Hello college confidants,
I was just thinking about the different kinds of engineering and the question crossed my mind as to how much students are typically “expected” to already know about the chosen subject, or if a mere interest or passion will suffice? Like for example if you wanted to go into aerospace, how much knowledge of airplanes would your peers and teachers expect you to already have at least an idea of? I know it would be helpful to at least know what an airplane is, for starters. I also know that they won’t expect you to be some kind of prodigy who already knows everything they’re going to teach. But at the same time, I feel like if I walked into an aerospace college and they asked me to tell them what I know about airplanes, I would tell them that they fly and that I’ve been on a few. Basically, is it enough to just have a profound interest in something that you don’t really know too much about in the technical sense, or do you actually have to have a firm grasp of, in this case, the general mechanical structure of an airplane? Would that get you into some serious “Why the heck did you come here?” situations? I’m just curious about this.
Nearly all schools will have introductory classes, and they will only expect you to know the prerequisite courses for the class. As an engineering student, you will likely start with prerequisite classes in your major–things like calculus and physics. They will generally require you to have at least a basic high school background (like having already taken precalculus), but they aren’t expecting you to come in with a working knowledge of airplanes or anything ridiculous like that. They’ll all have introductory courses (and those introductory courses probably won’t really be able airplanes to begin with). Some schools even have remedial courses that can be taken if your high school preparation wasn’t great.
Taking a look at the curriculum for engineering students at different colleges might give you a better and more realistic picture of what is expected of students. I think your jumping right to the end-product–a possible practical application of a degree–without considering all of the technical background knowledge that goes into something like that (which is what you go to college for). For example, glancing through the courses that students where I went to college had to take as aerospace engineers, only a few are specific to aerospace engineering at all and those are generally taken as an upperclassman. Most of the other classes are classes that other engineering students may take–courses in advanced and specific topics in physics or classes in design, for example.
Some classes might be easier if you have some experience in them. For example, if you have previously taken calculus and choose to retake it in college, it will likely be easier for you. The same can be said for physics or programming or whatever classes you are taking. But introductory classes will still be taught at an introductory level, even if they move faster than some students are accustomed to. And even if you did come in with a working knowledge of airplanes, I don’t really see that helping you when you take differential equations, for example.