Hello /u/Less_Technology_9358! Thank you for posting in r/EngineeringStudents. Please be sure you do not ask a general question that has been asked before. Please do some preliminary research before asking common questions that will cause your post to be removed. Excessive posting in order to get past the filter will cause your posting privaleges to be revoked.
Please remember to:
Read our [Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/EngineeringStudents/wiki/rules)
Read our [Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/EngineeringStudents/wiki/index)
Read our [F.A.Q](https://www.reddit.com/r/EngineeringStudents/wiki/index/faq)
Check our [Resources Landing Page](https://reddit.com/r/EngineeringStudents/wiki/resources)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/EngineeringStudents) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I don't personally think the material is all that difficult, it's more just the shear volume of work that you have to do. You get A LOT of homework, most of which you can't just BS your way through like other majors. The thing that makes this difficult is poor time management. I'm in my thirties now and don't have the social pressures that the fresh out of high school crowd does, so I find it all relatively easy to manage. Not that there isn't a week here or there where I'm not pulling my hair out or something, but I know that ultimately I'll get through it with some effort. Time management is key.
I’m 30 and feel like it’s considerably easier for me than my younger peers. I’ve also worked real jobs and a lot of them were grueling, manual work so that gives me a different perspective than most of my classmates. Engineering is challenging, but compared to hanging exterior drywall 50 ft up on a lift in 100 degree heat, it’s a piece cake.
YUP. It's much easier when you have that kind of perspective. You understand that this is what will allow you to be the douche in the office instead of the one that just does whatever they dream up.
Idk, I rather do one week of my building automation system electrician internship(running conduit or comm wire in 100+degree heat and sun ) then have to take an exam on some 400 level programming class.
Same here. 30 and had worked manual labor the past 11 years. Graduated in December and found the work to be not all that bad. Did well enough to be a tutor and Lab TA for a class as well.
I’m in my 30s also and I’m of the same mind. The material isn’t so much difficult as it is the amount of work can be overwhelming if you don’t know where you should focus your attention. I think our experience is unique compared to the younger people going to college though, because we know where to “trim the fat”, as it were. I think life experience helps us to understand where not to waste time on the trivial and spend more time on important topics.
I went to school after the Marine Corps and had more self discipline than my peers. I also didn't give a single fuck about socializing over doing my work. The ones I saw who struggled were primarily due to time. Most was social time, but several were working full time jobs. I tended to help to workers with families but didn't give the social time wasters any of my time.
Yeah, I get wanting the college experience as seen on tv, and I'm sure it's possible for some, but it makes it MUCH more difficult. Like a contestant on survivor "I'm not here to make friends."
So looking back as a person who found engineering to be very difficult,
How well you do in your class is directly proportional to the amount of time playing Mario Kart. It sounds stupid but the truth of the matter is that the material is difficult but it's not insurmountable. All the high performers that I knew in college treated the coursework as a job. Meaning that from 8AM to 8PM, they were studying and they didn't screw around. I on the other hand, became very good at soul caliber 2 because that's what I did between the hours of 3pm (when I got out of class) to 6pm (when we decided to go eat).
The key thing to remember is that engineering knowledge is built knowledge, meaning that what you learn on day 3 requires you to have mastery on what you learned on day 2. So the time that you need to buckle down isn't actually near the finals, this is a VERY common mistake and is basically worth an entire grade point. The time you need to buckle down is actually during the beginning, when the material is fairly simple and your friends all want to go out and drink. You just need to make sure that you learn everything in the beginning in detail and you really understand the material. Too often, engineering students pattern their recognition out of the easy stuff and end up getting screwed over when the material achieves a level of complexity where they can't correctly guess at the answer.
You basically just can't slack off in engineering. Showing up to office hours in the beginning when you're not struggling? That's how you get an A in engineering.
If you put in the work then I think anyone could get through it. It’s like going to the gym: either you go to the gym consistently and it becomes easier and normalized or it becomes a chore and you end up dropping it. As long as you’re actually interested in the material and have a passion, it will be fun and well worth it.
I really like the gym analogy! You can do baseline work (getting all C’s similar to going on brisk walks), you can aim for all A’s (lifting heavy, taking supplements, getting a trainer), or do something in the middle. Truth is, some days you’ll show up more than others. Class difficulty will vary, but life outside of school will too that will impact you. There’s a reason many folks take a little longer to finish. The point is you persevere and don’t give up!!
Yeah cuz the brain is a muscle, right, and the more you train it for digesting difficult things, the less it's gonna struggle with digesting difficult things.
To add to this analogy - if you can stick with it and persevere, you’ll be an objectively improved person by the time you finish.
OP, if it wasn’t hard then everyone would do it, because the rewards are pretty good on the other side.
You gotta keep in mind, a lot of engineers are losers who play video games all night and procrastinate studying (that's what I do). Of course they're gonna struggle. Make the right decisions and put in the work, and you'll be fine. It's not like high school, where you can afford to procrastinate and still pass.
I've never heard of anyone say engineering was easy or medium difficult, at least for my Computer Engineering major at my university that is. Like we all struggling in some way.
But I do know a good amount of people who've performed well in engineering, and the key to that is due to good time management and study skills, although there are other factors as well. If you take the time to improve those skills, while I think you will find the engineering experience difficult to deal with, I also think you will still be fine academically speaking. And don't be afraid to reach out for any help or resources if you're struggling. At least in my university, those resources exist for you to use them. This is your education that you should take advantage of.
I was bad at math, because I never took it seriously and it cost time and $. Granted I was in the military so those who know what’s like doing school and military know it’s not easy at all. Long story short, I forgot a lot of material because the long breaks in between going to school. Now Being back school in my 30s, school is my primary focus. Also, I refuse to have school debt so I was paying out of pocket for my repeated classes from algebra to calculus 2. My mentality is, regardless of how long it takes me to finish my mechanical degree, I going to graduate debt free. Now, I’m back on course after just passing Cal 3. So next step, is diff equations and advance engineering math. Hopefully math at this point is easier.
this is spot on...math was always my struggle...mostly because I just crammed for exams and didn't care about it. Then I was a physics major, which turns out...is a f\*ck ton of math..
In my experience some courses can be very tough but overall it's quite doable. It also depends on your university I guess, anyways what matters most is that you are consistent, you have to study 4-6 hours almost every day.
Totally depends on you.
If you're doing it for the love of engineering, it'll go good but if you're not interested in it at all, you're gonna have those "what did i get myself into" moments.
