# Advice for those in college



## ODB_PE (Mar 5, 2008)

I went to a very large state university, so I'm not sure how much of this is available for others, but...

Stock up on everything you can use for your profession while it is free or dirt cheap.

I had free access to all the AASHTO documents, ASTM standards, etc. All downloadable as .pdfs - I determined what documents would be useful to me in my field, and loaded up. Also, you can usually join societies for free or cheap and get their codes at a significant discount.

As a student, I realize extra money is tight and this is not in your top priorities, but I figure I was able to fill my reference library with $thousands worth of codes. Of course, it is all for personal use and it is illegal to use for commercial purposes - but you can take stuff with you to the exams.

Same thing with software. AutoCAD for $200, Mathcad for $15 - great stuff is out there for you.


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## Sschell (Mar 5, 2008)

excellent advice, old-deadbeaten one


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## wilheldp_PE (Mar 5, 2008)

Amen to that. I even loaded up on software again right before I finished up my masters degree recently.

Sorta makes you wonder...if they can afford to sell all this software at those prices to students, why can't they do the same for consumers? I can understand charging businesses a premium because the business uses the software to more efficiently make money of their own. But charging Joe Citizen $1000 for AutoCAD or full-blown MS Office seems a bit ridiculous.


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## Capt Worley PE (Mar 5, 2008)

Same discounts apply to those that teach, even adjuncts.


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## udpolo15 (Mar 5, 2008)

wilheldp said:


> Amen to that. I even loaded up on software again right before I finished up my masters degree recently.
> Sorta makes you wonder...if they can afford to sell all this software at those prices to students, why can't they do the same for consumers? I can understand charging businesses a premium because the business uses the software to more efficiently make money of their own. But charging Joe Citizen $1000 for AutoCAD or full-blown MS Office seems a bit ridiculous.



they want students to use it. students become similar with it and when the enter the professional world, they use the full version.


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## EM_PS (Mar 5, 2008)

I am def. taking advantage of my student status, all the more so in that my college id for some reason is good thru 2011(!) - I graduate this May.

The downside of those student versions of Acad are that they have "educational product" banners that display in bold type around any &amp; all hard copy printouts. . . further, if you work with that drawing in a non edu version, you still can't defeat the banners. I managed to by tedious application of my old 2000i LDD running on a virtual PC application (oh its a long story anyways)

My University library also has a crazy complete database compilation. . . including the legal 'lexis-nexis' database - so as long as i can still log in remotely, i have an incredible resource tool at my disposal - i gotta say, being a student at early middle-age ain't half bad


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## FutureCSE (Mar 7, 2008)

It's also a good opportunity to pick up cheap "old" edition textbooks. You know, the ones the bookstore won't buy back because they changed two paragraphs for next year's class.


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## Capt Worley PE (Mar 7, 2008)

Actually, eBay is a geat site for picking up old texts. I bought a ton of them when I was teaching. Generally, the stuff written prior to the 60s was written to impart knowledge, rather than impress other professors. You can learn from reading them a lot more than you can from the current 'impress your peer' textbooks.


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## Guest (Mar 7, 2008)

Captain Worley PE said:


> Generally, the stuff written prior to the 60s was written to impart knowledge, rather than impress other professors. You can learn from reading them a lot more than you can from the current 'impress your peer' textbooks.


Says the ldtimer: of the engineering board. 

JR


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## Capt Worley PE (Mar 7, 2008)

jregieng said:


> Says the ldtimer: of the engineering board.
> JR


Hey you kids! GET OFF THE LAWN!!

Whippersnappers.


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## ODB_PE (Mar 7, 2008)

Captain Worley PE said:


> Hey you kids! GET OFF THE LAWN!!
> Whippersnappers.


Speaking of whippersnappers, in grad school I overheard some punk kid lamenting that he had to take the wood design class. "When will I ever use that?" he said. I just shook my head in disgust.

Same class, professor was explaining section analysis using stress/strain relationships on a DOS based software from 1991 and somebody complained that it was an antiquated method to which the professor replied something like "has statics changed in the last 15 years?" He sure told that punk. Punk ass kid! In my day, my scientific calculator was a TI-55-II and THAT WAS THE WAY WE LIKED IT







what nurse? time for my pills? ok......zzzzz......


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## Capt Worley PE (Mar 7, 2008)

I know what you mean, ODB.

One cool thing about older texts is they just give you the formulas you need, then show examples of how to use the formulas to get the info you need. No pages and pages of calculus based formula deriving and no solved problems, like a vast majority of texts nowadays.

I think that's why I like the MERM so much.


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## EM_PS (Mar 11, 2008)

^ Actually, i gotta agree with you guys. Most of my favorite texts, and most referred to, are older engineering / surveying texts (circa 1970 &amp; earlier). Many of these are possibly still in print, at whatever # edition, but they tend to be unecessarily bigger with mainly just more fluff than substance. Yeah, i don't need trig tables in the back (as the old ones have), but i sure do prefer their simple, cut-to-the-chase style of writing and layout.


