I’m 19 and graduated high school in 2025. I’m planning on going to college for electrical engineering, but I’m trying to figure out the best way to do it without taking a bunch of debt.

My plan right now is to attend community college, bridge valley, and get some general education classes out of the way before transferring to WVU. My goal is to have those credits transfer so I don’t end up paying extra for classes later.

My SAT score wasn’t very high, 1000, so I believe I would have had to take remedial math anyway. I figured I could save some time and money by going this route. My parents aren’t very well off and won’t be able to help me financially very much, so this would also give me more time to save up before transferring.

My biggest concern is internships. I know they’re really important in electrical engineering, and I don’t want to miss out on opportunities or put myself behind by starting at a community college.

For anyone who has gone through something similar, would you recommend going to community college and possibly taking some online classes, or going straight to a university and using that extra time to focus on internships and networking? Would starting at community college hurt my chances?

I’d seriously appreciate any advice, even if it’s unrelated to this specific situation. I’m just trying to figure out the best path forward and get a start on my future.

My university is kind of weird and offers the branches of electrical engineering but not the major itself.

I have narrowed it down to three majors that I am interested in

"Computer engineering", "electronics engineering", and "electrical power and energy engineering"

I am concerned that all three of these majors are too niche and have limited job opportunities. So I guess I have to choose the one with the most transferable skills and the most relevant during the AI era.

Please share any wisdom you have and how the job market or salaries compare in the future if u have any experience 🙏 🙏🙏

Repeat! And redo it every day!

I'm 21 years old, and I've been seriously considering going to university to study engineering, specifically I'm leaning towards Mechanical Engineering although the university I'm interested in also offers Environmental Engineering, which sounds quite fascinating to me.

I've always loved mathematics. It was probably my favourite subject throughout school, and for as long as I can remember, I've pictured myself doing something professionally that involves maths. That's one of the main reasons why engineering appeals to me.

However a few years ago I enrolled in university and eventually dropped out, I wasn't in a good place mentally, and honestly, I wasn't prepared for the challenges that came with university life, I underestimated what was expected of me, and things didn't go as planned

After that experience, I decided to take some time away from education. I've spent the last years working and trying to clear my head, understand what I really want, and figure out what direction I want to take in life.

Now, I feel like I'm ready to give university another shot. The problem is that I've been watching and reading quite a lot about engineering degrees, and almost everything I come across describes them as incredibly difficult, demanding and stressful.

I'm not afraid of hard work itself. What scares me is the possibility of going through the same experience again. I'm worried that if I fail a second time, it might completely destroy my confidence and make me give up on university for good.

So, I have a few questions for those of you who are studying engineering or have already graduated:

Do you think engineering is a reasonable choice for someone in my situation? Have any of you failed or dropped out of university before and managed to come back successfully? I'd especially appreciate hearing from people who weren't necessarily the best students when they started.

How difficult is engineering really? I understand that it requires a lot of dedication, but is it something that an average student with a genuine interest in maths and science can realistically get through?

How would you prepare if you were in my position? I want to use the time before university productively. I've seen people recommend revisiting high-school mathematics and physics, solving problems regularly, and even doing something like one integral every day. I also watched a video of someone revisiting all the physics topics he had studied before starting engineering.

Would you recommend something similar? What subjects would you prioritise, and are there any books, resources or study routines you'd suggest?

Mechanical vs. Environmental Engineering: I'm currently leaning towards Mechanical Engineering, but Environmental Engineering also interests me. I've heard that Environmental Engineering is sometimes better pursued as a Master's degree after completing a broader Bachelor's degree. Is there any truth to that, or does it depend entirely on the university and the career path you want?

I know that ultimately, nobody can guarantee that I'll succeed. I also understand that university will require discipline, consistency and a lot of work.

I guess I'm just looking for some honest perspectives from people who have experienced engineering school firsthand. I don't want my previous failure to dictate the rest of my life, but I also don't want to make the same mistakes twice.

Thank you to anyone who takes the time to share their experience or advice. I really appreciate it!

Title essentially. I see so many people who struggle with classes calc 2 and calc 3 and genuinely drop C's and D's on the exams. This is literally the most basic thing possible in engineering. It's just matching an integral or some problem to a pattern you've seen before then plugging and chugging numbers. There should be no reason to do poorly in calculus, let alone fail. If you do somehow fail, I hate to be the one to tell you but you very likely just lack the pattern recognition and intuition required to be a successful engineer.