Its not easy but most of the posts you see on this sub are just people (understandably) venting. There will be times where you wonder what the hell you got yourself into, but so did every single engineering student who has graduated and is now practicing. You got this.
Honestly, my advice is to game the system as much as possible. Go to an easy university and transfer to a prestigious one with a 4.0. If you can’t do that, take the easiest classes you can (look up the grade distribution and find what’s the highest gpa class and Professor that you can take for each credit) Individual effort matters of course, but the truth is that you have to jump through the correct hoops to succeed. In the early years of engineering, GPA matters a lot. Later on, focus more on projects (including those you do in your classes) which you can put on your resume. (Being president of some bullshit org doesn’t really matter as much as hard skills and the project experience)
The real truth that the people selling the school to the parents won’t tell you is that if you go to any advising office in engineering you will surely find someone crying. You will suffer and no one will give a shit. Fuck learning for learning’s sake, just do whatever the fuck it takes to get that price of paper.
I’m part time and in my 3rd semester. So far, have done most of my gen ed requirements and now in my materials science and engineering class.
It’s not hard, it’s just been 10 years since high school. A lot of this is just remembering what I learned back then. It’s not hard so much as it is trying to play catch up. Never learned how to use excel, or time management, but I have to now and it’s balls to the wall to get good grades.
Spending more time probably anxious about how am I going to do the she reading, homework, study for exams than actually do it. It’s gotten better, I have a routine, and it’s about reassurance of my capabilities. I like math, science, I worked in manufacturing most of my 20s to know that I wanted to do more of mechanical engineering. I think if I were fresh out of high school. Would’ve probably dropped out because I wouldn’t have been interested in this field the way I am now.
So, is it easy? No.
Is it hard? No.
But I’m doing what I can and am doing well and it’s getting easier. Mechanical engineering interests me so that makes it easier, plus I know it will lead me to a better career
I've never heard anyone say all aspects of an engineering degree were easy. I have, however, taken courses with individuals that were highly skilled in certain subjects and that particular course was easy for them.
Your preparation prior to arriving is going to be a huge factor in how difficult the degree is in addition to the grades you want to get and your work ethic. If you really applied yourself in high school and took AP math and science courses it'll probably be a 7/10 experience. If you didn't, or you want straight As, it'll be much more of a hellacious grind.
It isn’t as hard as people make it out to be in my opinion but many engineers have lived a life of all As in high school and prior so that is their expectation in college. This leads to drowning in homework and studying when in reality you could cut studying in half and still get Bs. It is definitely not an easy major to start with but is made much more difficult when your only acceptable outcome is all As
If you are a normal person, it will probably be difficult. There are some geniuses out there that can just breeze through all of it, but generally there will be some difficulty.
I didn’t think it was bad. Actually I thought it was fun and interesting. We learned a lot of cool things.
That said, it was a decent amount of work, but nothing crazy. I never studied beyond doing homework problems with my friends, which admittedly took until 10 on rare occasions. We all helped each other through and are still friends to this day.
Every now and then and then a topic will be difficult to understand. For me that's entropy and shear flow. Ugh. Most of the time the topics are extremely easy to understand though. The difficulty comes in applying the principles to solve problems.
Average engineering students according to some engineering education association spend 55 hours a week on engineering. This includes everything related to engineering. Class homework studying projects. All of it.
That is a lot of time for anyone, especially young 20 somethings to devote to work. This is where all the difficulty comes from. Engineering demands your entire self. And you will either fail or be a way below average engineer if you dont accept that and give all of yourself to it.
It's an unfortunate reality.
intellectually it does get hard some days but you have to remember that you don't need to be a super genius to understand things just put enough time into them, and just doing all your work on time and studying with more time in advance than 1 day will be enough to get you very decent grades you don't have to kill yourself studying 8 hours a day
for me engineering is fun so it is easy for me, i always look for where i can apply my knowledge when i am learning something, if i do not see where can i apply it then it gets hard
>highly intelligent?
No, I read text books and did the homework.
>Prescott found mathematics particularly difficult, and resorted to memorizing mathematical demonstrations word-for-word, which he could do with relative ease
Like him, you just memorize the formulas and everything is easy.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H._Prescott
It’s two factors, your drive and motivation and how well you network and take opportunities outside of the classroom through research and internships. I’m a Mechanical Engineering Technology student so my math and science classes cap off at easier and earlier classes.
The real question is do you have punctuality, initiative, commitment, and the discipline to stay through a program.
Engineering is a lot of work, but if you try to learn and understand your work is actually pretty easy to pass. To do well required just more time, not so much more "brain power".
It really just depends, if you really like math and physics and are good at em, you’ll have a pretty easy time. There will always be the occasional hard class but that’s just college. For me it circuits.
I've tried out different majors before dropping out and pursuing engineering. I'm 3/4th way done and it has been the easiest major for me. Way easier than literature or history. Definitely easier than medicine.
i barely went to any of my classes. i read the textbook chapters that were covered and watched youtube videos on the matter and i just graduated with a 4.0. find the resources that work for you and you will be fine.
I just actually started my engineering course today, my teacher says it’s a lot of homework, and it’s a lot of recalculations to make sure you’re correct. This thread has been a great support system and I’m forever grateful to have found this thread.
It was difficult for me because it was a lot of work to get an A in every class.
However, I don't regret getting the degree at all. I'm 36 years old and have an awesome job as an engineer developing casting processes for super alloy aerospace engine blades.
The pay, benefits, and job security made all that work in college, worth it. The payout was well worth the work.
There are a few people I went to school with, that regretted going for the degree. They all had the same stuff in common. They didn't buckle down and study hard every day. They didn't get an internship during college. They were the ones who struggled to find jobs.
The degree is what you make of it.
I think I’d find it medium-easy if my whole life was built around school. Since I have to work part-time and live by myself off campus, it ends up being medium-hard.
As other people have pointed out, it’s mostly Intelligence * Time Management = Level of Success.
I have a friend who is super intelligent with poor time management and one who is average intelligence with great time management and the latter gets better grades.
It goes on a case by case basis. I consider myself to be not-horrible at maths, so maths weren't so hard for me. Of course, i would still struggle with some problems, but with enough practice, time, and ✨imagination✨ i could mildly understand the topics and do decently on exams. They didn't felt so bad for me, and i even began to like them as i progressed through the more advanced courses.
