Interested in studying engineering? Ask questions here.

[Rosalina]

Are you taking a correspondence physics course? I'm taking one from Nova Scotia since IB schools in PEI don't offer physics. I emailed several universities, including McGill, Dal, and Memorial, and they all accept Correspondence physics. 

 

Physics through summer school so it would cover the material from my province's program of studies

[Emmi]

Hi! 

 

Thank you so much Emmi for starting this thread. I've been wanting to ask things to engineering people so yay for this thread!!

 

I'm going to take electrical and computer engineering this fall in a country where the first language is not English and only about 30-40% of the course is taught in English. I'm not that proficient in that country's language so I have concerns here and there.

 

I also came from a non-English speaking country but I have been exposed to the global language since I don't know when. So when I had to take IGCSE and IB, the language was not really a problem for me. The problem was understanding specific terms for each subject. Now I'm not sure whether I can follow the courses later in uni. There will be a language test before the start of the semester and I'm sure I read somewhere that if the result is not satisfactory, I can spend some time learning the language first (sadly I can't find anything about that now). But still, I'm not sure. I'm afraid that later I can only understand some basic language but not specific terms for the subjects.

 

Considering the IB subjects that I'm taking, do you think this will be a huge problem for me? I mean I know the concepts already since I study Physics and Math HL. But what about the development of those concepts? Will I be able to understand it if it's not taught in English?

 

I always thought that 'oh maybe this won't be a problem. I got through IGCSE and IB without using English to study subjects before that' But again, that was because I've been exposed to English and I'm not that exposed to this country's language.

 

Can you please help me with this? I'm sorry if what I'm saying doesn't make any sense. I'm trying to study for Chem Paper 3 tomorrow and I'm so tired of studying 

While I don't have any experience having to learn and study in a new language, I'll try to help.

How similar is the new language to the ones you know besides English? If they're relatively similar, it shouldn't be too hard to pick it up eventually. It would probably be useful to get a dictionary or something and start familiarizing yourself with common math and science concepts.

The main concern would probably be not knowing the terminology and ways of expressing symbols and concepts. You could start to familiarize yourself with that now if you have some free time as well. There may not be too much different, but there may be. I know at my internship when I'm reviewing documents in a language other than English oftentimes all the numbers and special symbols are there, but things like chemical symbols are changed and I can't understand them.

You seem smart, you should be okay.

[Slovakov]

Hi! 

 

Thank you so much Emmi for starting this thread. I've been wanting to ask things to engineering people so yay for this thread!!

 

I'm going to take electrical and computer engineering this fall in a country where the first language is not English and only about 30-40% of the course is taught in English. I'm not that proficient in that country's language so I have concerns here and there.

 

I also came from a non-English speaking country but I have been exposed to the global language since I don't know when. So when I had to take IGCSE and IB, the language was not really a problem for me. The problem was understanding specific terms for each subject. Now I'm not sure whether I can follow the courses later in uni. There will be a language test before the start of the semester and I'm sure I read somewhere that if the result is not satisfactory, I can spend some time learning the language first (sadly I can't find anything about that now). But still, I'm not sure. I'm afraid that later I can only understand some basic language but not specific terms for the subjects.

 

Considering the IB subjects that I'm taking, do you think this will be a huge problem for me? I mean I know the concepts already since I study Physics and Math HL. But what about the development of those concepts? Will I be able to understand it if it's not taught in English?

 

I always thought that 'oh maybe this won't be a problem. I got through IGCSE and IB without using English to study subjects before that' But again, that was because I've been exposed to English and I'm not that exposed to this country's language.

 

Can you please help me with this? I'm sorry if what I'm saying doesn't make any sense. I'm trying to study for Chem Paper 3 tomorrow and I'm so tired of studying 

The important thing is to be able to understand the concepts you already know, but in this foreign language. Once you have the basics, all new concepts will be explained to you in terms of these basics. Also all new technical terms will be quite as new to you as everybody else, including native speakers of this language, so they will be explained anyway.

 

Just avoid mixing too many languages in your learning, especially when these languages are significantly different. Some terms may have diferent definitions, or different scopes of definitions and it will lead to a lot of confusion if, say, you tried to study in your native language and then translate it to a different one.

