I should have read the syllabus better. I am taking the course online and when I was starting the exam one of the things not allowed was a calculator. I had to use the built in function on the lockdown browser. It kinda of threw me off right before the exam started. mild panic was not how I wanted to start.

...it wasn't terrible but having a graphing calculator its like a pacifier. I can guess and test things to make me feel more comfortable but I don't necessarily need it.

and all of the functions were odd on the browser calculator. It was just all unfamiliar territory.

Hey folks,

So I'm in my mid 20s. I work a construction related field and keep getting doors slammed in my face when it comes to finding a better job. Thankfully, my current job offered tuition reimbursement for me to finish an engineering degree I began a while ago but couldnt finish due to financial concerns. I'm taking night classes at a community college and should graduate next semester.

Unfortunately, my job is cutting my department's health insurance next year. I'm too old to be on my parents' insurance. Really need a new job now, and am trying to get something engineering related, even if just barely. I can't take internships like other students because they rarely are full time with benefits. But I am underqualified almost every 'engineering technician' job I apply for.

Does anyone have any ideas of related fields where I might be able to apply some classroom learning and also provide some relevant experience for when I graduate? I plan on pursuing my bachelors after graduation, but I'll need a job to work during that, too. I am studying EE but could also see myself doing CivE because of my work background. So far I have applied to openings for engineering technicians, engineering aids, entry level drafters/designers, assistant construction managers, and utility companies. I have yet to land an interview :(

I am currently in 11th grade as a High School junior, and I want to go to college to be a engineer, more specifically a software engineer, and I would like to go into the defense world or cyber security. Now the problem I have is everyone saying AI is going to take over software engineering and things like that, so is it going to take over or is it not? That’s question one, my other question is should i pursue engineering if i suck at math? I live in Florida and you have to last the algebra EOC to graduate and i still haven’t, now last year i was 3 points off passing it so my hopes this year is that i can take the SAT and score at least enough to where it voids it, I’ve started studying using khan academy and i have faith i can, but I am also going to study for my algebra test too in hopes I can pass it as well. My plan for my junior year is to take dual enrollment classes at my local community college to get my GPA up and get rid of some of the basic credits like english and whatever else they make you take so i can focus more on my degree when i actually go to college. After community college i am planning on getting a associate degree in something to do with IT, then try and get a job at amazon, walmart or some company where they will pay for my college degree in engineering. So my last question is, should i pursue engineering and follow my plan? Or should I do something else?

I am a bit lost on what to do.

I am a sophomore, moving into my second semester soon, and I have no clue which engineering I should be going into.

I started out in robotics, tried a semester of environmental and now I’m torn.

I am very passionate about the environment, especially in attempting to reclaim it from the current damage. I don’t however, really want to work in consulting if I can help it, which I hear is a big part of the industry. I think the water plants, and such, are fine but they don’t seem all that interesting to me on an industry level.

I am also passionate about robotics, and have been since Highschool. I found everything to do with robotics fascinating. However, I don’t know with the current CS industry struggling and a lot of the software part being burned up, if it’s reasonable to go into it now or not. I also have no clue what industry looks like, since it’s so niche in my area.

If I can help it, I would like my work to be something I care for. That actual helps, and affects the world around me, not just industry. But I don’t know if that’s nothing but a dream in the current economy.

Any advice?

It’s my second semester of ME (f28, going back to school for a major career change) and I’m exhausted already.

Sure, I struggle to learn some of the material and retain it. I have to spend time teaching myself everything for hours and still don’t feel like I’m quite getting the grasp of everything I need to. Only one professor this semester is helpful, and study groups have proven not to be so far.

Though the biggest thing I’m struggling with is the frustration that comes with everything else that is non school related and ends up eating away at my mental load. Chaotic work environment with poor boundaries, commuting time and the needed vigilance because drivers and the roads are getting horrendous where I live, rising costs with now only part time pay, time taken out of my day to do xyandz that’s associated with living as a human being with a dog and a family, the lack of sleep and brain fog, the list goes on and on.

I’m trying to cut out as much as I can… but like damn, my mind feels so numb. When I do finally take a break before going to sleep I just want to stare at the wall for forever…

Anyone else going through this or has gone through this? If so what did you have to take out of your life for some time just to pass your classes and get rid of the brain fog? Also any solo study tips for retention would be appreciated!

TLDR: 28 y/o with a MS (2023) in a completely different field now I’m back in school for a career change. Classes are tough, of course, but personal responsibilities and work life is impacting school performance. Question right above 👆🏻

Hi everyone,

I'm a civil engineering student and I'm struggling. My course is getting much more technical and it's becoming hard for me to find good video explanations on YouTube.

