# 19 credit hours!!



## [email protected] (Nov 13, 2006)

I'm going for a computer/electrical engineering degree and this is only my second semester in my freshman year. I took 16 last semester, plus one of my classes wasn't even credited, just pass/no pass. It was rough enough last semester, now It's going to suck even more. And it's not just me this is the standard course schedule for all students, attending Purdue University, going into any engineering discipline.

Here is is list of my classes...
-Plane Analytic Geometry and Calculus II (Hardest math class freshman can take)

-Mechanics (Physics)
-General Chemistry (Hate chemistry with a passion and why am I taking it for *COMPUTER* engineering :wtf)

-Lab (nearly failed it [and in turn chem] last semester)

-Engineering Problems Computer Tools (like the math class but with a program called MATLAB that's supposed to help)

and last (and most certainly least)
-Fundamentals of Speech and Communication ( :afr I would rather take chem)

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRG.


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## emptybottle (Jan 3, 2005)

Good luck with that man. Calc, Chem and Speech on the same semester was a nightmare for me (I'm a bio major). Physics was just about the hardest class ever, but it's probably easy for you with your major.


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## [email protected] (Nov 13, 2006)

Never taken physics in high school so it will be a bit difficult. Doing vector math in calc right now (my class ended almost four hours ago and my head still hurts.)


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## person86 (Aug 10, 2006)

Jesus. That's a lot of engineering/math credits.

Here's a tip: don't worry too much if MATLAB seems really difficult at first. It gets way easier once you learn the basics of its sometimes-unintuitive matrix notation.


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## Qolselanu (Feb 15, 2006)

[email protected] said:


> -General Chemistry (Hate chemistry with a passion and why am I taking it for *COMPUTER* engineering :wtf)
> 
> 
> > Im not exactly sure on what computer engineering is all about, but knowledge of chemistry is fundamental for such things as the conversation of energy, which leads into kinetics and thermodynamics - which is fairly important for engineers.
> ...


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## millenniumman75 (Feb 4, 2005)

[email protected] said:


> Here is is list of my classes...
> -Plane Analytic Geometry and Calculus II (Hardest math class freshman can take)
> 
> -Mechanics (Physics)
> ...


Wow, Purdue is one of the BIG engineering schools.
Qolselanu - Computer Engineering deals with programming, but also the circuitry and chip-making. My discipline is computer science which deals more exclusively with programming and languages. CEG has more math than CS though. I really liked the math part :stu.

Anyway, I also took chemistry, but I have a feeling you'd probably need it for the compounds used in microchips and computer parts. There's more use than you think, to be honest.

Calculus II, oddly enough, was the one I did best in. Integration to find area underneath curves. Interesting stuff - l'Hopital's rule, etc. MATLAB is a calculator program where you can enter equations and keep track of variables, etc. I had a lab that used this - hated it because the prof who put it together, taught the class - he made us do EVERYTHING! :fall. We had partners, though. That was a hoot - I remember a lot of cutting and pasting MATLAB/Mathematica stuff into a notebook for a grade. That was really more of Calc III than II.


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## UnseenShadow (Sep 26, 2004)

19 semester hours seems like overkill to me, so I do quality over quantity. I take about 12-14 hours in the spring/fall and fill in the remainder in summer school. You get to concentrate more on each class and you won't feel overwhelmed.


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## Qolselanu (Feb 15, 2006)

Oh yeah, how did I not connect Comp. Eng. to hardware. Meh.

And Calc II is easier than Calc I, so don't worry about it [email protected] Differentiation is actually taught first because it's harder than intergration. So dont worry.


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## person86 (Aug 10, 2006)

Qolselanu said:


> And Calc II is easier than Calc I, so don't worry about it [email protected] Differentiation is actually taught first because it's harder than intergration. So dont worry.


It always seemed like the other way around to me. Differentiation is just chain rule, product rule, some more chain rule... the only tricky thing I remember is differentiating in the polar coordinates. With Integration, OTOH, you get all sorts of fun (horrible) things like trig substitution, remembering trig identities, partial fractions, converting to different coordinate systems... BAH, IT'S HORRIBLE>. :mum :sigh :sus :no :?

Maybe I'm just different.


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## emptybottle (Jan 3, 2005)

it's much easier to make careless mistakes with differentiation, with quotient rule especially. i found integration easier. 
calc II is def. worse than calc I


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## person86 (Aug 10, 2006)

*Re: re: 19 credit hours!!*



emptybottle said:


> it's much easier to make careless mistakes with differentiation, with quotient rule especially.


You might have a point there. The quotient rule is a *****.

Of course, I never actually remembered the thing... far easier to just write f/g as f*(1/g) and use the product rule.

I'm done hijacking this thread now.


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