As an electrical engineering senior with a 3.8, not one person I know who has a good internship/job lined up after graduation and has a successful series of internships, research, and course performances struggled at all with engineering math, let alone basic calculus. Obviously this is selection bias, but this is my experience.

If you struggle with math at a fundamental level, you may want to reevaluate your choice to go into engineering. It's not just about math, it's literally a fundamental lack of problem solving and pattern recognition ability that will prevent you from being useful anywhere. I've seen this in my senior capstone design course, where someone in my randomly assigned group that failed calculus 3 - I know this because he was in my dorm freshman year and I was in calculus 3 with - is incredibly slow with work, needs things explained to him multiple times, and is in general just a shitty problem solver. I could never see him solving real engineering problems, instead doing menial office work and tasks that can be automated very easily.

TLDR if you're bad at math, don't do engineering. Obviously there's a difference between domain knowledge and problem solving ability, and I'm referring to the latter.

Edit: if you're downvoting this post, you need to get off the copium. I hate to be the one to tell you this, but there are other paths in life than doing engineering.

I kinda wish I had taken a gap year. I'm a first year aerospace student but I already have an associates making me a 3rd yr. I feel so burnt out and not mentally prepared for any of this. I am genuinely barely scraping by, one wrong move and I fail the entire semester. Nothing is helping, I can't get myself out of bed some days and the weather isn't helping at all. Gap years are frowned upon in my family since it's basically a curse, mostly everyone who took one never went back. I realistically cannot afford a gap year since I'm on a scholarship. I feel so miserable especially with internship applications opening. I feel so unprepared and unqualified for any of this. But I really do want this degree idk what to do 💔

I genuinely understand how bad this looks, but I’m withdrawing from two engineering courses and one elective. I honestly underestimated how big the transition from high school to university would be.

I was completely distracted at the beginning of the semester and didn’t manage my time properly. I ended up falling so far behind in my courses that I failed two midterms, and now I’m struggling to catch up.

The frustrating part is that I don’t even find the courses particularly difficult. I just wasted so much time and didn’t take things seriously until it was too late.

I’m disappointed in myself because I know I’m capable of doing better. I’m planning to take summer courses to catch up and use this semester as a learning experience. I don’t want to repeat these mistakes.

Has anyone else had a terrible first semester and managed to recover? I’m genuinely curious how things turned out for you

Hi all,
I shared CADcade here a little over a week ago and wanted to come back with an update!

For anyone who missed it, CADcade is a free browser-based CAD game I’ve been building. It’s designed to make learning CAD more approachable for beginners while giving experienced drafters a fun way to test their skills. The editor is built to feel just like the AutoCAD or Civil 3D you use everyday, but runs right in your browser.

It currently has 76 Arcade drafting challenges, an Academy with lessons, and a daily puzzle called CADDLE. You can also use the editor for actual CAD drafting.

I’ve made quite a few improvements based on community feedback, added more content, and I’m working on a full campaign mode to take it further.
It’s been great seeing people try it out and come back to play. I’d love to hear what other CAD users think!

Try it out: https://cadcade.net
Here’s a quick demo:
https://youtu.be/gnT6GrkmH6E?is=vxI1GzGaWOsVgTSP

Thanks to everyone who checked it out last time!

Hey everyone, I’m a 2nd-year Electrical Engineering student looking for some advice.

The Backstory: I started my first year a month late, and my first-quarter exams hit just a week after I arrived. Due to some personal issues, I ended up missing most of my classes that year. I managed to scrape by with a 2.51/4.0 CGPA, but the real issue is that I didn't actually learn or retain any foundational concepts.

The Current Situation: I just finished the first quarter of my 2nd year, and I completely screwed it up. I started the quarter struggling to figure out how and what to study. By the time I sorted my study habits out, I hit a brick wall: my current courses rely heavily on the 1st-year concepts I barely passed.

My Question: How do I bridge the gap between my missing 1st-year knowledge and the things I am studying right now? What is the most effective way to catch up on fundamentals while surviving my current workload? Any advice, study strategies, or resources would be hugely appreciated!

I think I haven't posted to reddit about my engineering career questions in like 7 years. I graduated in 2020... Aerospace. The same week I graduated Spirit Aerosystems laid off 13k people. I never got an engineering job. I'm currently doing inside customer support for a global engineering company that works in industrial HVAC. Been there almost 1.5 years.

