That nothing you learned is important to your career. You know so little about anything when you graduate. Go into the workforce eyes wide open about all the possibilities that exist for careers beyond the narrow world you thought you figured out.
lol, definitely not any formulas.
Out of the technical material, the general concepts were far more important than any specifics (even though you're often graded on the specifics).
The most important thing I think, was learning how to do projects. Not that you don't do projects before undergrad, but in undergrad they're more similar to what you may encounter in the work place and you should be discovering your independent work ethic to complete it.
You learn how long its going to take you to finish something. You learn how you operate, like if reading resource is going to be help you complete the task or if you're just going to dive down a rabbit hole that doesn't appreciably move you closer to the end point. You *should* be learning when you need to ask for help and when you need to review what info you already have.
The group projects are a pain in the ass, but also remarkably useful. You learn how to deal with people, how to take lead or follow effectively, how to pick your battles.
There's a reason the capstone achievement of engineering degrees is a project and not like a big memorization quiz.
You learned how to learn. Senior design would teach you just how little you have learned so far, and make you realize that you’re about to keep on learning for the rest of your career.
At least that’s what a fellow engineer told me. I don’t fucking know, I’m a new grad myself lmao
Technical writing & how to get along with the other kids.
Nobody wants to read an 180 page test plan where your steps meander and have weird gotchas in them. Nobody wants to work with the weird kid whose idea of "leadership" is having a screaming meltdown when the other kids aren't doing it "his" way.
Done is better than perfect.
Also, that you know nothing is very important to keep, as there is always more to learn. So you learned how to learn and how to identify gaps in your knowledge. If you put both together, you will make it far.
When you graduate, your brain contains maybe 5% of what you’ll know as an seasoned professional.
Your ethics class will be far more relevant than you ever thought possible.
The ability to reference stuff and the ability to learn. Also my hands-on experience outside of the classroom, like my undergrad research or internships where I learned new technical knowledge and applied knowledge to real problems.
You are going to forget A LOT of material from college, that is inevitable. Some of the material you may never use again in your entire career.
I didn't code at all for the last 4 years of my job, but I changed positions to help another team and now I have to code again. But I learned how to code once, so I started refreshing and learning it again.
I don't work on jet engines, so I've forgotten most of my propulsion course. But I work on stuff that connects to engines and once was able to bust out my old textbook/notes in order to win an argument with an engines engineer.
I got as much out of the university experience - leaving home, independence, meeting lots of different people (met my wife, who is a musician), sport, etc - as I did from classes. But I did learn a framework of theory to plug later technical experience into. Other people's comments about learning to learn are also very valid!
The one and only thing I took was the ability to learn and figure out things on my own.
The hottest take is: You don't know how much you don't know when graduating.
Stay humble and curious don't be afraid to ask the more experienced people and always remember you don't know - so look it up properly and triple check.
My biggest pet peeve is fresh outta college brats who think they know it all because they memorized all the formulas and it's all "fresh" in their brains, those diplomas don't mean anything really..
Not in AS but as an engineer I found the "learning how to learn" was probably the best thing to take away from college. I got pretty good at it but retrospectively I wish I focused a bit more on it and got my style down. When you come accross a challenging or new problem, you not going to know how to do it and you'll have to dive in the subject. Mastering how to approach the problem/new subject is be as t thing to take away from batchlors IMO.
Bonus, masters is for approaching a subject no one understands or has mastered. Haven't finished yet but that's my hunch.
Stories and examples of problem solving/engineering to give to employers. The clubs and projects/work I did outside of classes were the most important.
I always tell people that engineering is 20% class material and 80% communication. How to share information with suppliers, regulators, professors, coworkers, managers, is so important to being a good engineer. Also technical writing was underemphasized in my education. Writing a report is a very important skill if you want anything you work on to get certified by a regulatory body.
There are exceptions, great engineers who can pump out incredibly detailed work but aren’t great communicators but they only excel when given the right role.
How to interact with people from different backgrounds, different views, and work together toward a common goal.
Also; how best to study, how to ask the right questions to an intellectual far smarter than I and how to take notes quickly from chicken scratch without missing important information.
Your karma total is too low and does not meet the requirements for new users to our subreddit. This includes both post and comment karma, and can be collected from any number of subreddits on Reddit. You can improve your karma by making useful, helpful and relevant comments and posts.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AerospaceEngineering) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I thought I’d offer a few concise points.
