I recently was accepted to IIT and am planning on going into Mechanical engineering. Anyone go there? If so, are there any robotics clubs or events? I’m trying to get my tracked rover up and running.
Congrats! I can’t offer any information on the robotics clubs but perhaps you can google “robotics clubs + Illinios” 
Isn’t LM in illinois?? PSSSS: You’re close to suplies 
Yeah they’re about two hours south of me (estimate). I’m pretty sure on one of my last racing trips we went through Pekin IL. It’d only take me an hour if I wanted to go down to Tower Hobbies! 
For some reason I never thought to do that! I pulled up some clubs in my area. The CIRC is within reasonable traveling distance ~1.5hrs.
Cool! Sometimes I wish the members of this forum could get to gether for a BBQ or something. That would be nice. 8)
We’re not doing it at my place
Have the robots do the cooking! 
Anyone up for fried Hexapod? 
Heheh, so true. LM and Trossen are out there. UPS shipping should be within 1-2 days for standard ground shipping! Joy!
I believe there is a club that meets at a library in schamburg. Il look into this. I may have it bookmarked at home.
Shipping usually gets here next day with 3day ground. I live in Addision.
I can almost see Lynxmotion if I stand on my roof.
Paul
LOL!
Try Chibots - that one stuck in my mind because I used to live less than three miles from there. Unfortunately, we moved away only about 25 years before I would have been able to attend the meetings regularly.
Try to pick a school that suits you socially and academically. Both parts are essential in my experience with colleges/universities.
Academically, the school should offer something that you really want to do. If you are into any of the general engineering, such as civil, mechanical, electrical, computer, aerospace, and etc, nearly all good schools offer these curriculum
You then want to make sure that the school of interest is actually accredited by an accreditation board that is meaningful to those majors. Many schools are accredited, but not all accreditation are worth anything. ABET is a good solid accreditation board, but there are many others. Do some research since you’re shelling out $$$ for this.
Also, check out the campus, possibly the science/engineering departments to make sure that you have a good facility. The learning is ultimately on the individual, but a good facility will often aid in understanding of the material. In extreme cases, one can learn everything in a basement with nothing in it but books and internet and one can learn nothing from a billion-dollar institution, but reality usually lies somewhere in the middle.
Having said this, I can attest that a degree in Engineering will mostly depend on you and how well you know yourself and your limit. At my school, the head count for engineering students usually drops about half every year. As you progress up the totem pole, more and more students end up dropping out of the major or just flunking out of the course. It is a tough major, everyone has the ability to achieve this, so discipline and endurance is the major factor…
Good luck in this path. This category, engineering, is the most interesting and fulfilling major in my opinion!
Thanks! IIT ended up being my choice. I checked out the campus and that sealed the deal. Though the whole campus is right on the border of the city, I can deal with it… I’ve been around that my whole life. For a couple of days I bounced back and forth between Special ED and Engineering and decided to take the harder route I’ve always enjoyed using my hands and designing things, so it will definately help.
I want to go to engineering in college and upgrade my degree in university later down the road (the college and university support this). I can barely pass college math in highschool right now. Would it be a good move to do engineering? Im very skilled with my hands having done woodworking and metalshop at my shcool. Also taking many engineering and comtech courses. Just wondering if bad math would affect my route 
Math in general is a big part of any engineering career.
There are things that we spent weeks learning just to say that hey I learned that and forget about it once I graduated. Then there things you use on a daily basis.
I find that you use more trig & algebra more than anything because of solving problems and writing software. But it also depends on what you end up doing and the types of projects or work you will have.
I had more trouble with physics II now that is a pain in a ass. I remebering hoping that I got have the questions right on the exam and hoped the curve would help me out. Let me tell you with 50% I still got a B on the exam now that is messed up.
Thats the point of school to learn things that you dont know and to expand what you already know.
Lol, were quite the opposite, I can learn and remember physic formulas no problem, but math has got me going nuts! Its more confusion rather than lack of understanding 
No need to remember open book. Thats the sad part and this was physics II the first part was a breeze.
It would be a struggle. My first 2-1/2 years of my engineering career was basically all math. You gotta take it all the way up to Vector Calculus and Engineering Mathematics for most schools. Engineering mathematics is like modeling and use of calculus for solving equations.
Like all skills, math is no different, it’s an acquired skill. You can get “good” at it if you keep on trying. You might need to put more effort then the next guy who seems “natural” at it, but with perseverance, anyone can be “good” at it…