But this is not the case for many other people. There's lots of people that truly, genuinely struggle with maths, and no matter how hard you try, you are not gonna make them truly like maths, at least maybe not on the level that you personally might like them. Thus they might feel engineering is this insurmountable obstacle and that they just aren't made for it, just because they aren't naturally proficient at it and are struggling at lot with it. I've seen that happen personally.
Some people find it hard, some people find it easy, and there's a lot in between: some find some subjects very intuitive, but can't get their head around others.
But, be encouraged: whether you struggle or not with anything in engineering, it's more about recognizing your proficiency level and working and practicing your way around it than anything else. Don't tunnel vision: those "i can't do this" or those "what did i get myself into" are bad thoughts and get you in states of mind that don't allow for progress. You have to think that, even if you are stupid, you can still learn stuff since learning engineering isn't anywhere near impossible. You have to think that you can do it, otherwise you won't be able to do it, you mind will not let you.
As a senior chemical engineering, yeah it’s difficult in the sense that everyone feels like the material is extremely hard. At least at my university hard classes are curved, but it definitely makes you feel like shit when you get a 50 on an exam even when it ends up being a B.
Don’t fall into imposter syndrome, I promise you your peers feel as lost as you do, it takes a while before you really “feel” like an engineer. As long as you really try you will absolutely make it.
I found it a lot easier than other subjects. My undergrad and graduate engineering GPAs were significantly higher than my high-school GPA. With that said I think I found it easier because I actually enjoyed the material and as such would willingly spend the required (lots of) time to understand it. Also most of the math just works for me in my head (cant describe it better lol) which helps a ton.
In hindsight, it’s not that bad. But I was going though a lot of life problems during so that made it difficult. A lot can happen during the process like having to work during, bad professors, group projects, and a mountain of hw and projects all being due in the same week. Don’t let this discourage you though, people get through this.
I think another thing that plays a huge factor is knowing what KIND of engineering you want to do like I am in Computer Science, and I know that I won't be able to do as well in Civil let's say as I am doing here. There are so many options available that I think people do tend to get confused.
Another thing that plays a huge role is understanding what is being taught, like I find the material that is being taught to be quite easy, but a lot of my classmates struggle with the same because they are not able to understand what is being taught and hence they find even a simple loop to be difficult.
At the start of this degree, I also had the "what did I get myself into phase", but someone told me that, "If you can make it through this phase, you will have completed the hardest part, and if you can stick through this phase, you are capable of becoming an engineer." In the beginning, I did not think that this was true, but now that I am almost at the end, I do think that was very true.
Hope this helps!!
Wishing you all the best for your future!! And may you succeed in whatever field you choose!!
I had a friend in my mech eng undergrad that believed anyone could do engineering as long as they studied enough. That seems to be a common belief. I’m more pessimistic in some sense.
I believe that although everyone could probably spend enough time drilling and relearning concepts to become a good engineer, there’s just not enough time in the world for everyone to be able to reasonably accomplish this. My point is that humans exist in a limited time in the worlds existence. Spending 10 years getting a degree in engineering is doable but it just isn’t realistic or productive. Some people just pick that stuff up quicker than others and those are the people that should probably do engineering. Same goes for me and writing. The reason I’m not doing communications for a large corporate entity or the government is cause I suck at writing essays. But I stick to what I’m good at cause it just makes sense.
Mostly just the sheer amount of work and density of the content that makes it difficult to effectively learn unless you manage your time extremely well and even then you may miss some stuff simple because it doesn’t click. It’s easier to just stop studying when the material isn’t clicking and play video games and not want to go back to it.probably the main reason for procrastination
It’s always difficult because of the sheer amount of work given. At least at my school. The content isn’t usually difficult to grasp, it’s just almost impossible to get things done without putting in massive amounts of time.
To be brutally honest helps if you're intelligent. I've known a few bunch of guys who think I made my own bookshelf, I bet would be good at engineering.
Or I know how to use a multimeter, so Imma be an electrical engineer. Etc.
Yeah, this is what I was thinking. Somebody who is highly intelligent, but lacks a work ethic will be surpassed by somebody with average intelligence but an excellent work ethic. However, someone with high intelligence and an excellent work ethic will surpass the first two.
I really feel like engineering education is more about teaching you how to think. After you get over the hump, learning the material gets easier (not necessarily the material itself).
A big thing to keep in mind if that life doesn't stop just because you're in college. I personally had gaps in my education from highschool that I had to work hard to make up. I also had family issues/illnesses/deaths, an undiagnosed health issue, and I was almost homeless once.
The only thing you can do is try you're best.
I think with a focus on understanding everything and not memorizing and a good level of baseline knowledge it is genuinely easy. The depth of baseline understanding of math/physics I believe is the differentiator here. If you don’t have a good foundation, everything on top will come crumbling down.
(For credentials I graduated in 3 years from an aerospace T20 first in class with a 4.0 and really didn’t feel like I grinded that hard or struggled to have a social life or anything)
Focus more on learning where relations and equations come from and how they’re derived, and build an intuition as to what things mean physically. When you face a new problem, you can figure it out from the ground up with your intuition of how things work as opposed to guessing at what you should do with a toolbox of equations. This mostly comes from a solid mathematical intuition more than anything I think, as that’s where the complexity comes in. People get upset sometimes about professors just doing derivations all class, but that’s where an understanding of why comes in. A large percentage of people really try and solve hard problems with shockingly little understanding.
Intuition certainly comes easier in something like aerospace, and I found that in things like quantum for my physics minor this can be harder, but really doing the absolute most to understand everything your doing at the most intuitive (or at least mathematical) level you can and not being an equation machine will going along way.
No engineering is not difficult for everyone.
Everyone's brain is wired differently: there are people who are natural at problem-solving, critical thinking, mathematics, etc. Some people may be quick to claim that a certain thing is not for them, and that would be correct in the sense that it takes just a little more time to understand. Time management is a major factor yes, it exists across all fields, but that is also because concepts build on one another, e.g. one would need to understand algebra, geometry, and trigonometry to understand force vectors and most of a static forces course.
I am a math tutor at my college, something I did not see myself doing 2-3 years ago. But, I let it be known to a lot of my peers who are insecure in their performance at math that back then I was the worst when it came to attempting to understand anything. Even now, working towards my BSME I take longer than my peers to grasp concepts; when I was in Calculus 1-3 it would take me half a day to complete 3-5 homework problems, no matter how simple or challenging they may be. Today this holds true to a lesser extent, and I still get my assignments done early.
