Depends on the type of engineering you want to do. You need way more than basic math to do, for instance, the aerospace type engineering, or electrical engineering.
Maybe. I still say engineering degrees are vastly bloated things where you learn a ton about stuff you don't need to know about. E.g. you don't really need a chemistry class to get that corrosion is basically dissimilar metals plus an electrolyte. Who cares about the exact reactions and solving them and stuff type of thing. I still say a couple years of the fundamentals then specialize on the job is still best.
Edit - something like basic concepts/terminology (things like what "stress" "current" etc mean), basic classes in each area (circuits, statics/dynamics, materials, manufacturing processes), enough math to get what math needs done... Don't waste time with classes like diff EQ where you just solve hardass equations, who cares. Example: 2 weeks of thermo is enough to understand what you need to know about it for most things without learning every damn possible cycle and doing all kinds of complicated crap that you'll probably never use let alone remember.
Engineering education should focus on learning how things work generally and how to learn more/research/etc, not having you come out as some kind of generalist who could do almost anything in it but after your first job you simply most likely won't.
The Degree is a certificate that states you passed a baseline knowledge bar in Engineering. That’s it.
It’s really just Step 0 in your path towards a profession in Engineering.
Are there better ways to learn the fundamentals? Yes.
Any kid with willpower will find a way to learn all this stuff, and seek teachers/mentors, etc.
All the best students I was surrounded by were already freakin smart before they walked into class. They already knew the material, had a grasps of the concepts and were just there to get the ‘paper’ so they can move on.
Yep, rankles me to no end you need the paper that in some ways means over-trained, in others irrelevantly-trained, in others programmed/brainwashed (just being on a campus for 4 years these days has much implicit this as well) etc.
Depends on the type of engineering you want to do. You need way more than basic math to do, for instance, the aerospace type engineering, or electrical engineering.
Maybe. I still say engineering degrees are vastly bloated things where you learn a ton about stuff you don't need to know about. E.g. you don't really need a chemistry class to get that corrosion is basically dissimilar metals plus an electrolyte. Who cares about the exact reactions and solving them and stuff type of thing. I still say a couple years of the fundamentals then specialize on the job is still best.
Edit - something like basic concepts/terminology (things like what "stress" "current" etc mean), basic classes in each area (circuits, statics/dynamics, materials, manufacturing processes), enough math to get what math needs done... Don't waste time with classes like diff EQ where you just solve hardass equations, who cares. Example: 2 weeks of thermo is enough to understand what you need to know about it for most things without learning every damn possible cycle and doing all kinds of complicated crap that you'll probably never use let alone remember.
Engineering education should focus on learning how things work generally and how to learn more/research/etc, not having you come out as some kind of generalist who could do almost anything in it but after your first job you simply most likely won't.
The Degree is a certificate that states you passed a baseline knowledge bar in Engineering. That’s it.
It’s really just Step 0 in your path towards a profession in Engineering.
Are there better ways to learn the fundamentals? Yes.
Any kid with willpower will find a way to learn all this stuff, and seek teachers/mentors, etc.
All the best students I was surrounded by were already freakin smart before they walked into class. They already knew the material, had a grasps of the concepts and were just there to get the ‘paper’ so they can move on.
Yep, rankles me to no end you need the paper that in some ways means over-trained, in others irrelevantly-trained, in others programmed/brainwashed (just being on a campus for 4 years these days has much implicit this as well) etc.