 

What I faced after graduation is that while I know the technical vocabulary in English, I don't know it in my native language and explaining concepts often gets tricky (for example there are three different words in Polish for English "cam", each with different meaning). So if your module is in a given language, stick to this language.

[Zhe Ye]

I am interested in Electrical/Computer Engineering.

Does this career deal with building computer´s hardware? And is chemistry important/essential for this major? Because I don't have chemistry in my IB.

I´d also like to know the top 10 university for this mayor!

Thanks

[Slovakov]

Electrical and electronic engineering will mostly deal with hardware design (not only in computers, also robots and other equipment), and in most cases you'll need maths and physics for them. Computer science is usually a mix of hardware and software development, the exact course outline depends on uni you choose, sometimes you can choose a path of hardware/software development during the course. And usually only maths is required for these courses (it's sometimes physics as well, but not too often). You don't need chemistry for any, all people I know got into these courses with maths and physics only.

I hope others will be able to tell you the best unis for these courses, I'm not familiar with current rankings.....

Edited May 18, 2015 by Slovakov

[Zhe Ye]

Electrical and electronic engineering will mostly deal with hardware design (not only in computers, also robots and other equipment), and in most cases you'll need maths and physics for them. Computer science is usually a mix of hardware and software development, the exact course outline depends on uni you choose, sometimes you can choose a path of hardware/software development during the course. And usually only maths is required for these courses (it's sometimes physics as well, but not too often). You don't need chemistry for any, all people I know got into these courses with maths and physics only.

I hope others will be able to tell you the best unis for these courses, I'm not familiar with current rankings.....

Thanks very much! I am taking both Physics and Maths HL, so I think there be no problem for me then!

I am really into hardware design, although I don't know a damm thing about it.

I am learning some programming language right now, so computer language can be another option for me, right? But I don't see many university offering the major of computer engineering, usually it is computer science.

I´d also want to ask if you know something about Imperial College or Yale, are they good for this kind of major?

[Emmi]

Electrical and electronic engineering will mostly deal with hardware design (not only in computers, also robots and other equipment), and in most cases you'll need maths and physics for them. Computer science is usually a mix of hardware and software development, the exact course outline depends on uni you choose, sometimes you can choose a path of hardware/software development during the course. And usually only maths is required for these courses (it's sometimes physics as well, but not too often). You don't need chemistry for any, all people I know got into these courses with maths and physics only.

I hope others will be able to tell you the best unis for these courses, I'm not familiar with current rankings.....

Thanks very much! I am taking both Physics and Maths HL, so I think there be no problem for me then!

I am really into hardware design, although I don't know a damm thing about it.

I am learning some programming language right now, so computer language can be another option for me, right? But I don't see many university offering the major of computer engineering, usually it is computer science.

I´d also want to ask if you know something about Imperial College or Yale, are they good for this kind of major?

You may not see computer engineering listed as a separate major because oftentimes it's listed in the electrical engineering department. They're actually very similar, but instead of taking some extra electrical engineering courses you'd just take courses focused on computer hardware.

Imperial college is a very good school with a good engineering program. Yale, by contrast, actually doesn't have a very good engineering school, certainly not a top 50 one at all. Your best bets for the top engineering schools in the US are MIT, Georgia Tech, Stanford, Cal Tech, Cornell, Purdue, UC Berkeley, Princeton, Texas A&M University, and the University of Michigan, Illinois, or Wisconsin.

If you would like a good computer programming language to start with that would help you later in computer engineering, try C or C++.

[Richie McClure]

Can you give me a quick rundown on what industrial engineering and mechanical engineering entail? 

[Slovakov]

Mechanical engineering is a really broad area. It involves the design of anything that is to move, or has some moving parts. For instance some interesting  projects I've done in my course were: RC plane engine, solar panel tracking device, compressible rubbish bin or aerodynamic analysis of Ford model T. If you're unsure whether what you like is automotive, aerospace or any other specific kind of engineering, then a bachelor's course in mechanical engineering is a base for all of these.

