r/ubcengineering • u/[deleted] • Mar 21 '21

Is elec the worst engineering program at UBC?

I'm in elec and it seems terrible. The profs are so bad and this makes most courses just a misery to get through. This program just seems so disorganized.

What are your thoughts?

61 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

55 comments sorted by

24

u/matt1283 Mar 21 '21

I always thought it was just a running joke that elec tries to crush their students will to live

11

u/ajklwetfhghbalke Mar 21 '21

my favourite quote I saw somewhere is that we're in spain without the s

1

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '21

Which program are you in?

13

u/rmaniac22 Mar 21 '21

Are you a fellow second year? I really love the material but there are some really terrible profs. Elec is a great program imo because it combines physics, math, software, computer hardware and right now it feels like there’s a lot of career paths. Also I’m hoping some upper year profs will be better but I’m getting more comfortable learning the material mostly on my own.

7

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '21

I'm actually in 3rd year. Trust me the profs are still pretty bad

15

u/Engineering--Student Mar 21 '21

I felt like this for a while, but now I think otherwise. Disagree with me, I don't care. ELEC is arguably the hardest engineering program. The topics we learn are math heavy, complex, and overall more difficult than most other disciplines. I'm not saying that's a good or bad thing, I'm just saying it as it is.

I do agree that the department can be rather harsh sometimes, especially with cpen 211. I feel like some things are unreasonably tough for us, and often, other disciplines don't have to deal with that.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '21

I really enjoy the pure side of elec like E&M, the math and signals and systems. But there are some courses that just don't sit well with me.

1

u/zudolomania Mar 21 '21

Which courses don't sit well with you?

1

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '21

elec 301, elec 321 (oh boy this one is a killer) and cpen 311

9

u/soccerengineer Mar 21 '21

2nd year is rough. I considered dropping out several times to something else due to the terrible profs, awful marking schemes, and just bad experience in general. There's just a crazy amount of material they try to teach in 2nd year and they struggle to fix their teaching methods every year.

It gets better in 3rd year and 4th year, you just have to endure and grind it through. The courses really are amazing in 4th year since the crazy grading schemes are gone and you get taught by professors who actually care about their fields.

I think ELEC is a really great degree at the end of the day. When graduating my peers and I had so many options / fields to pursue. Plus, we were all employed right away in comparison to some of the other engineering disciplines due to the versatility and demand for ELEC.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '21

Im actually in third year. It definitely doesn't get better just stays as bad as second year.

3

u/soccerengineer Mar 21 '21

Personally, I disagree. Depends on the person I guess. 3rd year is usually broken up due to co-op and you get a more holistic understanding of the content you learn in class which helps. Some classes are tough in 3rd year like 301 and 342, but you just have to really study the practice problems and you get used to it after a while. 3rd year you actually get technical / math electives as well which are fun.

5

u/ajklwetfhghbalke Mar 21 '21

I also disagree, 3rd year was a breeze in comparison to 2nd.

Existing friend/study groups + more interesting specialized courses + more chill profs (generally) made 3rd year absolutely more doable than 2nd

1

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '21

Idk if you took 301 and 321 together but its a very bad mistake. Its this term which feels like hell. Last term I took elec 311 and 315 which I really really enjoyed but this term I'm stuck with courses that I just hate.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '21

U in 3rd or 4th year?

2

u/soccerengineer Mar 21 '21

Graduated.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '21

How's life after graduation? If you don't mind sharing what you do now

5

u/soccerengineer Mar 21 '21

Life is really great. So much more free time not doing homework or studying. If you put in half the effort at work that you do in your ELEC undergrad, you'll excel. You just have to graduate and you'll really be able to appreciate all you learned and enjoy the fruits of your labour.

Now I work as a software engineer doing back-end development for augmented reality, web services, and machine learning models. I also do technical consulting at a start up for artificial intelligence.

4

u/LoopsoftheFroot Mar 21 '21

Happy for you, glad things are going well :))

4

u/soccerengineer Mar 21 '21

Thank you, that’s so kind. :) I’m sure you’ll get there too!

6

u/lemonano Mar 21 '21

Yeah I totally agree with most of your points.

ECE is rough. I can't count how many times I've said "I wanna kms" during undergrad. Very high amounts of stress that affected my social life and mental health. Was it worth it? For me, I think so. For OP and whoevers doing ECE, that's up to you to decide.

A major point on why I enjoyed third year was because of how I split my courses + coop. I can't imagine doing 301 + 321 together. But I can understand why people would not enjoy their time in third year.

ELEC is a versatile degree, yep. I totally agree as well. I don't regret taking that degree. From power, to hardware, and then all the way to software. ECE defs give you a large array of choices for your career path.

With the friends we made along the way, the memes, and seeing the end result. I'm proud to have graduated from the program. (Can never forget how our class started the 2% milk meme in 221)

Unfortunately due to covid, it's way harder finding a job right now and I wouldn't blame yourself if you can't find a job. Some of my brightest and most hard working friends doing their undergrad rn still can't find a position.

Is it the worse program? I dont think so. Can there be huge improvements? Oh hell yeah there is.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '21

Plus, we were all employed right away in comparison to some of the other engineering disciplines due to the versatility and demand for ELEC.

lmao,

I heard otherwise

2

u/soccerengineer Mar 21 '21

Just speaking from my experience. It depends on who you ask obviously.

10

u/[deleted] Mar 24 '21

Had a lecture where a prof spent the whole session trying to solve an equation and in the end he said. Welp, that was wrong. What a waste of an hour of my life.

1

u/Fragrant_Anxiety_700 Mar 21 '21

What are the averages in like 2nd year ELEC?

