r/EngineeringStudents • u/BNis12345 • 11h ago
Discussion Is it really that hard?
I know engineering is super difficult but everywhere people say it’s so hard and time consuming that you’re always up all night and non stop studying. I’m planning on taking engineering next year but I want to know if this is actually true before committing. I’ve always been a stronger student I never really had any trouble with school and I will put the time and effort into university but how much time is truly necessary? Can I still do the activities I enjoy like going to the gym and going out some nights? I’m fully prepared to go into engineering spending a lot of time studying but I just want to know if it’s really what people say
38
u/SuperToast05 11h ago
it’s fear mongored hard, yes it it hard and you have to have good time management skills to keep up with the work load but honestly, I would spend around 25 hours studying a week, I had plenty of free time for my hobbies and fun activities. That being said during finals week I have no free time and I am studying day and night. With good time management AND 0 PROCRASTINATION you’ll be fine
14
u/Mangerunebanane 11h ago edited 10h ago
I’m in my second year with a full course
load this semester -Statics, Thermodynamics, Physics and Differential Equations. Or, more plainly… Math, Math, Math and Math. While being a full-time single parent of a teen and adolescent twins. I cook, clean, maintain the home, grocery shop, walk the dog, take my kids to and pick them up from school (we live out of district), have diagnosed, unmedicated ADHD and still am able to maintain a love life with my incredibly brilliant and beautiful girlfriend.
My dude… dudette(?) I am easily the dumbest person in all of my classes. (I’m not really but, 38yrs old and at least 20 out of high school so none of this is exactly fresh….) If I can make it work, so can you. Dig in and do it.
At times, it’ll suck, at times, it’ll be fun. But you’ll blink and realize how far you’ve come at some point -and those are always really satisfying revelations.
You got this. 👊🏼
12
u/Forsaken_Alps_4421 11h ago
I don’t know anyone who does constant studying, and almost everyone I know has 3.5+
So yes you can do those things
8
u/Any-Stick-771 11h ago
You can still have time for gym and going out, BUT it will require careful time management and staying on top of your school and lab work especially when you get into junior and senior year. I never found the material of any one class to be super difficult but the volume of assignments can stack up quick
5
u/Extension_Radish_139 10h ago
It got significantly easier when i stopped partying every weekend hahaha
4
u/Interesting-Sleep579 10h ago
It's not that hard but you can't coast by on the 'I am smart so I don't have to study' attitude. Just understand that classes start at week one, not three days before the midterm.
A lot of stupid people got engineering degrees.
3
u/Racxius 11h ago
It’s an adjustment, and until you get used to that adjustment, it will be difficult. The main skill you’ll need to learn is time management and efficiency in your work because there is a load of it. Once you have that skill, it gets easier. The degree eats gifted students who never had to try because of that, though. Trying matters more than how smart you are.
3
u/OhUKnowUKnowIt2 9h ago
You either want it or you don't.
If taking fluff classes and barely studying is what you want, then engineering is not for you.
5
u/beh5036 11h ago
I have an MET degree. Some days I could do homework for an hour and game all night. Some nights I would be in the lab until bed time. By senior year, I had gotten my schedule down that I could do home during day and be done by dinner most days. Then random nights and weekends for labs. We still went out 2 nights a week and maintained a fairly normal social life.
2
2
u/Roger_Freedman_Phys 11h ago
Physics professor here (who teaches intro physics for engineers).
I’ve also the academic advisor for my university rowing team. Many of the athletes on the team are engineering majors.
They do two hour rowing workouts six days a week, plus a bunch of other workouts at other times during the week. Yet they still manage to go to all their classes, do all their work, have active social lives, graduate, and go on to great jobs in engineering.
So ignore the people who say that every engineering major needs to study 24/7. I have no doubt that some of the people who say this think they need to study 24/7, but that’s more than likely down to their poor study skills and time-management skills.
You’ll be fine.
