Do I Have to Be a Nerd to Be an Engineer?

[UFOkrazy]

Okay i am an average student and i don't do very well in either physics or math because of my screwed up teacher. ( i used to get 80+% in grade 11 but now i am getting mid 70s because of a screwed up teacher). So yeah, i was wondering if i have to be some very nerdy to become an engineer because i have been reading a lot of threads around the internet about engineering and most of them says "its hard" "don't do it if you don't like it" etc. I really need some advice from experienced/expert users because i need to apply for a University or a College soon...so tell me what is your experience about engineering, do i need to be super nerd to be one?

Thank you

 

[Cyrus]

No, but you need to learn how to communicate in basic English. In general, the word "i" is capitalized as "I" in sentences. I know, for a fact, they taught you this in grade school. If you plan on going to any college or university, I hope you spend more time on your communication skills or they will weed you out pretty quickly. Your title should also read "Is Engineering for Nerds", not "Nerdy".

 

[engin33r]

If you choose engineering you will have to work hard at certain subjects such as math.
If this is what you perceive as "nerdy" then yes, Engineering is for nerds.

P.s Blaming others for your own failure isn't a good habit to start.

 

[gmax137]

... most of them says "its hard" "don't do it if you don't like it" etc.

Everything is 'hard' and choosing any career you 'don't like' would be a mistake - in other words, that advice you read about engineering applies to any other field or any other job. Unless of course, you're planning on doing the minimum with your life.

 

[brewnog]

If by "nerdy", you mean "able to communicate effectively at all levels" and "willing to take responsibility for their own actions", then yes.

 

[Naty1]

Since you never said you really like math and physics likely you would not like engineering either...or a number of other sciences for that matter...
.
do what you enjoy...days are really,really,really long when you are bored...

 

[UFOkrazy]

If you choose engineering you will have to work hard at certain subjects such as math.
If this is what you perceive as "nerdy" then yes, Engineering is for nerds.

P.s Blaming others for your own failure isn't a good habit to start.

What do you know about my teacher? Half of the student in my class has dropped the course and the other half are still struggling to maintaining mid 70s.

 

[engin33r]

Some of my best professors made me sweat the hardest. You have two options, blame the teacher or let go of a few distractions and work harder.

 

[clustro]

How do you drop a course in high school?

Hell, when I was in high school it was sink or swim

 

[Pengwuino]

Yah what kind of high school is this? The only "drop" we had was dropping out of high school all together

Seriously though, get over your teacher, study on your own. Whether or not someone else is to blame for problems in your life, you are always capable of fixing them yourself.

Anyhow, you get all sorts of people getting into engineering programs, from the brightest to some of the dumbest (there's ALWAYS a college that accepts the poorer students). However, if you don't like math or science, engineering is not the field for you, plain and simple. It is difficult, you will have to work.

You also, as others have said, need to put some time in writing down what you say. Do you have to be a nerd to be an engineer? Are you really asking whether or not you can be average and not care about educating yourself and be an engineer? Sure, but no one will ever hire you... if you can even make it through a program that is.

 

[clustro]

Anyhow, you get all sorts of people getting into engineering programs, from the brightest to some of the dumbest (there's ALWAYS a college that accepts the poorer students). However, if you don't like math or science, engineering is not the field for you, plain and simple. It is difficult, you will have to work.

I still remember being in a 3rd year chemical engineering course, having the professor say "Alright, we're going to learn some cool math today" and about 1/4 of the class groaned.

It was pretty stunning. Why would someone go into engineering if they didn't like math ?

Would you join the military if you hated your country? Would you become a rock star if you didn't like loud music?

Yes, engineering is definitely for nerdy people. What defines nerdy however is debatable. Good qualities of an engineer are typically:

1. Hard working (can't stress this enough).
2. Does meticulous and precise work.
3. Excellent written and oral communication skills.
4. Can recognize when they are in-over-their-head, and puts in the proper effort through the proper channels to get help.
5. Doesn't cheat. (Its so common I figured I'd just toss it out there.)
6. Has well-developed, effective study habits.

I've seen lots of brilliant people who thought they were hot stuff flunk out of college.