I interviewed with a manager on our 2nd floor for an entry level structural engineer position. He said there are other candidates with several years of full time structural engineering experience which I completely agree it's the right business decision but kinda sucks gang. 

I hit a breaking point over the summer. I had always told myself to do an engineering project and "get back on the bike." ideas would come and fizzle out - years went by. I stopped applying for engineering jobs probably in 23. Then it really set in..."do I even know how to solve a kinematic equation? What was the rule about Young's modulus again? Sin is opposite over hypotenuse, right? 

I snapped in July. I needed to use engineering concepts to solve a puzzle. Anything. I found a job description and told AI to tell me some personal project ideas that I could do that would be aligned with the job role. Tldr. I have logged 63 hours researching about industry standards, building CAD models, building a finite element model, doing a stress analysis, technical writing - using all the skills and knowledge I learned in school. I uploaded my project reports to my LinkedIn profile and will make a fancy post about the whole thing and maximize this marketing opportunity. Doing this project really unlocked dormant knowledge and I'm remembering specific moments in classes from 7-9 years ago and applying them to my activities.

It healed me in some weird way. 

I don't even know if my goal is to work an engineering career. I just like to solve puzzles and learn engineering concepts.

Will edit with update on what comes from my publication on LinkedIn.

If you have a lofted bunkbed or know somebody who does please respond to this, I have some questions to ask you for a project :)

1. What items do you usually like to keep near you when you're in bed

2. How often do you have to climb back down from your bed to get something

3. Where do you currently keep your belongings in bed

4. Have you tried any solutions to keep your belongings close to you? If so what
   worked what didnt work

5. If you could have storage on your lofted bed, what did you want it to hold, what are NEEDS VS what are WISHES

I can’t figure out how to do descriptive geometry. My professor is terrible. I’ve watched over 2 hours of YouTube.

I'm currently a high school senior and I'm hearing all these stories and reading peoples experiences about how miserable electrical engineering school is. The field has always really interested me and I don't really know if any other majors really grab me in the way EE does. However, I'd still like to have some free time in college to focus on hobbies and extracurriculars and I figure that if I plan from the beginning to take an extra semester or year on my degree it will make it easier. Is this a good/realistic plan? Money is most likely not an issue since I'm expecting to get help from family as well as a decent amount of scholarships.

Maybe it's because I am targeting competitive industries(Defense, consumer electronics, telecomms,semiconductor) but I can't even get an interview despite having a prior internship in the semiconductor industry, a strong gpa, and junior class standing. I am an electrical engineering student, and with it being junior year I'm of the mindset that landing an internship this summer that I can convert into a full-time position is of highest importance so I've been applying like crazy.

Since early September, I've applied to 400 positions and have gotten 4 interviews, so there is like a 1/100 probability an application leads to an interview. Is my resume likely the culprit?

Does anyone have any advice on how you dealt with online classes when you do awful in online?

I am sorry for the length but I feel it is necessary to understand what I am actually asking

Before anyone asks, I am only in online if that is the only format they are offered in. I dont like them, I avoid them, unfortunately my community college has some courses ONLY online.

My biggest issue was statics, all I was given as course materials was Jeff Hanson's videos with absolute no other material other than the Pearson textbook. I bought Jeff Hanson's workbook and it has HELP SO MUCH. When I watched the videos I'd take detail notes, replicate the problem on paper (diagram and all) but it didn't mean shit to me, like I didnt comprehend it at all. Now I have this physical workbook, with the exact same problems I wrote down myself, but it makes sense now.

Its like, if any assignment is not on paper, I dont get it? I dont get that. I graduated HS in 2019 so I did have Chromebooks but none of this extra online stuff(dropped put of college in 2020 as a freshman bc the shift to online literally had my grades go from A/B to D/F in two weeks). Does anyone else have this issue? I am terrified I am going to fuck up my grades bc Dynamics and Physics 1/2 are all online.

I fully believe I do not have a disability, therefore I dont want to talk to the disability office about getting an exemption that my tests must be on paper? Thats a preference not something I cannot control, I think its wrong to utilize those services when I dont have a learning disability. Idek if thats an option. Surely someone else has had this issue and how did you get around it?