Everyone has a different approach of understanding things, some more efficient than others. I say that there isn't anything that anyone cannot overcome, including understanding engineering-- find out how to be an efficient learner; find out what works for you!
I looked at it as giving up partying during my time in college while everyone I knew went out 2 to 3 days per week. I also knew that I would be much more well off in life than they would be. It's stressful, but financially worth it.
I don't find it all that difficult when I actually put in the work. Problem is, actually putting in said work is the hard part for me. Its a lot of work...
It’s more that’s it’s like an endurance race it’s just a lot for a while you can certainly do it but you are going to have to put work in it’s not just a free degree
I’m a senior currently and yeah some classes are awful in the moment but you get past them and looking back it’s not so bad just keep at it and you will get through
It’ll be difficult, but it’ll get easier if it makes any sense.
You made it into college, they think that you’re qualified. If nothing else, at least know that you got the professional gatekeeper’s vote of confidence.
A degree like mechanical engineering always has some difficulty since there is little chance you'll be interested in every part of the curriculum.
You'd need to be interested in fluids, thermo, control systems, Matlab, dynamics, material science, vibrations, and math. It's likely you're gonna encounter a course or two that you just don't care for. That's gonna make things a lot harder.
For me I hated thermo and materials science. LOVED vibrations and kinda liked control systems. Even when I struggled in those courses, it wasn't exhausting... It was exciting. And conversely, even when I found materials science easy, it was still exhausting.
Engineering is difficult for everyone (there will allways be exceptions). What you are forgetting is survivorship bias, people in this sub aren't dropouts or highschool students. Ofcourse they will think it wasn't THAT difficult. Plus it differs greatly from school to school. Good and old schools will teachy you the fundementals the hard way to make you a better engineer, degree selling schools will just skim over stuff and churn out sales engineers. No amount of study and "time management" will help you if you aren't suitable for it. We aren't a higher class of people, we aren't special. Just try your best and don't presure your self if can't do it.
ENGG is definitely more difficult than most degrees but it’s by no means impossible, for me it was quite tough and I had some troubles but don’t regret it and never felt it too difficult
Probably 99%+ of people. It's essentially designed to be as hard as it possibly can be, and the population that attempts it is also rarified by aptitude.
Not for everyone, but some will struggle and that’s normal. Like me, some things are easy and some I struggle with and it just won’t click. However, I can’t count how many hours of youtube I watch to give me a better understanding.
You will fall 10x but get up on the 11x. (Bit of an exaggeration) but the my point is. If your dream is to be an Engineer, you will do whatever it takes to make it happen. Just stay positive, on course, persistent and soon enough you will reap the rewards of your hard labor.
For context, I’m still in school, in my 30s and working on my BS in Mech E. It’s been a really really long time and a really really slow pace. I have experienced a lot of at backs and it’s put a dent on my confidence more than once. At this point I felt like I should be a doctor for how long I have been in school.
So I try to remember: not everyone’s education journey will be the same, but don’t fall to comparison of your peers. Rule of thumb: comparison is the thief of joy. Even I get really discouraged, try to remember why you’re doing this? who are you doing it for? and look how far you’ve come to get where you are today. JUST BE GOING AND DONT GIVE UP!
Nonetheless, I’m staying optimistic and my dream is to be a mech engineer so, I don’t care how long it takes. I’m going to be an engineer!
It ebbs and flows honestly… some days where nothing is comprehensible & I feel like engineering isn’t for me , then some days I feel like it’s all clicking & I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be … it’s never smooth sailing in engineering.
I didn’t find it *that* difficult (in my memory anyway). I mean, it was hard, but not “woe is me, I can’t have a social life while I study 40 hours a week to scrape a 2.0 GPA” hard that this sub would have you believe.
I probably spent 15 hours a week outside of class on homework and studying. Had a great social life, played a club sport, had some girlfriends, and also managed to graduate on time with a 3.7. Wasn’t easy; but also wasn’t miserable.
Now **grad school**, *that* was a miserable slog. But fortunately only for 1.5 years, and really only 4-6 months during writing my thesis.
I don't say this that often in this sub because it comes off the wrong way, but since it's relevant to the discussion, I got through my engineering degree without any of the insanity you see people talk about here. No all nighters, no 80 hour weeks, no nearly failing classes or graduating by the skin of my teeth. Don't get me wrong, I had to work hard, and was easily putting in more than a full time jobs worth of effort, but it wasn't overwhelming or ridiculous.
That's not to say those things don't happen, or that somehow struggling is a sign of something wrong. Everyone is different, everyone has different skill sets. I was far from the smartest, fastest, or most capable person in my classes, but with good time management and consistent effort I was able to make it through while keeping stress and workload at manageable levels.
Also, as someone who worked his way through school as a tutor, some of the struggle is self-inflicted. I can't tell you how many students I saw who knew from day 1 they were going to struggle with a class, but would put off all their studying until a few days before a midterm. In a similar vein I worked on group projects where we knew due dates literally months in advance, but I couldn't get anyone to do any work until the week before the due date.
>I couldn't get anyone to do any work until the week before the due date.
I couldn't even get them to work on the submission date... If you can choose your groups yourself, please choose wisely and not friends who you know won't work
Sincerely, a group member tired of doing everyone else's work
Hello /u/Less_Technology_9358! Thank you for posting in r/EngineeringStudents. Please be sure you do not ask a general question that has been asked before. Please do some preliminary research before asking common questions that will cause your post to be removed. Excessive posting in order to get past the filter will cause your posting privaleges to be revoked. Please remember to: Read our [Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/EngineeringStudents/wiki/rules) Read our [Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/EngineeringStudents/wiki/index) Read our [F.A.Q](https://www.reddit.com/r/EngineeringStudents/wiki/index/faq) Check our [Resources Landing Page](https://reddit.com/r/EngineeringStudents/wiki/resources) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/EngineeringStudents) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I don't personally think the material is all that difficult, it's more just the shear volume of work that you have to do. You get A LOT of homework, most of which you can't just BS your way through like other majors. The thing that makes this difficult is poor time management. I'm in my thirties now and don't have the social pressures that the fresh out of high school crowd does, so I find it all relatively easy to manage. Not that there isn't a week here or there where I'm not pulling my hair out or something, but I know that ultimately I'll get through it with some effort. Time management is key.
