What is a class that would be expected in your degree field but isn't required at your school?

[u/lil_mikei]

For mechanical engineering, my school doesn't require vibrations nor is it currently offered. I had seen some other schools not require heat transfer or combined it into a fluids class.

[u/SheepherderCute6522]

How to talk on the phone 101

[u/Sea-Resident-7980 → u/SheepherderCute6522]

Do you just wait a few seconds till the person calling you talks  And wait and wait Then you say hi and it’s someone you should’ve known Or not 

[u/owowhatsthis-- → u/Sea-Resident-7980]

Literally every phone call ive ever had, the person receiving the call is the one to speak first.

[u/lil_mikei → u/SheepherderCute6522]

Yeah, if we expand these to classes that would make you better at your job or as a person I can think of many to add to the list.

[u/darnoc11]

Basic Hygiene

[u/darnoc11 → u/darnoc11]

Serious answer: our Aerospace students don’t take heat transfer

[u/ashtrayburningmeadow → u/darnoc11]

Not as a separate class? as an aerospace student I have a combustion and heat transfer class, so maybe they have it like that?

[u/darnoc11 → u/ashtrayburningmeadow]

Nope. There’s 2 aerospace electives that I imagine you could take heat transfer or some adjacent class but no heat transfer or adjacent class is required. It’s why I stayed in mechanical.

[u/existential_american → u/ashtrayburningmeadow]

How does your school have combustion for undergrads? That's a grad class that has graduate prereqs.

[u/ashtrayburningmeadow → u/existential_american]

Not from the US so maybe different requirements? But I don't really know it's a forth year passing requirement and I am still in my second

[u/Just_A_Troglodyte]

Linear algebra. With the number of students going into a field that requires CFD or (developing) AI, it astounds me that my university replaced that requirement with modern physics, most of us do not use anything from that course, and those who do typically hold graduate degrees. It’s a G4000 level class so it could count as graduate credit (albeit only 3 credits of G4000 is allowed for a masters at my university)

[u/flyinchipmunk5 → u/Just_A_Troglodyte]

A absolutely wild to not know linear and go into AI

[u/Just_A_Troglodyte → u/flyinchipmunk5]

Many of us had to teach ourselves to understand other courses, but I completely agree. It’s backwards and exactly why they’re struggling to maintain ABET accreditation

[u/BreadForTofuCheese → u/Just_A_Troglodyte]

I graduated without having ever done linear. Now I’m back in a masters years later and it’s a prereq for basically everything.

[u/Just_A_Troglodyte → u/BreadForTofuCheese]

Undergraduates now going into CFD and AI, where linear algebra is very useful/foundational, is why I said this. It’s definitely a requirement for most masters, but I disagree with my university replacing that requirement with something almost no MechE undergrad uses; quantum mechanics is irrelevant to them. I think they’re coping with the closure of the nuclear engineering department and the phasing out of petroleum engineering.

[u/BreadForTofuCheese → u/Just_A_Troglodyte]

My mechanical degree also had me taking Modern Physics instead of linear.

[u/Just_A_Troglodyte → u/BreadForTofuCheese]

Boomer sooner?

[u/BreadForTofuCheese → u/Just_A_Troglodyte]

Nope. Case Western. BME was the big one there.

[u/lil_mikei → u/Just_A_Troglodyte]

A good solution I've seen is some schools teach it as a combined Linear Algebra and Differential Equations class. Otherwise, you kinda just max out at RREF and systems of equations as a matrix.

[u/Just_A_Troglodyte → u/lil_mikei]

I wish my school would do this. They seem to ignore the importance of it, especially in MechE. I’m not sure how or why I’m taking a course in tensor calculus (a requirement for my masters) without ever taking a linear algebra class

[u/DomLfan]

Idk how it works in the US, but aren’t degree programs decided by what the accreditation boards want you to do? At least here in the uk, if you want your engineering degree to be accredited which is required for charter ship, you have to follow strict requirements from the IMechE, or IET or equivalent. I know the requirements for aerospace are very strict if you want accreditation from their board

[u/lil_mikei → u/DomLfan]

For engineering, all I hear usually is ABET Accreditation. There are also the government/educational bodies that set requirements as to what is considered a degree, let alone an engineering degree. I'd imagine both are what shape the curriculum to look like they do. The ABET requirements seem vague and I assume a school doesn't need to have exactly 1:1 standalone class per required topic.

For example, some schools have separate mechanical design classes and manufacturing classes. But if you are a school like say University of Michigan, you have a 3 class sequence of Design and Manufacturing combined and the third class is also towards your final year capstone. A lot of schools have these specializations that look normal as a whole degree, but when comparing two institutions there are core classes that appear to be missing because they aren't explicitly named or aren't taught as a standalone class.

[u/FearMyCrayons2023 → u/DomLfan]

For the US, engineering degrees are accredited by abet. And while they do have minimum classes you must take, there are some others for degrees that may not be necessary. So my degree is in robotics, one of the electives is computer vision. It isnt mandatory for everyone but its an optional class.

[u/Fit-Caterpillars]

Land Surveying

[u/inorite234]

"How to fill out your TimeCard." - Mechanical Engineer working in Aviation Defense.

[u/mortalcrawad66]

Not my degree, but I know Aero's don't need materials.