People who put in work succeed, not people who were born with great gifts and don't use them.

 

[story645]

What do you know about my teacher? Half of the student in my class has dropped the course and the other half are still struggling to maintaining mid 70s.

Congrats, welcome to the average engineering course. One thing I've learned about the guys who stick around is that they don't let the bad grades get to them. They either work harder to get solid grades, cheat, or stick around anyway. But you can't get far if you just give up every time you get a hard (or bad) teacher.

Okay i am an average student and i don't do very well in either physics or math because of my screwed up teacher.

You might survive chemical engineering, though I doubt it. I got a C in AP calculus but I'm managing mostly decent grades in computer engineering, so I don't think it's impossible to do fine, but it requires time and effort and actually caring somewhat. I also happen to mostly like math even though I'm not very awesome at it.

You don't need to be a nerd, but you do need enough of a reason to be in that engineering classroom to stick it out when you feel like you hate all of it and want to drop out.

 

[Jmf]

Engineering is difficult, and requires a fair amount of ability in maths. If you dislike maths or science, then perhaps consider studying something else.

On the other hand, if you like a challenge then engineering is a great subject. Personally I'm a bit of a geek, but I know loads of other people on my course that aren't nerdy in the slightest.

They do all work very hard, though.

 

[Quincy]

3. Excellent written and oral communication skills.

Oh come on... I know many engineers who aren't even fluent in english...

 

[clustro]

That may be, but solid communication skills are extremely favorable.

For research purposes, the ability to write a cogent paper is extremely important.

 

[story645]

For research purposes, the ability to write a cogent paper is extremely important.

I thought that was what a collaborator was for; they get to proofread/rewrite all the papers before submission. If that doesn't quite pan out, doesn't a grad/undergrad student get the awfully awesome task of proofreading paper submissions? And if the CS paper generator project and it's ilk are anything to go by, the standards for science research English are pretty low.

 

[Quincy]

It's true that to advance to a managerial position, communication skills are a must, but for lower-level engineering positions, communication skills aren't nearly as important as for most other jobs.

 

[Cyrus]

It's true that to advance to a managerial position, communication skills are a must, but for lower-level engineering positions, communication skills aren't nearly as important as for most other jobs.

Well, maybe if you want to be suck working a low level looser job. I'm a graduate student and even I have to make professional presentations to customers, annual technical reviews for funding to members of the state industrial partnership program, professional societies, get to meeting congressional staff members, people in industry, ..etc. Communication skills are important - very important.

What happened to being the best at what you do? Anyone? ...anyone? Develop your skills to be a well rounded engineer.

 

[Cyrus]

I thought that was what a collaborator was for; they get to proofread/rewrite all the papers before submission. If that doesn't quite pan out, doesn't a grad/undergrad student get the awfully awesome task of proofreading paper submissions? And if the CS paper generator project and it's ilk are anything to go by, the standards for science research English are pretty low.

No, you are largely responsible for making sure your paper is not crap. Not others.

 

[microbiek]

I'm sorry but engineers are known for their poor reading, writing and communications skills.

...and their non existent sense of humor...i find that true in my college and from the engineers i know.

 

[clustro]

There are engineering students with poor writing and communication skills, but most of them I know have a great sense of humor.

 

[microbiek]

ah yea i agree the students are all great craic just our lecturers and engineers that i know off...but it is actually a real stereo type of an engineer.

http://www.contractortalk.com/f44/engineer-sense-humor-66925/

 

[Cyrus]

I'm sorry but engineers are known for their poor reading, writing and communications skills.

...and their non existent sense of humor...i find that true in my college and from the engineers i know.

Your poorly written post is a great example.

 

[microbiek]

Your poorly written post is a great example.

Haha exactly all i need 2 b able 2 do is math tis gr8...FO SHO!

 

[story645]

Haha exactly all i need 2 b able 2 do is math tis gr8...FO SHO!

Lab reports, technical reports, responses, memos, group reports, term papers, and other assorted writing assignments are all part of the standard engineering curriculum. My school also requires good ole technical writing.

i find that true in my college and from the engineers i know

I think that many engineers being ESL students has more to do with their horrible writing than being an engineer does. I've got two sorts of controls: I see plenty of non-engineering students who are just as bad writers as the engineering students, and a large portion of the native born engineers I know can write decently.