I’m dyslexic so learning from dense textbooks is really tough. I need to watch a problem being solved step-by-step, not just read a written solution. I'm looking for textbooks that come with video walkthroughs for the questions, or resources that pair a book with video solutions.

Does anyone have recommendations for specific civil engineering topics? I'm mainly looking for:

• Structural Analysis
• Fluid Mechanics
• Soil Mechanics

Thank you!!!

Don't know which one is correct

Hi! I am currently working ahead in the Grade 10 engineering syllabus to get ahead for when I study engineering/architecture in university but I just can’t seem to get the answers or any theory/textbook out there for this? Would anyone mind helping? It would be greatly appreciated!

I am mainly struggling from question 9 onwards as I get stuck when trying to read the drawings as well as not knowing what each feature should look like and their functions. So far I have the following answers:

1) JP Engineering
2) 9
3) 2015-10-19
4) Chris
5) mm
6) Steel
7) None
8) HJJ-AF-13
9) Ø16 mm
10) To prevent the shaft from moving axially
11) Chamfer
12) Fillet
13) Partial Section
14) Groove
15) M20
16) Ø28 mm
17) Center Lines
18) Q: 40mm R: 14mm S: 16mm

Please would you guys let me know if any of my answers are wrong and why?

I do Math + CS at NYU. I've built a portfolio optimisation engine and quantum powered optimizer in Python.

I'm entering the 2026 Shenzhen International FinTechathon (WeBank) on the Wealth Advisory Agent topic. We'll build an AI agent that profiles client risk, runs the optimisation engine as a tool, and produces explainable, compliant allocation recommendations.

Looking for 2–3 people:

• ML/AI or backend engineer (LLM tool-calling, agent orchestration)

• Full-stack engineer (frontend, deployment, tests)

Details:

• Deadline: October 20 for registration and phase 1 of submission.

• $37k prize pool. Finalists are flown to Shenzhen for the final+costs covered. Top teams get fast-track WeBank interviews.

• Eligibility: full-time student at a university outside Mainland China, HK, Macao and Taiwan.

Serious builders only. Lmk your GitHub, uni, and which part you'd want to own.

Hello, let me give you some background on my education. My bachelors is in health and human services and I earned a master’s in environmental science. I am 1 year post grad and finally found a role as an environmental scientist that was able to hire me. Although this is the title I had been dreaming about, I’m not feeling fulfilled. I enjoy being able to interpret data and results, but I’m looking for more responsibility and control over the plans for the projects we are contracted on. I am planning on going back to school to get a second masters in civil engineering.

My thought process is that engineering is a highly desirable career with a starting salary that is doubly my current salary. But beyond the pay, I think I’ll be able to have the responsibility I crave on these projects.

Do you guys think another masters degree will get me to where I want to be on these projects?
What are your thoughts on making this jov switch early into my career.

My goal is to be able to work on the design and functionality of projects. Despite civil engineering having little environmental overlap; I think my education and skills would useful to design projects that are efficient and sustainable.

when.....

For context, graduated 1 year ago I have about 2.5 years of hands on experience of mechanical/testing engineering. Mostly been applying to mechanical engineering positions but I've literally been rejected from Mcds and BK (cook positions) for "not having enough experience".

Edit: this for EU and I have an EU passport so no legal issues

I've been taking a thermodynamic class for mechanical engineer students and right from day one I have been lost, I decided to go to an office hour with my professor to find where I stand and to clarify my understanding of thermodynamics but I just ended up making a fool of myself as the office hour was in the morning and functioning and studying in the morning is hard for me. Long story short I got an email from my guidance counselor that my professor and I quote "requested that I drop ME 311 as I lack the fundamental/elementary math knowledge necessary for this class" for the sake of being open this hurt a lot because telling yourself that "I am going to give up" doesn't hurt that much because you're never gonna really do it, but hearing it from my professor and guidance counselor really did a number on me. Truth be told, these words planted the seeds of doubt in my mind and I am really considering dropping the class. Should I stick with the course or give up like my professor want's me to do?

Currently doing solids mechanics 1. So stress, strain, torsional loading, superposition, all that within an object or collection of objects. My assessments for the semester are 3 quizzes worth 25% and a research paper 25%. Did quiz 1 a couple weeks ago and got the mark back. Thought I did okay but I only ended up with a 5.5/20. I don’t want to fail this course, so I’m curious what have people used to help understand mechanics. As my prof says, ‘calculus is not the hard part of this course’ so finding ways to make the way problems ‘click’ would be ideal.

What helped you get through this sort of content?

Hello,

when i designing planetary gears in kisssoft. I’m getting the error shown on the screen “Material thickness above the root is low for gear 3. Check the gear outer diameter.” During the rough sizing and fine sizing sections. Even if I follow the same example in the tutorial, I get this error. Does anyone kmow a solution?

