Making the transition from high school to college requires extra effort. In order to have a rewarding education you should realize that you must start studying and preparing from the first day of class, attend class regularly, get help right away,
take good notes, select a good study place, and form study groups. You should also con- sider the time management ideas discussed in this chapter to arrive at a reasonable weekly schedule. Your education is an expensive investment. Invest wisely.
you will be introduced to some very important suggestions and ideas that could, if followed, make your engineering education more rewarding. Read this section very carefully, and think about how you can adapt the strategies offered here to get the optimum benefit from your college years. If you encounter difficulty in your studies, reread this chapter for ideas to help you maintain some self-discipline.
You belong to an elite group of students now because you are studying to be an engineer. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, approximately only 5% of students who graduate with a B.S. degree from universities and colleges across the United States are engineers. You will be taught to look at your surroundings differently than other people do. You will learn how to ask ques- tions to find out how things are made, how things work, how to improve things, how to design something from scratch, and how to take an idea from paper to reality and actually build something. Some of you may be on your own for the very first time. Making the transition from high school to college may be a big step for you. Keep in mind that what you do for the next four or five years will affect you for the rest of your life. Remember that how successful and happy you are will depend primarily on you. You must take the responsibility for learning; nobody can make you learn. Depending on which high school you attended, you may not have had to study much to get good grades. In high school, most of your learning took place in class. In contrast, in college, most of your education takes place outside the class. Therefore, you may need to develop some new habits and get rid of some of your old habits in order to thrive as an engineering student. The rest of this chapter presents suggestions and ideas that will help you make your college experience successful. Consider these suggestions and try to adapt them to your own unique situation.