 

Industrial engineering is in some ways similar to mechanical, but it's more focused on the design of manufacturing processes and strategies, quality control etc. Some of these are also involved in mech. eng. courses, though not as detailed. As a mechanical engineer you'll design a product, and as an industrial engineer you'll design the production line for it. And you won't see undergraduate courses in industrial engineering quite as often as mechanical engineering - as always these specific courses aren't as popular at an early stage as more general ones.

[almostasurvivor]

 

Hi! 

 

Thank you so much Emmi for starting this thread. I've been wanting to ask things to engineering people so yay for this thread!!

 

I'm going to take electrical and computer engineering this fall in a country where the first language is not English and only about 30-40% of the course is taught in English. I'm not that proficient in that country's language so I have concerns here and there.

 

I also came from a non-English speaking country but I have been exposed to the global language since I don't know when. So when I had to take IGCSE and IB, the language was not really a problem for me. The problem was understanding specific terms for each subject. Now I'm not sure whether I can follow the courses later in uni. There will be a language test before the start of the semester and I'm sure I read somewhere that if the result is not satisfactory, I can spend some time learning the language first (sadly I can't find anything about that now). But still, I'm not sure. I'm afraid that later I can only understand some basic language but not specific terms for the subjects.

 

Considering the IB subjects that I'm taking, do you think this will be a huge problem for me? I mean I know the concepts already since I study Physics and Math HL. But what about the development of those concepts? Will I be able to understand it if it's not taught in English?

 

I always thought that 'oh maybe this won't be a problem. I got through IGCSE and IB without using English to study subjects before that' But again, that was because I've been exposed to English and I'm not that exposed to this country's language.

 

Can you please help me with this? I'm sorry if what I'm saying doesn't make any sense. I'm trying to study for Chem Paper 3 tomorrow and I'm so tired of studying 

While I don't have any experience having to learn and study in a new language, I'll try to help.

How similar is the new language to the ones you know besides English? If they're relatively similar, it shouldn't be too hard to pick it up eventually. It would probably be useful to get a dictionary or something and start familiarizing yourself with common math and science concepts.

The main concern would probably be not knowing the terminology and ways of expressing symbols and concepts. You could start to familiarize yourself with that now if you have some free time as well. There may not be too much different, but there may be. I know at my internship when I'm reviewing documents in a language other than English oftentimes all the numbers and special symbols are there, but things like chemical symbols are changed and I can't understand them.

You seem smart, you should be okay.

 

 

Oh my God thank you so muchhh! Yeah I assumed the symbols and numbers will be the same. I hope the technical terms will also be the same but only pronounced differently hahah

 

I seem smart? Please nooo. YOU seem smart!

[almostasurvivor]

 

Hi! 

 

Thank you so much Emmi for starting this thread. I've been wanting to ask things to engineering people so yay for this thread!!

 

I'm going to take electrical and computer engineering this fall in a country where the first language is not English and only about 30-40% of the course is taught in English. I'm not that proficient in that country's language so I have concerns here and there.

 

I also came from a non-English speaking country but I have been exposed to the global language since I don't know when. So when I had to take IGCSE and IB, the language was not really a problem for me. The problem was understanding specific terms for each subject. Now I'm not sure whether I can follow the courses later in uni. There will be a language test before the start of the semester and I'm sure I read somewhere that if the result is not satisfactory, I can spend some time learning the language first (sadly I can't find anything about that now). But still, I'm not sure. I'm afraid that later I can only understand some basic language but not specific terms for the subjects.

 

Considering the IB subjects that I'm taking, do you think this will be a huge problem for me? I mean I know the concepts already since I study Physics and Math HL. But what about the development of those concepts? Will I be able to understand it if it's not taught in English?

 

I always thought that 'oh maybe this won't be a problem. I got through IGCSE and IB without using English to study subjects before that' But again, that was because I've been exposed to English and I'm not that exposed to this country's language.

 

Can you please help me with this? I'm sorry if what I'm saying doesn't make any sense. I'm trying to study for Chem Paper 3 tomorrow and I'm so tired of studying 

The important thing is to be able to understand the concepts you already know, but in this foreign language. Once you have the basics, all new concepts will be explained to you in terms of these basics. Also all new technical terms will be quite as new to you as everybody else, including native speakers of this language, so they will be explained anyway.

