the way teachers want to teach and then the behavior of the students themselves. The stories I read about what teachers go through is enough to deter someone from wanting to teach. Its sound like a lot of stress to be a teacher. A wonderful thing to do, but a lot of stress to do it. I admire anyone that teaches. I can't wait to see a video about it.
Interesting theme, i´d like to become a teacher at the end of my professional life
Engineering is challenging but personally think Maths and Physics majors are on another love. Have done some Maths and Physics subjects such as Multivariate calculus, Linear Algebra; Modern Physics, Electromagnetism, etc and feel they are really tough. I know everyone is different and they probably find the mentioned subjects straight forward but that's my experience.
Engineers take all of those classes.
Please... my physics, thermodynamics and stellar astrophysics courses were EASY compared to my engineering courses in aerodynamics or virtual work!
I had a single semester with differential equations, multivariable calculus, electromagnetic theory, linear algebra and modern physics...I will admit, there was a good bit of crying some days due to stress. The lack of eating was the biggest for me. My husband would actually drive and bring me dinner and sit with me and make me take a break while I was in the library studying, just so I would eat something that day...
Yes I remember those 12 hour days. Never again, I'm to old for it.
@@Number6_ I was in my late 30s...it was a lot to deal with..and my days were more like 8 a.m. to 12 a.m. I don't recommend it for someone older than 19...and even then, I'd strongly discourage it...
Lol just linear algebra, calculus and standard Comp Sci subjects in one semester was enough for me. I had this as my first semester. I had almost no math knowledge. Didn't know what was a function or a vector, yet I somehow made it by sleeping 5 hours per day and using all the time I had to study.
@@_________________404 That was my first senior year. My physics advisor wanted me to add my modern physics lab on top of all of what I did.. I politely declined. I had to wait an extra two semesters to finish my applied mathematics b.s. because of the way the upper division classes fell. There wasn't much sleep that semester. I have a 45 minute commute to school one way. So, I got home about 1 and was out the door again around 7:15.. it was brutal..so much coffee consumed..
@@coffeeconfessor4747you sound so smart. What do you do professionally
For the "fluff" classes, I think it depends on the scholarship. I graduated in 2022, and there were multiple times I took extra classes that weren't in my major to bring me to full-time standing. If they counted labs I'd be at like 20 hours, but for whatever reason they just don't even though you're required to be there and even though the lab comes with the same amount of homework as the lecture.
Love the job, but I sure as hell couldn't ever do what I did for college again. Looking back, I really wasn't healthy and a lot of it had to do with the shear amount of work and the fragile financial situation you're in as a student.
There are three groups,
1) Solids, fluids and heat (lots of differential equations and Multivariable Calculus)
2) Vibrations, Mechatronics, and Control (Lots of multivariable calculus and linear algebra)
3) Mechanical Design (calculus, but just a lot of work)
A student returns to engineering here to. I enjoy computer science and other classes too. He is right of sacrifice social life and only spend your social life to study with engineers students for grades.
For everyone in this comment section i highly recommend a book called "Make it stick -By Peter C.Brown, Henry L. Roediger & Mark A.Mcdaniel". It goes over the empirically proven ways for effective studying and learning. Thank me later.
Engineering studies are scattered. I recall all the different studies. With the cost of school going up and wages being driven down, with all the hard work to prepare for this path, sometimes it may not be worth it. In some cultures, STEM is king. This discussion was in my home. I am a STEM, but my children chose other fields, and both went into the arts. I studied the arts too as that was more of my passion. As I near retirement, I am pursuing my arts passion in both visual and musical arts. Engineering students need support and encouragement, not just the push to succeed.
There are so many branches of engineering that you can choose from but choosing the one that has the most potential for earning capacity has to start at the very beginning of your early 20's.....and that is before you make stupid decisions like getting married and a kid on the way etc...........for the record I spent 5 years learning my trade as a fitter and turner and now have been retired for the last 20 years......I;m 86 this October 2024.
