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Invest
in Your Education |
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We
must invest significant time and effort in our engineering
education in order to obtain the substantial financial
and social rewards of the profession. To underscore this,
the Minority Engineering Program at Cal State in Northridge
set forth the motto, "No deposit, no return." You are
spending substantial time and money each semester on your
undergraduate education, so capitalize on it.
Don't shortchange yourself by not buying all of the required
texts or skipping out on the classes that your tuition
dollar is paying for. It is tempting to resell your texts
after you finish with a class. You may get a few bucks
for beer money, but you're also selling off a permanent
record of the things you learned - and may later forget
- in that course. A better way to save money is to make
other students' mistakes your gain: buy used textbooks.
The same goes for the engineering student's "tools of
the trade." Invest in yourself. Perhaps the most important
tool for an engineering student is a good computer. The
latest and greatest is likely more than you will need,
since most engineering schools have dedicated computing
facilities for high-powered computational work, but you
might pick a machine with extra slots and ports available
that can grow as technology advances. We recommend that
you buy a computer that has:
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a
processor speed equivalent to a 1 GHz PC processor
or better |
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256
MB or more memory (RAM) |
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30
GB or larger hard drive |
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a
CD-RW or DVD-RW drive |
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a
generously sized monitor or screen |
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two
or more USB ports |
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empty
PC or PCI card slots |
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an
ethernet port |
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802.11b
wi-fi capability |
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office
productivity software, including a word processor,
spreadsheet, email client, and web browser |
Laptops have the advantage of making your work portable,
while desktops tend to be more expandable. And before
you buy it, don't forget to check with your school. Make
sure the operating system you want to use is supported
by the school. When in doubt, do as the Romans do: use
the operating system prevalently used in your school.
A common mistake many engineering students make is to
purchase a calculator that is too large and, yes, too
capable. Many professors will stipulate that certain kinds
of calculators cannot be used because they may, for instance,
have the capability to store text data in their memory
banks. The best bet is to use a calculator that is approved
by National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying
(http://www.ncees.org/)
for use on their Fundamentals exam and Principles and
Practice exam. Chances are on your side that such a calculator
will be allowed for your undergraduate course examinations.
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