First Year Engineering Expectations

By -

What is First Year Engineering? 


    First Year Engineering, also called FYE, is often confusing to incoming freshman or future Boilermakers. As I was applying to Purdue, I did not know what FYE was or how it was different from other college engineering programs. In this Blog, I hope to show you what FYE looks like for most students and the courses involved.


    First Year Engineering is a program where you can figure out which type of engineering you want to study. You will not select the discipline of engineering that you are doing until the end of your freshman year. First Year Engineering courses allow you to learn the fundamentals of engineering before you jump into specialized engineering courses. Instead of being unfamiliar with an engineering program before you come to college, Purdue allows students to have time to get a sense of what to expect. You also learn about the different engineering programs. College can be stressful especially in the beginning, so it is nice to know that you have time to figure out an engineering pathway that you are passionate about.

    Purdue prepares beginning students with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to be successful in their engineering majors. Students are required to have at least 30 credit hours during their first year. There are certain core classes like engineering, chemistry, calculus, and physics that everyone is required to take but there is flexibility in the order you take them. It can be confusing to know which classes are best for you and which will help you meet the required credit hours so it is important to reach out to an FYE advisor or look through the College of Engineering curriculum on Purdue's website.

What classes can you expect to take?


    My schedule for the first semester consists of calculus, chemistry, engineering, communications, and an elective. The level of course that you go into is based on what your advisor recommends and if you have credit to move to higher class. So consider looking to see if you have any AP credit or other college credit from highschool to cover some of the FYE courses. I would suggest looking at the criteria of the specific courses for FYE students and learn which one will help you get into your desired discipline. For example, I am most interested in doing Biomedical engineering after my first year so my advisor suggested I take chemistry first.

ENGR 131/132


    There are a few course options to complete the general engineering requirement, but ENGR 131/132 is the most common! ENGR 131/132 is known as Transforming Ideas to Innovation I and II. If you choose to take this course, you will have ENGR 131 your first semester and 132 your second semester. In this class, you will work with teams and complete various projects that will help guide you to the final product project. I am currently working with my team on a project where we use Excel in order to create data analysis. In the second semester, instead of using Excel, we will focus more on MATLAB which is a programming platform. This class is helping me see how I work with a team and hear different perspectives from others. It is a great course if you aren't as familiar with Excel because you will start with the basics and learn more as the semester goes on. In addition to ENGR 131 and 132, there is also the ENGR 133 course for FYE students. ENGR 133 is a more advanced course because it combines ENGR 131 and 132 into one semester to get more project based work for the second semester. You will use Excel, Python, and MATLAB during the first semester. It is a great class if you are already familiar with these programs and like to work in a fast paced environment. It is mainly offered through the service learning design program called EPICS or VIP. In addition, if you are in the Honors program, ENGR 161/162 is the offered course. It is a similar project (robotics ,coding, and design projects) based course that also covers the physics credit requirement. It is also open to students outside of the Honors college.

Women in Engineering Learning Community


    A course that I enrolled for after joining the WiE learning community was the ENGR 194 seminar class. This course is considered as an elective and is offered to all women in engineering at Purdue. During this course, you will get to meet fellow women in FYE and maybe even create long lasting friendships. It can be difficult the first few months to meet people but being in this course already gives you the chance to do that! It is one of my favorite classes right now and it is a one credit hour course. I have learned how to prepare for the Industrial Roundtable (our big career fair on campus), create a LinkedIn page, and be successful in the classroom just so far. We also have gotten to hear from women engineers and their stories about their careers but we also hear about other positions too. This course helps women in engineering feel prepared not just for their four years in college but for their life after Purdue.

    To conclude, FYE makes Purdue unique compared to many other engineering programs. During FYE, you are given the opportunity to discover what engineering discipline you want to go into and what engineering is really about. Having those strong foundational skills will help you succeed not only in your chosen discipline but also in your overall academic and professional journey.

Grace Fuller, FYE

Recruitment Project Committee


Stay Connected With Purdue WiE Program!

Facebook: Purdue Women in Engineering

Instagram: @purdue.wie

Blog: purduewiep.blogspot.com

Email: welink@purdue.edu

YouTube: Purdue Women in Engineering Program - YouTube



Use the hashtag #PurdueWiE on Facebook and Instagram!


Purdue Women in Engineering

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Understanding Purdue Housing

By -
Image
One of the many concerns incoming freshmen have is what to do regarding their housing options. In addition to the roommate selection process, you may be interested in seeing your on-campus options in terms of amenities and the communities available within the building. For example, when I accepted my admission to Purdue as a freshman, I knew I was interested in a standard double that I had experienced at a summer college program. To ensure my University Residences housing, I applied to Vertically Integrated Projects so that I would be able to pursue a research project as a freshman while also guaranteeing my housing within Earhart Hall through the connected learning community. For more information on learning communities, read our previous blog! Many freshmen will live in a residence hall, even if they are not in a specific learning community. Now, as a Resident Assistant or RA in Earhart Hall, I have been trained on the term “residence hall”; our halls go beyond a traditional “dormito
Read more

Top 10 Extracurriculars Purdue Students Want You to Join Outside of Engineering

By -
Image
1. Purdue University Dance Marathon (PUDM):  The biggest student-run organization on campus! You can join as a dancer, where you get to fundraise leading up to the 18-hour long event or be even more involved and join a committee! Some of the committees include Riley Relations, where you fundraise to sponsor events for the Riley families throughout the year & are paired with a Riley family for the night of the event, Special Events Committee, where you organize 5K’s and other events around campus throughout the year, and so much more! 2. Boiler Gold Rush (BGR):  Whether it be as a new student, a team leader (TL), or even a Supervisor, there are so many ways to get involved with BGR! This week-long event is held the week before classes start in August. As a new student, it is your first chance to meet your new colleagues and participate in many games, fountain runs, and other fun activities throughout the week. It is also a great way to familiarize yourself with the campus an
Read more

A very (sub)objective review of dining options at Purdue

By -
Image
Jenn and her friends after the Thankgiving dinner Food is an integral part of our day. For some people, the very first thing they do in the morning is eat breakfast. I personally prefer my cup of coffee to a stack of waffles. Nonetheless, food has the power to pick up a bad mood, enhance a good mood, and even ease the stress you are feeling about exams and homework. The awareness I have of how food impacts my mood is recently found since I started college in August. at home I usually came home to my mom or dad making something delicious in the crockpot. Suddenly I arrive at college and there are so many options that it can get overwhelming at times to figure out what to eat. Navigating the dining options at college did not seem like something I should have been worried about, yet it was something that took a month of experimenting to perfect.  The key is knowing where to go and what is consistent. I decided to help you out and give you some insight into how I view each dining option on
Read more