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## RIP - VTEnviro (Mar 12, 2008)

^ I don't want a full blown partial differential calculus infinite series derivation. But I do like a little basic explanation of where the variables came from, how they're related, and what happens to the system if one is raised or lowered.

Otherwise I feel like I can only plug and chug a problem as opposed to being able to interpret and predict something.


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## roadwreck (Mar 12, 2008)

My advice to you...

is to start drinking heavily.

Better listen to him. He's in premed.


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## rudy (Mar 12, 2008)

FutureCSE said:


> It's also a good opportunity to pick up cheap "old" edition textbooks. You know, the ones the bookstore won't buy back because they changed two paragraphs for next year's class.


I agree. I used my old Plant Design book as a reference for the test. It was one of my college books over 15 years ago. It was extremely useful in answering one of the questions in the PE exam. There is no way I would have found the correct way to do the problem using only the recommended reference books for my exam.


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## Guest (Mar 13, 2008)

ODB_PE said:


> In my day, my scientific calculator was a TI-55-II and THAT WAS THE WAY WE LIKED IT


I know how you roll ... you probably liked pulling that boobless prank ....






:Locolaugh: :Locolaugh:

JR


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## Sschell (Mar 13, 2008)

not to change the subject, and I know its been brought up before, but... JR, do you sleep?


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## Guest (Mar 13, 2008)

^^^ Sleep?? What's that??

I go through periods of insomnia. I refuse to take medication for it - I have seen how meds can easily turn you into a zombie. I much rather simply deal with the inconveniece of being tired.

I have had this problem since my teen years, so it isn't anything new. I thank Al Gore daily for the internet - if it weren't for him, I don't know what I would be doing with all of this spare time! :laugh:

JR


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## Sschell (Mar 13, 2008)

WOW.. my lazy ass sitting here in CA thinking: "damn its late, I need to go to bed or else I will never wake up tomorrow"

and here's JR in FL posting away (much more coherently than myself I might add)..

AND I know you will be posting several hours earlier than me tomorrow morning...


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## Capt Worley PE (Mar 13, 2008)

jregieng said:


> I know how you roll ... you probably liked pulling that boobless prank ....


Who doesn't?


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## udpolo15 (Mar 13, 2008)

VTEnviro said:


> ^ I don't want a full blown partial differential calculus infinite series derivation. But I do like a little basic explanation of where the variables came from, how they're related, and what happens to the system if one is raised or lowered.
> Otherwise I feel like I can only plug and chug a problem as opposed to being able to interpret and predict something.



My professor for Transport 2 and Thermo would take a 1-2 page solution in those text books and turn it into a 30 page solution that he went through in class. He couldn't cross a t without deriving the equation for the line.


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## Guest (Mar 13, 2008)

^^^ Several of my classes were like that too - hydraulics and hydrology to name one.

At the time I was rip-roaring mad about having to step through derivations and regurgitate these things on closed-book exams but I can say today I have a greater appreciation for why and how those things work - especially with regard to limitations for solutions.

I have seen many so-called 'solutions' to engineering problems that applied simplified equations when clearly the system COULD NOT BE SIMPLIFIED. This lead to errors in design and ultimately cost the client $$ for change orders and the conslutant/contractor $$ in terms of time to resolve issues and conferencing with the regulators to get the details ironed out.

I am not saying that all classes should require a person to explicitly derive differential equations, but I am saying a little theory is helpful to prevent over-judicious use of inappropriate 'simplified' systems.

:2cents:

JR


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## MGX (Dec 12, 2008)

My university had a booksale so I showed up with $50 cash and left with 4 grocery sacks full of old Statics / Strengths/ Hydraulics/ Aircraft Design/ Physics / Drafting /etc books. I can't believe how straight forward they're written and without BS. I think the newest one is dated 1968.

I understand some of the hydraulic models are more accurate today but I think everything else is not yet obsolete.

Modern books annoy me in that paragraph after paragraph reads little actual information and then spits a vague formula at you expecting you to magically connect the dots.

The old drafting texts are the best, I think the new ones are written by monkeys.

For some reason, the book sale had one cart packed full with brand new Scientology books, never read, still in the shrink wrap.


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## Jtiger (Feb 26, 2009)

Captain Worley PE said:


> Actually, eBay is a geat site for picking up old texts. I bought a ton of them when I was teaching. Generally, the stuff written prior to the 60s was written to impart knowledge, rather than impress other professors. You can learn from reading them a lot more than you can from the current 'impress your peer' textbooks.


Good point. I have a ton of OLD text books from the 40's and 50's on structural mechanics and geotechnical and it is all still relevant today. You can buy them for next to nothing on the internet when an old professor dies and his library is sold. One of our geotech professors died and all the books he had were GIVEN to the students first come first serve. It pays to be a grad student and pretty much spend every waking moment in those hallways to have first crack.


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