<p>Other than liking the science, what other indicators show that you’ll like the field and/or will succeed.</p>
<p>If you are good at math</p>
<p>If you are committed to studing</p>
<p>For starters, not asking questions like this. As interesting of a question as it may be, you need to have some confidence in your own ability or you won’t be able to get anything done when other people differ in opinion.</p>
<p>Staying organized and keeping a good work ethic throughout school are two very important things. Compared to high school classes, college level physics, calc, and chemistry will be a lot more work and will really require an adjustment freshman year. It is difficult to say for sure though how someone will handle this. Some make it and some don’t. For my class, I’d say less than 50 percent graduated that started as freshmen. This is something to keep in mind. Those that aren’t serious will really struggle.</p>
<p>You have to be at college for the right reasons, like, to study. If all you want to do is chase tail and drink, you’ll probably wash out. That goes for any major really and especially for engineering. You should spend at least 10% of your time on school. I know that only leaves 90% for drinking and tail, but consider it an investment in the future. You can buy a lot of drink with ~$60k per year to start.</p>
<p>it helps if you surround yourself with people that are in the same position as you, going though the same motions, and are good students. </p>
<p>commitment, the ability to improve, the desire to be challenged, to be resilient i.e. fall from your feet and get back up and fight (this will happen more than once)</p>
<p>passion for learning how things work (this will get stronger as you progress with your studies)</p>
<p>Succeed academically or in a career? Succeeding in a career is all about your productivity, how much you produce for your employer. Professionalism is a part of that productivity (punctuality, ability to work with others, even-temperedness, good hygiene, not prone to screaming or hitting).</p>
<p>Academic success is ahead of me (I’m only in calc I and intro to physics) but I’ve done lots of studying and gotten others’ opinions on the subject. I’d say math skills are an absolute must in college (working engineers don’t use nearly as much math as they do in school, I’m told), ability to STUDY STUDY STUDY and stay on top of your homework. I’m already doing great in my classes because I studied them <em>before</em> took them, and I’m studying ahead even now. I plan to study everything before I take the class. It’s not that hard to get a primer on just about any subject these days, you don’t need to read the entire textbook. But if you’re an aerospace engineering student, get the idiot’s guide to fluid dynamics and read it, do the problems. If you’re a computer engineering student, bone up on C and electromagnetics and circuit design and analysis. Heck, a circuit-making kit you can get at Radio Shack can help you there.</p>
<p>They say engineering college is like trying to get a drink from a fire hose, but if you take time to become at least <em>familiar</em> with the subject before you take the class, it’s not so overwhelming. Each class becomes a refined, more in-depth and rigorous version of what you’ve already done.</p>
<p>You have to love the science (and math); not just like it.</p>
<p>You have to use success skills that other majors require but you have to do it better than other students because the workload is heavier.</p>
<p>You have to be persistent because there will be many times when you feel like giving up.</p>
<p>being masochistic</p>
<p>I’d say that productivity is important for life, not just career-wise. That’s especially true in school–either you get quality work done on time or you don’t. The difference is that in school, nobody else cares whether you succeed or fail, since they don’t depend on the results of your work.</p>
<p>I don’t really bother to work ahead, though. I used to say that I would, but it doesn’t seem all that useful to me so far. I find that doing what the profs tell us we need to do gets the job done (who knew?).</p>
<p>Also, it helps to have a long one. The average engineer is very well-endowed. Or that’s what I tell the females, anyway.</p>
<p>I think one of the key things of getting through engineering school is being willing to put your social life & other things on hold to focus on getting homework and schoolwork finished on time. Sometimes, you really have to sit down and focus on studies rather than doing fun things, and people that choose fun things over studies are ones that drop out. </p>
<p>As an undergrad, I usually spent all day Sunday working on homework. I’d get up around 9 am and try to start on homework about 10 or 11 am. I’d usually wrap it up about 9pm, with normal breaks for lunch and dinner. </p>
<p>Monday through Thursday I’d spend time as available working on homework, probably about 5 hours a day or so. Friday and Saturday I took off.</p>
<p>Now, as a graduate student who works full time, I do my homework on Friday nights, all day Saturday, and all day Sunday. I try to watch my lectures after work but usually can’t get much actual homework done.</p>
<p>What are some things that are necessary to succeed? Well, I think there are a few and most of these are generic and apply to almost any job, to varying degrees. </p>
<p>Some things I think are necessary:
- You can resolve abstract problems with minimal guidance but are not afraid to ask questions when necessary. Sometimes you just have to find the answer to a problem on your own because nobody else will have the answer or will be able to do much beyond point you in the right direction. Asking questions is important but don’t overdo it; actually work at something before you start immediately asking questions, a lot of things can be solved by just putting a little bit of time in.
- You can work well with others. You will probably work on a team or at least have to interact with others on a day-to-day basis. Knowing how to work well with others is extremely important, especially people who are not coming anywhere close to pulling their own weight. At some point you WILL end up working with someone you consider to be a complete moron and will question how he or she got the job.
- You don’t give up easily and will keep working. Sometimes it just takes a long time to get stuff done. Sometimes everything that can possibly goes wrong does go wrong, and then five other things go wrong.
- You learn from your mistakes AND successes. Learn from your experiences so you do not repeat the same mistakes. Also, learn from what went right so when you encounter a similar challenge again in the future you can call upon your existing knowledge to quickly resolve it.
- Take initiative. Start working on something that has not necessarily been assigned to you (or to anyone) but will help you and/or others. Go above and beyond to do more than just what you “should” be doing. Exceed the expectations of those around you.</p>
<p>Some things I think are helpful, but not necessary:
- Enjoying math/science/engineering/technology/etc. I mildly enjoy engineering-related things but do not come anywhere close to loving them. In my free time I generally tend to gravitate towards non-technology related activities, although when the weather is bad or I just don’t feel like doing much I might spend an entire evening playing some video games. Most of the successful people I work with have a very similar attitude and I can only think of one person I work with who actually REALLY likes technology for the sake of it being technology.
- Being smart. Being very smart will make things come quicker and with less effort. However, more so than being smart you need to be motivated to get things done. I know very smart, but lazy, individuals who are often dismissed by some as being dumb because that is how they are perceived. But, you cannot be stupid and succeed.</p>
<p>1) Being smarter than your competition. If you are a 90th percentile intellect in your peer group the chance of you succeeding is pretty high.
2) Working harder than your competition. If you have a 90th percentile work ethic compared to your competition the chance of you succeeding is pretty high.</p>
<p>There really is no other way to game it. You are either smarter than the competition or you work harder than them.</p>
<p>I’d say a USAMO qualifier status would be a great indicator.</p>
<p>Regarding the hard work answer that many are giving: the best engineering students I know aren’t hard workers (but of course they’re smart). 121314, just know that you don’t have to be super hard working or super determined about your future or super smart to succeed in engineering.</p>