<p>I just had a couple questions that hopefully some of you can answer. First though, a little background about myself:</p>
<p>I have always been pretty smart, but never really applied myself throughout high school and the start of college. Right now I am attending a CC and looking to transfer to Cal Poly Pomona for aerospace engineering, but a few things have been on my mind lately that are starting to bring down my confidence and cause me to second guess myself and my decision. </p>
<p>First, seeing as how I wasn't very studious in high school, I am not sure that I will be able to handle the demands of majoring in Engineering. Granted, since graduating high school, (my HS GPA was like 2.3) I have managed to do better in college (currently have a 3.2). I am very committed now to doing this much more than I have ever been but there is still a little doubt that I have in the back of my mind that creeps up every once in a while. Does this ever happen to anyone else? If so, what do you do to get over those feelings? It should be a boost to my confidence that my grandparents and uncles are all engineers, but for some reason it doesn't. I don't know. Maybe I just need some reassurance from someone who has been through it all. Can I make it through to the other side?</p>
<p>One of my best friends from HS was told by his guidance councilor that he would never graduate college so he should best find a trade, his grades were so low. He didn’t like that answer, and was very stubborn. The rest of us, his friends, all went straight to Universities and he went to a CC to learn a trade. After a year we met up with him and he was really depressed, and he told us he didn’t like how his future was looking and that he really wanted to get into a college and graduate. So we told him to do it, that we couldn’t give him confidence but we could support his effort and be there when he needed us to be.</p>
<p>He moved to SLO and enrolled in Questa CC and began applying to Cal Poly every semester once he was qualified to. It took him 2 years to be accepted, he struggled with math and statistics, had to retake them several times. He struggled through college, joined the lumberjack games, got in really good shape and eventually graduated with a forestry degree. He is now a city planner.</p>
<p>At our 10 year reunion guess who had the last laugh.</p>
<p>You need to find confidence for yourself. For my friend it was his peers and his overbearing bent to be stubborn and prove people wrong (if he’s not your friend he can really be a jerk). I wouldn’t worry about HS, you can’t fix that. All you can do is show why you are worthy now of admittance… Every challenge in life will have you doubting yourself, and this a truth for everyone. The ones who succeed are the ones who tell that little voice to shut it and do it anyway.</p>
<p>I was told by several relatives, who are engineers, to drop and change my major to business and that I wasn’t gonna make it with engineering…
I said F you and proofed them wrong… I struggled a bit in college, but it never occurred to me that I would drop out…
You need to work hard, proof em wrong and shut up whoever said that you can’t do it…</p>
<p>Mine was a similar story. I went into the UC system right out of HS, and thought I knew everything. Needless to say I did not. I ended the first year with a 1.2 GPA, and left the school. Many people in my family told me to take a year off, and see what I wanted to do. I basically thought the same thing you did, F you. I went to the local CC and started from scratch. I took a couple different courses to see what I really wanted to do. After graduating from the CC I transferred into Cal Poly Pomona and majored in ECE. I graduated from there and got a job. Now I’m back at CPP getting my Master’s which my employer is paying for. </p>
<p>To make it worse, my twin sister went into the UC system the same time I did, and graduated from UCLA within the four years. I had plenty of family members that kept comparing the two of us and how we went about our education.</p>
<p>Begin by being honest with yourself… Do you study as efficiently and thoroughly as possible? Are the grades you’re getting your best effort? Do you take advantage of study and discussion groups? Have you met professors and/or taken their classes who can offer research opportunities? Are you doing an internship? These things may help you reassure your commitment to engineering.</p>
<p>What are your SAT/ACT scores? If you can get above 600 in each section, you definitely have sufficient preparation for any engineering major. 500 probably enough, but scores in the 400s might predict some roadblocks for you in the future. </p>
<p>In my experience the math section of the sats reflects the work that an engineering student does very closely.</p>
<p>In response to batlo, the grades that I am getting are not the best that I could do but I plan to devote more of my time to studying starting this summer semester. I haven’t met with any engineering professors because I’m still at the CC and I am just now starting on the path towards engineering. Same thing goes for the internship, I haven’t looked in to getting one because I am so new to the engineering coursework (I am just now taking trigonometry and college algebra). I never took the SATs in HS, but I have gotten all As in math since starting at the CC. I hope I know what I’m getting myself into with this…</p>
<p>I know a guy who dropped out of high school then picked himself up, got a GED and went to CC then transferred to a decent 4 year and got a degree in Aerospace Engineering. Last time I checked, he had done some research and had a few conference talks under his belt.</p>