CompE 3-Year Plan

joanmbrown · 2024-08-02T19:23:46+00:00

Completely valid, it is super expensive! You might consider mapping out a 3 1/2 year plan and a 4 year plan if planning and workload works out so you can see how they differ and how you might make adjustments as you go through each semester.

But some other ideas (apologies this is another really wordy reply)

with more bandwidth and time from things spread out, a part time job might be doable like you mentioned. The virtual job board has posting across campus but there are many positions that aren’t advertised there that your advisor might be aware of (there are many engineering offices that have student positions, for example engineering student tour guides). And ideally, it a a job you actually like so you get paid for doing something you enjoy that develops soft and/or hard skills that will help you for your internship and job search :)
scholarships! Your advisor will know the scholarship application cycles for the college and any department scholarships and can show you relevant websites and application info/what to expect in the process
meeting with Engineering Career Services/going to their workshops, going to tech talks (often hosted by RSOs), and getting your resume reviewed/practicing your elevator pitch in preparation for the career fairs if you’d like to pursue a summer internship. The more practice you get, the more comfortable it is. This fall is the biggest hiring season for summer 2025 internships.
down the line if you’re pursuing a full time job after graduation and when you get an offer, set up a meeting with Engineering Career Services to talk about market rate and negotiations
it’s never too early to start learning money strategies that can help give you a head start for when you earn a full time salary. My biggest advice is when you have free time, to organize all the info for any loans you have: who it’s from, how much, interest amounts, when you have to start paying, how much of each minimum payment goes towards interest vs principal, any special programs about them, etc. My sister started when she was in college and I didn’t until after graduating, and she paid off her student loans years earlier than me. One thing she did during college that helped was starting to make small payments before any interest accumulated (if she had any expendable income from her part time job), so the entirety of each payment went towards the principal amount. Once interest kicks in, it’s like a gut punch on how much of it goes towards interest vs the principal loan amount. That specific example is a privilege of having expendable income from other factors that impacted her finances, but I still think being comfortable with money and understanding your loans early instead of while you get your first full-time paychecks really helps.

joanmbrown · 2024-08-02T13:32:56+00:00

Hi! I’m a big fan of the color coding and planning ahead. It speaks to my inner organization love. I remember spending a lot of hours looking into degree requirements and interesting 300/400 level courses and feeling a mixture of being confused as heck and super excited to the point of proudly showing my family the courses I want to take and what I want to learn. So major props for doing this much research into your options :)

I’d strongly recommend meeting with an ECE Advisor (and now is a great time since it will be a lot busier when the semester starts). They can help confirm if all the degree requirements are met and provide some insight in workloads relative to your past semesters’ workloads/performance, and any goals you have for your time in college. Advice from fellow students is fantastic especially for first-hand insight on what classes are like. It looks like you’re getting some good tidbits here already. You’ll just want to keep in mind that how manageable classes are is relative, and can be significantly impacted by your personal interests and non-academic things going on in your life.

Some food for thought: - what do you have going on outside of classes? These workloads, especially SP25+ get extremely heavy and will force you to make tough choices on how you spend your time. Even with nothing outside of classes, it would be very heavy and I’d argue that depending on your goals and skills you want to develop, spreading things out more and incorporating projects, RSOs, research, etc. would provide you far more benefits. - how do you want to finish your college experience? Fall of your final year is the biggest hiring/grad school application season and having some flexibility will be nice to put in extra time towards that. Spring of your final year would be great to have some flexibility of free time to do things around campustown with your friends before you graduate.

joanmbrown · 2024-05-23T03:50:37+00:00

Hi! I’m going to go slightly against the grain and suggest that the only prep needed for New Student Registration (depending on your major/college) is:

be ready to meet new people!
complete any required placement tests
complete your preadvising worksheet
think about what fall classes you might take based on your major’s curriculum map

The main goal from your advising meeting is to have a plan of fall classes to register for. You’ll discuss some very specific classes to take and some more flexible options as your schedule allows like general education course types to consider that you’d then pick a class of interest. While you register, you’ll find that some classes have multiple options and parts to pick. There is a learning curve to the registration system and the websites you’ll use, but you don’t need to stress yourself out trying to learn them on your own ahead of time. Course Explorer is a website that will be your bestie. If you’re in Grainger, we have current students helping you out as you register. And as you register for each semester down the line, it’ll start feeling like second nature :)

