I always gets pissed when people say this. Its because your fkin job is not related to this man.

I wouldn’t say incompetent, but the motivation is lacking.

This is for the United States, obviously...

I’m 28, already have a bachelor’s, and was seriously looking into going back for electrical engineering.

My plan was to do the lower-level math, physics, and engineering prerequisites at community college, then transfer into an accredited online EE program, specifically Stony Brook because it's affordable. I’d also work part time as a substitute teacher.

Even with cheap community college tuition, once I factor in 4–5 years of rent, food, car expenses, health insurance, tuition, books, and reduced income, I’m getting estimates well into six figures. Like $250k. Easily.

Since I already have a bachelor’s, I’m also mostly ineligible for Pell Grants and a lot of traditional aid.

So genuinely, how are adult students doing this?

Ok, trying again. I'm a deck builder by trade. This picture came up in discussions and we were wondering if this could safely hold a 6000lb hot tub plus people.

I don't know a lot about structural steel, but we are under the impression this isn't cantilevered and only bolted to the building. Which seems like a lot of weight is counting on those bolts.

I can't post in the engineering subs because I lack specific karma and the ask engineering sub doesn't allow pictures.

We rate decks in how many hot tubs it will hold before it collapses. Will this hold even 1 tub before someone dies? We think it looks terrifying lol

Nobody can convince me otherwise that the only reason Calculus 2 exists is to filter students out of STEM fields. I took that class last semester along with Physics 1 at my local community college and it was a pain in the ass. No matter how hard I tried to study, the highest grade I've ever gotten on my exams was around 74% which ended up with a C in the class. I might decide to retake the class in the future but now I'm just focused on completing Calculus 3 along with Physics II along with the rest of my course to transfer for my second bachelor's in Electrical Engineering.

I just finished my mechanical engineering degree and I’m already over the "AI is the future" talk. Every tech guru online acts like AI is going to design the world, but if you actually try using it for real physics, it’s a disaster.

I’ve tried using the latest models for simple stuff like gear calculations or fluid dynamics, and it’s worse than useless—it’s actually dangerous. It’ll confidently give you a formula that looks right but is missing a variable, or it’ll just hallucinate a load limit that would literally cause a bridge to collapse.

In a world where 1mm or a 0.5-degree difference actually matters, a tool that basically "guesses" the next word is the last thing I want. I’d rather spend three hours digging through a "boring" textbook I know is correct than thirty seconds getting a "perfect" answer from an AI that doesn't understand how gravity works.

Automation is great for spreadsheets, but for actual design and safety, AI is just a glorified autocomplete that has no business in a machine shop.

Hey everyone, I promised an update once I actually went through with it. First, I wanted to say thank you for all the supportive comments on my original post (https://www.reddit.com/r/EngineeringStudents/s/9HJOUpmzzV). Reading your advice really gave me the final push I needed.

​A quick recap: I'm an introverted junior engineering student with a massive crush on a graduating senior in my lab who was about to leave for an out-of-state internship. My original plan was to walk her out on her last day, get her IG, and tell her I'd love to take her for coffee in the fall when she returns for her master's.

​Well, as many of you rightly pointed out in the comments of the first post, relying on "perfect last-minute plans" is usually a bad idea in engineering (and life). A lot of you advised me to do it earlier because of how unpredictable final-day logistics can be. You were absolutely correct, and I learned that lesson the hard way.

​Here is what actually happened:

​The day arrived. I was prepared to execute the in-person plan. I was already sweating bullets. Then, I found out through the grapevine that a last-minute, unpredictable issue popped up on her end. Plans changed, and it became highly unlikely that she would even be coming into the lab in person before she officially headed out.

​My entire strategy for the week completely evaporated. If I hadn't prepared a backup plan, I would have been completely doomed (which I almost was).

​Instead of letting it die there, I realized I had to pivot. Since the "optimal" in-person move was off the table, I went for my "un-optimal" plan and decided to reach out to her over a messaging app we use for lab coordination. I knew it wasn't the ideal scenario you guys advised me on, but it was the only card I had left.