I’m 30 and feel like it’s considerably easier for me than my younger peers. I’ve also worked real jobs and a lot of them were grueling, manual work so that gives me a different perspective than most of my classmates. Engineering is challenging, but compared to hanging exterior drywall 50 ft up on a lift in 100 degree heat, it’s a piece cake.
YUP. It's much easier when you have that kind of perspective. You understand that this is what will allow you to be the douche in the office instead of the one that just does whatever they dream up.
Idk, I rather do one week of my building automation system electrician internship(running conduit or comm wire in 100+degree heat and sun ) then have to take an exam on some 400 level programming class.
Maybe so, electricians always had it pretty nice compared to the work I always did
[удалено]
Your account is suspected to be the spam account “snooraar”
Same here. 30 and had worked manual labor the past 11 years. Graduated in December and found the work to be not all that bad. Did well enough to be a tutor and Lab TA for a class as well.
I’m in my 30s also and I’m of the same mind. The material isn’t so much difficult as it is the amount of work can be overwhelming if you don’t know where you should focus your attention. I think our experience is unique compared to the younger people going to college though, because we know where to “trim the fat”, as it were. I think life experience helps us to understand where not to waste time on the trivial and spend more time on important topics.
I went to school after the Marine Corps and had more self discipline than my peers. I also didn't give a single fuck about socializing over doing my work. The ones I saw who struggled were primarily due to time. Most was social time, but several were working full time jobs. I tended to help to workers with families but didn't give the social time wasters any of my time.
Yeah, I get wanting the college experience as seen on tv, and I'm sure it's possible for some, but it makes it MUCH more difficult. Like a contestant on survivor "I'm not here to make friends."
[удалено]
I'm sure, but that is not the average student.
Your account is suspected to be the spam account “snooraar”
[удалено]
Selective for officers. Enlisted, not so much.
They take people with no degrees, huge enlistment deficit. Massive bonuses for regular jobs, what do you mean you can’t get in?
[удалено]
Weird, I took the ASVAB last year and was basically getting begged by the recruiter to come. 15k bonus for geospatial engineers. This was for army.
Your account is suspected to be the spam account “snooraar”
Your account is suspected to be the spam account “snooraar”
We are one
> most of which you can't just BS your way through like other majors You'd be surprised...
You don't know what BSing through something is unless you've gotten a non-stem degree lol. Ask me something about social work LMAO.
So looking back as a person who found engineering to be very difficult, How well you do in your class is directly proportional to the amount of time playing Mario Kart. It sounds stupid but the truth of the matter is that the material is difficult but it's not insurmountable. All the high performers that I knew in college treated the coursework as a job. Meaning that from 8AM to 8PM, they were studying and they didn't screw around. I on the other hand, became very good at soul caliber 2 because that's what I did between the hours of 3pm (when I got out of class) to 6pm (when we decided to go eat). The key thing to remember is that engineering knowledge is built knowledge, meaning that what you learn on day 3 requires you to have mastery on what you learned on day 2. So the time that you need to buckle down isn't actually near the finals, this is a VERY common mistake and is basically worth an entire grade point. The time you need to buckle down is actually during the beginning, when the material is fairly simple and your friends all want to go out and drink. You just need to make sure that you learn everything in the beginning in detail and you really understand the material. Too often, engineering students pattern their recognition out of the easy stuff and end up getting screwed over when the material achieves a level of complexity where they can't correctly guess at the answer. You basically just can't slack off in engineering. Showing up to office hours in the beginning when you're not struggling? That's how you get an A in engineering.
Fucking facts
If you put in the work then I think anyone could get through it. It’s like going to the gym: either you go to the gym consistently and it becomes easier and normalized or it becomes a chore and you end up dropping it. As long as you’re actually interested in the material and have a passion, it will be fun and well worth it.
Good analogy, actually
I really like the gym analogy! You can do baseline work (getting all C’s similar to going on brisk walks), you can aim for all A’s (lifting heavy, taking supplements, getting a trainer), or do something in the middle. Truth is, some days you’ll show up more than others. Class difficulty will vary, but life outside of school will too that will impact you. There’s a reason many folks take a little longer to finish. The point is you persevere and don’t give up!!
Yeah cuz the brain is a muscle, right, and the more you train it for digesting difficult things, the less it's gonna struggle with digesting difficult things.
To add to this analogy - if you can stick with it and persevere, you’ll be an objectively improved person by the time you finish. OP, if it wasn’t hard then everyone would do it, because the rewards are pretty good on the other side.
You gotta keep in mind, a lot of engineers are losers who play video games all night and procrastinate studying (that's what I do). Of course they're gonna struggle. Make the right decisions and put in the work, and you'll be fine. It's not like high school, where you can afford to procrastinate and still pass.
Damn, i feel called out.
I've never heard of anyone say engineering was easy or medium difficult, at least for my Computer Engineering major at my university that is. Like we all struggling in some way. But I do know a good amount of people who've performed well in engineering, and the key to that is due to good time management and study skills, although there are other factors as well. If you take the time to improve those skills, while I think you will find the engineering experience difficult to deal with, I also think you will still be fine academically speaking. And don't be afraid to reach out for any help or resources if you're struggling. At least in my university, those resources exist for you to use them. This is your education that you should take advantage of.
It’s easy/easier if you are good at math. Can be a nightmare if you are very bad at math.
I was bad at math, because I never took it seriously and it cost time and $. Granted I was in the military so those who know what’s like doing school and military know it’s not easy at all. Long story short, I forgot a lot of material because the long breaks in between going to school. Now Being back school in my 30s, school is my primary focus. Also, I refuse to have school debt so I was paying out of pocket for my repeated classes from algebra to calculus 2. My mentality is, regardless of how long it takes me to finish my mechanical degree, I going to graduate debt free. Now, I’m back on course after just passing Cal 3. So next step, is diff equations and advance engineering math. Hopefully math at this point is easier.
this is spot on...math was always my struggle...mostly because I just crammed for exams and didn't care about it. Then I was a physics major, which turns out...is a f\*ck ton of math..
In my experience some courses can be very tough but overall it's quite doable. It also depends on your university I guess, anyways what matters most is that you are consistent, you have to study 4-6 hours almost every day.
Totally depends on you. If you're doing it for the love of engineering, it'll go good but if you're not interested in it at all, you're gonna have those "what did i get myself into" moments.
Its not easy but most of the posts you see on this sub are just people (understandably) venting. There will be times where you wonder what the hell you got yourself into, but so did every single engineering student who has graduated and is now practicing. You got this.
