I apologize profusely for my lateness. Though the exam season is soon upon us and judging by the activity on this blog it’s definitely hit all of us, sadly. Do be patient as I’m sure everyone (including you I bet) is super busy studying for exams right now! As for me, in the past two weeks, I have had to deal with the following:
Electrical test
Programming assignment
Programming test
Materials test
Electrical assignment
Programming project
Programming labs
Philosophy essay
Philosophy discussion (x2) (yes that is a thing that is assessed)
Philosophy quiz (x2)
Yes, the fact that course coordinators schedule everything to be all due at the same time is not a myth. Also that right there is the reason why you want to take the design course in your first semester…
When you peek into the trash after a tutorial and observe a sea of dead Popsicle sticks that have outlived their purpose, and that purpose was not for ice-cream.
‘CAUSE IT’S TRUSS SEASON MARK 2!!! ‘Tis the season where first year Engineering students are assigned into groups (ugh) and have to build a truss (bridge) AND write a report (ugh). So if you don’t want to deal with having to juggle three projects at once in your second semester, do take the design course in first semester.
Speaking of bridges, let’s talk about Civil & Environmental Engineering. That specialisation is HUGE, it has over twice as many allocations as any other specialisation in Engineering. So it’s completely unfair for me to keep generalizing the discipline to just lololol bridges. ‘Cause it’s not, m’kay? I’ve been completely neglecting the environmental part of the specialisation…because you need to know about the environment… to build bridges! (sorry). I think all Part I courses are pretty relevant to Civil, as you consider a wide range of aspects from mechanics to material stuff. As opposed to someone considering Software where sometimes I wish I had just taken Computer Science just to get on with it why am I learning all this stuff I’m not interested in but let’s not get into that.
The specialisation (as the name implies) has subdisciplines, so you can decide to focus solely on Civil or solely on Environmental or a bit of both (or that’s what I gathered from the Undergraduate handbook which you can read here). Also they take 5 courses in one semester (as opposed to the usual 4 for non-conjoint students), which really doesn’t seem that bad to me. But it’s something to take note. Also, I found a third year Civil Engineering student to ask questions at (to? Sorry for the prepositions. It’s late). Enjoy.
Why did you choose Civil Engineering?
I believe the best thing about the programme at the University of Auckland is that first year is General Engineering. When I moved to the University, I wanted to study Chemical Engineering. First year being general, however, made me realise that Chemical Engineering is not for me. It still allowed me to explore other engineering specialisations of which I chose Civil Engineering purely based on interest and so far it’s been going really well.
What advice would you give to someone considering Civil Engineering?
My advice is to pursue the path you are most interested in as it can be a long and difficult way so choosing something you like would make your life easier and more enjoyable.
Credits to DOOOOOM and dydx for the pics 🙂