I have been accepted to Engineering 1 (thats whatsup!). Could anyone who passed their first year or anyone in their upper years give me some tips on how I should be prepared for Eng and do well on the exams ? Is the program "fun" to learn the stuff they teach at first year ? I mean I love Calculus and Physics, so do you I think I'll have a good time more than hard time? And is it easy to get co-op after your 3rd year assuming my grades are amazing? And also is it easy to make friends at Mac ( I don't want it to be like High School) ? I'll be living on campus and I don't know anybody there !

Thanks

Congrats on getting accepted to Mac!
I've just finished first year engineering so I can tell you that I thought it was a pretty awesome year for me
Some advice I would give you based on this past year is to try to stay on top of everything! I know that's easier said than done because it all goes by very fast. Time management is very important if you want to do well so try not to procrastinate too much. If you can keep up it will be enjoyable for the most part.
One thing I found helpful is to join the facebook pages for Eng I and any pages for your specific courses. Everyone has to take the same courses so it's a great way to meet some of your classmates, hear any general updates, and ask questions/help each other. There are also lots of resources provided to you at mac if you need help (eg. help centers, prof office hours, study sessions, etc.).

Also, this is an awesome site with lots of past exams and helpful cheat sheats:

https://sites.google.com/site/macengfifteen/eng-docs#TOC-1.1.1.-Final-exams-Practice-questio

I really liked it here at mac because everyone was very friendly and I met lots of people with similar interests, so don't worry, it's not like high school.
It will take a while to get used to the lifestyle in first term but second term went smoothly for me.

Good luck

I say, get to know profs. They might give you a hint or two about upcoming tests/exams and such. Also prioritize assignments, not only based on their weight in marks, but also importance.

The good thing I can recommend is to stay on top of your work, go to class and make friends. Same advice I always hear >_>.

Make sure you're good at math. Thats about it. If you're in res, DC++.

1. Stay on top of your work. Even if the first couple months seem a little easy and almost a review of high school, midterms will start to happen and once you start studying for them your work will start to snowball!

2. Best way to make friends? Get involved with some of the Engineering societies and go out to the events throughout the year (AND frosh week). They're a lot of fun, you get to meet so many awesome people, and they're a stress relief too. And no worries, meeting friends here is WAY different than high school.

3. This is optional, but I took 1D04 during the first semester and 1C03 second semester. This is because your 1P03 class and 1C03 class each have major projects at almost the same time, and it can be a lot of work. If you've never programmed before, it may helpful for you to look up some Python tutorials online, cause it was a tough course.

4. Don't buy the materials textbook (there's going to be a pdf passed around, trust me). You can buy most books used, even if it is a previous edition. Most profs post questions for the previous edition too.

Good luck! It's going to be a lot of work, but you can do it!

Originally Posted by *spark*

Congrats on getting accepted to Mac!
I've just finished first year engineering so I can tell you that I thought it was a pretty awesome year for me Some advice I would give you based on this past year is to try to stay on top of everything! I know that's easier said than done because it all goes by very fast.Time management is very important if you want to do well so try not to procrastinate too much. If you can keep up it will be enjoyable for the most part.
One thing I found helpful is to join the facebook pages for Eng I and any pages for your specific courses. Everyone has to take the same courses so it's a great way to meet some of your classmates, hear any general updates, and ask questions/help each other. There are also lots of resources provided to you at mac if you need help (eg. help centers, prof office hours, study sessions, etc.).

Also, this is an awesome site with lots of past exams and helpful cheat sheats:

https://sites.google.com/site/macengfifteen/eng-docs#TOC-1.1.1.-Final-exams-Practice-questio

I really liked it here at mac because everyone was very friendly and I met lots of people with similar interests, so don't worry, it's not like high school.
It will take a while to get used to the lifestyle in first term but second term went smoothly for me.

Good luck

Dear Spark,

I took the liberty of editing your post in order to better contrast the importance of some things.

Best,
Zach

Having fun is one of the most important parts...

Originally Posted by Mhmd

I love Calculus

You say that now....


