TAM 211 or 210

NAFTA
Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:31:47 +0000

Boneh3dad is an aerospace PhD student in Texas. Key word being PhD. I am a current civil engineering student who has struggled with TAM, including retaking 211, and witnessing how very many people were retaking 211. You choose whose advice you’re gonna take; your future professor or someone on an intellectual level closer to yours.

Only take 211 if you think someday you might transfer to civil engineering. That’s the only stinkin’ reason to spend 3-4 more weeks in a massive cattle herd of a course that is Statics at UIUC. And yes, it will be much harder and take more work. It’s not just longer boner, the topics are loopier and more difficult as well and it’s not worth it. The extra stuff you learn is marginal information for civil engineers.

If you know shear and bending moment diagrams, have a solid grasp of solving for reactions in frames, and get what engineering moment of inertia is, you are golden. That’s what you learn in 210, that’s what you need for 251, any more is a waste of time and a drag on your GPA.