Tips from mom of a junior engineering student:
-Watch the Chem labs; fail 3 labs and you fail the class. You think it won’t happen but it can; kids were getting 12 am and pm confused with getting pre labs in or having computer problems or conflicts with another class or whatever; miss turning in the pre lab on time or have a lab partner who fools around and causes you to fail a lab…you see where I’m going with this. It was a hard lesson to learn.
-Put the drop dates on parents’ calendar too. Not just the first one but also the one where you get a W which is better than failing; know where you stand in class as some professors don’t put the grades online til the end
-Don’t use your friend’s clicker to mark him present for class; the professor will catch both of you and it’s an honor violation and will have repercussions (yes some kids did that); just go to class; many professors give surprise quizzes or give you credit for attendance
-Use those office hours when a professor offers it; too many benefits to list, just go
-do the HW; you’d be surprised how doing HW can bump up your grade
-son pledged engineering fraternity sophomore year; much better as it allowed him to get his groove freshman year; he is a NMF scholar/honors program so not a lot of room to be screwing up although I must say UA’s scholarship probationary period is VERY GENEROUS
-Yes on CLEP; son cleped Chemistry; be aware it covers 101 and 102; he had 101 previously then self taught 102; test only had a few questions from 102
-the aerospace program IMO is not as developed as some of the “old stand bys”; so many of my son’s friends switch from aero to mechanical realizing there are not that many aero opportunities just yet; it’s growing but not there yet; hoping also they start getting more aero coops than just the one or two in previous years