I remember when I was taking my undergrad, whenever an event was being held in the campus, we the engg students were the only one that were still taking classes. I felt like we were separated to the entire university. 😂
Those people that had to work and go to school did well afterwards because they already know how to work in life
They know how to apply for a job properly, they know how to communicate properly
Not saying jobless people that do poor in college cant do that but I work at a post office and getting my ME degree and I am a C student right now just because there is so much
I dont want to be a C student but man it is hard to get that A when you got other important things in your life (im sure having a kid and going to school is rough too)
Be careful of what doing well means. There are guys i know who seriously spent there whole school life shitting in trash but have money due to rich family connections. I always had good grades when alone. But the firm i worked was selling tractors and all of a sudden they werebt anymore. Everyone doing random software tasks. Really boring and unnecessary for most parts besides GPS stuff.
I was fortunate enough as an engineering physics major that I could take a lot of electives. This let me take a lot of grad courses, work to pay for school (I got a small dean's grant every year, but that was it), and take 18-21 hours most semesters. However, somehow I was required to take Econ 101 and 102, although there was supposed to be an exception on Econ 102 if you had certain language skills from high school (weird, right?). The school didn't count them, so I wound up taking a job in aerospace and doing Econ 102 over Christmas break, taking me 5 years total for undergrad. I graduated with as much math as a math major, as much physics as a physics major, as many honors courses as an honors student, and a lot of EE classes. Along the way I got to enjoy grad sociolinguistics, grad human paleontology, and fencing. I skipped a lot of classes, but did my homework and did well on tests. I managed to work on some of my own projects not part of my course work, trading time machining equipment for the physics department for time on physics equipment. When I did my grad work, I was amazed at how many students got together and studied as teams, developed team projects, and the odd team dynamics - people who never did anything, etc. To me, school had always been a solitary activity. I never needed to rely on anyone else, and never felt like anyone let me down. I never felt stress like I saw in the other people in those teams, or that I hear recounted these days - maybe there's an over-emphasis on team and social dynamics; maybe it's too many screens.
I attempted civil engineering, and failed, and the maths and the physics was simply too hard for me.
Same here.
I study in germany. mechatronics engineering. 7 classes a semester. besides other classes there are for example electronics, mechanics, IT, physics
I quit CS because it wasn’t working for me. I’m doing IT instead
Better?
skipping meals and no social life. Very difficult. AMS and pure mathematics in a nutshell.
What I find quite insulting is, before studying electrical engineering, I did okay as a software developer; but now that I am an engineering student (!), I make much less and I am supposed to work for minimum wage (not in US, mind you).
can you please make an interview with a student from Electronic Engineer background
Yes definitely !!!!!
Thank you 👍
@@TheMathSorcerer Awesome
@@TheMathSorcerer Thank you for the great effort you doing 😀
It's very hard. However I still had plenty of dates, plenty of girl friends, played sports, drank to excess often, went on trips, missed lots of classes, went hunting and fishing, joined clubs, went to the football games. Stayed busy. So yes you can have a life and earn an engineering degree.
if you complain about your social life because you're pursuing engineering, i think you're not pursuing engineering because you like it. im studying engineering and idc about social life being compromised because I love learning anything related to my program.
We should be more honest with ourselves and admit that the overall technological curriculum is too large to master in four years, or even five or six. To choose an optimal set of subject matters from the universal set of electrical and computer engineering, computer science and software engineering, pure and applied mathematics, statistics and data science, and any reasonable elective subset of humanities and social sciences is a curricular challenge not for the faint of heart.
Recognizing the easily observable psychological preference that left-brain math people are less comfortable with right-brain language subjects and skills suggests that techies need more diverse reading experience with texts beyond freshman composition, and more writing practice with socially-advanced human subjects. The curricular time to accomplish these goals adds more pressure to the university degree time line, and four years is simply not enough.
Undergrad is just getting a taste of a wide variety of subjects. Anything in-depth is what grad school is for.
Yall brought back so much ptsd
2 classes max. No rush as long as I am alive I know I will get that degree
Playing the long game. Respect.
Take 1 class per semester bro
@@jacobharris5894 I never understood why people rushed. This leads to bad grades because some of these courses are intense. That's why a lot of people drop out
@@feilongish Well some people want or need to get their degree in a certain time frame or there are external factors that put pressure on them to do so. For example, if you want to maximize the amount of money you get out of FAFSA for financial aid you need to be a full time student with 12 or more credit hours. You are free to take less courses in a semester but then you are throwing away financial aid. The more financial aid you throw away the more you may need to use student loans or work to pay for your classes in the long run. My friend had a scholarship that gave him a free ride all through college, so there was even more pressure for him to always be a full time student. For me, fortunately, it was ideal but not required.