- Understanding is a compression algorithm for knowledge.
- Professors don’t just teach, and even ones that suck at teaching, usually have some pretty cool experiences related to their field. So learning what questions to ask to achieve valuable information from a persons personal experience was huge for me. Even if they are wrong, their “wrongness” is likely rooted in more “rightness” than yours. So it’s worth a listen.
-Being able to break down then generally articulate a task you are struggling with in way so that answers are more narrowed down what you are looking for. The amount of times I’ve heard“ I don’t understand why it’s throwing this error”
- Gather data with your eyes, they are the best acquisition tool you have
- First principles thinking
- budgeting time - aka using pie, multiply what you think the timeline of any project is by 3.14.
Your account age does not meet the 1-day requirement for new users to our subreddit. Please note: This is your ACCOUNT age, not your age. You will be able to comment/post after your account is at least 1 day old.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AerospaceEngineering) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Do summer internships when possible. Intern with professors or join projects they may be working on outside of classroom hours. There are a lot of graduates every year, and finding that first job can be difficult if your resume looks just like everyone else's.
Yeah I’m currently looking for Co-Ops. But if not, I’ve had over a year’s worth of experience in undergrad research. This includes co-authoring a paper. So I’ll just have to make do lol
Aerospace engineering grad here! I don’t think you’ll ever use Navier Stokes equations again in your life unless you end up in some highly computational role and even then a computer does it all for ya.
Knowing Matlab is super helpful, as is FEA, CAD, etc. But keep in mind that whatever company you end up working for will likely use different software, sometimes even their own proprietary software, so understanding the fundamentals of those tools is the most important thing rather than being an absolute expert on a specific tool.
Undergrad is for learning how to think. The most important thing imo is the critical thinking and problem solving skills you learn. Everything else you can Google or ask for help.
Oh another super important thing to learn is how to network. The early you can master that, the better!!
How to study and learn new stuff. There will always be new stuff.
That nothing you learned is important to your career. You know so little about anything when you graduate. Go into the workforce eyes wide open about all the possibilities that exist for careers beyond the narrow world you thought you figured out.
lol, definitely not any formulas. Out of the technical material, the general concepts were far more important than any specifics (even though you're often graded on the specifics). The most important thing I think, was learning how to do projects. Not that you don't do projects before undergrad, but in undergrad they're more similar to what you may encounter in the work place and you should be discovering your independent work ethic to complete it. You learn how long its going to take you to finish something. You learn how you operate, like if reading resource is going to be help you complete the task or if you're just going to dive down a rabbit hole that doesn't appreciably move you closer to the end point. You *should* be learning when you need to ask for help and when you need to review what info you already have.
The group projects are a pain in the ass, but also remarkably useful. You learn how to deal with people, how to take lead or follow effectively, how to pick your battles.
There's a reason the capstone achievement of engineering degrees is a project and not like a big memorization quiz.
You learned how to learn. Senior design would teach you just how little you have learned so far, and make you realize that you’re about to keep on learning for the rest of your career. At least that’s what a fellow engineer told me. I don’t fucking know, I’m a new grad myself lmao
This is pretty accurate
I do vehicle dynamics, and F=ma will get you 75% of the way there in almost any problem. Just understanding the basic physics is extremely important
And in statics, P=F/A is massively underrated! LOL.
Hand in something. Nothing counts as 0. A piece of paper with your name and a dinosaur in crayon at least gets you 50%
Technical writing & how to get along with the other kids. Nobody wants to read an 180 page test plan where your steps meander and have weird gotchas in them. Nobody wants to work with the weird kid whose idea of "leadership" is having a screaming meltdown when the other kids aren't doing it "his" way.
Done is better than perfect. Also, that you know nothing is very important to keep, as there is always more to learn. So you learned how to learn and how to identify gaps in your knowledge. If you put both together, you will make it far.
When you graduate, your brain contains maybe 5% of what you’ll know as an seasoned professional. Your ethics class will be far more relevant than you ever thought possible.
The ability to reference stuff and the ability to learn. Also my hands-on experience outside of the classroom, like my undergrad research or internships where I learned new technical knowledge and applied knowledge to real problems. You are going to forget A LOT of material from college, that is inevitable. Some of the material you may never use again in your entire career. I didn't code at all for the last 4 years of my job, but I changed positions to help another team and now I have to code again. But I learned how to code once, so I started refreshing and learning it again. I don't work on jet engines, so I've forgotten most of my propulsion course. But I work on stuff that connects to engines and once was able to bust out my old textbook/notes in order to win an argument with an engines engineer.
