can anyone give me some info on how to go about getting a degree/certs in either or both?
i dont want to do that shit for a living. i just want to take it as a hobby type thing. i love car audio and electrical shit so i figure this would be a good step.
also can i just take a physics course or two somewhere?
You can go and take physics courses at ECC I am certain. As far as obtaining a degree, unless you were extremely into/dedicated to your hobby, I wouldn’t consider 4 years + of education worth it. As far as getting into electronic specific courses such as a circuits analysis or electronics course (physics based) you will likely need pre-requisites in other physics courses (means taking extra courses which may not interest you to get into what you’d really like to take).
Looking at this as far as a hobby perspective, try looking into purchasing a few Circuit Anaylsis I textbooks and just read up and try problems on your own. If you have any calculus background you would be better off, but I don’t think you’d find some things very difficult at the introductory course levels.
edit: If your really interested in purchasing a textbook, pm me I could give you a Title and Author of a good textbook that I think would interest you. It was my circuit anaylsis textbook and it deals mostly with introductory circuits, ohms law, kirchhoffs laws.resistors, capacitors,basic load distribution, etc.
edit2: As far as just taking a few physics courses on the side, unless you were going to persue a degree, it wouldn’t really be worth your time. Most introductory physics courses will only touch on electronics/circuits for a week or two.
I actually wanted to do Audio Engineering (over a decade ago). I was interested in amplitheater and recording studio design (loved music, but couldn’t play worth shit).
I would imagine that the B.S. would include Physics I, II, III, Fluid Dynamics, some 400 level course on vibration analysis, Intrumentation and Computation, some more stuff on wave theory (beyond Physics III). Then all the core stuff like Calc I,II,III, Chem I, maybe Materials.
You probably could get away with “customizing” your major at UB, but there are schools that offer specifically Audio Engineering.
i dont need to learn ohms law and that shit im well past that. more so along the lines of what fairgentleman was talking about. ive learned most shit down to the atomic level plus all kinds of frequency shit (ie full propogation of waves.)
thanks guys any more info would be great.
A degree will open up SERIOUS doors compared not to having one.
You will have your choice of jobs.
FYI …UB sucks and I would take it somewhere else if I had a choice.
any recomendations?
RIT - Good school and programs.
thanks again.
also do i have to have a major? you cant just say “hey i want to take these couple courses, heres some money.” ?
Yes, you can go as undecided for 1 - 2 years and take general electives.
I would really recommend that you or a adviser go through a curriculum and pick “general electives” that will count toward your degree.
Don’t just pick classes because you “might like them and might want to learn something”. Make sure EVERY one counts. Shit takes way too much time and is way too expensive to fuck around. Trust me on that one.
BTW the first year is VERY general and you have the option of taking it at a CHEAPER school (like ECC) and just transferring the credits (you have to verify that the EXACT courses transfer).
I wish I knew about that earlier.
Right now i’m going to NCCC for my liberal arts math and science- the basis (first 2 years) of electrical engineering.
The required courses i have to have are: up to calc 2, chem 1, calc based physics 1 and 2 (if you dont have previous physic classes then you need the 2 general physic classes), programming (C++ 1 and 2), and electrical analysis, plus the usual SUNY Gen. Ed classes.
Right now i plan on transfering to UB, but i dont know yet, still have 2 more semesters after this one (3 years for a 2 year course because i was told to retake my basic math stuff like algebra and trig- waste of f’ing time and money)
Also, i’m sure ECC has it but i know NCCC has it, is the dual admissions with UB and a few other area schools. As long as you keep your GPA up, your guaranteed admission into UB without applying after your first 2 years. I was going to do that until my first advisor screwed me over. luckily she’s no longer their.
if you decide to go with it, pm me as i still have all my books (not selling them back for 1/8th of what i paid)
ugh, sounds like a lot of shit i dont want to take. we shall see…
UB is not a bad school. Plus tuition for a NYS resident is only $4,350 a year.
RIT on the other hand cost $18,876 a year. Honestly, I don’t see where going to RIT would pay off if your just interested in taking classes as a hobby.
Your point is a good one. I hate UB because I think it is a shitty school.
In my experience (with tough technical classes especially) foreign TAs (teaching assistants) are lecturing while professors are bust fucking around with their research.
Basically those professors dont really give a shit about teaching and it shows in the way you learn. Most of my tech classes were shit. The class motivation was “find old tests” “cram his method” “pass”
Fuck that, thats not learning IMO. Am I bitter? absolutely. Would I spend 18K to go to RIT instead… yes … but thats me because I care about learning.
well ACOUSTICAL engineering is a very hard program to find at a school its very specailized and while many schools may offer certification in the field very few offer a full program.
More schools off it as a graduate program very very few schools offer it as undergrad.
The earning potential is awesome if you can get through the classes here is a sample of the classes at the graduate school at penn state http://www.acs.psu.edu/Program/courses.htm
better be ready to work very hard its not something everyone can do
This isn’t the case for all departments.
Transferring from NCCC to UB is pretty easy without dual admission.
Did you have Carolyn Goldberg for an advisor? She had such a split personality. And she can’t argue for shit. <_<
i thought UB worked out pretty well for me.
Also, I am fairly certain that acoustical engineering is no where near as intensive as an electrical engineering program.
yeah i also don’t see a problem with UB. I’m not and engineer, but I’m in Computer Science which is (and I use this term loosely) similar. I feel I’m getting a great education considering the cost. Shit, I wouldnt wanna have loans from an 18k/year school hanging over my shoulders after 5 years, thats for damn sure.
uhm when was the last time you looked at tuition for RIT, it is closer to $30k
http://finweb.rit.edu/sfs/billing/tuitionandfees/0708/undergraduate/fulltime.html
RIT will pay off because the majority of our professors worked in the field and continue to have connections to get a higher paying jobs. Also there is a huge thing about learning from TA’s, especially in engineering, I would prefer to learn from someone that has been in field and is a licensed teacher vs someone that is studying for a degree. RIT does have TA’s but they are actually helpers to professors, basically they are there only during Recitation or Lab to help you with issues, they never teach you in front of the actual class.
EDIT: also I am pretty sure that RIT does not offer Audio/Acoustical engineering
http://www.rit.edu/~932www/grad_bulletin/programs.php3
http://www.rit.edu/~932www/grad_bulletin/programs.php3