 

Just avoid mixing too many languages in your learning, especially when these languages are significantly different. Some terms may have diferent definitions, or different scopes of definitions and it will lead to a lot of confusion if, say, you tried to study in your native language and then translate it to a different one.

 

What I faced after graduation is that while I know the technical vocabulary in English, I don't know it in my native language and explaining concepts often gets tricky (for example there are three different words in Polish for English "cam", each with different meaning). So if your module is in a given language, stick to this language.

 

 

Thank you so muchhh for your help! I'll try doing what you said and hopefully I can do it quickly. And hopefully the uni and the students there are as helpful as you are 

[Susanne Vuhlehtscheck]

Hi,

 

I have a question, which of those 2 subjects should I take as a sixth subject (been thinking about pursuing career in either aerospace/automotive engineering or software development or petroleum engineering field): Chemistry or ITGS? And at which level?

 

As for now I know I be taking those 5: Polish A SL, English B HL, Business&Management HL (or should I take SL? I think I know quite a lot in this area already so an HL here doesn't seem to be a huge challenge that would change my life to a nightmare ), Physics HL, Maths HL.

 

Personally after reading syllabi from both I feel that ITGS has way more to do with my uni course choices etc. then Chemistry..

 

What concerns me is the number of people on the Internet saying that Chemistry is essential, it certainly did not serve as my favourite subject in the Year 10, we had a fairly strict teacher. In fact he's an author of the Chemistry textbook that most teachers in the country use. But still it wasn't that hard, like you had to prepare ca. 12 hrs before every exam to get grade 4 or 5 out of 6 (or you could just study regularly ). Very time-consuming when you have altogether 17 subjects (Polish national curriculum yayy!) People keep saying how hard Chem is and how it will deteriorate your other grades (assuming you're taking Physics and Maths HL as well)

 

When it comes to ITGS I have some doubts about it being kinda soft subject among with ESS, B&M... Please correct me if I'm wrong and highest-ranked universities do like it on the diploma.

 

My school doesn't offer Comp Science this year so I thought ITGS would just do (furthermore I'm going to do programming as a Creativity activity at CAS so as to somehow catch up with those having CS).

 

What do you guys think?

 

P.S. Or maybe I should take Geography instead? Does it have a lot to do with the Geology needed for the Petroleum Engineering?

P.P.S.  I'm planning on applying for some best UK universities.

[Magician]

Can I be admitted to US universities in industrial engineering by having Chemistry HL, math SL, but no physics?

 

*note I'm not aiming for those of higher ranked universities nor lower ranked ones.  

 

Will there be a remarkable difference (in admitting in US universities) when having Math as HL

 

Thank you so much 

 

Possibly.

 

But take note that lots of universities REQUIRE Math HL and Physics HL for Engineering. You can do some research on their requirement by simply going on the universities' admissions websites.

 

Hope this helps.

[Slovakov]

Hi,

 

I have a question, which of those 2 subjects should I take as a sixth subject (been thinking about pursuing career in either aerospace/automotive engineering or software development or petroleum engineering field): Chemistry or ITGS? And at which level?

 

As for now I know I be taking those 5: Polish A SL, English B HL, Business&Management HL (or should I take SL? I think I know quite a lot in this area already so an HL here doesn't seem to be a huge challenge that would change my life to a nightmare ), Physics HL, Maths HL.

 

Personally after reading syllabi from both I feel that ITGS has way more to do with my uni course choices etc. then Chemistry..

 

What concerns me is the number of people on the Internet saying that Chemistry is essential, it certainly did not serve as my favourite subject in the Year 10, we had a fairly strict teacher. In fact he's an author of the Chemistry textbook that most teachers in the country use. But still it wasn't that hard, like you had to prepare ca. 12 hrs before every exam to get grade 4 or 5 out of 6 (or you could just study regularly ). Very time-consuming when you have altogether 17 subjects (Polish national curriculum yayy!) People keep saying how hard Chem is and how it will deteriorate your other grades (assuming you're taking Physics and Maths HL as well)

 

When it comes to ITGS I have some doubts about it being kinda soft subject among with ESS, B&M... Please correct me if I'm wrong and highest-ranked universities do like it on the diploma.