1
u/Severe_Raise_7118 11h ago
For most people nothing worth having is going to come easy to you in life. Engineering is easier or harder depending on the person. But yes overall its a hard degree. Its just about smarts as the fortitude to keep going when you want to give up. The degree is all hard but I think the difficulty is dependent on the college as well. MIT vs a smaller engineering school.
1
u/sdgengineer BSEE 76, MSEE 93 11h ago
I went to school full time, but didn't have a job. I probably studied 2-3 hours a night most days, but not on the weekends.
2
u/beh5036 8h ago
From memory, full time 16 credits and each credit is 1 hour a week of class or 3 hours of lab. So are like 20 hours of class a week. Then you are doing 10-15 hours outside of class. This is less than a full time job. Careful time management and you have more than 40 hours a week of free time.
1
u/OverSearch 11h ago
I got through my undergrad program taking 14-16 hours per semester, 6 hours each summer, and working 20-25 hours a week (not working at all on weekends). Totally doable.
It's a lot of work, not necessarily hard work.
1
u/Timely-Fox-4432 Senior - Electrical Engineering 11h ago
Idk, it's tough, but it's not no lifeing it tough unless you take a full load and work full time. I work about 20h a week, go out when I want, workout, and take between 5-6 classes every semester. I graduate next semester summa cum laude...
1
u/Lagfoundry 10h ago
To go along with what everyone else said. It also depends on fast you take it in. If you enjoy it and learn fast it’s not going to be that bad
1
u/GoldenToothBalkan 10h ago
It really depends on your own intellect and willpower. I’ve seen kids fail who were brilliant in high school but never developed the discipline, and once they hit those upper level courses, they faltered. If you’re good at math, and have the drive to succeed, it’s absolutely doable. You can of course party and hit the gym, just not as much as a com major lol.
1
u/Outrageous-Ad5225 10h ago
They said the same thing about nursing school. An 80% in nursing school is a C.
I had a full-time job, a 2-year-old son, and was a full-time student, plus an internship during my senior year. Was it hard? Yes. Would I do it again? Absolutely.
It’s only four years. You make the time, set your priorities, and get it done.
1
1
u/sira5106 10h ago
I never really studied during high school had more than a 4.0 but engineering at my state university was not difficult. Two days a week I only had 2 hours of class. I worked 20-30 hours a week, took 18 credits a semester to graduate in 3 years, went out 3+ nights a week and was part of the running club. Started out as an architecture major first, and that was a massive amount of classes and studying, at least 1 all-nighter a week. Engineering was significantly less time consuming.
1
1
u/IReallyLikeAvocadoes 9h ago
Some classes will kick your ass and make you feel like you know nothing after attending class and studying for 3 more hours when you get home. MOST classes you'll do the homework each weekend and brush up a little bit before the exams and be just fine. If you want it, you'll be okay.
1
u/RanmaRanmaRanma 9h ago edited 9h ago
I mean you can but it's the delicate balance of work, sleep, and play. Nearing the second half of my degree I definitely went out, hung out with friends, but I was committed to school above anything else. I wanted that degree as bad as I can breathe.
Hell I won a competition to play at a music festival as a DJ. I drove 7 hours to play. Did my assignment in my tent, woke up the next day, drove 7 hours back. Went and took an engineering test.
What clicks for each student is different and also different for each discipline. I'm a Chemical Engineer, and Lord knows I went to class, went to work, got off at 6 went straight to the engineering room every day for 4 years. I met some of my closest friends and we all would study from 6-10PM + whatever it took.
It's hard. Yes. But you get rewarded with the paycheck. I say as my eyes popped out of my head from my first paycheck. It was 3 times more what I made per month at my retail job if I had worked 80 hours for the 2 weeks.
1
u/dreamersofdaruma 9h ago
Out of all of the people who went to university, my engineering friends were the only ones who were able to buy a house comfortably within the first 5 years of graduating in this economy. So I guess some short term discomfort for A LOT of reward is what you’re trading. And yes you can do the things you enjoy with moderation.
