Engineers and Students: How did you make it or not?

[Soontir C'boath]

I'm into my third year in an engineering major and most of it has been tough. It's been my fault though since I'm the type of person who procrastinate and I don't study as well as I should because of it. I've been trying to get myself to bring a better study/work ethic but it's been hard. My psychiatrist said it's because I've been used to slacking off and just like electric circuits, I'll go through the path of least resistance or in my case doing the least work.

I've always managed to squeezed by getting C's in the engineering courses but I've finally received an F and it was in dynamics. Vectors, scalers, and fucking algebra (well equations that are derived anyway) for rigid bodies and particles in motion. How hard could it have been? Well, it was somehow for me as I failed the course. It's very embarrassing to say the least.

I've been asking myself for awhile though but this makes me ever closer to answering the question, should I just quit?

With me getting C's constantly, I keep wondering if I'll be a competent engineer. I've had professors who'd say that you'd most likely have to look at the textbooks again when working professionally but if I can't handle the stuff they're giving me now, how will I when I work?

I remember one time Mike said that he'd seen a bunch of third-year students going off to become history teachers (don't know where the post went though) but I've always held on because this is what I want to do and I don't want to quit like those people did. Still these grades are really making me wane.

I rather design or help design something that we will use than try teaching to a possible bunch of unruly and uncaring students. Of course, I could work as a historian somewhere but then I would probably be secluded to nowhereland.

I know there's many other options to try like being a small-time actor but I just don't see myself in doing much else.

Or I'm just afraid of trying to go a different direction.

I will say this though, I was really fucking annoyed when I failed the first exam hard for the dynamics course and when the professor showed us the solution, IT WAS RIDICULOUSLY FUCKING EASY!

Note: For those wondering why I'm taking dynamics in my third year (normally taken at sophomore as it is a 200 level class), I've had to withdrawn from some classes and retake them again. I'm most likely a year behind in my studies given the normal 4 years to graduate.

[Darth Wong]

Absolute grades don't mean as much as exclusivity. In other words, how easy is it for others to achieve what you're achieving? Are you taking a program which is so tough that most of the class gets C's? Or is most of the class doing better than you, in which case you're bringing up the rear?

If you're bringing up the rear, you might want to consider either changing your major or finding a way to refocus your energies on the task at hand. If, on the other hand, most of the class is getting C's, then that's just the way the grading curve is and you shouldn't take it personally. I've taken courses where a 70% mark meant you were beating most of the class handily, because the exams were deliberately designed to be brutal. But getting an F in third year is ... well, not good. Usually, people only get F's in first year, because they're drunk with the freedom of living away from home for the first time in their lives or they've gotten themselves into a program that's over their heads. But by third year, people have usually either burned out, flunked out, or they've buckled down and gotten serious about learning.

I can't answer your question as to whether you should quit. By third year, the idea of quitting would not have occurred to me at all. I was doing fine, my grades were good, I'd gotten over the first-year party bullshit, and Rebecca and I were already settled into a stable relationship. Quitting at that point would have been ridiculous. So I can't say I've been in your shoes.

Is there anyone at the faculty like a career counselor that you can talk to, for more personal guidance on this issue? It seems like something that's too serious to decide based on feedback from a message board.

[Edi]

Back when I studied computer engineering, I failed out essentially after third year, but most of the problem courses I had were on the hardware side and belonged to second or third year curriculum. They were not prereqs for my specialization, so I could try to go back to them later. It didn't work out.

The problems I suffered from was that I had gotten used to getting good grades with little work, which is a really dangerous habit and which was a big part of my downfall. Another mistake I made was that we basically designed our own curriculum within certain guidelines in the third year, picking specializations and fitting the courses and I got too ambitious. I picked too many courses, several of them fairly difficult, with the result that my grades took a dive across the board. Coupled with the certain mandatory courses from second year that I hadn't passed, that amounted to a massive workload and domestic trouble on top of it all sent me spiraling down into depression.

I hung on with some extensions and managed to pass several of the prereq courses (electronics, digital circuits etc), but certain others were just out of my league and the depression cycle was getting worse since my failures at school were feeding it, they were increasing the troubles at home, which again fed back to increasing the depression and it just got worse and worse. I remember at one point I was fairly upbeat about doing things, I'd leave home excited about getting this, that or the other thing done today and when I walked in the school doors, it was like somebody had hit me with a giant hammer and ground me to the floor. The full strength of the depression would hit me and I'd be completely paralyzed and numb, unable to do anything.

In the end, I had to quit the program and leave my studies unfinished. By that time, I was very, very close to being totally wrecked both emotionally and physically. All of that education did not go to waste, though, since I later did a vocational IT degree, but everything I learned at EVTEK I've been able to utilize on the job.

It's a good thing you are already seeing a counsellor, because that is going to help a lot. But you also probably need to buckle down ore seriously, which might mean cutting almost everything extraneous away for a time, including this place and a lot of hobbies.

[Colonel Olrik]

But by third year, people have usually either burned out, flunked out, or they've buckled down and gotten serious about learning

Precisely. Your third year is when things are supposed to get interesting. If you're still stuck with 1st year courses or just don't get it, there's something dangerously wrong.

I've also had colleagues (one a good friend) who got to the third year without major problems and then went down hard. The reason is that the first two years are mostly a difficult continuation of high school - maths, physics, mostly general knowledge in other areas, but in the third year they hit us hard with the mechanical engineering specific courses, and while it got easier and more interesting for me and many others, those guys just couldn't get it.

[Nephtys]

But by third year, people have usually either burned out, flunked out, or they've buckled down and gotten serious about learning

Precisely. Your third year is when things are supposed to get interesting. If you're still stuck with 1st year courses or just don't get it, there's something dangerously wrong.

I've also had colleagues (one a good friend) who got to the third year without major problems and then went down hard. The reason is that the first two years are mostly a difficult continuation of high school - maths, physics, mostly general knowledge in other areas, but in the third year they hit us hard with the mechanical engineering specific courses, and while it got easier and more interesting for me and many others, those guys just couldn't get it.

This, and precisely what Wong said. It depends entirely on how you do compared to the other people of your major. Ask around and see if the 'C' is 'average' or 'bad'. Some programs make C the Average, while others have Bs and whatnot.

Also typically from what I've seen and heard, 1st and 2nd year courses are for both teaching basics required for upper division stuff, AND running people out of the programs who aren't as motivated or prepared to do well. 3rd and 4th year stuff is going to be where you actually learn stuff of value in that field.

That F is a bad sign, but it's not a death-knell or anything as long as you pull yourself up afterwards. If you really don't feel comfortable in it but do well enough, consider changing tracks from pure Engineering to something related.