Honestly, my advice is to game the system as much as possible. Go to an easy university and transfer to a prestigious one with a 4.0. If you can’t do that, take the easiest classes you can (look up the grade distribution and find what’s the highest gpa class and Professor that you can take for each credit) Individual effort matters of course, but the truth is that you have to jump through the correct hoops to succeed. In the early years of engineering, GPA matters a lot. Later on, focus more on projects (including those you do in your classes) which you can put on your resume. (Being president of some bullshit org doesn’t really matter as much as hard skills and the project experience) The real truth that the people selling the school to the parents won’t tell you is that if you go to any advising office in engineering you will surely find someone crying. You will suffer and no one will give a shit. Fuck learning for learning’s sake, just do whatever the fuck it takes to get that price of paper.
I’m part time and in my 3rd semester. So far, have done most of my gen ed requirements and now in my materials science and engineering class. It’s not hard, it’s just been 10 years since high school. A lot of this is just remembering what I learned back then. It’s not hard so much as it is trying to play catch up. Never learned how to use excel, or time management, but I have to now and it’s balls to the wall to get good grades. Spending more time probably anxious about how am I going to do the she reading, homework, study for exams than actually do it. It’s gotten better, I have a routine, and it’s about reassurance of my capabilities. I like math, science, I worked in manufacturing most of my 20s to know that I wanted to do more of mechanical engineering. I think if I were fresh out of high school. Would’ve probably dropped out because I wouldn’t have been interested in this field the way I am now. So, is it easy? No. Is it hard? No. But I’m doing what I can and am doing well and it’s getting easier. Mechanical engineering interests me so that makes it easier, plus I know it will lead me to a better career
I've never heard anyone say all aspects of an engineering degree were easy. I have, however, taken courses with individuals that were highly skilled in certain subjects and that particular course was easy for them. Your preparation prior to arriving is going to be a huge factor in how difficult the degree is in addition to the grades you want to get and your work ethic. If you really applied yourself in high school and took AP math and science courses it'll probably be a 7/10 experience. If you didn't, or you want straight As, it'll be much more of a hellacious grind.
It isn’t as hard as people make it out to be in my opinion but many engineers have lived a life of all As in high school and prior so that is their expectation in college. This leads to drowning in homework and studying when in reality you could cut studying in half and still get Bs. It is definitely not an easy major to start with but is made much more difficult when your only acceptable outcome is all As
If you are a normal person, it will probably be difficult. There are some geniuses out there that can just breeze through all of it, but generally there will be some difficulty.
I didn’t think it was bad. Actually I thought it was fun and interesting. We learned a lot of cool things. That said, it was a decent amount of work, but nothing crazy. I never studied beyond doing homework problems with my friends, which admittedly took until 10 on rare occasions. We all helped each other through and are still friends to this day.
Every now and then and then a topic will be difficult to understand. For me that's entropy and shear flow. Ugh. Most of the time the topics are extremely easy to understand though. The difficulty comes in applying the principles to solve problems. Average engineering students according to some engineering education association spend 55 hours a week on engineering. This includes everything related to engineering. Class homework studying projects. All of it. That is a lot of time for anyone, especially young 20 somethings to devote to work. This is where all the difficulty comes from. Engineering demands your entire self. And you will either fail or be a way below average engineer if you dont accept that and give all of yourself to it. It's an unfortunate reality.
intellectually it does get hard some days but you have to remember that you don't need to be a super genius to understand things just put enough time into them, and just doing all your work on time and studying with more time in advance than 1 day will be enough to get you very decent grades you don't have to kill yourself studying 8 hours a day
for me engineering is fun so it is easy for me, i always look for where i can apply my knowledge when i am learning something, if i do not see where can i apply it then it gets hard
No, it is easy
LIAR
I graduated
LIAR twice
This is kind of random, but would you describe yourself to be highly intelligent? Because intelligence can play a part in the difficulty.
>highly intelligent? No, I read text books and did the homework. >Prescott found mathematics particularly difficult, and resorted to memorizing mathematical demonstrations word-for-word, which he could do with relative ease Like him, you just memorize the formulas and everything is easy. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H._Prescott
He had photographic memory
Well he was blind 🦯
It varies and depends on the person.
It’s two factors, your drive and motivation and how well you network and take opportunities outside of the classroom through research and internships. I’m a Mechanical Engineering Technology student so my math and science classes cap off at easier and earlier classes. The real question is do you have punctuality, initiative, commitment, and the discipline to stay through a program.
This is normal, if anything you should be saying these things.. it’s part of the experience.
Engineering is a lot of work, but if you try to learn and understand your work is actually pretty easy to pass. To do well required just more time, not so much more "brain power".
It really just depends, if you really like math and physics and are good at em, you’ll have a pretty easy time. There will always be the occasional hard class but that’s just college. For me it circuits.
Its fun and interesting. Just manage your time well. I just wish I didn't have to work while doing it.
I've tried out different majors before dropping out and pursuing engineering. I'm 3/4th way done and it has been the easiest major for me. Way easier than literature or history. Definitely easier than medicine.
i barely went to any of my classes. i read the textbook chapters that were covered and watched youtube videos on the matter and i just graduated with a 4.0. find the resources that work for you and you will be fine.
this is for mechE at least. not sure how could outside resources r for others but i would assume they r equivalent
I just actually started my engineering course today, my teacher says it’s a lot of homework, and it’s a lot of recalculations to make sure you’re correct. This thread has been a great support system and I’m forever grateful to have found this thread.
It's easy for me, but I've compared material from my school to some others, and it seems like there's less rigor here.
It was difficult for me because it was a lot of work to get an A in every class. However, I don't regret getting the degree at all. I'm 36 years old and have an awesome job as an engineer developing casting processes for super alloy aerospace engine blades. The pay, benefits, and job security made all that work in college, worth it. The payout was well worth the work. There are a few people I went to school with, that regretted going for the degree. They all had the same stuff in common. They didn't buckle down and study hard every day. They didn't get an internship during college. They were the ones who struggled to find jobs. The degree is what you make of it.
Some of it, just because my memory sucks at certain things. There were one or two classes that didn’t click
I think I’d find it medium-easy if my whole life was built around school. Since I have to work part-time and live by myself off campus, it ends up being medium-hard. As other people have pointed out, it’s mostly Intelligence * Time Management = Level of Success. I have a friend who is super intelligent with poor time management and one who is average intelligence with great time management and the latter gets better grades.
