general engineering and uppperclass "weedout" courses

HYPSMaster
Tue, 17 Aug 2010 06:28:10 +0000

copied and pasted from another thread w/ some edits:

i’m going to be a sophomore next semester in general engineering w/ an engineering related minor. generally what i have heard is that freshman year you may take some “weedout” classes (maybe calc 2/3 are considered in this category). but a recent graduate suggested that those freshman classes are “weeding out” non-engineers from engineers and that there are also weedout classes within engineering classes that start to come out jr year. however i just read another post about the grades in upper level classes tend to be higher. do you think this is a result of work ethic? are there really engineering weedout classes? if so, what classes are these?

another thing i was wondering is whether or not school recognition really matters with employers/graduate school… in my personal opinion, i feel that “general engineering,” even though it’s not really “general”, doesn’t sound that appealing, especially since a lot of engineering schools don’t even offer “general engineering” (in fact many ones that do label it as “systems engineering”) and u of i’s ranking in this major isn’t even that great. in fact, i can’t even find a ranking online for GE, the only rankings i can find are for industrial. basically what i’m asking is if u of i’s recognition in overall engineering help its rankings in GE. part of the reason i’m wondering is because i’mthinking transferring into a different major, maybe cheme? but is it worth it to transfer based off of individual rankings? im more concerned about job opportunities at the moment, not whether or not i like the program.

two more things: does having an engineering minor help at all? i feel like a should, but i’ve also read it’s not a big deal (i might feel the same way considering how easy obtaining the minor is). also, where do you guys get the internships? just from career fairs at the union?

i know i have a lot of questions, but i’d appreciate your input. also, don’t mind my sn, it was used as an inside joke/to ■■■■■ early last year.