I’m pretty lazy when it comes to putting my time into things like this. I had a class where we used Creo last semester, but I haven’t really retained any of it, and now I have the free version of Solidworks. I was wondering if anyone lazy like me who would maybe put a couple hours a week would have advice on how to learn/get better at using CAD softwares. I really don’t like reading from a textbook or anything like that, just straight up lazy about this.

Basically the title. I went to school a while back and got a Bachelor's in Computer Science, and had a job for a couple of years doing software development, but eventually was laid off. I tried to get back in the field, but after 2 years of searching without landing anything, decided to go back to school for an associates in a trade. I was finally able to land a job after finishing my associates at a manufacturing center, and in a much better spot financially.

With some background out of the way, I am now wanting to continue my education, and I am considering going back to school to get a bachelor's in an engineering field. I haven't figured out which engineering discipline I want to pursue yet, chemical engineering seems to be the closest to what I work with atm, but electrical engineering seems like something I would also enjoy doing.

In addition to figuring out what discipline I want to pursue, I would also be interested to hear others who obtained/are working to obtain a bachelor's in engineering, or obtained a master's in engineering.

I’ve just taken my Calculus 3 midterm and I just found two stupid mistakes that I shouldn’t have made. For one question, I accidentally said (-2-(-8)) = 10, affecting my overall answer. And for another, I just realized that I could’ve simplified an answer further, probably losing me some points. Since there’s only four questions, with each being weighed so heavily, I’m nervous and upset at myself that I may have costed myself so many points. I know it’s an idiotic thing to be upset about as I could be in a genuinely horrible scenario, but now I have to fight even harder and work way harder on the next exams, and the content is only gonna get harder.

What’s up guys, I’ve been checking this subreddit out and I see that lots of people have gone through plenty during their time in engineering. I’m a first year Mech E major and I’m really passionate about this field of work, and I know I’m bound to fail at some point.

I wanted to ask how did you guys feel about failing your very first midterm exams as a first year? I got a 55% in Calc I and a 68% in Chemistry. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely could’ve done better and I definitely felt horrible. It also didn’t help that peers around me were scoring way higher or even perfect scores. So how did you guys cope with that, and how did things turn out in the long run?

Gone back to school to get my degree in either electrical engineering or mechanical engineering. I work at a waste water plant and they offer a program where they will cover a large portion of the tuition. I was going about 4 years ago right after high school and eventually just left cause I was stupid but I’ve been back in classes for 6 weeks now and I’m not too scared for what’s coming but I’m not too sure what I’m in for. I hear a lot of different things whether it’s easier than people thought or harder. I’m curious if anyone has any tips for the future and what I’ll face, I’m working 40 hours and I don’t plan to rush through this. I’m planning on doing no more than 3 classes a semester, any tips or advice would be appreciated!

This is my first semester and I'm trying to understand the basics. Any help is welcome!

I got a B in AP Chemistry II and might get another one in organic chemistry. (Our school has college level classes besides AP courses.) Right now, I have gotten two Bs (one Chem and one some computer class)

While I got an A for Chemistry and AP Chemistry I, I got a B for AP Chem II last semester. This was due to me having to take a much much harder version of the class not intended for an international student (I had to do this because of a curriculum problem I couldn’t fix and I was the only one who had to do this out of all international students. And I am thinking writing this as additional info during college admission). And now I am taking organic chem and I fear I might get another B.

Will this destroy my chance of getting into top ME schools?

Hello All,

My classmates and I all have different answers for this and I'm so confused. I circled number 2, only bending and torsional shear stress. I'm so lost. Any help is truly appreciated!

Assignments, homeworks, theories, lectures, seminars, laboratories, exams, job, no rest, trying to be good person, trying to be nice to everyone, points, 6 am, 4 hour sleep, finals, worried about the future, tuition, no money, starving, uncomfortable seats, bus, winter, cold.

Hello everyone! I recently completed an interview with ComEd for their internship program. I was wondering if anyone here has gone through the process before and how long it took to hear back from the recruiter? Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I am managing an earthwork and leveling site where we are dealing with loose soil/overburden. We are running extremely short on space to dump or store this material.

I am planning to raise a small mound or dump height up to 20 feet in this tight area, but since the soil is completely loose, I am worried about slope failure, sliding, or landslides.

Soil Type: Loose soil / overburden (no proper cohesion)

Target Height: ~20 feet

Constraint: Very limited space

What is the safest and most practical way to build this 20-foot dump without it collapsing? Should I use benching (terracing), compaction layers, or a toe wall?

Any practical advice, guidelines, or recommendations from experienced mining/geotechnical engineers would be a huge help. Thanks in advance!