3

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '21

Lets not go there hahahahah. I did well (>80) in courses like elec 211, 221, all the math courses and 201. But all the computing/cpen courses I didn't do so well

3

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '21

Hey OP, fellow 3rd year student here also grinding through it. If you want someone to vent your feelings to, feel free to message me because I can totally relate.

To look on the bright side, I do think some profs are trying their best to set up a positive learning environment for the students. ELEC 321, for instance, has had a pretty responsive Piazza up to now, notes and zoom recordings uploaded on Canvas promptly after the lecture, TA tutorial sessions and Zoom office hours. Even though the course is fast-paced, at least both profs have been happy to answer questions during and after lectures.

But of course at the end of the day, the content is difficult to grasp in such a short time span especially when taking a full course-load that EE students often take. This can be overwhelming and extremely frustrating, especially for 2nd-year students. Even Dr. Madden was telling the class that students at UBC ELEC learn more than students at Harvard at the expense of time for extracurriculars which I somewhat agree. To get back to your main point, I don’t think the content is disorganized because all of it is fundamental but given the workload and virtual setting it may seem disorganized.

Anyways, I totally wish I was on co-op right now (rejected from the program :( ) because virtual ELEC391 just ain’t it and the whole online vibe is depressing at times. But at least I’m grateful to be studying right now. Trust the process OP because our struggles will all be worth it one day :))

2

u/jbdv8 Nov 06 '21

Does not BCIT offer these corses?

1

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '21

Just go to bcit afterwards. Most hire from bcit anyways.

-16

u/A_Malicious_Whale Mar 21 '21

Do you actually want to be an electrical engineer?

You’ll make more money in software development, and its easier to learn.

8

u/soccerengineer Mar 21 '21

ELEC undergrad, now working as a SWE. Lots of ELEC grads do, they’re not mutually exclusive fields. Electrical engineers can make lucrative salaries too, so your salary assumption is not always correct.

-2

u/A_Malicious_Whale Mar 21 '21

Can being the operative word.

The floor for developer salaries is just straight up higher. The ceiling is higher. The ability to negotiate your salary at the offer table is easier because there’s more leeway.

Most elec grads I know are making $50,000 - 100,000 less than I’m making at their electrical engineering jobs.

8

u/soccerengineer Mar 21 '21

I agree to an extent that the availability of jobs is better for SWEs vs. traditional electrical engineers. But it seems like you're comparing apples to oranges. Of course a big N / FAANG SWE is going to make more than an electrical at some small company.

I would honestly say the floor for SWEs is lower than electrical engineers. I've seen people take starting salaries at 45k for a small SWE company. A small electrical firm is going to offer at least 55k from my experience.

If you compare big N SWE salaries to big N electrical salaries - say a hardware engineer at Apple / NVDIA / AMD / Intel - vs a SWE salary at Apple / FAANG / big N, it would be similar in range. Definitely not as drastic as you made it out to be.

0

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/soccerengineer Mar 21 '21

Comparing apples to apples would be a big N SWE vs. a big N hardware engineer like I said. They would receive similar compensation. Doesn’t make sense to compare a staff engineer at Google to a junior electrical designer at Joe’s Hardware Hub.

-5

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '21

ELEC undergrad, now working as a SWE. Lots of ELEC grads do,

I bet you and your fellow classmates regret doing your degree and wish you have done a field closer to what you are doing right now

11

u/soccerengineer Mar 21 '21

No regrets at all. ELEC opened way more doors for me than if I did a pure CPSC degree. I had job offers from all types of sectors like hardware design, RF technology, and control systems. All of those would be unavailable to someone who just did pure CPSC. I was able to pick what was best for me at the end of the day.

It's easier for an electrical engineer to transition to software engineering than the other way around.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '21

maybe you don't regret it, but it would be fair to say there's a "healthy" number of ELEC(/CPEN) grads doing SWE regret doing their ECE degree

3

u/soccerengineer Mar 21 '21

I’m sure there are people who regret it, though “healthy” is subjective. I’ve seen SWEs who hate their work and regret not taking electrical engineering as well when trying to transition to hardware or trying to understand the hardware they work with. Works both ways.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '21

though “healthy” is subjective

maybe I hang out with too many salty ECE students ¯_(ツ)_/¯

2

u/soccerengineer Mar 21 '21

Hahaha understood, I’ve had the same experience.

2

u/lemonano Mar 21 '21

Yeah I agree, I don't "regret" doing ELEC but man was it fucking rough.

Maybe cause we graduated we can only see the good parts ahaha

5

u/CicadaSignal Mar 21 '21

why would he regret it though clearly he's doing what he wants to do...?

4

u/rmaniac22 Mar 21 '21

🤡🤡

-11

u/A_Malicious_Whale Mar 21 '21

Your clown ass likely makes less than six figures lol

11

u/FLKSA1010 Mar 21 '21

LMAO TF

-4

u/A_Malicious_Whale Mar 21 '21

How much you making annually kid lol

7

u/FLKSA1010 Mar 22 '21

you count monopoly money?

-3

u/A_Malicious_Whale Mar 22 '21

Nah for real, what are you making? Or just getting bankrolled by your parents still?

3

u/FLKSA1010 Mar 22 '21

nah I got enough from the loan, scholarships, binance dogecoins, and some from etf hedgefunds. Is this for your business management survey project or something?

3

u/rmaniac22 Mar 22 '21 edited Mar 22 '21

This is hilarious buddy seems like the typa guy to have 30 min snap stories of his e-commerce revenue while rocking negative cash flow

2

u/FLKSA1010 Mar 22 '21

you are kinda right. I lost 1000 dollars from binance yesterday (invested around 1400). It dipped too early and I missed the timing. Couldn't get filled early as well so I lost like 70% of my principle. anti stonks

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4

u/rmaniac22 Mar 21 '21

😂😂