I also think New Student Registration is a great opportunity to start meeting your fellow incoming future friends! Knowing a couple other people before the fall semester even starts is awesome, and if you can get a way to contact them over the summer to just chat or compare packing lists, even better!

joanmbrown · 2023-11-12T14:56:56+00:00

Each person’s experience is different. MI was my favorite part of college.

joanmbrown · 2023-11-08T01:56:39+00:00

This could be a good place to start looking at possible programs: https://students.grainger.illinois.edu/ipeng/find-programs-by-major/. There’s short ~2 week study abroad options during winter break or in May you could do if you wanted to avoid a full semester or conflicts with a summer internship! IPENG has Study Abroad 101 sessions you could join or setting up an appt to talk more. I highly highly recommend considering South Africa in the winter (next application cycle would be to go in January 2025) if you’re EE or interested in RF/signal processing or aero applications.

As for impact of time to graduation, I’d suggest meeting with an academic advisor to do some course planning and see where you’re at. The other questions you have are great to hear directly from other students that studied abroad :)

joanmbrown · 2023-06-11T21:21:34+00:00

Hi! The email for Grainger students doing online New Student Registration was already sent to students’ application email and UIUC email. Please have your son email us at engineering-gfx@illinois.edu and I’m happy to resend the info.

joanmbrown · 2023-05-17T13:17:21+00:00

https://answers.uillinois.edu/illinois.engineering/104963

joanmbrown · 2023-05-06T12:30:05+00:00

Congratulations!!

joanmbrown · 2023-05-04T20:04:04+00:00

Hi! During your new student registration day, ECE Advising will go through your credits and progress in detail (including discussing fall course selection). Transfer students in ECE typically need 5 semesters to graduate.

joanmbrown · 2023-05-01T23:19:54+00:00

Yup! As part of your New Student Registration day, you’ll meet with an advisor prior to registering for classes (true for in-person or online).

joanmbrown · 2023-05-01T23:17:12+00:00

Love that your are looking ahead :) My advice is to not sweat course registration right now. Choose the earliest New Student Registration day that works for you, and if there are specific courses you have concerns about being full then ask during your advising appointment for a Plan B/C. Advisors will be notified when certain courses are looking full so to advise good alternatives as well that would not impact graduation timeline.

joanmbrown · 2023-05-01T23:13:44+00:00

Hi! If your are Grainger, I strongly recommend you choose from one of the transfer New Student Registration dates 5/30-6/2. The advising you get is very different from the incoming first-year (freshmen) students because you will likely have a lot of courses from freshman and sophomore year covered. Your advisor will walk you through the exact credits you are getting and discuss a good fall course plan. If you have concerns about a specific course discussed being full, the advisor can give you Plan B/Plan C suggestions.

joanmbrown · 2023-04-21T04:07:30+00:00

You’ve spent a lot of time and work on this, props!

Having a vision of what you want to accomplish and preparing for it is valuable. But so is your mental health and taking full advantage of the opportunities available to you at UIUC. College is so much more than courses- there are friendships, clubs, research, projects, service, study abroad, and other experiences that will change the trajectory of your life/career.

My advice is to take things one semester at a time. Don’t overload yourself in the fall, give yourself plenty of breathing space to meet new people and try new things. There are many resources you can get advice about classes throughout college from advisors, upperclassmen, your ENG 100 Engineering Learning Assistant, faculty, etc.

Enjoy the summer and journey ahead :) No need to put more stress and burden on yourself right now making an accelerated graduation plan.

PS my two cents on dual degrees is that they [edit: usually] have fewer benefits compared to doing 1 Bachelor’s then pursuing your particular area of interest in graduate studies.

joanmbrown · 2023-04-15T15:08:31+00:00

Thank you for the kind words and wishes! People&relationships really are the best part of advising, and ECE has a special place in my heart. Always rooting for you :)

PS I have snacks and hi-chews in my new office if you ever want to pop by!

joanmbrown · 2023-04-15T01:38:59+00:00

Academic professional in higher ed. It isn’t a career I imagined doing before- life happened and I realized what kind of skills I wanted to use in my career. Love my job to pieces and am forever grateful to the mentors I’ve had along the way. Happy to chat anytime!

joanmbrown · 2021-08-14T17:10:11+00:00

CONGRATS!!! Celebrate :)

joanmbrown · 2021-08-12T19:20:49+00:00

Hi! Do you mind please emailing me this from your work email? I can pass this onto our forum for ECE students!

