Of course, nobody here knows all about me, and I'm not asking you to make a decision for me. Just wondering what you guys think. Anyways, here goes:

I hardly know anything about digital hardware, and one of the courses I originally chose for this year was civil engineering/architecture, but I don't feel very enthusiastic about it. So what if I switched to digital electronics? I'm not interested in being an electrical engineer, and that's what the course description says it could help make you, but it might be a little bit interesting anyways - but I can be wrong about that sometimes and totally not like something, but I also don't feel that I will like the civil engineering at all either (I was expecting more like exterior design and coolness and |ols, but what they said is pipes and sewers and only a little bit of house designing). Anyways, maybe digital electronics could open a little more options for working with calculators, for me? I'm still undecided though. It's a tough, big decision. And i'm not even sure if i can still switch out...

TL;DR Knowing me as much as you do, what do you guys think about me switching from civil eng/arch to digital electronics? You don't know everything about me but with what you do know do you think I may enjoy it? Could it possibly open up some hardware projects related to calcs?

[edit]
course description:
wrote:
...course provides a foundation for students who are interested in electrical engineering, electronics, or circuit design. Students study topics such as combinational and sequential logic and are exposed to circuit design tools used in industry including logic gates, integrated circuits, and programmable logic devices.


[edit 2]
as you may know, I haven't messed around a lot with hardware before. I'm more of a software kind of guy, but I thought I'd try my hand at some of the hardware aspect of it. maybe not as interesting as software, but yeah.
Civil engineering is highways, pipes, rails, bridges, and other large structures and infrastructure (source: dated a CivE, am an EE). It sounds like you were expecting more like architecture, which is also an extremely difficult subject in which to major, requiring a very intensive 5-year undergraduate degree. What made you think that you were interested in civil engineering in the first place, compared to what the course description and/or syllabus discussed? As a freshman electrical engineering student, I took a digital engineering course(well, digital logic design, but you know), and enjoyed it a great deal. I had done plenty of digital logic exploration on my own as a child, thanks to RadioShack's kits, their Forrest Mims guides, and eventually breadboards and 74LS-series ICs, so it was no big surprise that I enjoyed the subject. We learned binary and hexadecimal, basic logic gates, simplifying logic with Karnaugh maps, and much more. We also did many hands-on projects, which was by far my favorite part of the course. One project that particularly stands out in my mind was a dice-roller, which used a 555-based oscillator connected to a 1-to-6 counter decoded into a random sequence of die dot patterns. If you're curious about some of the fundamentals underlying today's most complicated computers (and calculators, too), the digital logic course would be a fun way to learn more.
I've never wanted to be a civil engineer, but people have said to me that engineering helps with architecture. When I was a little bit younger I thought it would be cool to design what houses look like and everything(like, I'm a great minecraft builder(that probably won't help much though IRL) - and I've had a years worth of experience in autodesk inventor). Kind of thought I would design (*not be the constructor*) the houses, make 'em all modern and the like. make cool elevator designs with water streaming down the sides (that would be a mansion). make an iron man home Razz

when I was younger and was seriously thinking that would be great, I was being a bit fanciful. don't get me wrong, going for super amazing things that are aesthetically very pleasing, even though they may be hard to build, would be cool. but I still have to know a lot of engineering stuff to make sure it's actually realistic and would obey physics etc etc.

so anyways, now that I know you can't just do anything, I think I'm ruling out that class. I'm not basing this decision completely on how hard it seems and I don't want to go through hard courses, though. Of course, the other courses that I take will also be hard, as expected, but may be a bit more interesting than civil eng.
KermM wrote:
highways, pipes, rails, bridges, and other large structures and infrastructure

doesn't sound like my interests.

TL;DR I think I may go with digital electronics.
KermMartian wrote:
It sounds like you were expecting more like architecture, which is also an extremely difficult subject in which to major, requiring a very intensive 5-year undergraduate degree.


Can confirm, sister graduated from an architectural school in 2014. It was a 5 year ordeal and now she has to work for like 5000 hours to get her license or something. Like everything you need to be passionate about it. My sister loved Legos growing up and that love took her into architecture.

From my experience, when I ask a "Should I do this over that" question I already know I don't but I'm trying to find a reason I do. "Should I buy this $60 game or continue saving for a new computer?" I know I really want that computer but I'm trying to find a just-reason to buy the game. Whenever I find myself asking that style of question I tell myself "No" because if I need to find a reason, I don't need the product.

You said it right there, you don't want to be an Electrical Engineer. If you're able, take a class but don't drop your current CivE/Archi classes. If EE is something that actually grabs your interest then invest more time in it. Otherwise drop out. If this is college, maybe you can just sit in on the classes during your free time. If it sounds like something you'd enjoy throughout the year then take it next semester/year.
Welp, looks like the course is filled. But I have hope that there will be an opening and I can switch out! Smile
Welp, I looked through one of the course books. It has some electrical problems in there that my engineering teacher made us dread last year, with worksheet after worksheet. I know I should've expected circuitry math equations, but... anyways - I still think it will be more interesting than civil engineering, but I'm worried that it will be a bit less interesting than I'm expecting.

What actual uses could I get out of it? I'm thinking I could possibly use it to learn more about hardware and so that I could possibly mess around with the calculators' hardware more?

I don't know necessarily if I can switch out but I will try, I think. I'm still a bit unsure.
Messing with hardware is such a thing...

I know people who are electrical engineers but can't even do a simple hack...

And there are people who never learned such things in school but make awesome hardware designs! Smile
Michael2_3B wrote:
Welp, I looked through one of the course books. It has some electrical problems in there that my engineering teacher made us dread last year, with worksheet after worksheet. I know I should've expected circuitry math equations, but... anyways - I still think it will be more interesting than civil engineering, but I'm worried that it will be a bit less interesting than I'm expecting.
Circuitry math like Kirchhoff's Law and BJT computation? Or math like logical reductions? I love all of that stuff and find it to be fun rather than a bore, but I also chose to be an Electrical Engineer because I'm passionate about the area.

Quote:
What actual uses could I get out of it? I'm thinking I could possibly use it to learn more about hardware and so that I could possibly mess around with the calculators' hardware more?
Yes and yes. There are a lot of useful applications of this, even the mathy bits.
KermMartian wrote:
Circuitry math like Kirchhoff's Law and BJT computation? Or math like logical reductions? I love all of that stuff and find it to be fun rather than a bore, but I also chose to be an Electrical Engineer because I'm passionate about the area.

From the quick glance I got, things like parallel circuits and series circuits, with equations to solve for them. Probably other things involved too though.
Successfully changed my 6th hour to digital electronics.
[Necrobump]

Update: really enjoying the class Smile We just finished asynchronous counters and were about to do synchronous counters.
  
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