[Trent B]

Ian to further elaborate, I realize the classroom has its limitations on what you can cram in and often theory takes precedent over application. I guess where I think it may be lacking in some areas is the department and college's push for students to get opportunities to apply their theories in the real world.

The honors program at ISU tries to get freshman into research opportunities their second semester. And I can say for the Mat E department I get at least 1 email a day that was forwarded from a faculty member because someone sent them an email looking for students to employ. I have a folder of at least 100 potential employers because there is such a push in my department and the university to apply your knowledge and do research or internships or co-ops.

Also I wasn't implying engineers are masochists (it is sorta my way of joking it, one of the ways to stay sane when you spend 10 hours on a lab report every weekend), he is a mechanical engineer taking a materials course because it is required, it is similar to Akash liking statics and hating materials. There is that gradient of difficulty in similar courses when you compare the gen-ed vs the required one (eg Mat E for Engineers and Mat E for Mat Es) My friend is taking a materials engineering for non materials engineers or more of a "gen-ed" style course and finds it awful, difficult and thinks I am a masochist for wanting to go into it. Comparatively my Materials Engineering professor in my intro course is one of the greatest instructors I have ever had. So again it comes down to that gen-ed's seem to be harder than the actual courses in my experience.

As for the accent part that has huge variation, I am used to first or second generation immigrants as they made up a lot of my friends so accents don't phase me. But I know people who went to 100% white high schools in 100% white towns. As far as they knew, minorities could have been a myth/propaganda and here they are in a university where many professors received their degrees in other countries and possibly other languages. It doesn't hinder me at all but I can understand why some may have trouble.