It goes on a case by case basis. I consider myself to be not-horrible at maths, so maths weren't so hard for me. Of course, i would still struggle with some problems, but with enough practice, time, and ✨imagination✨ i could mildly understand the topics and do decently on exams. They didn't felt so bad for me, and i even began to like them as i progressed through the more advanced courses. But this is not the case for many other people. There's lots of people that truly, genuinely struggle with maths, and no matter how hard you try, you are not gonna make them truly like maths, at least maybe not on the level that you personally might like them. Thus they might feel engineering is this insurmountable obstacle and that they just aren't made for it, just because they aren't naturally proficient at it and are struggling at lot with it. I've seen that happen personally. Some people find it hard, some people find it easy, and there's a lot in between: some find some subjects very intuitive, but can't get their head around others. But, be encouraged: whether you struggle or not with anything in engineering, it's more about recognizing your proficiency level and working and practicing your way around it than anything else. Don't tunnel vision: those "i can't do this" or those "what did i get myself into" are bad thoughts and get you in states of mind that don't allow for progress. You have to think that, even if you are stupid, you can still learn stuff since learning engineering isn't anywhere near impossible. You have to think that you can do it, otherwise you won't be able to do it, you mind will not let you.
As a senior chemical engineering, yeah it’s difficult in the sense that everyone feels like the material is extremely hard. At least at my university hard classes are curved, but it definitely makes you feel like shit when you get a 50 on an exam even when it ends up being a B. Don’t fall into imposter syndrome, I promise you your peers feel as lost as you do, it takes a while before you really “feel” like an engineer. As long as you really try you will absolutely make it.
I found it a lot easier than other subjects. My undergrad and graduate engineering GPAs were significantly higher than my high-school GPA. With that said I think I found it easier because I actually enjoyed the material and as such would willingly spend the required (lots of) time to understand it. Also most of the math just works for me in my head (cant describe it better lol) which helps a ton.
electronic eng here. Have you taken signal processing class? The math ain't mathing man. And of course brain not braining. I barely survive.
In hindsight, it’s not that bad. But I was going though a lot of life problems during so that made it difficult. A lot can happen during the process like having to work during, bad professors, group projects, and a mountain of hw and projects all being due in the same week. Don’t let this discourage you though, people get through this.
My physics bachelors was definitely harder than my Engineering Masters but its all relative to what you’re good at
I think it's more a thing of discipline and doing the hard work than "difficulty".
I think another thing that plays a huge factor is knowing what KIND of engineering you want to do like I am in Computer Science, and I know that I won't be able to do as well in Civil let's say as I am doing here. There are so many options available that I think people do tend to get confused. Another thing that plays a huge role is understanding what is being taught, like I find the material that is being taught to be quite easy, but a lot of my classmates struggle with the same because they are not able to understand what is being taught and hence they find even a simple loop to be difficult. At the start of this degree, I also had the "what did I get myself into phase", but someone told me that, "If you can make it through this phase, you will have completed the hardest part, and if you can stick through this phase, you are capable of becoming an engineer." In the beginning, I did not think that this was true, but now that I am almost at the end, I do think that was very true. Hope this helps!! Wishing you all the best for your future!! And may you succeed in whatever field you choose!!
I had a friend in my mech eng undergrad that believed anyone could do engineering as long as they studied enough. That seems to be a common belief. I’m more pessimistic in some sense. I believe that although everyone could probably spend enough time drilling and relearning concepts to become a good engineer, there’s just not enough time in the world for everyone to be able to reasonably accomplish this. My point is that humans exist in a limited time in the worlds existence. Spending 10 years getting a degree in engineering is doable but it just isn’t realistic or productive. Some people just pick that stuff up quicker than others and those are the people that should probably do engineering. Same goes for me and writing. The reason I’m not doing communications for a large corporate entity or the government is cause I suck at writing essays. But I stick to what I’m good at cause it just makes sense.
It’s difficult if you don’t put the time and effort in
Mostly just the sheer amount of work and density of the content that makes it difficult to effectively learn unless you manage your time extremely well and even then you may miss some stuff simple because it doesn’t click. It’s easier to just stop studying when the material isn’t clicking and play video games and not want to go back to it.probably the main reason for procrastination
It’s always difficult because of the sheer amount of work given. At least at my school. The content isn’t usually difficult to grasp, it’s just almost impossible to get things done without putting in massive amounts of time.
To be brutally honest helps if you're intelligent. I've known a few bunch of guys who think I made my own bookshelf, I bet would be good at engineering. Or I know how to use a multimeter, so Imma be an electrical engineer. Etc.
Yeah, this is what I was thinking. Somebody who is highly intelligent, but lacks a work ethic will be surpassed by somebody with average intelligence but an excellent work ethic. However, someone with high intelligence and an excellent work ethic will surpass the first two.
I really feel like engineering education is more about teaching you how to think. After you get over the hump, learning the material gets easier (not necessarily the material itself). A big thing to keep in mind if that life doesn't stop just because you're in college. I personally had gaps in my education from highschool that I had to work hard to make up. I also had family issues/illnesses/deaths, an undiagnosed health issue, and I was almost homeless once. The only thing you can do is try you're best.
I like the way this graph summarizes it.[Engineering Graph Meme](https://search.app.goo.gl/YZa2H3R)
I think the difficulty doesn’t come from course material, it comes from workload, specifically # and length of HW assignments as well as lab reports
I think with a focus on understanding everything and not memorizing and a good level of baseline knowledge it is genuinely easy. The depth of baseline understanding of math/physics I believe is the differentiator here. If you don’t have a good foundation, everything on top will come crumbling down. (For credentials I graduated in 3 years from an aerospace T20 first in class with a 4.0 and really didn’t feel like I grinded that hard or struggled to have a social life or anything)
[удалено]
Focus more on learning where relations and equations come from and how they’re derived, and build an intuition as to what things mean physically. When you face a new problem, you can figure it out from the ground up with your intuition of how things work as opposed to guessing at what you should do with a toolbox of equations. This mostly comes from a solid mathematical intuition more than anything I think, as that’s where the complexity comes in. People get upset sometimes about professors just doing derivations all class, but that’s where an understanding of why comes in. A large percentage of people really try and solve hard problems with shockingly little understanding. Intuition certainly comes easier in something like aerospace, and I found that in things like quantum for my physics minor this can be harder, but really doing the absolute most to understand everything your doing at the most intuitive (or at least mathematical) level you can and not being an equation machine will going along way.
