Top 5 unavoidable course categories you will mostly take as an engineering major in 2022
We have come up with a group of five courses that you will end up taking as an engineering major. Every college and university differs in the general courses that they expect all their engineering students to take. However, we have compiled a list of a group of courses that we believe most engineering students will not be able to escape. On this list, we will not include courses such as “thermodynamics”, “material engineering”, or “control systems”. We have tried to stick to first or second-year courses exclusively. Did we forget any important courses or honorary mentions? Let us know in the comment section.
- English and electives
I bet you did not expect to see this one on the list: English. Yes, as an engineer, you need to be able to effectively communicate in English and think critically. Now depending on where you live, the course may not be English but the language of origin from your country or institution. There may be a literature analysis spin to your English (language) course. Either way, you are most likely going to do a lot of writing and reading. After all, who wants to hire an engineer who makes a lot of mistakes when writing or cannot communicate effectively? We all had (or still have) our struggle with that at some point. With a lot of years ahead of your engineering career, you will have plenty of time to improve and become an effective communicator. Thanks to our software and computing engineers, along with experts from diverse fields, autocorrect tools have been invented with Grammarly being one of them. If English (your maternal language or language of study) is not your strongest suit, do not despair, you can still become a great engineer! And if you want to learn another language, you can broaden your horizon by taking a language elective course. Going international is always an option for those who are not ready to settle anytime soon if ever. Elective or complementary courses are required in most school programs. These courses are essentially outside of your major. If you are in the department of engineering, electives can range from courses in the department of communication to classical studies or humanities to social sciences, provided that the course is not part of the engineering faculty. In addition to these complementary courses being approved by your faculty, there may be a specification to them such as “arts electives only”.
2. Business and Economics
At this point, you must be thinking “are we really talking about engineering as a major”? Yes, we are! Business and Economics are literally everywhere, and you cannot escape. Let’s raise a glass to all the business and economic savvy engineers, and for those who do not like anything related to business and economics, it is just one course, hopefully, not a whole major. If you want to double major in commerce and engineering, fill your boots! Engineers with business acumen are more likely going to occupy managerial positions. But that should not be the only reason why you would want to become an engineer, you still need to take the engineering courses specific to your major. If you do not enjoy them, you may have a hard time going through university and another gruesome time navigating your engineering career. But no worries, Career Field got your back! To your surprise, you may discover that you have a knack for entrepreneurship and decide to combine the two fields — entrepreneurship and engineering. As an engineer, you be involved in a multitude of projects, and having a solid grasp of economics will be to your advantage. It will enable you to assess the feasibility of these projects, figure out how to maximize your profit and minimize your cost, as well as how to manage your financial risks and uncertainties knowing your market and your engineering products/services being offered. Taking a business and economic course is certainly going to give some engineers a different outlook on the world of commerce, one that may lead them to reroute their career path.
3. Ethics and law
Ethics, ethics, ethics. We cannot emphasize how important it is for engineers to respect the law. Now depending on the professor, this course may not look like the entertainment shows on law and crime portrayed on television. Remember, it is an engineering course, it is not going to turn you into a lawyer. And if you think that law school is what you see on TV, think again. It may be true for some, but probably not for most. Mark Twain said it best: “truth is stranger than fiction”. Back to the topic, you may have to take a course on law and ethics because as an engineer it is paramount for you to maintain your integrity, especially when faced with issues of legality and conflict of interests. Bioethics, which deals in great parts with what moral boundaries ethicists; scientists; engineers; and the general public as a whole can and cannot push for the greater good of society, is likely to be a topic or course that you will encounter in your engineering studies. Engineering firms have been hit with several lawsuits over the years for many reasons including unethical practices. So, make sure you know the “dos” and “don’ts” to protect yourself, your company, and the public.
4. Math, math, and more math
Finally, we are talking about math. One of those courses that you probably expected to rank among the first three spots on our list. Let’s start with a reputable math course arguably invented by both Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz. Calculus! You will probably have to take differential and integral calculus (calculus I and II). If you are among the fortunate (or unfortunate) ones, you will also have to take multivariable calculus (calculus III). Calculus will be your opportunity to showcase your algebra skills, but there is more to it than just that. You will see how it applies in your engineering field as well because after all, engineering is about applying science in real life. Going through calculus can certainly give you different pair of lenses when you look back on all the math topics learned in the past.
Another math course that includes the word “differential” aside from “differential calculus” is ordinary differential equations (ODE) which differs from partial differential equation (PDE). The former involves partial derivatives that you will cover in multivariable calculus (calculus III) while the latter involves non-partial (simpler) derivates. Almost all engineers will have to be exposed to ordinary differential equations, not necessarily partial differential equations. Differential equations are extremely useful to model a wide array of systems and phenomena in the real world. Differential equation courses will teach you how to solve various forms of different using the appropriate method.
