r/uwaterloo • u/Syzrr • May 25 '26
Question how hard is first year engineering?
everybody has seen the waterloo eng memes where people become depressed but is it actually that bad? first year everybody takes the same classes and first year is also the year that most drop out of eng statistically. im super concerned because im gonna be there in september and im worried im gonna be studying 24/7 with no life and no sleep. pls help.
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u/Tunklz May 25 '26
It really wasn't that bad and I was a mid student.
It's going to feel very overwhelming for the first month or so, but once you understand the rhythm of things, it's not that bad.
In terms of workload and challenges, 3B was far by the worst (at least for Nano).
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u/Syzrr May 25 '26
how hard was it to adjust? i feel like im also a mid student like i study but i easily get off track and feel inefficient with the time i study.
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u/Tunklz May 25 '26
I feel I'm a bit biased because school was still fully online in first year (except for labs), but it wasn't too hard. Just make sure you get a good calender system going so all items due are tracked properly.
I feel it also depends on how your high-school was. My school was dog water, so I had a lot of catching up to do for Math and Chemistry (didn't even know what a Mole was). If your school wasn't completely incompetent, then you'll be fine.
I studied for sure, but I can't study for more than a few hours without going nuts. I just gave myself decent lead-time and broke it up into chunks.
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u/Syzrr May 26 '26
do you have a good calendar app? i suck at managing time
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u/Tunklz May 26 '26
I actually just wrote everything in written form on a whiteboard lol
But anything written on there would feel good to erase.
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u/punchlines21 engineering May 25 '26
It's definitely program-dependent, but as a chem eng, I found that I did have to spend more time studying/working on assignments than in high school--maybe like 20-25 hours outside of class weekly? And more during midterms/finals season. Though I did put a lot of time into getting good grades, so you could maybe get away with less if you're less focused on academics. It wasn't as bad as I'd expected going into it.
That being said, I would say still had enough time to cook for myself, do piano + choir, and hang out with friends sometimes. Best to learn how to study/work efficiently without distractions so you can minimize the time you're spending.
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u/Syzrr May 25 '26
first year 20-25? that seems not as bad as i thought. i had many people telling me you basically spend the same amount of time for school/studying as a full time job a week.
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u/punchlines21 engineering May 25 '26
Tbf chem so far is less project-heavy, and from what I've heard from friends in other programs the projects are a huge time sink. That, and full lab reports. Also, some 1st year courses consist largely of high school review. I'd recommend checking uwflow for an idea about course difficulty/workload.
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u/frenglish_man engineering May 25 '26
It’s been 12 years since I was in 1st year eng, and I still have anxious dreams about it. But I can also tell you that lil piece of paper you earn after 5 years will open more doors than the less stressful degrees.
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u/Yotuberfrench May 25 '26
30 hrs per week outside of class or lectures is a very good estimate, should be doing good
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u/cornered_walrus May 25 '26
According to my time tracking I spent about 45 hours a week on everything related to academics (in class and outside of class). I’m in tron which probably has average workload, stuff like ece is probably 7 hours higher while stuff like mgmt can be 7 hours lower. I go to about 40% of my classes and have a 90% avg, I think going to all ur classes is really inefficient (and only worth it if you procrastinate studying)
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u/Syzrr May 25 '26
how is civil?
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u/Mobile-Operation-518 May 25 '26
i think it really depends on how high you’re setting your expectations. if you just want to pass all your courses and get promoted to the next term, getting 60% in most courses isn’t really all that hard and you can probably get by with little to no studying. if you want to get a 90%+ average it will probably take studying day in day out and you probably lose sleep unless you’re cracked.
it also kind of depends on how strong your background is. most of the courses taught in first year (especially in 1A) are review of high school content plus a little new stuff. if you have a really strong high school background, you can get away with studying less.
in first year i probably spent around 2 hours per weekday studying and around 5 hours studying per day on the weekends and got a pretty decent CAV imo (80-85%), obviously studying more leading up the exam periods. i would say i had a pretty average/slightly poor background going in, didn’t do any special programs (IB, AP, CEGEP, etc) and came from and out of province high school with a slightly different curriculum than Ontario. i would say i was still able to have a great sleep schedule and social life.
overall i think people exaggerate how hard it is, but it isn’t exactly easy. just try not to fall behind, as university courses go through content much faster than high school and it can be hard to catch up. don’t worry to much and just try you’re best, chances are you’ll be fine.
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u/steve_the_human Electrical Engineering May 25 '26
For my ECE first year, it really wasn't that bad in 1A. I showed up to every lecture/tutorial, but besides that, only spent like 15-20 hours a week outside of class.
Also if you're going for just passing decently and not high 80s-90s, you can definitely get away with even less.
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u/Own-Professor-372 May 25 '26
What grades did you tend to get with that amount of time investment, if you're comfortable sharing?
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u/steve_the_human Electrical Engineering May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
88% in 1A. Though the grade was partially carried by an extremely generous TA for ece 198 and already knowing how to code prior to ECE 150.
Since I attended all lectures and tutorials and such, spent probably 50 hours a week in total for 1A.1B and beyond definitely need more time investment though for ECE, closer to 30 hours outside of class(but you can still definitely get by with less).
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u/Dear_Enthusiasm3190 engineering [ENVE] May 25 '26
Harder than high school, but I still had enough free time.
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u/Delicious-Web-3069 May 26 '26
Absolutely zero. I would barely touch the courses or even go to class during the regular semester. Just make sure to lock in and learn everything during reading week or finals weeks.
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u/RedQuincy May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
it kinda depends, I think in general most people like to overplay things cause then it makes them seem like they work harder than everyone else or whatever.
you should expect that you'll be studying a lot, but its really not impossible to find time for yourself. if you're used to studying in high school you'll be ok. if you dont study at all in high school, there will likely be a bit of a shock