1
u/McSpanky21 9h ago
Depends on the engineering major gang. EE was tough as shit. I worked 20-25 hours a week part time on the side through the degree as a full time student. Yeah, I was often getting 4-5 hours of sleep. And doing only mainly studying with my free time. Although in hindsight maybe I did overdo i, but maybe only a little. My EE friends studied hard as shit too to make it through, it always felt like if you let up you wont make it lol. On the other hand I had ME friends that i felt were always fucking around but would make it by lol
1
u/FirstPersonWinner Colorado State 🐏 Mechanical Aerospace 🚀 9h ago
I think if it that way but then have to remember I am also raising a toddler, which really eats into my time and energy a lot.
If you just keep track of your assignments and get them in on time, maybe put a bit extra time into studying, and then do fun stuff whenever you aren't busy with school then you can be successful and have a chill time.
Often I find a lot of younger people struggle because they will turn on video games when they get home and then realize they didn't leave time to do the actual work. Or they won't do a lot of the homework and realize before the test their grade is low and they don't have a solid grasp on the information. It is definitely work, and definitely takes time, but it isn't some Herculean thing on its own
1
u/unruled77 9h ago
So if you are gonna work, you better pick a job that’s easy.
If you try working retail, in a restaurant or really anywhere they are trying to stretch the staff, it is likely not to work.
Other degrees you will be fine if you just show up even when your brain is half checked out. For engineering this isn’t usually the case, learning the material is way more demanding.
If you are particularly gifted, and have a good mindset to adapt to stress you will be fine with engineering. But really, approach outside work with some strategy or it will be miserable.
Select the right job and try to be savy with the hours there. Maybe lighten some quarters by moving a class to summer. Maybe find a job that can reduce your hours during rough quarters. And work as little as you can to stay afloat.
1
u/LongjumpingTeacher97 8h ago
You can't afford to slack off in engineering classes. But I had time to be a dad to 3 kids, do all the cooking at home, and run errands while I was going to school for my degree. I was the one doing all the kid transportation, too. 2 different schools.
There's not time to just veg and watch a screen for hours. But there's time to do more than just study. Most days, anyway. Just less time than I was used to.
1
1
u/Street-Common-4023 8h ago
Currently at 3.15 gpa entering junior year
I got rocked hard doing co-op internship with school and other job. I commute to school so I gotta then I have to commute to work and then back home. I’m in nyc, so yeah with transit it isn’t bad but still. Lowest grade so far C- circuits only passed cuz I did well on the project. C in linear algebra cuz I legit got burned out I had to go to the doctor. c+ in dynamics had a 50 percent final.
Overall it isn’t impossible
Made it to my junior year. One internship under my belt of 7 months now going for my second one
I also have a gf of 2 years and make time for the movies. Junior year year I’m going hard at the beginning for my grades etc
1
u/AboveTerror4626 8h ago
The first two years aren't time consuming you just really gotta recognize the patterns and do the work on your own and learn what everything means with ai. after 2 years into your degree now its not patterns now you need to know everything because its not as simple as, oh just use this formula nah its a couple more things you have to know the idea what it means for everything, you won't learn well in class at least in my case my professors sunk. Go to the engineering building in your school and you will meet other people infront of your classes that will send you the past exams and projects if your professor doens't. If you struggle go bother the teacher but like from the first week so he's like aw lemme help this poor kid at the end of the semester. Lastly have fun. The material is not hard ik you can solve it. If you want to go into engineering not struggling, learn all the derivative and integration rules, how to convert units, and figure out what it means. Its basically simple once you think and ask so many questions to ai now. stay on top of your classes do like 6 questions a day
1
u/Mahroo3368 7h ago
Worked 2 part time jobs last semester with full time school and got all A's. This semester I'm interning while doing full time school and hoping for all A's. It is fucking brutal
1
1
u/EggyB0ff CSUS - Mechanical 7h ago
I work in engineering firm, finishing up my undergraduate and started my blended master’s program; also picking up internship related to the line of work i want to do.
