[hyvaa]

First year health sci gets tougher every year. In fact, they created a project this year so that we have two projects simultaneously going on in one course. I personally had to deal with three group projects (cell bio+ inquiry - which by no means are jokes), math, chem and physics. The group projects really do take up a lot of time - they practically eat up our lives. I know some people had 10 hour meeting everyday or something. I had something way less than that fortunately. Our projects involve real research skills, where you are required to face primary academic sources such as scientific journal articles. You don't normally do that in first year.
Well, health sci can be easy or hard, depending on the individual. If the individual decides to take Inquiry as a joke, then it will become a joke and have no work (b/c there will be 3 or 4 other people who can cover him/her up in the group). But if the individual chooses to really take something from the course, he/she will have to work a lot.

I am not trying to start a faculty war or claim that health sci students do the most work. I am simply trying to argue against your unfair perspective about "easy" first year health sci. Health scis do a lot of work as well.

[mike_302]

Can we get back on topic? I said I was sorry for being so specific about health sci. I re-wrote my statement in my last post. If you have a problem with that statement, you can send me a message, but Andrew wrote a great article and this thread is for engineering first year tips...

Thanks everyone!

[SciMania]

why does everything turn into a discussion about health sci...

it's university, COME ON, everybody's got it difficult, there's really no one faculty that's easier than others...the whole point is, though, that engineers DO have it difficult but that's not to say that health sci's are breezing through university...because as we know from the countless threads that turn into discussions about health sci...you guys have many many many group projects that are by no means easy, but really, i dont see a point trying to defend a point that's already been defended to death so many times

[lorend]

As SciMania said, this is a topic about first year ENGINEERING.

Any students who henceforth talk about another faculty will be given a written warning (via PM) by the admin.

That being said, if you wish to write an article advising incoming students about first year program x, please do so.

Danielle,
MacInsiders VP Admin

[crazyfree]

Maybe the healthsci part could be modified so as not to create inter-faculty issues? A frosh who gets their information from this could end up having predetermined opinions on HlthScis because of comments like that (..though I suppose realistically it's going to happen anyway...). But to have it as part of an official article on macinsiders makes it seem like an "endorsed" opinion. Which I think most would agree is a little unfair.

Now...Eng sounds maad hard and I thank god I'm not in it lol...I would have flunked out tbh. (math=not my thing) Hence why I am NOT one of those healthscis who took math

It's a great article ...but I guess my point is that the healthsci specific comment is maybe a little unessacry/specific?

[Stevie Q.]

Just thought I should chime in...in fact, several schools in Ontario have musicals created entirely by engineering students. I don't think they are similar in style to the Mac Eng Musical, but they are a big deal at those schools as well.

I'm not sure where you got that North America fact from, but it raises another point...my advice to engineering students is to go to conferences every chance you get! You get an opportunity to meet people from across the country that are a lot like you, get to learn a lot (including differences/similarities at other schools), and experience legendary parties.

Cheers,
Stevie Q.

[khaotic]

You don't really have the right to judge the difficulty of a program if you've never tried it.

That being said... I like the article, but it would probably be a good idea to remove that health sci bit so more people don't get angry. It would also help to decrease the bias first years tend to develop against other faculties....

Originally Posted by Ownaginatios

If you think that's hard, prepare to get raped in second year, lol.

Agreed! The material in first year is nothing compared to second year. First year was more of a review year lol

[Forthex]

I do not agree at all with removing bias from my article; this is an article by a first year engineer, specifically for new first year engineering students in the fall. I'm sure many of you all know, we have biases against other faculties. The Red Suits during Frosh week taught me this well, and now that I will be a Red Suit / Engineering Frosh Controller in the fall, I feel I must pass this on, as well as all other aspects of Engineering culture. The biases and jabs are, of course, playful and non-harmful in nature, but they're there and are an integral part of the Engineering experience.

Misery loves company; knowing that 800 kids are trudging through the same course load / workload is comforting. It also helps to collectively relieve stress by complaining to each other about our workload / course load and about the believed (key word believed) workload / course load of other faculties. Is is necessarily correct that we do this? No. But it's there, and we show our Frosh that this is part of the current engineering culture at Mac, and they are welcome to join in, or not, or even try to create new aspects of Engineering culture at Mac. We don't really mind whatever choice you make, but we think you'll have more fun if you come along for the ride and see what Mac Eng really is all about.

[forever0zero]

Originally Posted by khaotic

You don't really have the right to judge the difficulty of a program if you've never tried it.

That being said... I like the article, but it would probably be a good idea to remove that health sci bit so more people don't get angry. It would also help to decrease the bias first years tend to develop against other faculties... Other than that good article.


Agreed! The material in first year is nothing compared to second year. First year was more of a review year lol

QFT, i thought we were baby sat in first year. There were so many assignments and quizzes in first year to keep you up to date, and they helped boost marks (matls 1m03 comes to mind). This year (2nd yr mech and mgmt), other than for a few courses, there were no assignments or labs and i found myself falling way behind, but thats probably because i slack off too much lol.

