Hi. I just accepted my offer into Engineering 1 for fall 2009 and was wondering a few things.

1) What are the profs like?
2) What are some good elective courses to take?
3) Are there any things that I should take into consideration in the program?

Those are just a few questions I have atm. I was also wondering if anyone else will be taking Engineering 1 starting fall 09. I'd really like to start meeting people who will be taking the same course. Check out my profile for more info...its not 100% up to date yet but I'll try to finish it by Tuesday.

Thanks in advance for any reply's.

Originally Posted by xxsumz

Hi. I just accepted my offer into Engineering 1 for fall 2009 and was wondering a few things.

1) What are the profs like?
2) What are some good elective courses to take?
3) Are there any things that I should take into consideration in the program?

Those are just a few questions I have atm. I was also wondering if anyone else will be taking Engineering 1 starting fall 09. I'd really like to start meeting people who will be taking the same course. Check out my profile for more info...its not 100% up to date yet but I'll try to finish it by Tuesday.

Thanks in advance for any reply's.

Hey, congrats.

1) Honestly for profs every prof in my opinion was fine, excpet in math make sure you get Childs and in physics try to get Okon.

2) For electives most engineers take both of the econ courses. they are pretty easy as long as you attend all lectures and dont take the course lightly just because its an elective.

3) Things to consider, hmmmmmmm.... be sure to keep up with your homework in math 1Z04(first semester). Its not a tough course but most first years just fall behind on the work and thats why fail or do really bad.

Other than that enjoy yourself, make sure you dont skip any lectures.

Originally Posted by haseeb

2) For electives most engineers take both of the econ courses.

So, I would take this course if I wanted to get into engineering + management or society? otherwise I could potentially take other courses that interest me

Originally Posted by xxsumz

Hi. I just accepted my offer into Engineering 1 for fall 2009 and was wondering a few things.

1) What are the profs like?
2) What are some good elective courses to take?
3) Are there any things that I should take into consideration in the program?

Those are just a few questions I have atm. I was also wondering if anyone else will be taking Engineering 1 starting fall 09. I'd really like to start meeting people who will be taking the same course. Check out my profile for more info...its not 100% up to date yet but I'll try to finish it by Tuesday.

Thanks in advance for any reply's.

1) The professors do range in quality. For example, I did not think Velez (Math) was a good prof at all - Protas was better, and Childs was best. The truth, however, is that the math help centre is a valuable asset that you should always try and go to before tests. I didn't go first term at all, and had a very hard time with 1Z04. I did go during the second term - instead of class, actually - and managed to get a 10 in 1ZZ5.
I had Dr. Jopko both terms for physics, and thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated his teaching style. He has a lot of great analogies to help simplify concepts, that may or may not help you depending on your learning style.
For me, I found the majority of professors useless in a lecture setting - often I would find myself losing focus, and almost drifting off to bed. The lecture halls are not small, and usually any speaking in the audience is amplified due to the less than ideal acoustics in the rooms. That said, textbooks are a step up from high school, and I found most of my learning was done through them.
2) There's an approved electives list that's worth running through - you can find it through McMaster's mildly labyrinthian website. I took microeconomics, put little effort in, and got a mark which was what I deserved (a 6). I also took philosophy (law and society), and got an easy 10. Both were actually thoroughly enjoyable, though I'd advise against taking Microeconomics at night time, as it's easy to get bored sometimes. They both actually had excellent professors, despite the huge class sizes.
3) There's one thing I can not stress enough: do not fall behind. Taking notes throughout the year will expedite studying - especially in Materials, Physics, or Chemistry. Math has an excellent textbook, but the custom courseware was less than ideal for the end of the year content (matrices, etc). All in all, my biggest issue was time management, as seems to be the norm with first year engineering students. In high school, I didn't put in an ounce of effort. I had a big wake-up call when I got my first test mark back (math), and got a 28%. Ouch. More effective than a hard slap in the face though, as I ended up with roughly a 7 average, which I'm hoping will get me into the program of my choice!

Originally Posted by xxsumz

So, I would take this course if I wanted to get into engineering + management or society? otherwise I could potentially take other courses that interest me

Actually to get into management you only need to take microeconomics. Otherwise your rite you can do other courses which interest you more.

