I feel like in the lower years of undergrad, we think that fourth year is easy. Maybe it’s implied to us, or maybe that’s what we’ve heard, but many people go through engineering thinking that after a certain term (maybe 3A?), things will calm down. Well, if you think that, you’ve probably been misled.
4A is the first term that Engineering students get to pick nearly all their courses. When it comes to technical electives, this is the time we (finally) get to explore areas within our discipline that interest us, maybe specializing in one. That being said, the way technical electives, and senior courses in general, are structured is different from first year courses. First year courses are about broad, general topics, but this almost makes them more straightforward. Fourth year courses are about more complicated, specific topics, which makes it a bit harder to know what to study compared to, say, Calculus I. I might not have gotten a fantastic grade in Calculus I, but it was easier to figure out what would be on the final.
Speaking of finals (for some reason I have three despite being in 4B), sometimes technical electives don’t have one, instead there’s a giant project at the end of the term. You might think this is fine, until you realize you have 20 deliverables due in the final week of the term, somehow all worth 50% of your grade. While first year courses have a lot of deliverables, typically an assignment or tutorial every week, those are each worth such a small amount that messing a couple of them up is fairly inconsequential. On the other hand, fourth year courses likely have fewer assignments throughout the term, but they’re all probably 20% of your grade (and probably more work than a 5-question Calculus I assignment, as they are likely more design-focused).
We don’t just get to pick technical electives; the majority of our CSEs are also taken in fourth year. We all want to take the bird courses, but finding CSEs that aren’t full and don’t conflict with your schedule can be more challenging than you might expect. When you add in the wrinkle of CSE requirements, meaning that you can’t technically take whatever you want, that’s how you end up taking the driest course imaginable to fulfill your List A requirement. Complete with enough discussion posts for a lifetime!
Now, it’s time to address what fourth year is known for… Capstone.
At the beginning of fourth year, Capstone is this giant thing that’s due all the way in March; it’s a future problem that can be pretty overwhelming to figure out how to start. It’s extremely easy to procrastinate. Depending on what you do for your project, it can be easy to stray from the plan if things aren’t working the way that you hoped. Then suddenly, you’re spending an entire day (or more) troubleshooting a tiny issue that throws the entire project off track. On top of all that, it’s a group project that you work on for an entire year… rumour has it some groups don’t make it out alive.
One thing first year has that fourth year does not is the co-op search. The nights of applying to 50 jobs at 2am are over! The weeks of having 5 interviews during midterms are over! Lower years reading this right now are probably thinking, “wow, it must be so nice to finally not have to worry about that.” Well, allow me to introduce you to the full-time job search! While it is true that some fourth years will have full-time job offers already from a previous co-op employer, this is not the case for everyone. If you want to know how stressful the full-time job search can be, just ask any current fourth year about the job market…
We’re reaching the time in the term where senioritis is setting in for fourth years. If you’re a 4B that’s lucky enough to have a full-time offer and a Capstone that went smoothly (without anyone in your group killing each other), it’s probably even more evident. Hang in there, fourth years – we’re almost there! And to any first years reading this, you can still celebrate making it through year one.
Overall, when it comes to comparing first year and fourth year, I would argue that there is stress in both years, but I was stressed in a different way in first year compared to now. Now, the stresses have changed from whatever assignment is due tonight and how to get a first co-op, to whether or not your capstone will be finished on time and the unknown about what comes after 4B is over. So, while I promise to first years that things do get better, fourth year is not as easy as you might think.
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