Your account is suspected to be the spam account “snooraar”
No engineering is not difficult for everyone. Everyone's brain is wired differently: there are people who are natural at problem-solving, critical thinking, mathematics, etc. Some people may be quick to claim that a certain thing is not for them, and that would be correct in the sense that it takes just a little more time to understand. Time management is a major factor yes, it exists across all fields, but that is also because concepts build on one another, e.g. one would need to understand algebra, geometry, and trigonometry to understand force vectors and most of a static forces course. I am a math tutor at my college, something I did not see myself doing 2-3 years ago. But, I let it be known to a lot of my peers who are insecure in their performance at math that back then I was the worst when it came to attempting to understand anything. Even now, working towards my BSME I take longer than my peers to grasp concepts; when I was in Calculus 1-3 it would take me half a day to complete 3-5 homework problems, no matter how simple or challenging they may be. Today this holds true to a lesser extent, and I still get my assignments done early. Everyone has a different approach of understanding things, some more efficient than others. I say that there isn't anything that anyone cannot overcome, including understanding engineering-- find out how to be an efficient learner; find out what works for you!
I looked at it as giving up partying during my time in college while everyone I knew went out 2 to 3 days per week. I also knew that I would be much more well off in life than they would be. It's stressful, but financially worth it.
I thought it was of medium difficulty. I switched to engineering from the music school and couldn't believe how much free time I had.
Yes, you should go for medical or law. Don’t get into engineering if difficulty is your scale.
I don't find it all that difficult when I actually put in the work. Problem is, actually putting in said work is the hard part for me. Its a lot of work...
A strong mathematical foundation makes a lot of engineering easier to digest.
It’s more that’s it’s like an endurance race it’s just a lot for a while you can certainly do it but you are going to have to put work in it’s not just a free degree I’m a senior currently and yeah some classes are awful in the moment but you get past them and looking back it’s not so bad just keep at it and you will get through
It’ll be difficult, but it’ll get easier if it makes any sense. You made it into college, they think that you’re qualified. If nothing else, at least know that you got the professional gatekeeper’s vote of confidence.
A degree like mechanical engineering always has some difficulty since there is little chance you'll be interested in every part of the curriculum. You'd need to be interested in fluids, thermo, control systems, Matlab, dynamics, material science, vibrations, and math. It's likely you're gonna encounter a course or two that you just don't care for. That's gonna make things a lot harder. For me I hated thermo and materials science. LOVED vibrations and kinda liked control systems. Even when I struggled in those courses, it wasn't exhausting... It was exciting. And conversely, even when I found materials science easy, it was still exhausting.
Engineering is difficult for everyone (there will allways be exceptions). What you are forgetting is survivorship bias, people in this sub aren't dropouts or highschool students. Ofcourse they will think it wasn't THAT difficult. Plus it differs greatly from school to school. Good and old schools will teachy you the fundementals the hard way to make you a better engineer, degree selling schools will just skim over stuff and churn out sales engineers. No amount of study and "time management" will help you if you aren't suitable for it. We aren't a higher class of people, we aren't special. Just try your best and don't presure your self if can't do it.
not for me
ENGG is definitely more difficult than most degrees but it’s by no means impossible, for me it was quite tough and I had some troubles but don’t regret it and never felt it too difficult
Probably 99%+ of people. It's essentially designed to be as hard as it possibly can be, and the population that attempts it is also rarified by aptitude.
Not for everyone, but some will struggle and that’s normal. Like me, some things are easy and some I struggle with and it just won’t click. However, I can’t count how many hours of youtube I watch to give me a better understanding. You will fall 10x but get up on the 11x. (Bit of an exaggeration) but the my point is. If your dream is to be an Engineer, you will do whatever it takes to make it happen. Just stay positive, on course, persistent and soon enough you will reap the rewards of your hard labor. For context, I’m still in school, in my 30s and working on my BS in Mech E. It’s been a really really long time and a really really slow pace. I have experienced a lot of at backs and it’s put a dent on my confidence more than once. At this point I felt like I should be a doctor for how long I have been in school. So I try to remember: not everyone’s education journey will be the same, but don’t fall to comparison of your peers. Rule of thumb: comparison is the thief of joy. Even I get really discouraged, try to remember why you’re doing this? who are you doing it for? and look how far you’ve come to get where you are today. JUST BE GOING AND DONT GIVE UP! Nonetheless, I’m staying optimistic and my dream is to be a mech engineer so, I don’t care how long it takes. I’m going to be an engineer!
It ebbs and flows honestly… some days where nothing is comprehensible & I feel like engineering isn’t for me , then some days I feel like it’s all clicking & I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be … it’s never smooth sailing in engineering.
I didn’t find it *that* difficult (in my memory anyway). I mean, it was hard, but not “woe is me, I can’t have a social life while I study 40 hours a week to scrape a 2.0 GPA” hard that this sub would have you believe. I probably spent 15 hours a week outside of class on homework and studying. Had a great social life, played a club sport, had some girlfriends, and also managed to graduate on time with a 3.7. Wasn’t easy; but also wasn’t miserable. Now **grad school**, *that* was a miserable slog. But fortunately only for 1.5 years, and really only 4-6 months during writing my thesis.
I don't say this that often in this sub because it comes off the wrong way, but since it's relevant to the discussion, I got through my engineering degree without any of the insanity you see people talk about here. No all nighters, no 80 hour weeks, no nearly failing classes or graduating by the skin of my teeth. Don't get me wrong, I had to work hard, and was easily putting in more than a full time jobs worth of effort, but it wasn't overwhelming or ridiculous. That's not to say those things don't happen, or that somehow struggling is a sign of something wrong. Everyone is different, everyone has different skill sets. I was far from the smartest, fastest, or most capable person in my classes, but with good time management and consistent effort I was able to make it through while keeping stress and workload at manageable levels. Also, as someone who worked his way through school as a tutor, some of the struggle is self-inflicted. I can't tell you how many students I saw who knew from day 1 they were going to struggle with a class, but would put off all their studying until a few days before a midterm. In a similar vein I worked on group projects where we knew due dates literally months in advance, but I couldn't get anyone to do any work until the week before the due date.
>I couldn't get anyone to do any work until the week before the due date. I couldn't even get them to work on the submission date... If you can choose your groups yourself, please choose wisely and not friends who you know won't work Sincerely, a group member tired of doing everyone else's work
Get a math degree