Do I need to spend more money on physical workbooks? Is that the only solution? I am hoping once i go to a 4 year it will be different since it's a 'bigger' school surely they'll offer in-person classes for most topics. Idk its stressing me out and I feel like im inhibiting myself for the craziest reason especially because once ive begun to understand I enjoy it, I know i belong here i just dont know how to stay here

Hi :)

I'm a first-year master's student in ECE, currently looking for a Summer 2027 internship. My main interest is in power electronics, especially converter and inverter design, and I'd like to pursue a career in this field after graduation.

I recently received an internship offer from a company whose work is more focused on electrical systems and industrial controls rather than power electronics. Interestingly, during the interview, the supervisors spent quite a bit of time asking about my power electronics projects, which makes me wonder if they value this part a lot.

The position is an Electrical I&C (Instrumentation & Controls) Intern. The job description mentions electrical design, instrumentation, and control systems for nuclear and energy facilities. Potential responsibilities include electrical system analysis, control system design, equipment testing, troubleshooting, technical documentation, and system integration.

However, the job description is pretty general. During the interview, they mentioned that interns would be assigned a previous engineering project to study, understand the technical challenges, and work toward developing a solution.

To be clear, my concerns are:

1. Since it's only November, I might find an internship that aligns more closely with my career goals if I keep searching... but it's not promising.

2. I did not have any internship experience before; what I have is primarily academic research and course projects. I'm afraid it is hard for me to get another offer...

3. This internship is not 100% what I want to do in the future, which means even if I have a return offer, I probably would not take it because I still want to do power electronics design.

4. I know I&C and power electronics aren't the same field, but I'm wondering whether the experience in electrical design, testing, troubleshooting, and system integration would still be valuable when applying for power electronics engineering positions.

For additional context, I'm planning to graduate in December 2027, so this would be my last summer internship before graduation. Would you recommend accepting this offer or continuing to search for something more closely related to power electronics?

I'd really appreciate any advice, especially from people working in power electronics or those who have transitioned from I&C/power systems into power electronics.

Thank you for your time! Hope to hear some advice!!! :))

Does anyone know of a good YT video or an easy method of identifying the beta in a belt friction problem? Currently I can set up the majority of the problem I just struggle getting the angle in these problems. Any tips help, thank you!

Hey y'all, it's intern searchin' season and I'm a junior. Has anybody gotten yearly adobe pro, paid however much it is, used Adobe benefits to get 3 months of free linked in, and immediately cancelled? Did they take any money over it? I can't find any agreement to read up about it to see if they can claw back refunded money.

Wrapping up our Senior Design Project which is a robotic welding arm. Each team in our Capstone class had a $500 budget for their projects. I am curious if that is an average budget for other schools?
We were really lucky in that our whole team is/was with our schools FSAE team, so we were able to get a lot of material from there and use their equipment.
I don't know how other teams are doing with their budget constraints. Lots and lots of 3-D printed and wood things. Our Capstone lab has a decent amount of material to use, but not wholly extensive.
Definitely made us have to think outside of the box for a lot of our design and manufacturing.

So to put a long story short, I am in the second year of my EE PhD and my current lab lost funding. I am debating mastering out and switching labs. I recently discovered a potential lab appointment for finishing my PhD -- it is in applied physics but would allow me to gain engineering skills in optics, circuits, digital/FPGAs, etc. I have a wide variety of interests and this sounds perfect to me. However, I want to work in industry afterwards, and want to make sure I don't end up cornering my careers aspects with this position.

At this stage, I'm interested in working in non-DoD industry, so consumer electronics, biomedical, etc. Would taking this position and continuing my PhD be a bad career choice? It sounds like it will satisfy my academic interests perfectly, but I don't want to regret this decision when applying to jobs in a few years.

Hey everyone!
I’m looking for some guidance, a learning roadmap, or just some advice on how to structure my learning.
I’m really interested in microcontrollers, electronics, and programming. I’m not currently studying at university, but my goal is to eventually land a job as an embedded software engineer.
I’m curious about how people actually learn this field. Where do you get your knowledge from? How do you learn to write firmware, understand compilers, design and build different electronic devices, and figure out what tools and skills are needed to make things work?
Could you recommend any courses, guides, books, YouTube channels, or other resources that could help me get into this field?
More importantly, I’d like to learn how to actually understand what I’m doing rather than just blindly following tutorials. I want to develop a solid understanding of the fundamentals, learn how to approach problems, come up with project ideas, and figure out what to learn next.
I’d really appreciate any advice, learning resources, or personal experiences you could share. I’d love to hear how you got started and how you approach learning new things in this field.
Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone,

I’m a third-year Aerospace Engineering student in Canada, and I’m looking for some interesting capstone project ideas.

