<p>Okay, so I have a lot of ideas about what I want to take up as a major in college. I am in the beginning of my sophomore year in colllege and really need to choose quickly. It is between some type of business major, economics, public relations, English, and Engineering. I thought about majoring in engineering because I have a very inventive mindset, am good at building things, and am very good with technology. HOWEVER, the main problem that I see in front of me is that I am not the greatest when it comes to math. I know that there is a TON of math involved in an engineering major. To be more specific, I actually haven't even made it to college algebra class yet, and I even wound up failing my intermediate algebra course. I should point out that the teacher that we had was terrible and most people failed her class. I should also mention that I had to study hard to pass it, but I did fine in my elementary algebra course because the teacher was great. </p>
<p>What I am wondering is, do you think that I should just can the idea of majoring in engineering or should I perhaps pick up like a "math dymistified" book and teach it to myself? After all, I heard that the core math classes are the easiest and it seems to get much easier after that. What do you think?</p>
<p>If you choose engineering, you have college algebra and/or precalc, calc 1, calc 2, calc 3, differential equations, linear algebra at a very minimum ahead of you if you. Then you have many more classes that might as well be math classes. Every engineering class will use math. Is it possible for you to succeed? That depends a lot on your will power and brain power combined. There are people who will attend office hours, tutoring, etc every chance they get and still fail. Then are those who do the same, make a C in calc 1, only to fail calc 2 because it’s much more difficult. Not all engineers are great at math, many are just average. </p>
<p>You just have to be honest with yourself. I didn’t do great in high school not because I was bad at math but because I didn’t care and didn’t do my homework. If that was the reason you failed, you may not be as bad as you think. Only you know the answer to that, though. If you were legitimately trying to pass that class and still failed, I would say that is not a good sign. Having a bad teacher is no excuse. There are tutors, office hours, books, internet, etc that can make up for it. You aren’t always going to have great math teachers.</p>
<p>Thank you this is pretty ispirational to me. All throughout middle school and high school, I just didn’t really care about scholastics. I was never an intellectual in middle school or high school. During these times I was spoiled rotten…Everything was given to me and I was very financially well off. Therefore, I assumed that I would always be financially well off and that I had my parents to depend on for the rest of my life. When I got out of high school, everything went to hell and we became dirt poor (food stamps and everything). </p>
<p>That lit a fire under my ass, and now I’m becoming quite the intellectual because I now I actually care about making money. I have recently noticed that all of the college majors that make a lot of money require a lot of math. Naturally I am a very right brained thinker, and logic isn’t really that natural to me. HOWEVER, my main problem in math is that I don’t pay attention very well in class and have ADD. It really seems like math is something that you have to be taught very articulately. So this is my main problem. When someone shows me how to do the problems (I mean really walks me through them) then I can easily figure out how to do the problems. My biggest problem is that I don’t like to do math without any practical application. If I could see a logical reason to actually do the problem, then I actually might be more interested. </p>
<p>I’m thinking about going to the library and buying some books going back to basic algebra and working my way up. I should mention that I am actually EXTREMELY good at teaching myself how to do things.</p>
<p>“I should mention that I am actually EXTREMELY good at teaching myself how to do things.”
that may be the most important thing in engineering.
with math, the first few steps are the hardest ones. after those, everything just builds up easily.
there are many math professors that considered themselves very average in math, but when went through those few first steps and understood the important basics, with some hard work, they became masters of math.
I would say, just go for it. the beginning might be hard, but if you take your time to learn the basics with understanding, you can become a good engineer.</p>
<p>Despite the hard work, I may just decide to major in engineering. BTW, which is better to major in if I want to learn to build things like computers and cell phones…electrical or mechanical engineering?</p>
<p>Thank you to all of you that responded. Yeah, what I really thought of majoring in is mechatronics or possibly even computer engineering, but the only available school that I can afford my town only offers civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering. I really couldn’t care less about civil engineering, and from what everyone is saying here it looks like I should major in electrical engineering to achieve my goals.</p>
<p>It’s more fun to not even major in engineering (at least as an undegrad) and still get a job as an engineer…just so the other engineers can look at you in disdain :-)</p>