al6200

So I'm going to WPI that works on a quarter system, and this is the schedule that I'm looking at for an Electrical/Computer engineering major

Quarter 1:

Multi-variable Calculus
Intro to Electrical and Computer Engineering
Discrete Mathematics I
Numerical Analysis I

Quarter 2:

Linear Algebra
Principles of Electricity and Magnetism
Discrete Mathematics II
Numerical Analysis II

My parents say that I should take some easy courses but I kind of think that that ^^^ load is doable. Is that too hard?

AUlostchick

That seems like alot of math with nothing to cushion it. Unless you just really really like math.

SHS_Spartan

Yeah, that's a whole a lot of math.

One bad math class might ruin your whole year for you. You sure you don't want to have any classes that you can take for your own personal enjoyment?

nontraditional

I would probably enjoy those schedules. On the other hand, I wouldn't be asking whether or not I should be taking easier classes: those would be the easy classes. The fact that your parents are framing this in terms of easiness and you're not laughing and saying "What do they know? These are easy!" suggests to me that it might not be a great plan.

Also, if you do love math and it comes easily to you but you don't like, say, the humanities, then you're going to want to know how many of those classes you're going to have to take and whether or not you need to take one of them now to avoid having to do two at a time later.

I'm a big proponent of more balanced course loads, at least at the start before you develop the kinds of skills you'll need to do a lot of work in a specific area. Take a writing-intensive course or two; take a class that fulfills distribution requirements. You're going to have to take them sometime, and at the very least they'll save you from being bad at the same things in every single one of your classes at once.

I have a friend who took a whole bunch of social science courses her first semester. It did not go well. She took a whole bunch of hard science courses her second semester. It did not go well either. It's not that she's not bright and hardworking, and it's not that she can't do either of those things; it's just that she was trying to offset the exact same relative weaknesses in all her classes at once, and it was too much. If she'd taken a couple of hard science classes and a couple of social science classes each semester, she would probably have done better and not been nearly as frustrated at the end of finals.

al6200

I actually am really excited about discrete mathematics, and I've heard that multi-variable calculus is easy (by calculus 1-3 standards of course).

What I'm worried about is if the class load is literally "not doable", or would be just too difficult for an incoming freshman.

I might be able to replace Calculus IV with Environmental Policy/Law or Business Law though... Idk, I just don't like going to school and not taking useful classes. By all means I like humanities, but they have to give me a skill or something.

SHS_Spartan

Don't expect acquiring a skill or learning something useful in every single one of your classes. It's simply NOT going to happen.

dilksy

I'd wait until next year to take on numerical analysis. You can fill in the gap with humanities/social science/writing (if they're required), or maybe another engineering class.

kelseyg

Does your school have general requirements? Take those. You don't want to be a junior stuck in intro english or intro history.

al6200

it's a polytechnic with the only majors being Computer Science, Math, Biology, and a whole bunch of types of engineering.

So the humanities aren't amazing. There are some fun looking ones like digital sound analysis or social aspects of video gaming - but those classes are full.

My only alternatives to Calculus IV would be something like Environmental Policy, Business Law, or Accounting - and my parents think all of those are too difficult (my parents think everything is too difficult).

I personally want to stick with my math-intensive schedule but my parents want me to switch.

Bourne

Maybe I'm just lazy. Or I'm an english major.

Either way, Vaya con dios.

nontraditional

Then I'd suggest that you get all the textbooks as soon as you possibly can and look to see how well you can teach yourself the material from them. Pay close attention in the first week to whether the professors' styles are a good match for you. And ask yourself how willing you are to go embarrass yourself in front of your teachers (there is such a thing as a stupid question, but questions of the form "I don't understand x; can you go over it again?" are almost never stupid questions) and how disciplined you really are.

I've taught a fair amount of freshman-level logic, and I've been in a fair number of math and logic classes. There's nothing especially hard in those classes. The hardest part for a lot of people seems to be coping with the symbols (in fairness, I've taught a lot of people who were only there because it satisfied a general education requirement), and it doesn't sound as if that'll be a problem for you. But there are a lot of little (easy) things, it's fairly easy to miss one or two, and it tends to be cumulative, so that if a student does miss some things and doesn't realize and rectify that fast, it is also fairly easy for things to get out of control fast.

There will be a lot of overlap between what happens in class and what happens in the text, which is not always the case in college classes, and I would encourage you to -- at least at the start -- make sure you've done the reading and worked a couple of problems before the lecture that corresponds to that work. If you go in either already understanding the material or with questions about things you already know you need help on, you're more likely to be successful. And you're probably better off overpreparing at first and then scaling back to a level that works for you than underpreparing at first and then playing catch-up.

However, if you end up with a book that doesn't really work for you *and* an instructor that doesn't really work for you, I'd drop that class and try to get into something else that satisfies a requirement. You might be able to manage, but you might not. A book that doesn't work for you is worse than an instructor that doesn't work for you, because you can always go back over what's in the book and if you miss something in lecture you can't just rewind and do it again. But you can probably get by with an instructor, a lot of notes, and office hour visits if you need to.

rsosher

I am going to Clark next year and I remeber when I was on a tour they said you can take different classes at any other school in the consortion of Worcester. So maybe you could take a Humanities at one of the other school that is not full and interests you.

Moire

It's certainly doable, but you run the risk of not learning much of anything.

b@r!um

I think it's definitely doable but it depends on how comfortable you are with math.

I want to take 3 math classes and 1 comp sci class next semester and people tell me I am crazy and I should take 1 easy (i.e. humanities or social science) class. They don't realize that for me math is easier than any humanity or social science... Math is just weekly problem sets and it is very easy to get into a routine. Any lab or reading- or writing-intensive class destroys that routine because the work tends to come in bundles rather than evenly spread out over the semester, which makes the entire semester very stressful for me. This comes from a math major though, so take it with a grain of salt.

Moire

b@r!um, I did that a lot when I was in college, and while I was able to do well in all my classes, now I look back and feel I didn't learn the material as well as I should have. For that reason, I do not recommend taking more than 2 math courses per semester IF you care about learning and mastering the material. If all you are looking for is a high gpa, then yeah, take all the math courses per semester you can.