 

My school doesn't offer Comp Science this year so I thought ITGS would just do (furthermore I'm going to do programming as a Creativity activity at CAS so as to somehow catch up with those having CS).

 

What do you guys think?

 

P.S. Or maybe I should take Geography instead? Does it have a lot to do with the Geology needed for the Petroleum Engineering?

P.P.S.  I'm planning on applying for some best UK universities.

First of all, note that you mentioned really speific disciplines as your desired degrees while you may find it hard to find an undergraduate course being so specific - most universities offer aerospace or petroleum engineering as Master's courses.. I'm not saying it's impossible to find a course like these, but you narrow down your uni choice quite significantly, therefore I'd suggest looking for more general courses like mechanical or chemical engineering first. They are sometimes offered as a joint degree with some more specific disciplines and way more universities offer them.

 

For automotive/aerospace, or in general mechanical engineering you only need Maths and Physics both on HL. Software engineering/computer science are mostly Maths-based and won't require anything else (sometimes they also want physics, but these are rare cases). Petroleum, or generally chemical engineering require Maths and Chemistry HL. These requirements change slightly from one uni to another, but the above are most common. A

 

ITGS generally isn't seen as a requirement or even an advantage for any of the above. Universities prefer sheer science as prerequisite, so if you're unsrue as to what you want to study and want to keep all your chances high, I'm affraid the best choice would be a maths-chem-physics HL combo. While it's not that you have no chances of getting an offer if you do one of the required subjects on SL, you'll have to score really high in this subject and still be lucky to match the competition. 

[Emmi]

The purpose of this post is because I have seen several people asking "I want to go to the best engineering university but what university is that?" recently and I've repeated myself several times. This is to hopefully reduce the number of those types of posts.

 

This list is only for US universities.

 

First, I'd like to make two main points:

 

1. The Ivy League, with the exception of Cornell and Princeton, is NOT where you want to go to study engineering. I repeat, NOT. The Ivy League has many fantastic programs and courses, but for some reason, this isn't really the case for engineering. I don't know why, don't ask me.

 

2. It honestly does not matter all that much which university you attend, especially if you're planning to stay in the US. The main thing you want to look at is whether your intended program is ABET-accredited. ABET is the 'Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology,' and their purpose is to create a standard that universities offering engineering courses must adhere to, such as what courses are required for each major, and whether that university meets criteria to provide a comprehensive education. A large majority of employers will only hire an engineer if their degree is accredited, so this is very important to check for your intended major. You need to check whether a particular major is accredited at that university, because sometimes certain majors do have ABET accreditation and others do not. Until recently, newer fields of engineering such as biomedical engineering, biological engineering, and environmental engineering were not ABET-accredited at my university, while more traditional fields such as chemical, mechanical, electrical, and aerospace engineering were.

 

With ABET, this means that someone at some large state university in 'Murica country is learning the same things, more or less, at MIT or Stanford. The only difference are things such as teaching quality, access to resources, and employer/networking opportunities. Higher ranked schools tend to be more connected to employers and can offer more resources to students than smaller schools or schools that tend to be lower-ranked, which can be important if you're looking to go to grad school afterwards. That being said...

 

Attending a school such as MIT or Stanford does not automatically guarantee you employment afterwards. On another engineering forum I'm a part of, sometimes we get students who attended great schools, but aren't able to find a job afterwards. However, upon asking them to give us details, it turns out the student failed/repeated a bunch of courses and earned a low GPA, did no extracurricular activities, and had no internships/co-ops/work experience. Or all they did was attend class and earned a relatively good GPA, but was never involved and got no work experience either. Why would anyone want to hire someone like that? The great thing about schools such as those are that they provide great opportunities for their students, but if you can't perform well and don't take advantage of those opportunities, you're worse off than the kid who attended some public state school in the Midwest, did well, and has an internship or two.

 

As a personal anecdote, one of my engineering professors did his undergraduate studies in chemical engineering at some random university in Missouri, but because he did so well and took advantage of what was offered, did his graduate studies at Princeton. This is what you should be aiming for - not necessarily to attend a school like MIT, but to attend a good school where you can take advantage of everything that's offered to you.

