Anybody here in it? Any info, words of wisdom, advice? Sorry if there is another thread about this but the search does not work.

Anyways I am thinking about transferring to the college of engineering, though I am pathetically lacking in the required courses:

CH101, CH 102, MA 141, MA 241, PY 205, E115.

I was thinking of taking CH 101 and MA 141 in summer school, then maybe The rest during my first sophmore semester and transferring. My Gpa is good, hopefully it will still be good at the end of all these required courses.

Is this a good gameplan or am I retarded and too far behind?

4/14/2008 1:16:02 AM

No, you're not too far behind. You probably won't finish in 4 years, but just do well in these classes, and you shouldn't have a problem.

4/14/2008 1:20:06 AM

Is there a particular reason you want to transfer into mechanical specifically? Also, you'll need MA 242, 341, and PY 208 to finish up your math/sciences. I assume you are about to finish your freshman year, you'll definitely be here for 4 more if you get in, if you do internships/co-op, maybe 5 more.

4/14/2008 1:39:30 AM

read the "online text" and test the fuck out of e115.

4/14/2008 2:36:47 AM

this is the problem with that FYC shit. they make you think you can have more time to decide, but it just sets you back.

anyway, i'm in ME. it depends on the humanities courses you've taken, but you'll probably have to take an extra semester to keep from killing yourself and/or because of prerequisites. we don't have any "free electives," so you must remember that some of those classes your probably took this year before you decided on your major are just wasted time that won't count for shit.

and make damn sure you really want to do mech. engineering, because you'll be even further behind if you change your mind.

4/14/2008 10:43:47 AM

^^^Yea FYC sucks, biggest mistake of my life. I was stupid and assumed FYC would pick a major for me, didnt do shit.

4/14/2008 11:22:50 AM

FYC does suck (I didnt take it but it seems pointless) but at the same time, its not much different than switching between real majors. Id say about half of the people I know didnt graduate with the major they picked when applying/taking classes for their freshman year. so even though they werent in FYC, they took a lot of wasted classes anyways.

i just dont think that that many 18 year olds know what they want to do for a profession period. Luckily I only switched from Electrical Engineering to Mechanical Engineering so I was able to finish in 4 years.


[Edited on April 14, 2008 at 1:34 PM. Reason : ]

4/14/2008 1:33:25 PM

^true, but fyc gives freshmen the (wrong) idea that they can take an extra year to decide. that's exactly what you get too. an extra year, as in 5 instead of 4.

4/14/2008 1:37:24 PM

Quote :

"i just dont think that that many 18 year olds know what they want to do for a profession period."

that same thing could be said for a lot of seniors in ME or any other major for that matter.

4/14/2008 1:43:16 PM

While that is definitely true I guess I should have stated that i dont think that many 18 year olds know what *major* they want to be in. Because I didnt know what industry/profession I wanted to be in until my senior year in ME for sure, that is true. However I knew after 1 year in college that I wanted to do ME. And while there are still probably seniors in majors that dont know if thats the major they want, the % is orders of magnitude smaller than freshman who dont know what major they really want.

[Edited on April 14, 2008 at 2:44 PM. Reason : ]

4/14/2008 2:44:29 PM

Quote :

"^^^Yea FYC sucks, biggest mistake of my life. I was stupid and assumed FYC would pick a major for me, didnt do shit."

I'll pick your major for you

4/14/2008 2:49:23 PM

you're not too far behind.

my freshman year i started out in political science. got the fuck out of that with a quickness and started hitting the courses to transfer into the COE for mechanical my sophomore year. i didnt even take summer classes between freshman and sophomore year.

at the end of my freshman year i sat down with an ME advisor, told her what was up and she pointed me to the correct course of action as far as courses. i signed up for what i needed to get into the COE and pretty much just treated my sophomore year as my freshman year. no big deal

4/14/2008 6:04:26 PM

what's your reason for picking mechanical?

4/15/2008 9:57:28 AM

I liked working with auto CAD, and enjoyed mechanical drawing and drafting classes in highschool. Not sure if they will be anything like classes here though. Also since NCSU is the school of engineering I figured I should take advantage of it. Not a bad average starting salary either.

