How much work do Mechanical Engineers get?

[IJustWanaPass]

So I want to major in Mechanical Engineering and will (hopefully) graduate in 2018, from what I've heard they get a ton of work. I was told that most people study 20-30 hours a week which really shocked me since I study about 2 hours a day and still get good grades. My friends told me that I will need to take other courses besides math and physics, is this true?. How many laboratory works do you do a week? Whats the usual deadline? Do you have time for other social activities? How long do you stay up for?

Oh and also, I'm only interested in American and Canadian universities, if that makes a difference. 

Edited August 16, 2017 by IJustWanaPass

[VeronicaG]

I'm not in mechanical but I am in engineering in Canada.

The workload is probably about the same or a little more than Y2 IB (Y1 IB is pretty tame). You typically get 30 hours of class a week and maybe study for 15-20 hours. Basically you're looking at 50-55 hours in total, which is pretty similar to a full time job.

Engineering is more than just math and physics. I also take programming, design, chem and bio courses but again, I'm not in mechanical. You will also need 'complementary' courses, so English and humanities. Canadian universities don't give many complementary electives (maybe 3 or 4 in total for 4 years) whereas American universities have much more.

You get assignments and reports just like in IB. Deadlines can be anywhere from 2 days to a few months. This depends on the school, the professor and the course you're taking.

You still get plenty of time for fun activities. You can join clubs, party and hang out with friends while still finishing all your work. You just need to plan your time well.

 

Hope this helps. Engineering is really fun and worth all the work. Let me know if you have any other questions

[kw0573]

Also non-mech e here. You can look up a universities course offering on its website, this will greatly help you estimate number of years to graduation. Search for graduation requirements or four-year plans.

Each university will have varying distribution of workload. 2 hours is very little, considering after freshmen year, 2 hours is not enough to finish any single course's weekly homework. You will probably get more lab courses after sophomore year. Each lab may be between 3 to 12 hours a week (very broad estimate).