A common method to find solutions to some of those ordinary differential equations is numerical approximations. This brings up another math course you may take individually or as part of your differential equation course: Numerical methods. Numerical analysis or method as implied in its name uses numeral techniques to solve complex equations. Computers are responsible for automating these tedious calculations for convoluted systems. Therefore, to robustly compute these calculations and resolve difficult problems, it is extremely important to decode and formulate numerical algorithms. After all, computers cannot program themselves on their own, there needs to be an engineer or scientist who understands the logic and math behind the code to tell the machine how to execute it. This talk can hopefully serve as a motivation to keep your interest uplifted throughout your numerical analysis class.
Linear algebra and matrices, that is another one! We are not talking about matrices as in the movie “The Matrix” although you may correlate the two, simply let us know how. We are mostly talking about matrices from systems of equations. In this course, you will learn about matrix algebra and different ways to solve linear systems. Other topics covered include but are not limited to vectors; spaces; eigenvalues; eigenvectors, and most importantly, for us engineers, the application of some of those theories in our respective fields. Linear algebra can be found in just about any engineering field.
What is the probability of people clicking this article and reading its content in its entirety? Did we say probability? Whoever says probability should not forget to mention its counterpart, statistics. Probability and statistics are last on our list of math courses you may have to take as an engineer. Any answers to the question of “what is the probability of …” vaguely sum up what probability is mostly about, finding the likelihood of an event happening. This goes to show how wide probability can be. You will learn to categorize different cases and apply the proper probability theory to solve the likelihood of an event. As an engineer, you want to minimize the probability of things going wrong and maximize your probability of success. With statistics, you will learn how to use mathematics to describe and analyze data about a sample and/or a population. You will also learn about different probability distribution functions — we told you these two, probability and statistics, truly come in pairs, and how to use them to interpret and quantify the occurrence of different outcomes for any given situation. With statistics, you will look at the word “hypothesis” differently once you will start testing them. You will finish the course and say something along the line of “as an engineer, I am 95% confident of the process so and so; consequently, I shall resume running further simulations”.
5. Biology, Chemistry, and Physics
From elementary until secondary school, you had to learn your math and of course your science. But science started to hit different when you reached high school. You start branching them out into physics, chemistry, and biology. The branching out expands further even as you progress, forcing you to streamline into a particular field as you advance throughout your post-secondary studies. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves and focus on these three science courses you are most likely going to take in your first two years of university. Starting with biology. If you resented anything that had “bio” in it, you probably will not major in an engineering field that has the word “bio” in it. That being said, you may or may not escape from taking one or two “intro to biology” courses where you will learn the foundation of life, the living, and the non-living as well. If you happen to be one of the “bio” engineering majors, then you will surely take upper-year biology (and chemistry) courses. These include a wide array of topics ranging from biochemistry and beyond (e.g., metabolism, molecular biology, microbiology).
Speaking of chemistry, almost all engineering students will have to take one or few chemistry courses, an “introduction to chemistry” or “general chemistry” course. The chemistry geeks are likely to pick an engineering major that overlaps with life sciences or has the word “chem” in it. In that case, they may take additional chemistry or chemistry-related courses such as biochemistry, organic chemistry I and II, inorganic chemistry, thermochemistry, environmental chemistry etc. Physical chemistry may be an optional course, one whose subjects overlaps quite well with the third science course that all engineers are likely to take, physics.
For physics enthusiasts, engineering physics can be a great career path. For the remaining future engineers to be, you will probably have to take only one or three physic classes. These are going to be fundamental physics courses where you are going to cover subjects from mechanics, waves, optics, electricity, and magnetism. An important component of all the sciences courses is going to be the laboratories. Laboratories are a vital part of learning as they give you the opportunity to put into practice the theory you have learned. It goes without saying that you will have to complete laboratories for your engineering classes. For those who are not fond of labs, rest assured: not every single class you will take will have a laboratory portion to it.
In this article, we focused on engineering courses that you are most likely to take during the first two years of your engineering studies. In your final year, most engineers will be faced with a capstone project. Some students may even be granted permission to take graduate-level classes while others will choose to conduct a research project under the supervision of a professor. Students who aspire to pursue graduate studies are highly encouraged to follow either one or both options.
Nothing comes easy in life. The brightest people did not have it easy during their journey, no one really had. If you struggle with any of these classes, do not despair. You are not the first and will not be the last. Just because everyone around you seems to be doing well does not mean it is the case and even worth more considering, it does not change a thing or two about you. If you happen to have failed a course, that is okay. Try again and persevere. If engineering is truly the path you have chosen for yourself and you are passionate about it, then that is 50% of the battle won. We are pretty sure that is how probability work, but ask your math professor first.
Happy career hunting!
