Engineering schools have lower rates of matriculation (that is to say those who enroll and eventually graduate) than ANY OTHER college program --- including medical school. Just the pre-engineering classes alone use up a good two years. Four semesters of calculus, two semesters of calculus-based physics with laboratory, and two semesters of general chemistry with laboratory in many instances. A somewhat easier option is to get a degree in engineering technology. A person who pursues this route should get a four-year degree and not a worthless A.A.S. in engineering technology. A BSET (Bachelor of Science in Engineering Technology) can open quite a few doors for the graduate. Many people with a BSET actually do more CAD design than conventional engineers do. BSET programs require less rigorous classes in math and physics than conventional engineering programs do.

If you want to be an engineer, that is a 4 year degree. There is no engineering associates degree unless you are just doing something to learn how to do CAD or construction science.

As for how hard it is, the math can be hard at times. There are some classes, depending on which type of engineering you go into that can be rough. Semesters will be intense. If you are an engineering major, they assume you can juggle a heavy schedule and put the time in to learn complex notions. The rocket ride will not stop until you graduate. Every engineering major usually has some difficulties at time. It comes with the degree. But there are those who will help you. Calculus, physics, chemistry, thermodynamics, electrical circuits, engineering materials plus what ever classes in your major that are required. Get to know math, you will be doing it a lot.

I will say this, if you have a low motivation, getting a degree in engineering will be very tough. You will have to juggle many complex classes and you must have the determination and motivation to put in the hours needed to study (and it will be many hours a week). If you do not dig deep and commit to doing what is needed to pass your classes, any engineering degree will eat you up.

But it seems you have a goal of designing things. Depending on what you want to design, you are going to probably need an engineering degree, so use that goal to motivate you.

An engineering degree is a pretty hard major. A mechanical engineering degree would get you to where you want to be but there are many other ways also. Any community college will have 3d drafting classes that you can take and see if its still something youre interested in. If you do pursue a 4 year engineering degree you should know that most colleges only require you taking 2 solid modeling classes for your degree. Its a very tiny part of your education but you will use it a lot. You will not be proficient but you will know your way around the programs. The majority of engineering classes is math, physics, and other classes that use all the math and physics you learned in the first half of your college education.

If you dont have the motivation to get an engineering degree then you will probably fail. Harsh but true. During my education I saw many people crack and just switch majors to business. Its hard and your heart has to be in it. And you truly have to be interested in it.

If I was you, you should look into a technical school or junior college and major in a 2 year program in drafting. Or you could also teach your self soldiworks and take the certifications that solidoworks offers.

It depends on you how much sincere you are in your studies and how much interested are you in your degree subjects.Apart from that so it depends on your college faculty and the working environment also.So don't think too much just go for that and you will be successful.As you have mentioned you are working on CAD means you know designing also so don't worry if you didn't get that much success as you want from your engineering degree then you can go for animation and multimedia degree.At present there is very much scope for trained people in animation and multimedia.

I think it would be very cool to be an engineer and do awesome stuff and meet great people. I want to be a CAD designer using programs like SolidWorks to build models that companies can then use to manufacture it. What type of degree would I need to be able to do that for companies? I'm guessing engineering. But how big of a degree? What do companies look for? People with Bachelors and up or people with Associates and up? And how hard is it to obtain an engineering degree? I've been doing this internship for a company and I've been doing CAD work and I obviously know that there are things that I do not know how to do that can be obtained through college. But I'm pretty good at designing though. If an engineering degree is too hard to get then I do not know what I will do because I have low self esteem and very low motivation.