Hey everyone! 👋

Where could a professional master’s degree take your career? And how can you earn one while working full-time?

We’re here to help answer those questions and more!

I’m John Bade, executive director of the Sever Institute at McKelvey School of Engineering at WashU. For more than 70 years, Sever has offered graduate programs and professional education designed for ambitious learners at every stage of their careers.

On Monday, Oct. 19, from 1–3 p.m. CDT, I’ll be joined by program directors, alumni and current students for an AMA here on r/EngineeringStudents. We’re excited to chat about our graduate programs and what it’s really like to pursue a degree while balancing work and other commitments.

Get ready to ask us anything when the official AMA launches at 1 p.m. CDT on Monday. See you then!

Thanks

I am not ok.

In all seriousness, I passed with an 88 but man was the time requirement massive and the amount of wiggle room was miniscule. I am thankful for the confidence boost though, never considered myself a math wizard but if I can somehow absorb, apply, and retain the shitload of math I had to learn I am feeling pretty good about the journey ahead.

Learned my lesson tho, definitely taking calc 3 for the full term 😅😅😅

Just finished my second midterm, after failing my first with 54% I’m not feeling super confident about my prospects for passing. I just need a sanity check, because this course makes me feel like I’m straight up stupid. How on earth is anyone supposed to memorize all this material, especially sequences and series. My professors are great, but this material is so obtuse it feels like the people running the course are trying to make students fail. I know if I do fail I can take it again but holy shit the amount of effort I’ve been throwing at this class to have a 58% is just demoralizing.

I'm not really upset, more concerned about the future. I thought I studied well and was prepared, but the grades were not really great. I don't know if I'm looking for advice, or sympathy, or what, but I'm defeated right now.

Hello.

I have been in uni now for 4 years and last year I switched to engineering physics (called Teknisk Fysik here in Sweden, don't know if there are counterparts in other countries). Previously I was studying statistics, some sociology and then industrial design, but I felt the need for something more challenging. Oh boy!

I can't convey to anyone outside this field just how badly this is crushing my soul. And I feel like my peers are just agreeing with me out of sympathy, they all seem to be doing perfectly fine. I passed the SATs top 100 out of 75k people and yet I just barely pass any of the subjects here. I understand NOTHING on a deep level. I am WHOLLY uninterested in all and any subjects. Except maybe for finally understanding how a geothermal heat pump works. Kind of.

I fucking hate math.

I have never felt this unaccomplished, worthless, unable, dreamless, blind or just tired in my 25 years of living prior to choosing this purgatorial nightmare of an education.

Does this happen to everyone or should I just count my losses and quit? Is it over for me? Should I gather strength for yet another academic comeback or should I just become a shaolin monk and forget?

Please advise thank you

Right now, I see revit being highly desired as a skill and honestly, I plan on learning it over the summer. either way though are there any otheer skills I should be working on?

Thought this was a pretty interesting approach to robotics. It’s called ALBATROSS, and the idea is to drop it from an aircraft, let it autorotate down like a maple seed, and then have it sail around using wind once it lands on water.

What’s interesting is that it doesn’t need a propulsion motor for either part. Instead of adding more motors and mechanisms, the design relies heavily on aerodynamics and passive mechanics.

Apparently, one of the bigger challenges is getting the same structure to work in two completely different environments.

I wonder how well something like this would scale up, especially for ocean monitoring. Seems like a clever way to deploy a bunch of robots without having to worry as much about battery life.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8CUrj0ydxI

Paper in Science Robotics: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.aed1423

Curious what you guys think. Is this actually a practical approach, or one of those things that’s really cool academically but difficult to use in the real world?

Im currently in Calc 3 in my first semester of sophomore year, everyone I ask and everywhere I look online says that calc 3 is way easier than calc 2 which I did fine in. The trouble is when my professor is explaining things I can't visualize them in my head and that ends up frustrating me to no end in class and I can't decipher what it is were trying to do and its keeps me from fully understanding the concept. I feel like an idiot in the class even though I'm doing "fine" with an 88% but it just feels like I'm learning the equations rather than actually understanding the coursework. So I guess in total I feel as if I'm barely keeping up conceptually and I'd love advice on how to better understand it and how important it really is for me to get it conceptually. Also it feels as if since I'm struggling so much here that it feels like a premonition that I'm going to fail my junior year.

Everything was going fine until I got to First and Second Derivatives to test for Local Extrema. I don't understand anything and can never remember a single step. I would guess it only gets harder from here. I don't even know what to do.

I made a different post on this being my first project. I changed up the syphon idea to a hose and nozzle design. It’s either going to be handheld or I’ll build a hose holder. I’m printing the turbine wheel today, but what do you all think of this design. Using a long shaft with bearing housings for stability in the middle and connecting through a coupler into the generator. I also bought the Nema 17 today. Making a prototype 2 before building the first one is probably dumb, but this is for my school project so I’m trying to make a little project progression.

So I am on co-op right now, and I had an idea for a project about something that me and my other two friends find pretty cool, and personal to us. I proposed this idea to them, and they agreed! I told them my vision and everything, and I made them agree that they will be active in this project, and they will help me (I have had past experiences in personal projects, where people i have worked with ghost me, or say they are interested but dont contribute anything). I started working on it, and both of my friends are on a study term, but they go to a different uni then me. I have tried reaching out to them to make them do their due diligence, but they keep ghosting me, or saying they will see it eventually. It has been 3 weeks since I have proposed this idea to both of them, and I kept giving them leniency because both had midterms. Now i dont know what to do. This project is something I am excited about, and can potentially be pretty big and cool. Am i expecting too much from them, because I am too passionate about it, and i'm expecting them to match it with me?