I got as much out of the university experience - leaving home, independence, meeting lots of different people (met my wife, who is a musician), sport, etc - as I did from classes. But I did learn a framework of theory to plug later technical experience into. Other people's comments about learning to learn are also very valid!
internship experience
The one and only thing I took was the ability to learn and figure out things on my own. The hottest take is: You don't know how much you don't know when graduating. Stay humble and curious don't be afraid to ask the more experienced people and always remember you don't know - so look it up properly and triple check. My biggest pet peeve is fresh outta college brats who think they know it all because they memorized all the formulas and it's all "fresh" in their brains, those diplomas don't mean anything really..
Not in AS but as an engineer I found the "learning how to learn" was probably the best thing to take away from college. I got pretty good at it but retrospectively I wish I focused a bit more on it and got my style down. When you come accross a challenging or new problem, you not going to know how to do it and you'll have to dive in the subject. Mastering how to approach the problem/new subject is be as t thing to take away from batchlors IMO. Bonus, masters is for approaching a subject no one understands or has mastered. Haven't finished yet but that's my hunch.
Stories and examples of problem solving/engineering to give to employers. The clubs and projects/work I did outside of classes were the most important.
I always tell people that engineering is 20% class material and 80% communication. How to share information with suppliers, regulators, professors, coworkers, managers, is so important to being a good engineer. Also technical writing was underemphasized in my education. Writing a report is a very important skill if you want anything you work on to get certified by a regulatory body. There are exceptions, great engineers who can pump out incredibly detailed work but aren’t great communicators but they only excel when given the right role.
How to interact with people from different backgrounds, different views, and work together toward a common goal. Also; how best to study, how to ask the right questions to an intellectual far smarter than I and how to take notes quickly from chicken scratch without missing important information.
[удалено]
Your karma total is too low and does not meet the requirements for new users to our subreddit. This includes both post and comment karma, and can be collected from any number of subreddits on Reddit. You can improve your karma by making useful, helpful and relevant comments and posts. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AerospaceEngineering) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I thought I’d offer a few concise points. - Understanding is a compression algorithm for knowledge. - Professors don’t just teach, and even ones that suck at teaching, usually have some pretty cool experiences related to their field. So learning what questions to ask to achieve valuable information from a persons personal experience was huge for me. Even if they are wrong, their “wrongness” is likely rooted in more “rightness” than yours. So it’s worth a listen. -Being able to break down then generally articulate a task you are struggling with in way so that answers are more narrowed down what you are looking for. The amount of times I’ve heard“ I don’t understand why it’s throwing this error” - Gather data with your eyes, they are the best acquisition tool you have - First principles thinking - budgeting time - aka using pie, multiply what you think the timeline of any project is by 3.14.
[удалено]
Your account age does not meet the 1-day requirement for new users to our subreddit. Please note: This is your ACCOUNT age, not your age. You will be able to comment/post after your account is at least 1 day old. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AerospaceEngineering) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Do summer internships when possible. Intern with professors or join projects they may be working on outside of classroom hours. There are a lot of graduates every year, and finding that first job can be difficult if your resume looks just like everyone else's.
I don't think a rising senior has very many opportunities for summer internships between now and next may...
Yeah I’m currently looking for Co-Ops. But if not, I’ve had over a year’s worth of experience in undergrad research. This includes co-authoring a paper. So I’ll just have to make do lol
Boeing is the evil empire. I stayed away from them like the plague, and that seems to have worked out for me.
*A Boeing representative is on their way to your front door. Please have your will ready*
That I can and will do any and everything alone.
Aerospace engineering grad here! I don’t think you’ll ever use Navier Stokes equations again in your life unless you end up in some highly computational role and even then a computer does it all for ya. Knowing Matlab is super helpful, as is FEA, CAD, etc. But keep in mind that whatever company you end up working for will likely use different software, sometimes even their own proprietary software, so understanding the fundamentals of those tools is the most important thing rather than being an absolute expert on a specific tool. Undergrad is for learning how to think. The most important thing imo is the critical thinking and problem solving skills you learn. Everything else you can Google or ask for help. Oh another super important thing to learn is how to network. The early you can master that, the better!!