 

I'm also totally not dissing schools such as MIT in this post, but be aware that you can be successful without going there. Also, since their admissions rates are so low (and even lower for international students) and the likelihood of you being admitted is small, it's best to consider other places as well.

 

What is more important than simply considering the ranking of a school are factors such as location, size of the school, what kinds of employers typically recruit there, and what kinds of industries a lot of graduates go into. My school is located in the midwest, and as an example, we send a lot of our mechanical engineers into the automotive industry because we're very close to several major manufacturers (GM/Ford is less than a 3 hours drive away, Honda is a 30 minutes drive away, etc). If possible, try to visit schools, because a school located in a large city in Florida is very different from a school located in the middle of nowhere in Indiana, and a school with 30,000 students is very different from a school with 3,000 students. Another very important factor is cost. Since the education is likely to be the same more or less at similarly ranked schools, it's best to consider what schools will be cheapest for you, whether this means you are in-state for a program, the school offers lots of scholarship opportunities, or you can work internships/co-ops to help pay for school (in engineering these are paid almost 100% of the time and the pay rate is usually pretty nice, i'd know )

 

Now onto the rankings which I'm sure most of you are just going to skip to in the first place and ignore my great advice written above   . I'm going to divide this up into Rank 1 and Rank 2. Rank 1 are the "best" engineering schools, according to the majority of rankings. Rank 2 are schools that are still great schools for engineering, but aren't the "best."

 

Rank 1 Schools (in no particular order)

Cornell, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, UC Berkeley, Cal Tech, Georgia Tech, Purdue University, University of Wisconsin, University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign campus), University of Michigan, Carnegie Mellon University

 

Rank 2 Schools (in no particular order)

UCLA, Texas A&M University, Ohio State University, Penn State University, Northwestern University, Virginia Tech, University of Virginia, Duke University

 

Rankings for different individual programs vary between schools, so it's important to consider that as well. A school might be highly ranked in electrical engineering but have a low-ranked chemical engineering program, for example.

 

That being said, you can be successful at any university you attend

 

Hopefully this gives you a little bit of an idea of what places to begin looking into, and cuts down on posts that have been asked 100 times already with the same answer given 100 times.

 

Peace out,

Emily

[samuelmwase]

I want to study chemical engneering, as my physics isnt great but my math is splendid. Weird thing I know:-) would these subjects be fine?

Math Hl

Chem Hl

Eng B Hl

Bio Sl

Econ Sl

Swahili A sl

If wanted to do aeronatical or mechanical engineering....would the subjects below be fine....as well as not taking Phy Hl.....

Math hl

Chem hl

Phy sl

Eng B hl

Econ sl

Swa A sl

[Emmi]

I want to study chemical engneering, as my physics isnt great but my math is splendid. Weird thing I know:-) would these subjects be fine?

Math Hl

Chem Hl

Eng B Hl

Bio Sl

Econ Sl

Swahili A sl

If wanted to do aeronatical or mechanical engineering....would the subjects below be fine....as well as not taking Phy Hl.....

Math hl

Chem hl

Phy sl

Eng B hl

Econ sl

Swa A sl

You need HL physics. All of the disciplines you listed are very physics-heavy. Other than that, your subjects are fine.

[samuelmwase]

Would Ineed that phy Hl evn for chemical engineering

[Emmi]

Would Ineed that phy Hl evn for chemical engineering

Hmm, as part of my chemical engineering degree I've taken/will take mechanics, electricity and magnetism, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, and kinetic theory.

I'd argue that physics is required at most places, or at least very very highly recommended.

[kevG]

Well, I want to study engineering in the US... but I don't know which yet, is it true that I can just choose a general area and confirm during my second year or so?

Currently looking at Nano-tech, Mechanical or Environmental (if people even consider this engineering) 

 

Also, would prior knowledge or any proof of interest boost your chances in getting into a school you want, even if you don't have great scores? (Cause I made a robotic arm in grade 10 for my personal project and was wondering if I could add that to my essay)

 

ps; emmi, are you a boy or a girl? sorry but i keep getting confused