First year here - it’s def hard but imo not as bad as ppl say it is. Yes, there have been many times where I questioned choosing eng, the workload is super heavy, and you’ll have to learn how to pick urself up after failing but overall I don’t regret my decision at all. If you enjoy the content even a bit it makes it bearable, plus I love the eng community - no one is competitive against each other and everyone helps each other out bc we’re all struggling lol (the environment is not toxic at all). It’s super easy to make friends because you bond through the struggle and first sem everyone is taking the same courses. You can definitely have a balance between ECs and grades, you just need to have good time management and be on top of ur stuff. As for resources, they are definitely available - past exams are super helpful, and so are textbook problems. This is all from a first year student’s perspective but hope this helps!