I seem to always pick people who do ts in personal projects with me. Any adivce helps!

Hi everyone! As u can tell by the title I was greeted by a terrible notification this morning, I bombed my physics midterm BADLYYY. I honestly know engineering students say first year is humbling but everyone around me found it so easy and I honestly was brought to tears after that midterm. I genuinely felt pretty confident about some of my answers but the mark I got back was so humbling I don’t even know if theirs any light ahead in the tunnel. How did you guys get past this feeling and do better? After the midterm I just sat with myself and tried to break down what I did wrong and have been looking over these concepts again but I didn’t even know getting a grade like this was possible so it’s so discouraging.

Hello, I'm currently a student completing a majority of my general ed courses for college. I was curious about going into Computer Engineering but have shifted towards Mechanical after a discussion with a friend of mine.

Right now, I'm taking Pre-Calc and it's honestly been a pretty rough situation. It has me wondering if I'm even cut out for engineering but I'll still somehow convince myself otherwise.

Outside of school, I am working on a friend's game development project as I am a 3D artist. He told me it's possible that I could secure an internship with a reputable studio given he has connections. However, I'm still interested in a stable degree.

I can't really think if part of me failing my class is because I don't have a good understanding of the material or if I'm just not intellectually capable of understanding this level of math. I don't really want to fail and I also have no intentions of giving up on my major because I've failed math. It took me so much trial and error to get good in 3D art, I think the same principle should apply here. Do I reconsider my options or continue pursuing this path?

Hi yall, I have an interview at Samsung for Semiconductor Engineering Internship.

Anyone have experience with interviews at Samsung for similar roles and know how the interview questions might look like? Thanks

I'm a Mechanical Engineering major at university, and I'm in my sophomore year. I'm falling really behind. I'm passing my classes, but I couldn't register for my really important classes, Calc 1, so I wont be taking it until spring semester. The problem is that it's a prerequisite for so many other classes, and now I'm falling even further behind because of one class.

I feel like a failure, and I've even thought of dropping out. I feel so far behind compared to everyone else, and sometimes I feel like I'm just too stupid for this. What should I do? I'm supposed to graduate spring 2029 and because of this I might graduate 2030.

engineering internships are scattered across hundreds of company career pages, so i pulled them into one list:

https://github.com/mehek-builds/Hiring-Now/blob/main/lists/engineering-internships.md

- 343 internships at 168 US companies (Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman, GM, Allison Transmission, Micron, NVIDIA, Johnson & Johnson, Granite Construction, HNTB, Sierra Space)

- about 97 manufacturing, 77 electrical, 73 mechanical, 58 civil

- 88 posted in the last week

- 101 at employers with a visa sponsorship record

posting date on every row, rebuilt every monday.

comment which field you're looking for and i'll send you a list for it.

Do recruiters really very your linkedin on the resume or search your name?

I've seen problems in this current section solved by different methods, once I see it I can follow along. But I want to KNOW how to approach it on my own.

hello, I'm not actually an engineering student but this seemed like the place for help. I've been assigned to build a prosthetic hand; it works like this: keypad sends signal to Arduino uno r4 minima. the chip then sends that signal to a PCA9685 16 Channel PWM Servo Driver Board. the board has five servo motors (sg90, 9g) connected to a tendon structure. when the servo rotates the tendon is pulled and the finger bends. the issue is that the power source (5v, 4a) uses a DC5521 Connector Cable, but the PCA9685 uses the green input for power

i cannot find an adapter for these products any suggestions?

Hey guys. I'm a high school student and I'm doing a project about screwing allen keys in tight spaces so I'd really appreciate it if y'all could fill it out (I'm gonna get slimed if I don't get 200 responses in 4 days so plz help).

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSejKsDV57uuON2R0QCb-TNDcCGOLwn70_8w4AEg8ABkDDIeUQ/viewform?usp=header

Hello,

I am a third year mechanical student projected to graduate in 1-2 years. I have a 2.2 gpa with around 70 credits of my program completed. I've squandered every oppurtunity to succeed and now have no idea how to move forward, I've failed in Calc II twice and I'm on my third attempt now. Luckily I've never failed another class but I do have several D's, I also don't have much practical experience in my field to put on my resume. The first round of midterms came through and I definitely did not do well which is why I'm even posting in the first place on a burner. Right now my goal is just to hopefully land some type of internship but I don't know how to go about it. Overall, I'm just lost and at rock bottom and I really don't know how to keep moving forward. I feel like a failure, and I know I've wasted a large amount of my time.

If you were in my position what would you do? Or is there anyone who's been in a similar situation and made it in the end? I do have a passion for engineering and there is no chance I'd ever change majors but again I just feel like I'm waving my hands around in the dark. I will add I'm also in medical debt and I'm completely broke after having to fix a broken phone and laptop this semester.

Good afternoon everyone, I am looking for minor inconvenience in everyday life that can be solved by a python code, any advice work, I am suffering from creative blocking right now, any level of difficulty works too

taking a gap year before mech eng. What would a skill be worth learning like autocad, python, solidworks, bims idk anything else

I'm not sure which one to do, and what level?

Didn't crack college entrance exams and now stuck in a tier3 college in my tier 3 city. Hi! currenly i'm in my 2nd year and the students here dont even know the basic of using laptop/desktop ,I am enthusiast about tech but cant do much like dont have a firend circle and don't know if i am pacing slow or fast. How do i network outside my college/city , I used linkedin to approach people but many didnt reply back and some did but the coversation died.

This may sound like ranting my failure of life but I geniunly need some advice