Challenges faced as an Engineer or Engineering Student Response

So the last couple of weeks I asked about some of the challenges people faced as an engineer or engineering student? I also asked how did they overcome and get through these challenges? Here are some of the responses from the people who follow this blog and the facebook page.

Getting thru Purdue's most dreaded weedout sophomore courses, ME 200 (Thermo I) and EE 201 (Linear Circuits I).......amazingly both with A's! I was just darn lucky with Thermo due to the fact that I had a very articulate, younger post-doc instructor who was very adept at combining both technical and lay speak during lectures. Otherwise, the biggest challenge is balancing perseverance with the extracirriculars.....and trying not to let the epicurean 4.0 Liberal Arts wussies bother yah as much. Tom Engelsman

Had to talk to a woman once........still recovering. Clay Feldner

I sat in class, consumed copious amounts of caffeine and payed as much attention to my professors as I possibly could. Knowing that I wasn't the only person who wanted to make it through our courses I took the time to reteach the subject matter and go through examples with my other classmates. In my program we have our own Facebook page ironically, even while I'm at work, I walk around my McDonald's with my calculous textbook and fluids work book working through examples and Sharing thought processes on every second of down time I have. Sleep deprivation this semester is really brutal and I can't wait for the end of this week. It's disappointing knowing that a lot of my friends aren't going to make it to next semester. Andrew Lukachko

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Lack of sleep!? Seriously though, i have a hard time with group work - mostly because someone in my groups always has " something come up" thats more important or uses their backyard experience instead of using engineering practices.... Waste of the rest of our times...Michelle Gesh

I am a mechanical engineering student at a maritime school. On top of the mechanical course load we take requiring courses to sit for the coast guard engine license to operate shipboard plants. The course load is typically 21+ credits per term, and the summers are spent at sea operating a training ship or doing an internship at sea. The hardest thing is just keeping up. Seth Kaye

Trying to comprehend the subject while trying to understand the extremely THICK accent of the professor. it's quite a torture. Cory Chorne Over coming self doubts wondering if I was smart enough. I had a very challenging professor for Calculus 291 - Multivariable Calculus. Our professor required an essay with each homework problem and every test question. After the first exam and 80 percent of the class bombing it, there was a near riot the next class with students complaining his course was too hard. He calmly rolled up his sleeve and showed the class the identification number tattoo the Germans gave him during World War Ii. The only thing he said to the class was "You don't know what hard is". The class sat in stunned silence with most dropping the class shortly thereafter. Thank you Professor Fred Haring for putting things into proper perspective for me. After that life lesson, engineering seemed pretty easy. Hugues Dorzeus

Hard classes with no available outside help, classmates who give up and drop out every semester, teachers with thick accents, peers who don't understand what your major is like, having to balance study, work, and sanity, and still trying to live life as a normal teenage girl. Alexandra Hope Murray

During my sophomore year, I thought I was gonna fail my last quarter of engineering physics. My grade without the final exam was a D+. I think my problem was I was so shy to ask my instructor for help. So a few days before our final exam, I finally decided to go to my instructor and ask for help. He explained everything to me and I finally understand it! When I took my final exam, I felt that I did pretty good. I never find out what my final exam score was, but I got a B- for my engineering physics 3. Julius Ceasar Arevalo

For most of the engineering subjects its visualizable so it was easier, but EE was tough. You need to stop over thinking and use pure logic for the most part. Best way I can tell you how to overcome, don't memorize, try to understand how things come to be, especially formulae, the derivation is so important to understand. Laurie Bynum Caffeine.... And lots of micro-meltdowns that are overcome by an all-encompassing sense of accomplishment when I see my GPA. The struggle makes victory that much sweeter. Ian Goh

Lack of females in my classes. No getting through that....literally. Kevin Burke

Yep Engineering can be tough, but one should never give up because of that reason! There will be good and bad times, but in the end it will be worth it!