I honestly dont know much about it, but I was so sick of FYC that I pushed myself to make a decision. Hopefully I don't get raped by the harder classes, and it turns out to be a good decision

4/15/2008 7:53:34 PM

Better to be a little behind and finish with a degree in something you like than come out on time in a field you hate. Don't be afraid to change if it really interests you. You are probably gonna work 40 years after you get out of school, so giving up a year or two now to be happy in the long run is worth it. At least that's what I keep telling myself.

4/15/2008 8:18:04 PM

^ and you'll probably switch careers at least once.

so mechanical is really broad, you could wind up designing or analyzing HVAC systems in buildings, working on power plants (or any large industrial plant), you might be designing some product or how to manufacture it, running computer simulations of force or flow or heat, etc. etc. It's nice that there are a lot of possibilities with the degree, but I'm also worried that I still have no idea what I want to do in a year

cad stuff is a good start, you probably are pretty good at visualizing in 3d. Too bad there's very little hands on use of that until senior year.

4/15/2008 8:35:57 PM

I LOVE E115!!

4/15/2008 9:15:55 PM

i say again, test the fuck out of e115.

4/15/2008 11:17:51 PM

Quote :

"Better to be a little behind and finish with a degree in something you like than come out on time in a field you hate. Don't be afraid to change if it really interests you. You are probably gonna work 40 years after you get out of school, so giving up a year or two now to be happy in the long run is worth it."

Very true. Do what you love and you won't regret it. Don't hesitate.

4/15/2008 11:40:14 PM

Quote :

"I liked working with auto CAD, and enjoyed mechanical drawing and drafting classes in highschool. Not sure if they will be anything like classes here though. "

as far as actual coursework for mechanical engineering, you will do very little of this. But once you get your degree you could easily have a job doing a lot with AutoCAD or solid modeling programs if that is your interest.

4/16/2008 12:26:32 AM

Yeah, classes in ME don't really involve modeling, etc. You will do ALOT of numerical/calculation/theoretical hw and projects, projects more so in upper levels. It can get tedious and your social life will degrade. When you graduate however you will have the upper hand on people who got "easy" degrees.

Usually any 400 level ME course is quite entertaining. Anything below that I consider to be a weed out course. There are a couple topics in here about who to take and who to avoid for classes.

[Edited on April 16, 2008 at 12:32 AM. Reason : -]

4/16/2008 12:31:25 AM

here's a useful thread:

message_topic.aspx?topic=515654

4/16/2008 1:09:06 AM

Quote :

"You will do ALOT of numerical/calculation/theoretical hw and projects, projects more so in upper levels. It can get tedious and your social life will degrade"

my social life actually picked up my last 2.5 years (read: last 3 semesters involved drinking every day) haha -

but ME is an investment not to be taken lightly. It's fun and completely involved. If you have a general knowledge of things mechanical and a knack for tinkering, I'd say you are golden. If not, just stick to your decision and go through with it.

4/16/2008 4:23:03 PM

Quote :

"If you have a general knowledge of things mechanical and a knack for tinkering"

this has nothing to do with getting a mechanical engineering degree

4/16/2008 4:35:08 PM

^ sometimes it helps because you actually want to do the work...though I wouldn't call it tinkering

4/16/2008 4:53:42 PM

i mean

if you replace mechanical with MATH and tinkering with STUDYING

then yeah, i could see that

4/16/2008 4:56:54 PM

^true

your head my tend to want to explode at times...like mine right about now

4/16/2008 4:58:45 PM

^^ extra knowledge, that is what it gives, and it can only help.

I never said it replaces math, science, half a fucking brain, and many a stressful night. I went through many classes with students that had no practical and general knowledge of things mechanical and were easily stumped.


