Here are the lies people tell about engineering
Every engineering student had his or her expectations upon entering college. Usually, these outlooks are formed from how the media and our direct acquaintances portray engineering school to be, or perhaps college in general. Sometimes the ideas are exaggerated and rarely do they speak the truth about the course.
This is why we end up being shattered by the harsh realities when we already get to experience engineering school. The moment that it becomes painful for us as engineering students is the exact time that we point to the ones who said that engineering is about this and that, but are totally not true. Check this list:
“You will have more free time in college compared with high school.”
This might be true for other courses but not in engineering. When we are in engineering school, we are bombarded with tasks that force us to spend our leisure time with them. Projects, reports, assignments, exams in engineering are so demanding to the point that nobody enjoys free time in engineering. Does “free time” in engineering even exist?
“If you’re good at math in high school, you won’t have a problem in engineering.”
Lies. While it’s true that engineering is mostly about math, there’s a more important quality that students need to have in order to survive in engineering: analytical thinking. It is not good enough to be good with numbers. If one aspires to be an engineer, he or she should go beyond the math skills and should have a sound mind in processing different information into good use.
“You will learn a lot of practical knowledge in engineering school.”
Whoever says that should rot in hell. Ask every engineering graduate about that and he or she will deny learning a lot of practical knowledge in engineering school. That’s because our curriculums are mostly focused in theory, with majority of the hands-on learning to be experienced only later.
“Engineering is all about building crazy machines.”
Engineering design projects are less likely to require a working model because they can be so damn expensive. In paper and in theory, it might look good. Sure, the thesis defense went well but one cannot truly appreciate the idea without the physical machine, device, structure, or product. The odds are that you won’t make them, unless you’re willing to pay for it.
“Engineering school will prepare you on the basics of the engineering workplace.”
Highly doubt it. Regardless of which engineering field, engineers will have to learn a new program or equipment that was never familiarized or even introduced in college. There will be a lot of firsts in the workplace, for example knowing all the function in Microsoft Excel. Do not expect that the university will spoonfeed its students with everything they need for employment.
