Hello!

I'm wondering if it makes a difference or not if I did not take computer science, or any computer course for that matter, and want to go into engineering? If any engineering students would give some insight on this, that would be great! I'm not 100% sure which field I want to go into but I'm not keen on electrical/computer. Thanks!

You'll be fine! I didn't take a single comp sci, or CAD course in high school and i did fine in the programming (1D03) and CAD (1C03) courses. They are introductory courses that teach you from the ground up. Of course you'd obviously do better in a programming course if you knew how to program beforehand, but you can still do okay if you've never programmed in your life before uni (like myself).

Now you will still need to learn how to program even if you don't go into elec/computer stuff. In math you're going to have Maple assignments in first year,and MATLAB assignments in second year. They teach you (oh who am i kidding, YOU teach you) how to compute and graph things using the software. It's actually pretty important to learn because no matter what faculty you go into, you'll still need to use math (differential equations are used in most if not all faculties) and the software will help you with that.

Yeah you will be fine, because the first year course are designed to cover basics, including what you learned in high school.

On the side note. However, I took a whole bunch of computer eng, sci course back in school, and because of basic first year courses I didn't feel challenged enough. So because of lack of practice some of that advanced knowledge I was so eager to take in high school to help myself in the future went down the drain.

I kinda wish McMaster based more of the material based on what we already know, without spending most of first year on basics.

I was a self taught programmer in highschool. I also took some classes in highschool for CAD and programming. It was helpful for me because I didnt have to spend the time learning programming or cad so i could spend more time on other subjects. I remember quite a few people being frustrated with 1D04 and either failed it or did really poorly and brought down their average. So its up to you but I would advise to at least learn some programming concepts before eng.

Alright thanks guys/gals! I'm wondering if engineering is fun in terms of like social groups, course work if you enjoy math/physics, etc? Thanks :d.

Originally Posted by J.Clouseau

Alright thanks guys/gals! I'm wondering if engineering is fun in terms of like social groups, course work if you enjoy math/physics, etc? Thanks :d.

There are many engineering clubs on campus that you can join (e.g. concrete toboggan team, baja racing, etc.).
If you enjoy math/physics then you'll do good in them cuz you're always willing and motivated to study. I enjoyed math in first year and used to spend a lot of time on it..but don't forget about the other courses

Did your love of math/physics carry onto uni math/physics even though it gets harder?

Originally Posted by J.Clouseau

Did your love of math/physics carry onto uni math/physics even though it gets harder?

Answers to this question really depends on the individual and their abilities but for me, my love for calculus was shot dead and run over by a car in second term when we took Math 1ZB3 -_- But don't fear, that might be different for you

However for physics, I actually liked it more in university than in high school. I'm not sure if it had to do with Okon's teaching or the material itself but I really enjoyed both physics courses last year

Originally Posted by J.Clouseau

Did your love of math/physics carry onto uni math/physics even though it gets harder?

It did for me. High school math was kinda meh, then first year got a little more interesting, then i really liked second year. There was a third year one for my faculty, but it recently got changed, i kinda wish they kept it tbh, it looked really cool. Of course this is all excluding any difficulty factors - i'm talking about solely being interesting or not. If you can find an appreciation for the course you're taking, you'll do a hell of a lot better than if you just skid by. Usually you don't really respect a subject until you start getting out of the basics and fundamentals (i.e. highschool, and even first year) and start seeing the practical applications for all this knowledge. So if you're liking those courses now, you're off to a good start

Originally Posted by J.Clouseau

Did your love of math/physics carry onto uni math/physics even though it gets harder?

My love for math grew a lot when i took the first year math courses, especially 1zb3. I used to study math with enthusiasm!

To be honest, i didn't feel like the math courses were much harder than high school, or maybe because my gr.12 math teacher was really strict. If you love math now in hs then you'll also love first year math as long as you practice a lot! Some people liked high school math yet they hated it in uni because they didn't practice. Math is all about practice!

I never loved physics in hs, and 1d03 was alright. Phys 1e03 was a diff story -_- but you can bet that someone will tell you "Ohh i actually loved 1e03 and did good in it"..why? because it was interesting to them and they used to study it with "passion".

To be honest sometimes the general first year "stereotypes" can have an influence on your grades. People are gonna tell you that 1e03 is the "eliminator", yet you're gonna see people getting perfect gpa in it...why? Because these people forgot about all the stereotypes and worked really hard, even if the material was a bit challenging.

My advise would be to never take those "stereotypes" by heart. It's good to get some advice from upper year eng students, but don't make it have an influence on you.

Thanks so much for the insight . There are only a few things that are on my mind regarding engineering though..

1. Was never a 'tinkerer,' have rarely done anything engineering related so I'm going into the field based on my interest in math/physics.
2. I'm not really a "tech" dude either.. I've always wanted to be a teacher all my life but seeing as things as crap, I decided that engineering would be okay, but yeah I'm not that super high tech.
3. (Not trying to boost) It only takes me like in total 1 - 1 1/2 hours to prepare for a test as I do the homework nightly (I don't know if that's the norm) but I don't know if this is due to the teacher, school, or etc.. I'm kind of worried this won't work in university?

Thanks alot guiz.

Originally Posted by J.Clouseau

Thanks so much for the insight . There are only a few things that are on my mind regarding engineering though..

1. Was never a 'tinkerer,' have rarely done anything engineering related so I'm going into the field based on my interest in math/physics.
2. I'm not really a "tech" dude either.. I've always wanted to be a teacher all my life but seeing as things as crap, I decided that engineering would be okay, but yeah I'm not that super high tech.
3. (Not trying to boost) It only takes me like in total 1 - 1 1/2 hours to prepare for a test as I do the homework nightly (I don't know if that's the norm) but I don't know if this is due to the teacher, school, or etc.. I'm kind of worried this won't work in university?

Thanks alot guiz.

1) I never did anything engineering related in high school, i just had an interest in math/physics and was always looking at diff engineering streams and a lot seemed interesting to me.

2) I am not that tech either :p maybe that's why i didn't go into electrical lol but yea don't worry about it, not everyone in engineering is high tech as you might think.

3) If you do your homework daily in engineering then it shouldn't take you that long to prepare for your tests...although people spend some time preparing because some are just behind and need to catch up/review..others do lots of old midterms so it takes them a while to prepare...so you see, there are lots of reasons why people spend some time reviewing/preparing for their midterms. As i said earlier, if you study day by day and never leave things to the last minute, you don't need to spend a great amount of time "preparing".

3. yea I used to be like that too...and I attempted to be like that in eng every year. Every year, without fail, there was a week that put you behind and then it was always a struggle to get back to being ahead of the game. So good luck!

Originally Posted by Rstevenson

3. yea I used to be like that too...and I attempted to be like that in eng every year. Every year, without fail, there was a week that put you behind and then it was always a struggle to get back to being ahead of the game. So good luck!

Couldn't agree more with this, when you start juggling 6 courses, you'll have like 3 midterms in a week, and in between studying for 3 freaking tests, you need to somehow stay up to date in the other 3 classes. It's takes pretty insane time management skills to balance it all. If you don't, then you're behind, and when will you catch up? Now there's the other 3 midterms the following week already! Getting your undergrad in eng is more time management than smarts tbh.

It doesn't cause many others are just like you. It does cause you'll be able to grasp faster and can spend more time on your weaker subjects. You can start by trying to learn some programming stuff on python now.