I need to rant about something...

"Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen" (sportwagen) 10/27/2015 at 00:41 • Filed to: None

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Seriously... after the jump. Precursor: I don’t really like math, but I can do it.

FUCK CALCULUS. Why does it have to be so hard? Why did someone decide that they wanted to know how physics work? WHY?

Alternatively:

Why did I decide that I wanted to be a computer engineer? WHY?! Yes, if I got my degree as a CE I would be making $70k+ right out of school, but is it really worth it when I could get a $50k accounting job and not hate my job and myself? Yes, being a CE would open up my career field, but once again, does it matter if I hate doing what my job would involve?

Can anyone provide some insight into this?

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 10/27/2015 at 00:46

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TheHondaBro > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly 10/27/2015 at 00:58

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Pretty sure they’re just taunting us with painfully-vague constants.

TheHondaBro > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 10/27/2015 at 00:59

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Feel lucky you’re not in MechE. We have to take shitloads of Calculus AND IT DOESN’T END THERE!!!!

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly 10/27/2015 at 01:01

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Damn, I used to know what that all meant too.

Luke's Dad Sold His 2000TL To Get a Sienna > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 10/27/2015 at 01:03

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I’m having this same problem. I made the decision to major in Petroleum Engineering when oil prices were $100+ and I could graduate, walk into Walmart and buy a boat, a Ferrari and a Death Star with my starting salary, but now at less than $45, I can barely get an internship.

And mechanical engineers keep taking Petroleum internships, everyone sucks.

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly 10/27/2015 at 01:10

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I don’t get it -_-

all I see is a few upside down deltas and a matrix

bob and john > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 10/27/2015 at 01:13

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CE is a good thing to be in. kinda temts me to swtich from ME, but 1: my school doesnt offer it and 2: LOL discrete math.

you will have one of the best jobs out there and have the money and the know-hjow to do basicly w/e the fuck you want. you wont just after tht crazy super car, u will have 2.

its instant gratification VS delayed.

I’m in mech E. the shit i’m doing right now...jesus m,an.

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > TheHondaBro 10/27/2015 at 01:14

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I would have to take Calc 3 and differential equations... and thats not all :(

If I switched to Accounting I would have no more math and a hell of a lot less homework to boot. I may not make as much but I won’t hate my life.

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Luke's Dad Sold His 2000TL To Get a Sienna 10/27/2015 at 01:15

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Stupid mechanical engineers :P

But seriously, I’m afraid that the CE bubble is going to pop at some point and all the benefits are just going to go *poof*

bob and john > Luke's Dad Sold His 2000TL To Get a Sienna 10/27/2015 at 01:16

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give it 4 years. oil will be back up XD

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > bob and john 10/27/2015 at 01:17

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Yeah, my parents have been telling me that... my issue is that professor’s teaching style is VERY confusing... he just shows us problems on the board and doesn’t explain the steps. It probably doesn’t help that I haven’t taken Calc 1 before either... the people who are doing well in the class took Calc 1 in high school, meanwhile I struggled with the non-trig part of Pre-Calc :’(

bob and john > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 10/27/2015 at 01:20

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trig is always fun...
you guys have a book? does it help in any way?

also, find a group of ppl to study with. I thought solo studying was the way for me. it wasnt. plus, with someone your age, its a little easier for them to explain to you then the guy whos been doin it for 20 years and has forgoten what it mean to not know anything.

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > bob and john 10/27/2015 at 01:32

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Yeah, we have a book. But it is equally vague -_-

I tried the group study thing... the problem is those people already understand it and they don’t know how to help me :(

bob and john > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 10/27/2015 at 01:42

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okay....what exactly are you studying?

if its something I get...intrested in skyping and I’ll see if I cant make it any clear-er?

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > bob and john 10/27/2015 at 02:12

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Right now? Maximums and minimums of stuff using derivatives (can’t remember the fancy name) but I just said “Fuck it, its 1AM and I have an 8AM class, I’m going to bed” so Skyping is out for tonight... maybe sometime tomorrow if possible?

Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 10/27/2015 at 02:40

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I didn’t realise how bad engineering math was until I took Stage 3 Astrophysics as a final year option in my BE and found the math EASY!

bob and john > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 10/27/2015 at 07:05

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Sometime this week. i’ve got this to deal with right now

N51fanatic > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 10/27/2015 at 07:15

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Take a deep breath and relax. I have a CE degree and minor in EE. Am now an RF/Comms engineer for a big player. I’m taking the PE exam Friday, I had to go back and teach myself all that bullshit they are teaching you in undergrad. I like you thought it was soooooooo hard, but it’s really not. And now with YouTube, I can find a thorough explanation of any topic in a matter of seconds.

If engineering was easy, everyone would do it and jobs would only pay 40k. I make lots of money, keep at it.

Montalvo > TheHondaBro 10/27/2015 at 07:18

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Interestingly enough Calc 3 and Linear Methods were the easiest math classes I had ever taken. Calc 2 was way harder for some reason. I also decided to complete an energy minor, taking all of the classes pretty much on my last semester. That was a really crappy idea since I was just done at that point and was starting to get extreme seinoritis but hey if I need to design a nuclear reactor I can now do that.