Also if you want to pursue higher education or for see it taking a long time to establish a good career after your Bachelor's people don't want to make the journey even longer. The traditional path already takes a long time. I went to college straight out of high school and there is a good chance I won't have my P.h.D until I'm 30 or older. Meanwhile everyone I know outside of college has already been working for at least a decade and enjoying a fruitful career. When your young and interested in higher education in stem, your going to likely sacrifice your teens and 20's if not more.
I was an Electrical Engineering student over a half century ago. We had a few Mechanical Engineering classes that were a part of the curriculum, one of which was Dynamics. Enrolling in 18 credit hours during the first semester of my sophomore year, coupled with a terrible textbook and an indescribable instructor, turned it into my least favorite subject.
The dark truth of becoming an Engineer is that you are never really off the job
good that I don't have a social life
lol same
yes.. this is completely true
Spain. Decade of the 80s. Superior Engineering. Normally in each exam 500 presented, 5 passed. Subject by subject during the whole career. Nowadays, it is a joke what an engineering degree is compared to what it used to be.
Love your content❤sir
🙏
Please do an interview with an electrical engineer 🙏
Yes, will do, thank you!! More coming soon hopefully:)
@@TheMathSorcerer Do an interview with Joe
Learn a few additional skills. Things like AutoCAD helped me get a job out of college. I got paid like a draftsman for a while but I was getting experience working under a PE. Now I am a PE and own half of a consulting firm.
I've recently returned to college. In the past I was a super mediocre student, although my GPA was never lower than a 3.2, which is supposedly pretty good.
Since going back though I have had to cut a lot of things out so that I can maintain my focus. I spend almost every free moment studying, or at least thinking about my study material. I'm a 4.0 student for the 22/23 academic year, and I'm looking to carry that same momentum into the 23/24 year.
It's hard, but seeing those A's on my transcript sure does feel nice.
Wow, a perfect mirror of myself, so wired that the people around me feel so alien to me and I can relate so much to a random stranger on the internet
the way they gas you up about it is the worst part. they tell you how smart you are but the reason you're grinding through the hardest classes is to go make money for some rich kid business major
I went for the electrical engineering scholarship through apprenticeship. It was the next best thing when I couldn't get a cosigner for a school loan. You may not know that certain electrical jobs require workers who shoulder materials up and down jobs so they can carry it up and down a ladder all day. There was more lifting in that job then a weight lifting competition haha. Some good times some unbelievable. Like how a city engineer can make a decision that gets service workers or civilians hurt. That's where my patience ran thin. Engineers that make life decision should be qualified. Don't cheat on your exams. Learn it. Work ethic is rare enough these days. I felt like I should say a little something again living the experience for several years and surviving the hazards of it. This channel I got is just part time video games mostly but I do post comments here and there. I see this funnyface icon and it reminds me not to stress out over the things I cannot change, fix or verify. Always verify someone else's work if possible especially when lives are at risk. Never reach into a panel with the left hand first. If I did, that zap would of gone through my heart but I knew to always lead with the right hand first. Several times circuits were backfed. Several times it was live when it shouldn't have been. Only on a few instances was the panel locked out by the city but 'verified safe'. Consider what you can from this post. Alright it's turning into a stressful rant again. You may feel a bit altered in life after current passes through part of your body. You don't want to make that mistake or become part of someone else's mistake.
I don't know about now, but in the 80s at Georgia Tech the engineering majors typically had at least one "gate" engineering course. These were intended to weed out the weaker members of the herd. They were not in the senior year; that would have been too cruel. I survived. AE88
It boggles my mind that engineering is still treated as a four year degree when there's just so much material.
Besides graduating almost exactly a year ago and being chronically overstressed, I'm angry and frustrated because the I never got the chance to take the one or two engineering electives I actually wanted (having even taken prerequisites for them)
Monday - Thursday: you attend the classes, work on the project, do the homework for the b.s. minor classes in the evening.
Friday - Sunday: you concentrate on your engineering classes by reading the text books to teach yourself everything your professors think they taught you during the other 4 days, working through the examples in the books, and then doing the homework.
