How Intense Is Mechanical Engineering School?

[jehan60188]

HOLY COW! I've got a BS in mathematics, which means my math/science/liberal arts/non-core stuff is already out of the way.
I'm still going to be taking 15 credit hours a semester for the next three years!

HOW can engineering be such an intense discipline?!
By my calculations, it's impossible to graduate in 4 years AND maintain your sanity!
I mean, I'm going to graduate, but WOW. My hats off to anyone that can do it from scratch!

 

[S_Happens]

Yeah, I came into the program core complete( and then some) and still have to take 12-14 hours for 6 semesters.

 

[OldEngr63]

That's the fun of it!

 

[AlephZero]

If it was easy, there wouldn't be any point doing it

But don't get the idea that when you graduate your education is done. Actually, you will only have learned enough to start teaching yourself, for the next 20 or 30 years. That's assuming you don't want to get caught in a dead-end job that will be outsourced to Vietnam or Bangladesh, when wages in China get too expensive...

 

[jehan60188]

ok, 6 credit hours this summer, and 15 next semester. sanity maintained until december
oh, I'm an officer in Engineers Without Borders, and I have ME projects outside the classroom.
nevermind about that sanity thing...

 

[daric soldar]

While I agree that the more theoretical subjects such as physics or math would be more difficult conceptually, I feel like the work load as an ME student is incredibly high. Your post only confirms this, jehan.

It kinda makes sense, though, doesn't it? You wouldn't drive a car designed by a team of engineers that spent most of their time playing racquetball and hitting the bars in college, would you? I've talked to lots of engineers and they say you just can't give up, no matter how difficult it gets. Some took 5 to 8 years to get their BS. Don't give up hope :)

 

[S_Happens]

I was used to only studying for a few hours a semester outside of class for my calculus and physics classes. I'm taking all ME classes and Partial Differential Equations this semester and I spend 20-40 hours a week studying OUTSIDE of class.

I'm used to "just getting it," but many of these classes are based on doing massive amounts of work. It's worth it when the grades come in.

I can't comment on other degree plans, or how they really compare.

 

[xxChrisxx]

I must have studied about at least 15-20 minutes between frames of snooker.

 

[OldEngr63]

@S_Happens: Welcome to mechanical engineering! Sounds like you have finally gotten to college. The paradigm for college assumes that you will study 2 hours outside of class for each hour of class time. Anything less, and you are not really getting the most out of your classes. What you are seeing, however, is that in Arts & Sciences, it is often possible to slide by with much, much less and still think you have done OK (even though you no doubt missed much that you could have learned had you worked harder). Now, in ME, you find that you simply cannot slide by; it does not work that way any longer. Welcome to mechanical engineering! It's a great career. Keep up the hard work.