 

[jehake12]

I'm curious as to why you want to be an engineer? That is probably the more fundamental question as opposed to whether being a nerd or not is a requirement.

Additionally, If you can't communicate well (write, speak, present) and you do poorly in math and science, then there are probably few jobs, in general, that you will be successful at.

 

[dr dodge]

to succeed in ANY field you need to be able to read, write, & communicate well
that includes tactfulness, well thought responses, listening completely, and lack of having to result to personal attacks (nothing will shoot you in the foot worse than an "ill thought comment verbalized or emailed...those can be job enders)
that is harder to do in the workplace than you would imagine

if you are not good at something, or hate it from the start, you will never be happy, then that leads to the painful mid life career changes that plague so many people now adays

dr

 

[yrael]

How do you drop a course in high school?

Hell, when I was in high school it was sink or swim

I didn't know there was even a choice to drop a course in high school, nothing of this was ever mentioned to me from my advisor, but then again my GPA is 4.2 ^^

Anyways now that I'm a MechEng and BiotechEng in my senior year and my GPA has went down like the current stock market to 3.3 which is just about 1 full point difference. If you know your high school GPA minus that by 1 and you will get a GPA for your college year. If your satisfy with that then go for eng.

*notice you must love calculus I, II, III, DiffQ and Physic I,II,III, IV those are the basics for almost all engineers.
Later on if you hate fluids, heat transfer, thermodynamics, and/or controls I, II, electronics don't blame the people on the physics forum we have warned you :D

Also it is not true what people above have stated, you don't have to be perfect at grammar to succeed in engineering, I used to do horrible in english literature class, til the day I learn that engineering reports are not about elaboration, its all about facts and facts, so no need to worry, go for engineering even if you suck at writing english papers, just make sure your good at writing reports base on experimental datas from lab and you will pass (notice I didn't say with flying colors).

 

[piner]

most of the people in my engineering classes have a great sense of humour, great social skills, love to party and meet new people, all the while getting their work done. Expect your grades to take a decent hit, especially compared to what the sci/art students drop. I went into engr because i loved physics and calc, but i hated all the theory. I was just interested in the applications and how to use it, which is what engineering is. In my province you only take one course of physics, which is basically an intro to physics course with the added twist of derivatives and integrals. you take calc 1,2,3, diff eqn, linear algebra, circuits, statics, programming. Depending on what dissy you choose, your later years could range from more cicuits to bio to strength of materials.

 

[Jones1987]

I'm still currently a Mech Eng student. I didn't like Maths at the start of my course nor did I really enjoy it through college, but the more you sit down and learn in lesson / self teach the easier and more enjoyable it can become. Everyone dislikes one aspect of their course, you just have to work harder at that topic to bring it up to scratch with the rest of your studies.

The way I look at it is, when I first started weight training, I would hate exercising certain muscles because they were weaker, so in my mind I would think "argh, god I hate that, really struggled, don't want to do that again" but the more I did it, the stronger those areas become and matched my stronger muscles.

The point I'm making is, if you put in the effort and time, you can do it. Just remember, if someone can invent this stuff, you can learn it ;)

 

[Mr_Orsum]

Just remember, if someone can invent this stuff, you can learn it ;)

^^ I liked this :) Really makes you think about all those things we find "too hard" or "impossible". I'm half way though my final year of high school, having returned after dropping out for 2 years (best decision EVER). So here's my 2 cents worth:

What does it matter if engineering is "for nerdy" (lol) grow up and get over it. Listen to what others have said in this thread as I'm sure they are far more knowledgeable than myself. And for goodness sake, lrn beta comunicashon skilzz..

 

[gretun]

You are going to let one teacher decide your future?

 

[clope023]

most of the nerds in my school are in the math and physics department, apart from the chinese and arabs that can't speak english very well most of the engineers here at least are all pretty loud, semi obnoxious, and talk lots of sht most of the time but I live in miami so lots of the hispanic engineers are cuban so that's normal for them