You concentrate on the 3 major classes the most, somewhat on the 4th major class that they squeezed in but never should’ve, whatever minors they make you take you just half ass.
The excessive time crunches are completely unnecessary. If the system was set up to encourage students to take classes at a more sustainable pace students would find the experience more enjoyable and less stressful.
Funny how the video ended right at the end of that point
Now imagine the workload for a chemical or nuclear engineer, yikes. Time and getting a good study groupbwas always my issue. I had to work and went to commuter schools, not a good mix.
Bro 5 subjects in a semester is mandatory in India then add 3 labs. But there is a lot of difference between indian and American engineering teaching.
They want to keep it hard so the number of engineers remains low. On top of that, they want universities to have a monopoly on dispensing professional training.
They could stretch the length of time out so the load in school is lighter, and have students work part time in an engineering office while studying.
I worked in a mechanical engineering office and some of the PEs were not brilliant even though they had got their degrees and passed the PE tests. My point in mentioning their lack of brilliance is to say that they did their jobs competently within the limited range of design tasks they were responsible for in that office.
Nobody remembers everything they studied in school for very long. In a few years, you will have to refresh your memory on specific subjects if you are asked to work on a project that requires knowledge that's different from what you have been doing in an office. The coursework to get your degree is far heavier than it needs to be because they are building students to be shotguns, when real engineering work usually requires sniper training. If you do oil refinery design for a few years, even with your shotgun training, you won't be able to instantly jump right onto missile guidance system design, and vice versa.
Because engineering school programs teach far too broadly, they make getting the degree much more difficult than a narrower degree would be.
But the entire university, or college system, is not the best model for training. Start a young person out in an office and train him/her to be a designer. Teach them the basics and have them follow charts and use rule of thumb design principles just the way 95% of all engineering is done in the real world anyway. A PE would check their output and seal it just like they check and seal the output of designers who are NOT on the path to become engineers. After they master the design job, they take on more difficult tasks that require real calculations rather than just following charts. They get the math training needed when it becomes relevant to what they're doing.
That's the apprentice system approach, and it worked very well for a very long time.
We have stratified careers into those that pay really well and those that barely pay. We have made entry into the high paying careers as difficult as possible, thus excluding everyone who is not gifted with the personal discipline to suffer for 4 years of their youth.
What a sick system
For mechanical engineering students the challenge is the statistical thermodynamics!
What also should be mentioned is the amount of class time. With labs you will be in class up to 30 hours per week.
“Average by choice”. I felt that one.
Study and struggle thru hard exams just for entry level jobs to ask for 2 years of experience in HVAC...
We take six courses a semester and they are 13 weeks long. We call internship co-op and you have no choice but to take the full semester off lol
The dark truth of becoming an engineer here in Brazil is that you will either end up in the financial sector or be driving for Uber.
Engineer from Brazil here. 90% of my class working in engineering fields in Brazil or abroad. Depends a lot on what you study and where.
Any ways I could study CS while I persue Physics as my major subjects?Seems CS is inevitable for almost everybody out there.
Unless you're going for a PhD, the second you get your first job, in your field, after college, no one cares about your grades, or the college you attended.
hoping to get comp sc engineering, videos like this are coool
That is awesome!
@@TheMathSorcerer last year of high school, if god is willing next year this time i'll be valedictorian
You end up studying how to use a software package...that dumbs down all your studies....u never throw an engineering punch in anger.
When you realize as an engineer you're the one who's been socially engineered by academia...
I've been an engineer 45 years and I still don't understand anything
Minute 4:13: For Math majors (in Germany, like me) it's very similiar.
Engineers also need social and business skills.
Than take a human-interactions-course.
@@d.h.1999 It takes years of socialization to become proficient in human interaction.
Not everyone is cut out to be an engineer yet we've encouraged so many average Joes and Janes to line up and try, and in a lot of ways it seems that we've had to lower our standards to accommodate them. If you're worried about your social life and studying hard subjects and it's just too stressful to go deep for a long time on hard problems then by all means, get a different job. :D
"Average by choice or average by fate? That is the question. Those who are average by fate, even if they are so, as long as they have focus in the craft of internship [and things of that rigorous nature], they should be good." (Rafael, 2023)