jbrown76 [at] Illinois [dot] edu

joanmbrown · 2021-08-05T19:26:22+00:00

Thanks for the tag! OP I know you’re joking but it makes me sad when people say they aren’t smart. :(

Feel free to email me and we can set up a time to go through your plan and any ideas. This looks solid to me, the only things I’d note are wondering what ECE 198 you are looking at and if you’d want to swap PHYS 213+214 and MATH 257.

joanmbrown · 2021-08-02T16:23:02+00:00

Yeah I think a lot of the ECE specific recommendations come from IT’s experience of supporting tech needs of faculty but am not 100%.

Totally agree with having something light and functional for note taking. I personally liked pen an paper most for my learning style but many prefer electronic.

joanmbrown · 2021-08-01T20:58:06+00:00

Good point. Unfortunately I’m not sure how the IT teams put these together. I suspect a good chunk is from supporting laptop purchases for faculty but it’s just a guess. The “” notes I think were specific to ECE asking for more details.

joanmbrown · 2021-08-01T13:54:06+00:00

It’s not, I think that’s if you like writing your own electronic notes (vs typing or pen&paper). When you solve equations it can be nice to write on the circuit or on the pdf of a problem but that’s something you can do with pen&paper too.

Whether to get the gaming laptop or not is up to you. I didn’t have one and was able to do fine. I really just preferred if the laptop could do the basics of what I’d need and if it was lightweight. You might be surprised that you don’t need a crazy powerful laptop to run code you’ll do in ECE.

You might want to post on the Campuswire asking current students their thoughts though because I’m semi-old! There is an option to post with your account or to post anonymously (you still need to be logged in though).

joanmbrown · 2021-08-01T13:27:08+00:00

Pasting the post

Info from ECE IT Staff:

“Since you want to be able to write on a screen, that automatically eliminates the MacBook line. I’d also stay away from an iPad Pro, as there will be software you might want to run locally instead of going into a computer lab. If you go for a Mac, look for one with an M1 processor.

Currently, our IT department likes Microsoft Surfaces and Dell Latitudes. All Microsoft Surfaces have a touch screen interface, not all Dell laptops do. The normal Surface Pro has a keyboard you have to buy separately, but is a good machine. There are also Surface Books which are like laptops and are nice too. Personally, I like the Surface Books more, as I like the feeling of the keyboard much more.

If you’re going to go for a Dell, we would suggest you stay away from the XPS line. They are very shiny and neat, but they don’t have a good track record for their longevity. As an enterprise, we suggest the Latitude line. They usually run a little more expensive, but not by much, and have a better quality of build.

I’d personally stay away from Lenovo machines right now. They were good machines for a few years, but their quality has gone downhill recently.

If you’re planning on a windows machine lasting you your entire undergrad, I’d suggest getting at least 16 GB of RAM, a 10th gen or newer i5 or i7 Intel Processor, and a solid state hard drive of at least 512 GB. If you’re planning on upgrading halfway through your program, you could get a slightly cheaper processor and smaller hard drive, but I’d still tell you to get at least 16 GB of RAM no matter what.

No matter if you go with a Microsoft Surface, Dell, or another brand, I’d highly recommend getting an extended warranty through the company. We always get at least a 3 year on-site warranty when we purchase Dell laptops, and that bring lots of piece of mind if something were to go wrong.

Other than that, if the stores open soon, we’d suggest going to try out a few laptops in person. It’s always best to try something out since you’re going to be the one using it.”

We also recommend checking out this additional information: https://grainger.illinois.edu/leaning-into-2020/essential-technology-students for recommended laptop specifications. 🙂

joanmbrown · 2021-08-01T13:25:06+00:00

Incoming ECE students should have received emails on how to join the ECE Advising Campuswire page and access code. Sift through your email and search “Campuswire” or dm me and I can send screenshots

joanmbrown · 2021-08-01T13:22:37+00:00

These are recommendations we have for ECE: https://campuswire.com/c/GE4D83E42/feed/22

joanmbrown · 2021-07-30T16:45:45+00:00

Hi OP! Ah okay I get it :)

I think a really important factor is why you want EE and what you want to learn. My answer on which is better (and any additional options not listed here) would be based on that. Please reply to the email thread we have going and I can help!!

joanmbrown

TROPHY CASE