I'm heading into 4th year in Civil and the only out of department tech elective that fits into my schedule is Eng Phys 3ES3. I can't seem to find any information on the class besides the course description which seems a bit vague. If anyone has taken the course and could provide me with a description of the class, what you do in it and the overall difficulty of the course, that would be awesome. Thanks!

Extraordinarily easy --- to the extent that it's extraordinary boring. I had taken it 2 years ago (same Prof as today apparently). I strongly suggest finding something a bit more challenging. Without exaggeration, the midterm and exam problems where a simple matter of unit analysis: Cost per unit of gasoline is X, fuel economy of car is Y, how much money is spent on gas to go from point A to B. Some additional combos are tossed in the mix here and there: Instead of cars, you have a power plant, where cost of fuel is X/unit of fuel; Y units of fuel are consumed/year; cost to build the plant is Z; what is the Net Present Value of the plant... Do that for two different power plants (maybe nuclear versus a wind farm) and determine which project is more valuable...

It's the economics part of Project Management, combined with unit analysis.

If you'd like recommendations for other courses, I can provide that separately. Don't waste your time.

If I can fit a different course in my schedule without drastically changing my other courses, I probably will. There are quite a few other courses I want to take but all of them have conflicts with required courses. I may be stuck taking 3ES3.

Thanks for the help!

The Stats for Engineers class is excellent; There's a materials course that a lot of people like taking; You can apply for a Finite Element course in Mechanical -- no guarantees you'd be allowed in, but it has happened in the past (usually dependent on your academic standing, and a reasonable interest in the subject). This is of course assuming you're in the structural side of Civ Eng.

If you're in the environmental side, there are some cool enviro sci courses you could get into -- enviro sci and public policy especially.