But ya like everyone said. time management, meet people frosh week since everyone is in the same boat, and dont spend your whole year doing work or you will go crazy. As for math, second year was worse in my opinion so first year shouldn't be to bad for you.

search on facebook for the group:
Mcmaster: Faculty of Engineering '16

This group will allow you to communicate with many of your future classmates as well as many of the engineering welcome week reps! We are eager to answer any of your engineering specific questions and also provide resources to textbooks, faqs, random advice and a ton of other resources.

Also:

"Is the program fun? "
Absolutely, but like any program its really up to the person. Some people enjoy engineering and other do not. But I would say if you have gotten in then you are the right type!

"Love for Calc and physics?"
Thats always good! While not necessary it always helps to enjoy something you are going to be doing a lot of in first year (3 maths, 2 physics courses)

"And is it easy to get co-op after your 3rd year assuming my grades are amazing?"
Easy? Thats an individual question. But coop has a very high success rate from what I have seen. Well over half my friends got coop internships at RIM, AMD, microsoft or IBM. The university also hires a ton of people every summer.

"And also is it easy to make friends at Mac ( I don't want it to be like High School) ? I'll be living on campus and I don't know anybody there!"
Thats what frosh/welcome week are for! Force yourself out to the events and you will make friends. If you need any help thoughout the week ask anyone in a jumpsuit. These are the welcome weeks reps. Engineers wear red and your residence reps will also be in a jumpsuit.

Originally Posted by Thatguyadam

You say that now....


But ya like everyone said. time management, meet people frosh week since everyone is in the same boat, and dont spend your whole year doing work or you will go crazy. As for math, second year was worse in my opinion so first year shouldn't be to bad for you.

Greeting fellow Engineer. I just finished my second year as well and funnily enough my love for Calculus/Mathematics/call-it-what-you-may has still not diminished. The nature of the professor will very much influence one's perception of a subject - I do not deny it.

Keep in mind though that for every bad apple in the bunch of professors that will discourage you from liking a subject, there are three brilliant ones that will make you love it. From my point of view, the professors seemed to be fighting a battle of endurance with the students this year and to be honest, it didn't affect my love for Maths at all. On the other hand, I'm one of the very few people saddened by the prospect of never taking Maths ever again. Le sigh.

tl;dr - There is none. As a university student, get off your bum and stop being lazy. Read the smidgeon of text.

(Prime examples of the rule: First year has some amazing Maths professors. Second year, eh.
Prime exceptions (as far as I know):Materials. First year, amazing professors. I've heard no complaints from the second years.)

Fare thee well,
Zach

Protip: Don't listen to anything the red suits tell you.

To echo what everyone else has said, time management is extremely important. If you're someone who tends to procrastinate, beware. Things will seem very easy and slow-paced to begin with and you might get lulled into not working hard. I saw people get whiplash at about week 5-6, wondering what happened when the work finally hits. My lab partner in chemistry dropped out of the program, by our second lab. Obviously that's an extreme case, but that doesn't mean it can't happen to you!

All that negative stuff said, if you're motivated to work hard and keep on top of things, you'll excel.

Other tips, regarding your question, making friends is easy since there'll be plenty of people like you, so make friends (preferably friends who aren't academically lazy) and join Facebook groups for your courses. I think you'll find that both those things will ensure you're never far away from any help you need.

Also, as Zach says, depending on your section you'll have some really great professors, so pick wisely. My personal favourites were Dr. Childs (Math), Dr. Kish (Materials) and Dr. Okon (Physics).

I think everyone here already pointed out the main points. So all i can say is the last thing is to pick your electives carefully. First year engineering, you get two electives of your choices. I would suggest picking courses that "interest" you and that you would put some effort in. No one knows your strengths better then you. Even if a course is considered a "bird" by others, it can be a nightmare if u have no interest in it and put no effort in it. Anyway welcome to McMaster engineering. Work hard

I'm interested in knowing why the engineering reps are considered such poor representatives, Ownaginatios...

And Freija, and Geek, and Zachary, and icecubz, and lgdynasty.

I'd like to point out the vast number of people who express concern regarding the Engineering Reps, many (not all) who subsequently do nothing about it. The entire system is democratic. But the people who get to define the engineering reps, are the ones working their butts off for 9 months of the year (for free, may I add...), to make Engineering Welcome Week amazing, resourceful, and everything else that it is.