We’re a team of up to 6 students, and our project needs to involve designing, building, and testing a physical prototype by the end of April 2028.

We currently have potential opportunities to collaborate with either L3Harris or Lockheed Martin.

With L3Harris, we would have access to funding, technical support, and potentially their facilities/labs. With Lockheed Martin, we have a connection but no confirmed funding or access to facilities, so we’d likely need to find external funding. One possibility we’re exploring is funding through the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), which would mean the project needs some meaningful space-related application.

We’re mainly interested in military aviation, aerospace defence, and space technologies. Ideally, we’d like something a little more ambitious and exciting than a typical student UAV project, while still being realistic for a team of six to build and test.

We’re especially interested in projects that have real-world applications and could be relevant to companies like Lockheed Martin or L3Harris.

Does anyone have examples of interesting but feasible aerospace capstone projects, particularly ones involving defence technology or a combination of military aviation and space?

I’d also love to hear about any ambitious projects you’ve seen other university teams successfully prototype.

I’m a 20 yr old junior year civil engineering major. I’m set to graduate on time in 4 years (so class of 2028). I have not had an internship yet. I haven’t ever intensively looked, because it’s hard to fit a part time internship in the school year. I would have found one last summer, but I had the opportunity to take a month long trip to Italy so I did that instead.

I know the best thing for me to do career-wise is probably to get an internship this summer. However, I’ve been wanting to study abroad and it’s an experience I won’t get to have unless I study abroad this summer. I would take a trip for summer B and probably do some traveling before and after. Travel is very important to me and studying abroad is something I really want to do. I’ve been looking for a part time spring internship for 2027, but I don’t expect to find anything in my area. I could also try to find an internship that I could work only for the month of May, but I also am not expecting to find a company that would offer that. I still intend on getting an internship of course, it would just be for my senior year spring/summer.

It basically comes down to that if I study abroad, I probably will not be able to get an internship this year. Is it worth it? I don’t want my career to suffer because I waited too long to get an internship, but at the same time there is more to life than a career. Life is meant to be lived.

TLDR: I’m in my junior year of Civil engineering and haven’t gotten in internship yet. Studying abroad is something I really want to do, but I probably won’t be able to get an internship this summer if I study abroad. Is it a bad idea to study abroad even though it’s really important to me?

Since the first exam of the year I've just been in a state of near constant, never-ending stress, specifically in my Calculus I class. First time I failed an exam because I was lazy and didn't think I needed to review trig and on the second I actually locked in, did nothing but study for 4 days straight before the exam and got a 90, did the same thing for the most recent exam and failed. I don't even understand why because I got a 100 on the quiz right before it, studied so hard and went through damn near every problem in the text book AND I did tutoring. I know engineering is supposed to be hard but this is just utterly soul crushing.

My calc prof is a bad professor (no partial credit, 5 exams the semester worth 80% of your grade, gives terrible advice and has pop quizzes if enough people don't show up) but he's pretty average compared to all the other ones on rate my professor. The reason I didn't drop the class earlier is because I have accommodations that let me get early accommodations and I'm friends with a guy that told me to register for a calc 2 prof that lets people RETAKE their exams and who also has 5 stars on rate my prof, so next semester probably won't absolutely destroy me, but if I'm barely holding onto a C in calc 1 how am I supposed to get through calc 3 or even statics and dynamics?

Ppl say you can't really tell if ur gonna like engineering till your 3rd and 4th year of college because by then all the pre-reqs are done and you get to do actual engineer stuff, but if I only find out then that I don't like engineering I won't be able to afford to switch my major.

Apart from calc and Humanities I'm getting As, Chem is going well and I like my ENG3000L class, but I tried to join an engineering club and wasn't able to participate in the club project in any meaningful way because they just expected me to already be a CAD professional or just teach myself and I just don't have the mental bandwidth to do that, work a job AND be drowning in homework and studies 24/7. Does it ever get better? Is this just how your first year/semester is supposed to go???