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engineering jobs

TLTCrawlin

TLTCrawlin

I wanna be Dave
Joined
Apr 7, 2005
Messages
2,489
Location
Eastern WA
Okay I want to be in engineering, and want to do 2 years of CBC ( local college)

Im 10th grade, and did alg 1-2 last year, and geometry this year, I was thinking about what my engineering teacher said, engineering is geometry.

Im thinking, should I take honors geometry in 11th grade? I noticed when using rhino 4.0 that geometry is very important (and basic math)
 
Geometry? Engineering...

Keep going you need Calculus. Take all the Calculus you can. Not that you use it at all in most engineering, but colleges require a lot of calculus for all the engineering fields.
 
You want to be an engineer by only going to 2 years of a community college?

Let me know how that goes for you.
 
jason said:
You want to be an engineer by only going to 2 years of a community college?

Let me know how that goes for you.
Click to expand...

According to CBC college, and my engineering text book
mech. engineer, two years of college, may need 4-6 if your in a higher "ranking" job
Architect is 4 years
Civil engineer is 6.
 
Last edited:
TLTCrawlin said:
According to CBC college, and my engineering text book
Mechanical engineer, two years of college.
Architect is 4 years
Civil engineer is 6.
Click to expand...
Maybe a Mechanical Engineering Tech. To be a true ME you need at least a Bachelor degree (4yrs). Same with a Civil Engineer.
Many community colleges offer a ME Tech curriculum that gets you an Associates degree, that can then be applied towards your college requirements to getting a Bachelors degree.

You will end up taking math courses up to and including differential equations. That means calculus 1, 2, and 3. An ME degree requires so much math that you end up being only one class short of getting a math minor. Lots of guys just take the last class to get the minor in their degree.

Bottom line, take all the honors or college prep classes you can in Physics, Math, and Chemistry. If your school offers any electronics classes that would be helpful.
 
TLTCrawlin said:
According to CBC college, and my engineering text book
mech. engineer, two years of college, may need 4-6 if your in a higher "ranking" job
Architect is 4 years
Civil engineer is 6.
Click to expand...

HAHA!
You have misinformed my friend!

I'm a senior at the Colorado School of Mines in Mechanical Engineering. You would be lucky to get a BS in engineering in 4 years. The average time it takes people to complete the 4 year engineering degree at this school is 6 years. The only two year degree you can get is in drafting from a college, which is far from an engineering degree and has crappy salary. Any BS in Engineering is a minimum 4 year degree is you're going to an accredited college (if the college is not accredited then your degree doesn't mean anything, so a wast of time pretty much). A civil degree is also easier to get than a mechanical degree, so your info is completely wrong, but it's still a 4 year degree. The only way you can get an engineering degree in 2 years is to do it as a master's degree, which is two years AFTER you already have a 4 year degree. So that route is still a minimum of 6 years.
 
just as they said, physics and calc, lots and lots and lots. i didn't take any form of physics or calc in high school, and its really hurting. then again, teachers who speak English also helps. but seriusly, get a jump on it. take it during school, then see if you can take an actual college calc at the CC during the summer. make sure you can draft by hand too. My first tri of visual engineering is all hand drafting.
 
Also, don't waste your time with geometry. Take calculus classes instead. You'll learn all of the geometry you need in the calc classes anyways."thumbsup" Try and take AP Calc if possible, then if you do good enough on the ap test you might be able to get credit for it at college and not have to take their fist calc class.
 
Yeah, 4 years for ME is pretty much mandatory. Actually most people end up taking 4.5 years. It's all Calc. I had to take up to Calc 4 but it doesn't stop there. Virtually all your Engineering classes are based on Calculus. Also, for whatever reason I was only required to take one beginning drafting class. Getting a ME degree is a lot of work but it sounds like you're on the right track. Good luck! "thumbsup"
 
I doubled up on my math clases last year so i have taken algebra 1, algebra 2, geometry, and this year i'm taking pre cal and next year i will take calculus. That should set me up pretty well for a community college for 2 years then it's off to Michigan Tech.
 