[Enge]

Originally Posted by Stevie Q.

Just thought I should chime in...in fact, several schools in Ontario have musicals created entirely by engineering students. I don't think they are similar in style to the Mac Eng Musical, but they are a big deal at those schools as well.

I'm not sure where you got that North America fact from, but it raises another point...my advice to engineering students is to go to conferences every chance you get! You get an opportunity to meet people from across the country that are a lot like you, get to learn a lot (including differences/similarities at other schools), and experience legendary parties.

Cheers,
Stevie Q.

Unless I'm mistaken, what Andrew actually means to say is that we were the first engineering musical. This year was our 12th production.

[Forthex]

Originally Posted by Stevie Q.

Just thought I should chime in...in fact, several schools in Ontario have musicals created entirely by engineering students. I don't think they are similar in style to the Mac Eng Musical, but they are a big deal at those schools as well.

I know that UofT does an Eng play (dramatic or otherwise) and Waterloo has an Engineering improv group that put on annual shows, I'm fairly confident that McMaster is the only university in North America whose engineering faculty created and continues to sponsor an annual musical, as Wikipedia defines as "a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance." It was it's 12th year this year and research has been done in the past to see if could actually claim we were the first engineering musical. I know at McMaster our efforts have spawned a Health Sci musical, and I've heard rumours about a Nursing musical starting next year.

[Forthex]

As for those of you in upper year engineering saying second year and beyond is harder than first year, I have to agree with out. But, what I'm saying is that the work one has to do in first year engineering is a HUGE step up from high school. In second year, you have some familiarity to fall back on: you go to the same school as you did the year before, your work ethic should be roughly the same as it was when you ended the previous year.

I personally think the jump to a completely new school setting and lifestyle for a lot of students, even as welcoming as Frosh week is, is still very jarring. Home vs residence, campus food vs home cooking (the dreaded "Freshman 15"), etc. Also, the work output one does in high school vs first year Engineering can be staggering. Two weeks after Frosh Week, it finally sunk in for me that Engineering was as hard and insane as everyone said it would be, and maybe even more so.

[Stevie Q.]

Originally Posted by Forthex

I know that UofT does an Eng play (dramatic or otherwise) and Waterloo has an Engineering improv group that put on annual shows, I'm fairly confident that McMaster is the only university in North America whose engineering faculty created and continues to sponsor an annual musical, as Wikipedia defines as "a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance." It was it's 12th year this year and research has been done in the past to see if could actually claim we were the first engineering musical.

I love the musical and have seen 8/12 of them. However the OP said: "McMaster is the only school in North America (and probably the world!) whose engineering faculty puts on an engineering musical", which is incorrect, or at least misleading...UofT's engineering musical claims to have been around for 88 years. I'm sure if people are specific enough about technical details they can claim to have the first/only anything, and really there's not much point to arguing details. Important thing is it's rare, it's amazing, it's unique, not to be missed, and worth getting involved in! It's something we can be hugely proud of either way.

[Ownaginatios]

Originally Posted by hyvaa

The group projects really do take up a lot of time - they practically eat up our lives. I know some people had 10 hour meeting everyday or something.

Were they in the group with that insane work-nazi-locks-everyone-in-a-room-till-they're-done-their-group-assignment girl I've heard so much about?

[Penguin]

Originally Posted by etoilex3

Okay so if you're not trying to start a war, all I'm trying to say is don't make assumptions about something you clearly know nothing about since you're not in health sciences.
For your information, the physics and calculus courses that health sciences choose to take are ELECTIVES. Every health sci has a slightly different work load based on the electives they decide to take.

While there are some periods of times where there is not too much stress/ things due:: projects, essays, midterms, and assessments often pile up and lead to a lot of work..

What do you think we do at our group meetings, having tea together? We are designing complicated and complex projects, most of which are related to real world research applications. Most of the assignments we do are designed for the REAL WORLD. They help us learn LIFE SKILLS, which group work definitely is as many professions including medical, business, law etc. HEAVILY involve working together in a group. We're not learning to sit in a lecture and take notes, memorize books, or do physics problems a million times, we're leaving life skills.

Consider giving opinions on something you know about, like engineering.

And we are the faculty that never sleeps.

If you think first year health sci is hard, you better drop out now.

First year health sci hands down has infinitely less work than ENG I to begin with. In addition, regardless of what electives you choose, the work load is still ridiculously easy in comparison.

Secondly, if you think first year health science is hard, you better drop out now before second year. Or else you might die of sleep deprivation or something.

It is true health scis do learn alot of life skills in classes, but the # of hours spent in group meetings in very minimal in first year. Meetings hardly go over 3 or 4 hours for the most part.

So in conclusion, don't try to compare Health Sci I to Eng I. Health sci is a first year freebee in terms of grades. The amount of extra time you have during exam season alone, due to the lack of exams in 2/5 courses per semester, is enough reason to show that health scis have more than enough time to ace all their classes first year.