I want to be an Engineer

Question

Im a junior in high school, and want to get into a college that has an engineering program. As an aspiring engineer, is there any advice that you can give me? Is there anything i can start learning now that would help me in the future? If so what and how can i learn this. Any advice would be helpful, TY.

Answer 1

Ty,

First of all, I applaud you on your aspirations.  I wish I had decided to go engineering in HS instead of later in life.

You will need to study hard in math and science.  The first 3 or 4 semesters of college will be mostly math, science, and other 'core' classes; you will do very little engineering.

Have you selected a branch (mechanical, civil, electrical, chemical, nuclear, fire protection, architectural, etc) yet?  If not, I suggest you pick a school with a large number of branches.  Be sure the programs are ABET accredited, as that will help with licensure later on in your career.

Be sure to LEARN your math and science when you take it.  You will need it all later (generally a year or two later) and the engineering professor will not take time to reteach you the math; you don't want to have to relearn while learning engineering.  Also, buy your books and NEVER sell them.  As an engineer, you will want them as reference materials.  I have an entire book self of text and notes in binders here in my office.  

Get involved with student chapters of professional organizations while in college.  They are good ways to meet people, make contacts, get involved, compete, and have fun.  Also look at internships and / or co-ops.  They might push your graduation date by a semester or two, but you will gain great experience and they pay well, too!  It can make the difference between getting a job after graduation and not finding work.

Engineering is a lot of work.  I have 2 B.S. degrees:  Criminal Justice (1995) and Mechanical Engineering (2004).  Engineering was a whole lot more work.  But I enjoy my career much more (and I make more money, too.  And no nights or weekends or getting shot at!).

Good luck.  Email me if you have more questions.

As for a book, I really don't have a recommendation right now for you.  Sorry.  You might want to check out some of the links below.

Answer 2

The most useful thing I did was working on cars all the time. It was sorta my hobby when I was in HS. When I went to college all that mechanical intuition and work on did on electrical systems gave me a huge upper hand in understanding how things worked. I got my undergrad degree in physics and my masters in nuclear engineering. I would recommend some hobby where you are working with something that you have to really understand at a fundemental level to play around with. Like building circuits or little robots or computer programming (pretty important). No matter what engineering field you go into you are likely to encounter some kind of computer programming, even if it is just matlab or mathematica or something, if you understand basic programming you will be ahead of the game.  

Answer 3

I am a senior at the University of Louisville Speed School of Engineering. If other colleges are like mine ... they will try to weed out the ones who really don't want to be there. Not to scare you, but be prepared for many sleepless nights and brutal homework and tests. In the first year, professors intentionally make the material long and tedious. The ones who really don't want to be in this profession will drop out. But don't worry. If you really want to be in this profession, these things don't matter ... and strangely sleepless nights of studying become routine.

Here is my advice ... get a good grasp on vector based Calculus, Physics, and Chemistry before freshman year ... it will help. Also, later on ... The things that are learned in the classroom are beneficial, but do not translate to the real world ... get a coop or internship at an engineering firm or anyplace that has an engineering staff.