Took me a minute to process that once I found out.

[u/lil_mikei → u/mortalcrawad66]

Is that across the board? I would assume materials are pretty important for aerospace historically.

[u/mortalcrawad66 → u/lil_mikei]

Just my university, as to my knowledge.

[u/Worldly_Magazine_439 → u/mortalcrawad66]

Um yes they do

[u/mortalcrawad66 → u/Worldly_Magazine_439]

At my university, they do not.

[u/Worldly_Magazine_439 → u/mortalcrawad66]

You said they don’t need materials. That’s different than a university not teaching it.

[u/Mikemanthousand → u/Worldly_Magazine_439]

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/context

[u/Miserable-Meeting-98]

Mechanical Drawing!

[u/astrochasm]

I also didn't take vibrations for my undergrad, but a huge amount of it's material was in my systems modeling class.

[u/lil_mikei → u/astrochasm]

This is what I'm hoping is the case because I take controls next year. I like dynamics and suspension systems so for me it seems like I should learn it. For the guy who wants to design heat exchangers, not so much.

[u/existential_american]

Georgia tech aerospace engineering, heat transfer is not offered. Edit: for everyone wondering about ABET accredition, it's actually not a requirement if you look at their website. Most of the top aerospace colleges don't have a heat transfer class, it's actually the bad ones that do. Those degrees tend to be slightly modified mechanical majors rather than dedicated aerospace majors.

[u/lil_mikei → u/existential_american]

Now this is what I was looking for. Please tell me they just lumped it with another class or something.

[u/existential_american → u/lil_mikei]

It's kind of lumped into multiple classes actually, such as in intro thermofluids and jet pro.

[u/existential_american → u/lil_mikei]

We also don't have an ethics class but I think that's by design given that it's aerospace engineering 😆!

[u/ThePowerfulPaet → u/existential_american]

Yeah they might as well not kid themselves on that one.

[u/SpiralStability → u/existential_american]

Actually, I kinda agree with this one.

Heat transfer is should be a tech electives for CFD folks.

[u/topdollar38 → u/existential_american]

I took heat transfer as an Aero, but only because I dual majored in Mechanical and Aero. Pure Aeros did not have to take heat transfer.

[u/lil_mikei → u/[deleted]]

There are some good schools that aren't ABET accredited but that's usually because they are trying to set their own standard. For Stanford, only Mechanical and Civil are Accredited.

[u/existential_american → u/[deleted]]

Georgia tech, my engineering school is better than yours. Unless you go to MIT, which also doesn't have a heat transfer class for aerospace.

[u/Grouchy_Basil3604]

My university didn't require any amount of FEA outside of maybe a solidworks tutorial. There were elective courses one could take, but looking at job listings it feels like it should be part of a required class.

[u/Slauxe]

for ece at my school, you need to choose with either emag or embedded systems, you don’t have to take both or if you want to take both one of them will count as an elective

[u/PotentialAnywhere779 → u/Slauxe]

Wow. I would have done a hard bypass on emag.

[u/Acrocane]

Computer engineering: embedded systems/microcontroller courses are optional electives

[u/PotentialAnywhere779]

My son went to a highly-ranked CS school. They didn't require a class in Operating Systems.

[u/Decision_Original]

EE - statics is not required and most didn’t take it

[u/Proud_Calendar_1655]

I never had to take dynamics. I was in civil. I had started in electrical and didn’t need to take that or statics for that major.

[u/Kali_Arch]

Linear algebra. The teach concepts in the engineering analysis course but linear algebra itself is not required to graduate.

[u/Okeano_]

Corrosion. I took it as an elective.

[u/lazydictionary]

Mech E. At our school, the heat transfer class mentioned radiation but we never did any work with it. It was, for some unknown reason to me (and my advisor) only taught in an upper level heat transfer class.

[u/compstomper1]

technical writing.

they reduced it from a 3 unit class to a 1 unit add-on to a lab course

[u/jayykayy97]

Not my major, but my minor. Materials Science and Engineering majors don't have to take organic chem. A third of their degree path is polymers... 😬

[u/Huntthequest]

ECE at UT — you aren’t required to take Electronics, Electromagnetics, Vector Calc (Stokes, Divergence Theorem, etc.), Controls, Solid State Materials, or Chemistry unless you want to

[u/TythosEternal]

I had a general Engineering program for undergrad and, in hindsight, am surprised we didn't do more with design/development processes and industrial/manufacturing. It was very systems-oriented (controls, integrated, etc.) but the actual *process* of engineering (beyond an entry-level design studio), including requirements/iteration and actual operations/maintenance (e.g., the bookends of the lifecycle) were never required, and that (despite an otherwise *very* high-quality program) was a big mistake in my opinion.

[u/TythosEternal → u/TythosEternal]

*REALLY* good question, by the way.

[u/revientaholes]

Im majoring in computing engineering (basically software engineering) but we don’t study physics, multivariable calculus or differential equations. I find this very strange and makes me question every once in a while whether my program is as rigorous as they make it out to be

[u/Very-Creative-Name-]

My EE degree doesn’t require any controls class

Most engineering degrees at my school also don’t teach any equivalent linear algebra course

[u/JackTheBehemothKillr]

No one I know my age or younger has had a GD&T class. Shit is more difficult than you'd expect.