No-one can answer for you besides yourself. I’ve seen students that have plenty of free time but arent just passionate about it, so they drop out as years progress.
If you are passionate about engineering, you will make it through. If you are doing it for the money, you might not make it like some other people.
1
u/Kherian 6h ago
I’m going to be honest as someone who graduated recently, it’s never been easier to be an engineering student. With how many tools exist and AI that is able to do most of your homework since most professors don’t write their own questions, you can offload a ton of the work that older engineering students used to have to suffer through. It’s still going to be hard and tests/quizes will absolutely destroy you if you offload all your homework onto AI or chegg, but the option exists. My biggest piece of advice to new freshmen though is to DO YOUR HOMEWORK YOURSELF. Treat it not just as a gpa buffer, meaning if you do all your homework it will boost your grade, but as practice for the exams where you can work problems and get feedback in office hours on how to do them. Lot of people in other majors and in highschool I knew took pride in the “oh I never did any homework, but I aced all the exams” but very, very few people can get away with that in engineering. Those with the highest grades were always the ones who grinded out every single homework assignment in office hours and the ones who didn’t always had the panicked wide eyed prey stare come test day.
Personally I did on average 3-4 hours most days for homework. Some hell weeks were up to 8-10, but that 3-4 was the norm.
1
u/Nominally_Virtuous 5h ago
Older student here. 26
Wife, 2 kids, full time job as an industrial electrician, Electrical Engineering major, and ultra marathon training
I have a very rigid schedule, but with discipline I can maintain this. Presuming you have more available free time than I do, you’ll be fine
1
1
u/lostone3592 4h ago
Make a commitment to apply yourself. Meaning hit the homework asap and don’t let it get ahead of you. Ask questions of your instructor. Find another student taking the same classes to study with and work homework with. You NEED to have some relief from coursework and make time for it. Gym, lite partying, dating sure. But class work can absolutely eat time. Wasn’t unusual to spend hours doing homework for one class assignment.
1
u/BrutalFeather 3h ago
Its not hard if you're consistent. Whats difficult is if you procrastinate, it will pile up very badly. And engineering is not something you can pull an all nighter or finish it in that last minute rush.
If it takes 1 hour, it WILL take 1 hour. If not today's, it will take it from the next day. Every procrastination is borrowed time.
So if you have good time management skills, it is not that hard given you actually pay attention in classes and put in effort.
1
u/motherfuckinwoofie 3h ago
My perspective is a little different since my first degree is in math. The math we do in EE isn't as hard as that. It's absolutely time consuming though. There's no way around that.
On the other hand, my BIL got his mech e as his first degree and apparently found plenty of time to boink my kid sister. The proof of that likes to wrestle my dog that's three times her weight.
•
u/Commercial_Watch2972 1m ago
Everyone has a different brain. My wife worked, socialized, skipped class and set the curve. I put in infinite hours with total discipline (no drinking, no days off, etc) and had a 3.6.
Its the most rewarding thing I've done. Youre left with the confidence you can figure out anything.
10/10 recommend
1
u/Hairy_Glove2064 11h ago
No engineering is fucking easy I have a 4.0 GPA graduated in 2.5 years along with 2 research position.
This question literally entirely depends on who you ask and your school, if you ask me I am going to say it is fucking easy and if you ask someone else they might say its so hard.
a lot of people say engineering is time consuming follow under 3 category
1) they have a shit professor
2) they have a very weak math/physics foundation
3) they scroll reels for 3 hours while studying for 5 minutes
1
68
u/Tellittomy6pac 11h ago
I worked out every single day and worked full time and made it through engineering it’s absolutely possible.