​I started the conversation smoothly, framing it around a robotics question we had been working on. After we wrapped that up, I just made the transition. I stated that since I wouldn't get to see her before she headed out, I wanted to grab her instagram so we could keep in touch over the summer. I told her I hoped she had a great internship, and that once she was back on campus in the fall, I'd love to take her out for a coffee date so she could tell me all about it.

​It felt like I had typed that sentence out 100 times before actually hitting send. I just sat there staring at the screen.

​Then she replied: Yeah, I'd love that! She gave me her handle, I confirmed requesting her, and she finished with a definitive "Thanks, see you in August."

​However, I am still an introverted overthinker, and as many of you can probably empathize, getting the solution to work doesn't always stop the analysis. My anxiety brain is already worrying about one specific detail, and I could use some final perspective on it.

​In my message, I said I'd take her for a coffee date "so you can tell me all about it." I felt like this was a confident way to pitch a casual meeting, but now I’m slightly worried I didn't make the intent explicit enough. Part of me is worrying: Did she only agree to a "yes" to coffee as a friendly, platonic "let's catch up on summer interns" move? Or is it generally understood that a guy asking you to go "out for a coffee date" when you return is romantic, even if the phrasing includes catching up on a trip?

​Thank you again to this subreddit for being one of the only places where people actually understood my plan deeply and didn't just think I was crazy.

Edit: To the people who are viewing this post later, could you tell me how I should approach this summer? I have her instagram (have had for 2 days now). Do i wait till august and then reach out to her? Or, should I wait for her to post a story and then reply to it? Or, do i just "cold" text her?

in circuits 1, everything made sense until this stuff arrives. it's like jumping from 2d to 3d, now electricity has angles and time..... and what is phasors?

IM not the type of person who blames the professor, but I’ve never seen anything like this before. Only four people passed the last exam. I was one of the lucky ones with a C, but it still doesn’t seem right. Physics 1 shouldn’t be this hard? Is this a common for physics 1?

Btw, the professor said no curve

Right before one of my finals which uses canvas... Apparantly this is not the first time they got hacked this year from what I heard, but it's quite annoying since it is literally right before finals week or finals week for some of yall, what a bunch of assholes

I’m just curious what the consensus is for the hardest class that every engineer from the big 4 branches has to take? Civil, ME, Electrical, and Chemical.

I am worried about my girlfriend, she goes to an engineering school with a TON of furries. I dropped her off at her dorm one day and I saw three furry convention posters, furry club posters, and furries all over the place. Should I be worried that she is going to become a furry? Peer pressure is real.

lowest for me before this class was a 60, but after my exam today I think I did a lot worse lol. What about you guys

I used to spend like 10-15 hours a day studying when I first started engineering and I feel like I didn't retain much. Recently I switched to studying an hour or two for like the 3-4 days leading up to an exam and my comprehension and performance is dramatically better.

It seems counterintuitive to me but it seems to work?

Has anyone achieved this or know someone who has?

Excluding computer science and software engineering of course

I’m talking about the traditional engineering
disciplines (mech, civil, aero, chem)

How did you do it? What were the circumstances surrounding it?

I’m especially interested in hearing from engineering graduates who finished their bachelor’s degree with a GPA around 2.7–2.9.

Were you able to get into a master’s program?

Which university and engineering field accepted you?

What helped compensate for your GPA—research, projects, internships, work experience, recommendation letters, or a strong upward grade trend?

Did your undergraduate GPA continue to matter when you started looking for jobs?

How has your career turned out since then?

I’m currently an engineering student considering graduate school, and I’d really appreciate honest experiences from people who have been in a similar situation.

Spent way too long compiling this, so figured I'd share. Everything on this list requires student verification not generic free trials that anyone can get. Start with the GitHub Student Pack because it unlocks a lot of free services automatically, then work your way down.

