Lots of technical classes, which is nice if thats your issue with just getting an economics degree. Its also very balanced given that it is interdisciplinary because usually those degrees can be pretty unbalanced.

I'm a first year software engineering student here at Waterloo. My experience thus far has been unpleasant and not as great as I hoped it would be.

First of all, like every other student who got accepted into this program, I am a dedicated, hard working person. I try to study and be well-prepared for every assignment, quiz, and exam across all my courses. Before September, I had heard all the stories from families and friends who attended Waterloo Engineering in the past: to be successful, you need to put in the effort in all your work and most importantly, learn how to manage your time. I understood that the program I was going into wasn't going to be an easy one. I knew that UW SE was going to be challenging, but not like this.

Before I continue, I'd like to say that the information in this post is my own opinions and based off my experiences. If you disagree, that's totally fine.

I feel that there is a sense of... artificial challenge in this program. This is very apparent in ECE 105. The midterm did not match the material we learned in the course. I've passed nearly all of the assignments, but the midterm featured questions that the class had never seen before. The course itself is, for lack of better words, a mess. The course textbook, class notes, and assignments do not prepare us enough for the quizzes. The quizzes are very unclear and require everything to be done parametrically. Keeping track of fifteen different variables is confusing and only makes the quizzes artificially difficult.

As for the other courses, I feel that the course content is not overwhelmingly difficult like ECE, but they are also flawed in their own ways. One thing that sticks out to me is the quiz length. 40 minutes to write a quiz is absurd. For courses like calculus and linear algebra that contain time-consuming questions, we have virtually no time to check our work. Easy marks are lost because of the short quiz lengths. 40 minutes flies by too fast.

Another thing I dislike is the organization of the course schedule. Why do we have three quizzes every Monday? The only other assignments are one ECE assignment on Tuesday and one CS/Math 135 assignment each due on Friday. Why can't the quizzes be spaced out and be on Wednesday or Thursday? Having 3 quizzes on a Monday is too overwhelming and stressful.

Overall, I feel like being given 6 challenging courses in term 1A only adds to the stress. Other universities like Western or Queens don't give that many courses (let alone difficult) during 1A. They slowly increase the difficulty and number of courses as the terms progress, giving their students the time to readjust and become used to the university life. I feel that the only point of giving 6 difficult courses during 1A is to "shock" everyone and tell them that university is going to be different from high school, but it's still a ridiculous thing to do, and only hurts the students.

For all of these reasons, despite working hard throughout all my courses, I feel very unmotivated to continue in this program. I feel that my struggles are not my own fault, but because of the way the program is ran.

I need some motivation to continue attending this motivation. Please help me.

Thank you for reading this post.

By Sportincosh [https://www.reddit.com/r/uwaterloo/comments/yot1kc/please_motivate_me_experience_from_a_term_1a_se/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button]

Motivation:

- Future prospects are amazing, see previous year class surveys

- Beyond the first year grind, upper year courses are interesting and engaging

- You're in a hugely privileged position. Literally hundreds, maybe thousands of students would switch places with you right now!

Advice:

- Provide feedback to class reps to change things for now, or at least for future years (e.g. change # or timing of evaluations?). SE has typically been among the most receptive to hearing and acting on feedback, out of all adminstrative groups at UW, imho.

- Consider your effort allocation, if it is truly giving you stress. Next 2% assignment getting you down? Time box 'X' hours to spend on it, then just hand it in, no matter what. Maybe even skip it entirely, if surrendering 2% buys your sanity. Time management means more than grinding harder, it is about prioritzation and optimizing return on investment.

My sympathies truly go out to you and your classmates. SE is a really gritty programs, particularly compared to offerings at some other schools.

Figure out the best path for you. There are many possible journies in life. Nobody is saying you have to do SE. But there are rewards if you do choose to stick it out.

By Infinite-Door-7970 [https://www.reddit.com/r/uwaterloo/comments/yot1kc/please_motivate_me_experience_from_a_term_1a_se/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button]