[Edited on April 16, 2008 at 5:03 PM. Reason : -]

4/16/2008 5:02:16 PM

stumped because they had no "mechanical" knowledge... stumped by what?

thermo?

control theory?

fluids?

there is nothing "mechanical" about mechanical engineering until maybe your 416 project

[Edited on April 16, 2008 at 5:57 PM. Reason : ./]

4/16/2008 5:55:30 PM

^^ I think it depends. Before I got to NCSU, I never did so much as change the oil in my car. MAE for me is just a bunch of homework problems & tests. Most professors don't like to admit that the real world exists anyway. Of course if you have experience with cars or HVAC it could help, but it's not a requirement at all.

And the math isn't hard - the most complicated math is integrals, maybe a differential equation or 2. Controls has the hardest math, but by the time you get to that class you'll know if MAE is for you.

4/16/2008 6:00:22 PM

the math isn't hard. it's figuring out how to apply it that makes you wanna bang your head against the wall.

4/16/2008 6:06:25 PM

I'll agree with that

I've had some marathon hw's where the most complicated math was algebra

4/16/2008 6:10:04 PM

ahh yeah - I meant stumped on practical application problems.


with that said, group projects-ftw.

[Edited on April 16, 2008 at 6:29 PM. Reason : -]

4/16/2008 6:28:42 PM

So from the sounds of it there is none or very little of:

Working with blueprints/designing stuff

Working with actual mechanical things hands on

And a lot of:

Math problems

4/16/2008 7:53:49 PM

i would say the first part of that^ is accurate. about the only drafting stuff you do is in GC 120 and it's a joke.

however, the second part is incorrect. i don't feel "math problems" is a good way to describe it. it's not "math problems" like you do in a math class. you solve problems using concepts you learned in the class. this happens to mean working out some numbers with formulas and stuff. you're applying math. the actual math is relatively easy. algebra, little calc, some diff. eq.

personally, i am very good at math and did well in my math classes even though i didn't enjoy them. it always seemed i was learning stuff w/o knowing how it was actually useful. however, i enjoy my engineering classes because i see how to actually use math to solve a problem and how to use that solution in real world applications.

4/16/2008 8:02:19 PM

^^ you build a trebuchet in E101 ... then 4-5 years later you build something in senior design. In between is many stacks of expensive engineering paper.

Hey if it was easy, everyone would do it

4/16/2008 8:15:49 PM

^good way to put it

4/16/2008 8:17:41 PM

you have to remember, you're getting a bachelor's degree (which is inherently somewhat broad) in a very broad engineering discipline, so no, it's not geared at all towards designing things, or working with drawings, or even getting any hands on experience beyond lab sessions.....it's college afterall, not on-the-job training or some type of small technical school.

you study a very wide variety of engineering topics which eventually begin to become more and more specific. you go from calculus and physics (the basics) to statics and dynamics (the foundation) to slightly more specific stuff like solid mechanics, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and mechanical vibrations to even more specialized topics like gas turbine theory, or HVAC for example.

4/16/2008 8:35:29 PM

Math rocks your socks!!


How can you say no?

4/16/2008 8:50:23 PM

Quote :

"Hopefully I don't get raped by the harder classes, and it turns out to be a good decision"

If any of the required courses to matriculate rape you, then it's probably not for you.

4/16/2008 9:50:56 PM

In your senior year you can sort of make opportunities for yourself depending on your interest. You can take 3 credit hours worth of MAE 496 and 3 credit hours of MAE 596 which is independent project work. But basically you work with a professor whose interest is similar to yours and they develop a project for you to work on during the semester.

As an example I am working with a group on designing the HVAC system for a YMCA in Tennessee. The project is actually the ASHRAE student design competition which was made into a course with Dr. Terry. There is a lot of hands-on with AutoCAD and some general thermo and fluid calculations that apply to a real world system.

As another example, I have heard of people working with Dr.Buckner basically building some sort of electromechanical apparatus. It sounded like a lot of hands-on "tinkering" in a cool lab.

Today at the ASME meeting they discussed the ASME Student design project which can be made into the MAE 496 and 596 classes (6 hours of your technical electives) where the project is designing an autonomous targeting system (similar to the ones that exist on air craft carriers for shooting down incoming missles).