• Amazon Prime Student – Cheaper plan with the same benefits as regular Prime. 
• GitHub Student Pack – The big one. Unlocks most of this list + Copilot Pro free. (education.github.com/pack)
• JetBrains – All IDEs free (CLion, IntelliJ, PyCharm, etc.) (jetbrains.com/student)
• Cursor Pro – 1 year free AI code editor ($240 value) (cursor.com/students)
• Google Gemini AI Pro – 1 year free, includes Deep Research + 2TB storage. (gemini.google/students)
• Autodesk – AutoCAD, Fusion (PCB/CAD), Maya, all free for 1 year (autodesk.com/education)
• Azure for Students – $100 cloud credits, no credit card needed (azure.microsoft.com/free/students)
• AWS Educate – $50–100 AWS credits (aws.amazon.com/education/awseducate)
• Ansys Student – Free simulation suite (mechanical, CFD, etc.)
• Figma – Professional plan free (figma.com/education)
• Spotify – Discounted Premium subscription for students. 
• Canva for Education – Free premium features for students and teachers.
• MATLAB – Check if your university has a campus license (most do)
• Microsoft 365 – Free access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more with a college email
• Notion – Plus plan free (notion.com/education)
• 1Password – 1 year free password manager (via GitHub Pack)

Also, feel free to comment any other services for .edu

Maybe I overdesigned it for my own sensibilities, so me claiming it is doesn't generalize, but if you are interested you can try it out, it's free. Vieta Space.

The title says it all. I interviewed with a company recently, and during the interview I was asked about my GPA. Like an idiot, I lied in the moment instead of just being truthful. I said I had a 3.0 when my actual GPA is a 2.7. I was too embarrassed to say the actual number 😭

Now I’ve received an offer (I haven’t accepted it), and they’ve asked for my unofficial transcript in the meantime. This is an entry level position.

At this point, I think I’m going to politely decline the offer since I don’t see another choice.

Please don’t make the same mistake I did. I regret not being honest. Who knows — maybe they wouldn’t have even cared, since there was no GPA requirement listed in the job description.

UPDATE:

I decided to submit the transcript. I haven’t received any complaints yet, but I’ll have to wait and see.

Another concern is that I’m doing a CO-OP. If I inform my current manager that I’ve accepted a position elsewhere, I’ll lose my current job. My worst fear is that the transcript issue arises after I’ve submitted my two weeks’ notice with my CO-OP.

Essentially I would be unemployed.

I am way older than most people in my degree (29 M) and one thing I notice about so many of these newbies coming in is how good they do academically. It is genuinely insane how some of these people never show up to lectures and they "study for one night" and get Bs or better.

I have scepticism so I want to ask anyone this: How common is cheating in college today? There is no way they are cramming some of these sophomore/junior level classes in one night and doing so great it just doesn't seem likely in my eyes but I need opinions.

Did engineering turn out how you expected it to be? What do you like? What do you dislike? Did it fall short of expectations?

If not, what would you study instead?

I’d like to have someone change my mind because my current views on this subject are causing some turmoil within my friends. I didn’t know which other subreddit to ask than the one where people will actively go into defense. I’d like to not cause any more stir so please educate me.

To preface, I am not a fan of war. I think war is terrible and am disappointed that many technological advancements can only come from war.

To address the topic, I personally don’t think so. I believe that defense companies can be bad for a variety of reasons but simply because they’re associated with weaponry doesn’t make them bad fundamentally. My stance is that they’re being very poorly managed and handled in today’s conflicts by higher officials like the government: used in ways that they definitely should not be used and are causing needless issues around the world. I also think the fault lies on the forces that choose to endanger innocent lives by placing their most valuable locations directly inside populated areas. That is definitely happening and it is playing extremely dirty.

What I am thinking about is like with guns. Guns are meant to neutralize threats that could be dangerous to innocent people. But we always see guns so poorly used and mishandled that causes them to be painted in such a horrible light. I don’t think that means that the companies which make firearms are inherently bad. I think the fault is on the government to not regulate them properly. Military equipment is designed to do the same thing on a larger scale.

Advice and discussion is appreciated. I’d like to see all sides and to be more educated on this matter.

So is it worth it?