Grizzly4x4 said:
Maybe a Mechanical Engineering Tech. To be a true ME you need at least a Bachelor degree (4yrs). Same with a Civil Engineer.
Many community colleges offer a ME Tech curriculum that gets you an Associates degree, that can then be applied towards your college requirements to getting a Bachelors degree.

You will end up taking math courses up to and including differential equations. That means calculus 1, 2, and 3. An ME degree requires so much math that you end up being only one class short of getting a math minor. Lots of guys just take the last class to get the minor in their degree.

Bottom line, take all the honors or college prep classes you can in Physics, Math, and Chemistry. If your school offers any electronics classes that would be helpful.
Click to expand...

I was going for instrument tech, which would be :
Mechanical Engineering Tech

yeah, im okay at hand drafting (best in class) but I still gotta lot of practice needed!
 
You can do the masters in 4 but with a full load and no job/life. So if your folks can help you have at it "thumbsup"

I wasn't so lucky, I had went at the 2yr left with an associates in applied science, kid born, got full time job for insurance. Worked my way up to the title of engineer, no I don't have a sheep skin but I have working knowledge of the field and design better stuff then the guy at my work that has the BS degree.

For long haul (like everyone said so far) your going to want the calc, physics, ect.

So here I set roughly 10 years after my associates and I'm thinking about going back to school to get the sheep skin, but I just switched from engineering to IT so not sure if I will go back or not. The moral, do the school now, if you don't theres a good chance you will never go back once you start working full time.
 
TLTCrawlin said:
I was going for instrument tech, which would be :
Mechanical Engineering Tech

yeah, im okay at hand drafting (best in class) but I still gotta lot of practice needed!
Click to expand...

I would strongly urge you to put in your two more years and be an official engineer. I have worked with many drafters/mechanical techs and their job sucks. Trust me, drawing stuff sounds like fun, but as a job you're drawing other peoples stuff after they already got to do the fun part. After a little while it's not so fun anymore. The engineers are going to draw all of the fun stuff and give you the crap stuff and redlines. I've done it and it's not fun at all, and I love drafting/drawling.
 
Half way through my civil degree, which I was three years into, I changed my major. Still would have taken me another two to complete, with summer classes.

Cal I, II, III plus Differential Equations, just the start, and not easy. Statics, oh my. Mechanics of materials, etc, tuff stuff.

Good luck on that two year degree, must have comp'd some classes in high school.
 
I went ahead and got my math minor, as previously stated it is only one extra class. Truth of the matter is though a good calculator does just about all of it for you (TI-89). Once you get through the classes that is pretty much the last time you will ever use it again. You will use math everyday but is pretty much basic algebra. Beyond that CAD will do it all (for the most part).

The reason someone may have told you 6 years for a civil degree is the bachelor degree may not have been accredited but the masters program may have been. That is very common in many schools.

Either way getting a full degree will yield you more cash then a associates. I know when I started my job I was already making more then techs that had been working 15 years. Getting your E.I. (or E.I.T.) also helps raise your salary.
 
Let me just retouch the high points again...

Suck it up and stick it out for the true ME degree. You will have a lot more opportunities available to you, and trust me after having a few jobs where I was the engineer and the draftsman drawing all day is not what it is cracked up to be.

Being a true draftsman means taking the work the engineer did and laying out. You will take in vendor prints, and work them into your prints and make sure things work out. You will have some freedom on how to make some cuts on not critical parts, but you will basically be doing the engineer's work. Now if you do that for a few years and get good you can be a checker. That means you look over all the General Arrangements and Detail drawings to check them for mistakes.

Calc is your friend in engineering, you need it to understand the rest of the class you will be taking. Plan on 4-6 years like Griz and Wrecker said. As another Mines ME Grad, it took me 5 to get out of that place, but it has been well worth it.

EIT helps, as will the PE in the long run. I moved too much and I am back to square one with my EIT work unfortunately. However, PA is stupid easy compared to CO to get your PE stamp.
 
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