Actually for engineering and society you don't have to take any econ courses. You can just take whichever elective you want from the approved list and you can actually end up getting a minor in something.

Originally Posted by xxsumz

1) What are the profs like?
2) What are some good elective courses to take?
3) Are there any things that I should take into consideration in the program?

The profs are .... profs, can't say much about that as each is different. A few are far better than the rest though. For math, try to get Childs, or Protas as a second choice. Velez has a thick accent, and many people have a hard time understanding him. Also, the math help centre is amazing. I pretty much stopped attending math for the last 2 months, and just went there to learn, as its timings are really convenient.
For Materials, try and get Zurob. I haven't actually attended his class, but all my friends have told me to go to his lectures. Hoyt was my prof, and I thought he was really good.
For physics, they are all good, I prefer McKay because he is comical (to me at least, though I have a few friends who think so too)

For electives, the econs (1B03, 1BB3) were really easy. I would recommend just taking those (b03 is mandatory for management, and bb3 is mandatory in further years if you do go into management).

Get Childs for math.

Okon or McKay for physics.

Other courses really don't matter who your prof is because they are less difficult.

Spend most of your time studying the Maths 1Z04 and 1ZZ5, and physics 1D04 and 1E03. They are marked tougher than the rest.

Also for Materials you should try and get Provotas, he wasn't teaching this year because he was on sobatical but I'm pretty sure he'll be back again next year. He's really good, he knows what he's talking about and he loves what he's talking about.

Hey I just finished first year.
I would get childs for math if at all possible.
I had venus and mckay for physics and they were both decent.
I had button for materials and found that I couldn't learn anything from him.
For electives I would highly reccomend the two econs. They put the lectures up on podcasts and the tests are not difficult. I attended about 3 classes for each and got a 10 and a 12 just from watching the podcasts.

Originally Posted by ericvan1

Spend most of your time studying the Maths 1Z04 and 1ZZ5, and physics 1D04 and 1E03. They are marked tougher than the rest.

Agreed.

One thing I can't stress enough: TAKE ELECTIVES YOU ENJOY, NOT BECAUSE YOU THINK THEY'LL BE EASY 12s. When your workload is piling up toward the end of the year and you realize that you haven't actually done any work at all for your electives, the last thing you'll want is to read through four months worth of lecture notes of a class you hate. Trust me, some of the smartest people I know almost failed their electives because they hated them and just couldn't be bothered to take the time to try.

From what I hear, econ is about as entertaining as watching grass grow. I'm biased though, I despise any sort of business courses, so if you enjoy those type of classes, good for you! There's also a list of electives available on the Mac Eng website, and if you go to any of the orientation sessions in August, I'm sure you'll have more than enough info.

The profs in engineering I found were all really good. A few that stood out though were for Math: Dr. Childs, Materials: Dr. Zurob (this guy was probably the best prof though lol) and Physics: Dr. Venus. Most if not all though were really good and very helpful.

Like the others above me have said already take electives that you are really interested in and will enjoy, not because you just want an easy 12. I took Geo 1HB3 (Human Geo City&Economy) and I really enjoyed it. This course involved ALOT of group work outside of class time. For example our second project was to work with 4-5 other group members and go to different sites all around hamilton (Univ. Plaza, Jackson Square, and Limeridge Mall) and map them out and do some field research. This course took a huge amount of time out of my studies for engineering courses but in the end it was enjoyable.

My second elective 20th Century Global History 1BB3 was a HUGE MISTAKE! In highschool I always enoyed history classes but this course was a huge let down. The prof was horrible and the only thing that was somewhat enjoyable was the tutorials. Only if you really feel that history is definately something you want to take then I say go for it but if your unsure and dont want to spend every weekend ready the textbook and falling asleep I suggest you stay away lol.

Thanks for all the advice guys, I'll be sure to take them into consideration when choosing my courses.

If you aren't sure which elective you want, you may want to look into languages (second languages... I don't mean like English literature and stuff :p). I took German, which was easy to do well in. It also had a pretty light work load. I've heard some of the others are the same (Spanish, French, Italian .etc).

From what I've heard; avoid English, geography and philosophy. Apparently they're all a lot of work and are quite difficult to do well in.

Good luck!