Montalvo > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 10/27/2015 at 07:28

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An accounting job would probably be easier but would you have more vertical movement than as an engineer? No. As an engineer you put in the hard hours now so that you get the money later and a lot more of it. If you don’t like physics and math, you sure as hell picked the wrong major. Engineers get paid really well, especially the licensed ones, the seinors can make well into a quarter of a million dollars and that’s without some nice bonuses on the side.

jariten1781 > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 10/27/2015 at 07:39

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Calc 1&2 are weed out classes (along with some others like Thermo, structures, etc.) in most Engineering schools. They, notoriously, just chunk mass info at you to get a ton of people to drop the program. Engineering schools don’t nearly have enough 3rd and 4th year spots for all the folks they accept as Freshman. Just got to push through, the profs and courses get better/easier as you move up.

I also got my degree in Computer Engineering/Electrical Engineering (there wasn’t an ABET certified CompEng degree yet when I got mine so I can claim either), but dot-com bust happened and I ended up joining the Navy and doing Nuke Engineering for a while and now I work as a Systems Engineer. I’ve found that if you have *blank* Engineering the work in the real-world is very fluid...we’ve got industrial engineers leading EE projects, EEs leading ChemEs, etc. etc. School is just learning the toolset for a jump off point. Recommend switching to industrial or whatever 'process' engineering your school has if the more esoteric stuff in CE/EE keeps giving you headaches (though I also recommend pushing through at least the first 3 semesters and touching some actual mid-upper level classes before switching unless your grades are poor enough to risk losing scholarship money or something.)

Master Cylinder > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 10/27/2015 at 08:45

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Just stick with it. Engineers don’t just sit at their desks doing calculus problems all day. Plus, worrying about the job market is a tough game to play.

I left mechanical engineering after 3 years (after I’d gotten through all the math classes!) because the market was shredding itself in the mid-00’s with the Big 3 falling apart. I didn’t see the point of working my ass off for the chance to work at Best Buy when I graduated. So, I switched gears, got a history/philosophy degree, and got my J.D. and law license... just in time for that market to fall apart. As in, I was in the top 10% of my class, had already been in charge of a legal aid clinic, and was interviewing for $30K jobs where they expected me to work 50-60 hours per week.

Now I have a job where I work with a bunch of early-20s business majors and I just broke the $50K mark last month.

Stick with it. If you can get past the math, you’ll be fine. Engineering is about solving real-world problems. There are computers to take care of the calculus.

Opposite Locksmith > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 10/27/2015 at 08:52

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My insight as a 3/4 ee micro nano tech (almost done, 2 or 3 semesters of a few classes each left depending on what my epilepsy let’s me take)

I hate everything. Fuck electricity. Fuck calculus. Grind them into your brain and that feeling will turn into respect for yourself. Two years ago I filled a standard notebook in less than a day at the library doing practice problems for a test, the sight of the notebook used to harsh my vibe, now it’s a prized addition to the stack of madness

I just want more money

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > jariten1781 10/27/2015 at 09:18

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My issue is Calc 1... and I do believe you are right :( they are using it as a weed-out class :( I guess I had never though about that... this is gonna suck then :/ I’m perfectly good at programming and MatLab and such (that’s what most of our assignments consist of) but its the calc that is so confusing :(

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 10/27/2015 at 09:21

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It means you’re gonna have fun after the exam.

;-)

Mmmmm > Luke's Dad Sold His 2000TL To Get a Sienna 10/27/2015 at 09:27

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It’s rough right now, I feel for ya, but oil will come back. There is a reason the pay is good when times are good! I knew 2 different folks who had just bought their first house and then within 3 months got laid off or had to relocate because of the price collapse.

GTI Sprinks > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 10/27/2015 at 09:37

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What Master Cylinder said. Stick with it. If you need help, give a tutor a holler. Or someone on here. Oppo is strong together and can help.

jariten1781 > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 10/27/2015 at 09:38

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Thermo and Structures were the two that nearly killed me. Had to take thermo twice because I flipped out and dropped just before the final because I was making like a 45 or something. Second time it was the same, but I wanted to save my second drop (we got 3 total). Raw score was like a 48, when the curve landed I got a 69.5...good enough! In the real world, when I was doing nuke stuff, thermo was like 80% of what I did and I had absolutely no issues with it. The course was designed specifically to give folks problems.

For calc...I already had credit from some combo of AP classes, placement exams, CLEP, whatever (don’t remember the details) and already knew all the concepts. My advisor essentially forced me to retake Calc 2 (well, encouraged very heavily). I got a low B. That’s after already knowing all the content well enough to score high enough on a comprehensive exam prior to entering the course. It was absolutely designed to get people to drop the program.

Just another point of reference: after I completed the weedout courses (first 3 semesters) my GPA was just over 2.5 even with a lot of elective padding. The upper level courses were cake (grade wise...the concepts were much more complex) comparatively and I ended up with a 3.47 at the end of the program. My suggestion would be to put free time on hold and push through the next 3 or 4 semesters. Time will free up after that. Also, go to office hours every time they’re open even if you think you've got it...the prof may or may not be helpful but he/she absolutely will remember the names of the folks that take the extra effort for help. That makes a difference when they’re grading the non-multiple choice exams as they’ll give benefit of the doubt to the kids that they recognize.

Round headlight enthusiast > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 10/27/2015 at 09:41

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AHEM. Those are gradients, not upside down Deltas!

'Wägen, EPA LOL > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 10/28/2015 at 13:11

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Accountants hate their lives - trust me, I know a few.