Basics I have to know for various college courses.

[Punked Out Comp]

I want to learn to be an engineer (electrical and chemical) and an architect.

I want to take college courses but I know very little about the subjects and I'm sure I have to have some prior knowledge before taking the courses.
I'm 14, so obviously not a college student, but I'm a self-taught home-schooler so I have time to do whatever I have to in order to pursue my interests. I know that there are college courses available to people who are not full time college students so thats what I would take.
My question is what would I have to know before taking courses for these subjects? And where can I get that information, for example which websites and books (for dummies books?) should I check out?

[mbossman2]

i would call the local college or university and see if you can schedule a sit down with a professor and discuss this directly with him/her and, as you are home schooled, develop a curriculum for your studies to ensure that you are well prepared for college.

[Punked Out Comp]

What colleges are good for those careers?

[jong2k4]

You'll have to be a bit more specific to get a meaningful response... There are LOTS of really good colleges. When choosing a college, remember that very few colleges are actually bad, particularly if you wind up in an honors program or something.

US News and World Report publishes a respected college analysis every year. Your library will probably have at least a shelf full of material on choosing colleges in the reference section, and there you can find all sorts of guides on colleges. Even though you're home-schooled you can doubtless make an appointment with a guidance counselor at your local high school, and they can doubtless point you towards even more resources.

[Punked Out Comp]

Does anyone here just know where I can get the basic information on the subjects I'm interested in besides for college? Perhaps someone who has taken these courses themself?

[PMich]

Physics, trigonometry, and calculus are pretty much cornerstones in those fields. Probably would be a good place to start.

[mbossman2]

http://www.norwich.edu/arch/class.htm#bachelor

http://www.ar.utexas.edu/Curriculum/Architecture/ArchCurr.html#undergrad

http://architecture.about.com/cs/careers/f/collegecurric.htm?terms=study+curriculum

http://www.bsu.edu/architecture/barchcurric/

http://www.yale.edu/yalecollege/publications/ycps/chapter_iv/architecture.html

here are some curriculums from various colleges.

[Jaggannath]

As a uni zoob (elec eng) myself, the best advice I can give you is make sure your Maths is excellent. Physics would help, as would Chemistry, but for Elec Eng a firm grasp of Maths will make your life 10000000 times easier, as I found to my detriment.

Also, if you can get into a practical electronics course at what we call a TAFE in Australia (basically vocational training courses), it'll help you no end.

And in case you were wondering, zoob comes from the sounds an electron makes going through a wire :) If you don't understand that, pm me and I'll explain :D

[mattg2k4]

http://www.engineering.ucsb.edu/coe/announcement/ Contains a suggested 4 year schedule of classes for all of the engineering majors at my uni. The general catalog which is easily locatable contains descriptions of all of the classes in it.

[LindZ]

I'm currently studying mechanical engineering but I did do a year of computer/electrical engineering prior. I agree with Jaggannath, make sure you get LOTS of math practice. Trig, pre-calc and absolutely as much calculus as possible. Calculus is quite literally the basis countless different facets of engineering and you will need to know it up, down and sideways. Chemistry and physics are very useful for chemical engineering, not as much in electrical.

I don't know too much about chemical engineering but for electrical here's some subjects you should check out when you find the time:
- Electric circuit analysis and design
- Digital logic and circuit design
- Software Engineering, patterns and designs, UML, Object oriented programming
- Programming in Java, C, C++ and assembly
- Electric fields
- Power storage and transmission

There's lots of software related resources on the internet, the other stuff might be harder to find. If you're really keen you could always stop by a bookstore, possibly even one on campus of the nearest college or university and pick up a textbook or two on some of these topics.