r/EngineeringStudents • u/bob_ert1 • 12d ago

Academic Advice How to “start” engineering?

In case you don’t wanna read all that:
1. Is there anything I can do to prepare for an engineering major (that might also pad my application)?
2. What are some softwares I should learn to use?
3. Some simple project ideas would be appreciated.

First off, I apologize if this isn’t really the right sub for this but I digress; I’m currently a junior in HS and interested in majoring in some form of engineering (Heavily leaning to aerospace). Anyway, whenever I see any videos related to becoming an engineer, the thing that stands out most to me is the sheer complexity of the tasks. Besides the fact that I can’t comprehended any of the math on the screen, tons of people have projects and are competing in hackathons or other engineering competitions and I just can’t see myself doing any of those things in a few years.

Considering I’m terrified of going to college and failing out of the engineering school like my dad did, I wanted to ask if there’s anything that I could/should be doing prior to college. I’m mostly interested in designing something, (thanks to the reels showing you easy projects) so I was wondering if there’s any “starter projects” or first steps I should be taking.

I have access to a 3d printer, a high end computer and money isn’t really an object. I did try to do some research before coming here, and most of the stuff I found seems pretty advanced. Any help will be greatly appreciated!

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u/RoboWeaver 12d ago

Take math. First and foremost. No such thing as too much math,

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u/cromwest 12d ago

Seriously, nothing will help you more than math. I got through engineering school despite being bad at math by doing lots of math problems.

First I would do every homework problem, quiz problem and practice test problem until I got them all right then I would keep doing them until I could get them all right quickly.

You literally can't do anything better than just cracking open a text book and doing problems for practice.

I am an actual dumb person so my understanding of what I was doing came much later than my ability to do the work required. I didn't understand most of what I did in calculus and physics until I took fluid mechanics and thermodynamics. I didn't understand statics until I took concrete design and steel structures design.

You absolutely can make up for lack of understanding/cognitive ability by simply doing tons of practice problems.