Those are just some examples of what you may get into in your last few semesters besides your senior design project. But, until then you will go through the less hands-on classes. I do have to say that MAE 435 (controls) usually offers a fun project to work on.

4/16/2008 11:01:10 PM

Goodness knows we need more people to drop out of the MAE department!... sure.. join up.

Seriously though, you ARE behind.. classes are NO JOKE! Don't expect to graduate with a 3.0 unless you NO SHIT work your ass off... or are just a fucking genious. You need to understand that ME is in the top 5 of the hardest programs at this university.

When you start taking MAE 206 and 208 if you find yourself having problems... get the fuck out.
now I don't mean having problems b/c you're not going to class.. I mean having problems when you're doing all/most of the homework, and going to class.. and just not getting it. I had friends who snuck (is that how you spell the past tense of "sneak"??) past statics and Dynamics just to FAIL THE SHIT out of the follow on classes. Stay the fuck away from the AE courses too... we pwnz ME!!!! (seriously though.. the AE classes are harder... especially D&C)

4/17/2008 2:59:53 AM

Quote :

"Don't expect to graduate with a 3.0 unless you NO SHIT work your ass off... or are just a fucking genious."

so much wrong w/ this sentence.

4/17/2008 7:44:09 AM

Quote :

"Don't expect to graduate with a 3.0 unless you NO SHIT work your ass off... or are just a fucking genious."

must ... not ... brag ...

4/17/2008 7:11:08 PM

honestly i think graduating with a 3.0 is not that hard, especially considering if youre doing well in ME youre probably Acing your non-major courses throughout.

I think it is more appropriate to say that you cant expect to get a lot of solid *As*unless you do that. But if you are an average student and at least do what is required youre going to get Bs.

I feel like I was an average ME student. I did all my HW even if sometimes it wasnt 100%, I studied decently for all my tests and I graduated with like a 3.2 or something (I cant even remember now haha). I put in a lot of extra effort my senior year last semester on the project, but overall I didnt dedicate my life to ME. I did what was required but didnt spend half as much time as you might think doing schoolwork.

I mean, I was in a band playing shows all the time on the weekends, had a serious GF, and was a High Warlord in WoW Definitely spent a lot of time doing other things than schoolwork, so dont let that scare you away.

Or maybe its just that Nerdchick's awesomeness rubbed off on me whenever we studied or did HW.

[Edited on April 17, 2008 at 7:17 PM. Reason : ]

4/17/2008 7:16:10 PM

FYC is a direct line into CHASS for the most part.

Good job on breaking out of the chain.

4/17/2008 7:33:16 PM

Quote :

"Goodness knows we need more people to drop out of the MAE department!... sure.. join up. Seriously though, you ARE behind.. classes are NO JOKE! Don't expect to graduate with a 3.0 unless you NO SHIT work your ass off... or are just a fucking genious. You need to understand that ME is in the top 5 of the hardest programs at this university. When you start taking MAE 206 and 208 if you find yourself having problems... get the fuck out. now I don't mean having problems b/c you're not going to class.. I mean having problems when you're doing all/most of the homework, and going to class.. and just not getting it. I had friends who snuck (is that how you spell the past tense of "sneak"??) past statics and Dynamics just to FAIL THE SHIT out of the follow on classes. Stay the fuck away from the AE courses too... we pwnz ME!!!! (seriously though.. the AE classes are harder... especially D&C)"

pretty much everything about this post is wrong or ridiculous hyperbole.

you'd do well to just completely ignore it


[Edited on April 17, 2008 at 10:16 PM. Reason : .]

4/17/2008 10:14:29 PM

AE material is not any 'harder' than ME material. theyre on the same level, stuff just branches off really. if you can comprehend and learn ME material you can comprehend and learn the AE material just as well.

4/17/2008 10:46:48 PM

Quote :

"a fucking genious"

4/17/2008 11:15:27 PM

^^ ehh, i dunno

My best friend is an AE and it seems like conceptually they are the same difficulty but as far as some of the tedious bs he has to do, it's definitely more than I have to. Maybe you're right though, maybe he's just happens to be studying whenever i'm not.

4/21/2008 12:27:50 PM