<p>Science is my weakest subject. Math my second weakest. I want to major in mechanical/aerospace engineering in my undergrad. Oh boy.</p>
<p>Science has always been my weakest subject. It's the area in which I have to study the hardest only to get the worst grade. My high school GPA is around a 3.8 and all my non-A's are in spanish and science classes. Spanish, eh. Science, boooo! </p>
<p>Here's further proof I'm science-retarded and Math-stupid:
ACT Scores: 36 Reading, 35 English, 34 Math..... 27 Science. Science is the subj in which I got my lowest score by FAR and math my second lowest.
SATI Scores: 750V&740W but 700M.
I'm taking the highest calc/physics classes offered at my school, but when I see some of those math/sci geniuses do homework that takes me hours to complete in <30min, I really just wonder if I'm not cut out for this field. </p>
<p>People have (jokingly) told me I should just be an english major. I want to say screw you, but I'm afraid they might be right. Assuming I can even get into any schools of engineering with my sci scores, am I setting myself up for failure? After all, if I'm having trouble in high school, wouldn't I just die in college?</p>
<p>Why exactly do you want to major in ME/AE? Do you find physics cool? </p>
<p>The most important thing is, do you enjoy it, because at the college level, success is best and easiest obtained when you're in a field you truly enjoy. If your true passion is for science and math, your grades will follow.</p>
<p>Well, I think the demand is low mediocre engineers right now. So even if you get a degree, many employers have a GPA requirement, and many would prefer Engineer's with advanced graduate degrees. </p>
<p>I do not live in the USA, so I don't know exactly what your scores mean, but if you are weak in math and science, it is going to hinder you as an engineer. </p>
<p>I'm not saying not to become an engineer. But doing something that you are good in is important. Especially when job potential is related to how good you are at your job. Have you looked into something like architecture? They look for people with high English Marks, and it's very interesting (to me). It's what I'd like to do after I get a Bachelors in Engineering... but I can't draw amazingly like a lot of the people applying to the top schools can; and English is by far my worst subject. So if you really want to be an engineer, go for it. If you can't do it, you can always switch majors. Just make sure you factor your strengths into your career decision.</p>
<p>Is there anything else that you're good at AND interests you? You should check out careercruising.com. In grade 10, I had no idea what I wanted to do, but I had to research a career for a career studies course, and the first thing that came up on the list was chemical engineer. It's been 2 years and I'm still aiming to be a chemical engineer. If you want the username/password, send me a PM.</p>
<p>It sounds like you have the ability and skills to be a success in engineering. I like what you said about having to work hard, that will do you well in college. Some of those guys who do their homework in < 30 minutes get blown away by college because they are lazy. A hard working good student will go much further than a lazy genious.</p>
<p>The key is that you need to enjoy engineering. I'd sugest that you talk to engineering students and to engineers in the workplace. Find out what they study and what they do. If that sounds interesting, go for it!</p>
<p>I like physics when I understand it. It's just it takes me a while to fully grasp the topic. Physics is interesting so far... argh, I don't know.</p>
<p>I'm a senior. I've already applied ED to Cornell's College of Engineering and the UCs (major: engineering). When (err...if) I get rejected to Cornell, should I choose a different major when applying to my other colleges? I've just always thought I'd end up being either a doctor or an engineer. However, Bio and Anat/Phys were Hell... and engineering... well I've already elaborated on that.</p>
<p>My APCS teacher (I currently have a B in his class...) recommended that I read Feynman, so I'll be visiting the LA Library over winter break. Is there anything else I can do to become good at science?</p>
<p>Oh yeah, and my mom's an electrical engineer, my dad's a software engineering, and he got his Ph.D in physics. Argh, maybe I was adopted?</p>
<p>By "non-A's", did you mean 'B+'s', or 'D's'? I've got a feeling it was the former since your overall GPA is still pretty high. Don't worry if you think you're struggling in high school and science classes in particular. As long as you're genuinely interested in what you're learning (and, more importantly, willing to work at the very least as hard as you do, which I'm assuming you will anyway), then you should be fine. I agree with dr_reynolds. "A hard working good student will go much further than a lazy genious".</p>
<p>I wouldn't worry about being perfect in the math or sciences because they quickly get to the point where your intuition starts to fail. Instead you'll have to learn to extract physical meaning from derived mathematical results which is no easy feat and that will be a skill the college tries to repeatedly imprint upon the students. What matters is that you like what you do and you'll be willing to put the hours in because you'll be working much harder than the other majors. Your heart has to be in it because there will be times why youre still doing it. A lot of people are tempted by engineering because of the starting salaries; their kind doesn't last long.</p>
<p>I have to disagree with the comment about the hardworking student vs lazy genius. There are people who work really hard but they just don't get it. As for the "geniuses", if they don't understand that they have to work harder in university, they aren't very smart IMO. </p>
<p>If you get most of the material but you're not a genius, you'll definitely be all right. A friend of mine is aiming to become a doctor, but his science/math marks aren't that great. His chemistry mark is around 60s and his math marks are around 80s, and trust me, everybody who's born to do math gets at least 90s.</p>
<p>I don't mean to discourage you from being what you want to do, but you should definitely do something that you're good at and passionate about. This is the combination that spells success.</p>
<p>I was an engineering student in CompSci at Cornell for two years. I worked and studied for MANY hours each week and I still couldn't grasp the core subjects like calculus, physics, and statics. The mechanics part of physics simply confused me but I understood the electromagnetism part. However, whenever I did understand a concept the test was still above my level of comprehension. I eventually transferred out. At schools like Cornell you really have to know your stuff. The problem sets weren't very hard, even for someone like me. But I just couldn't hack it on the exams. Although the teaching was terrible, I also seemed to have a mental block that prevented me from grasping certain things. I think this was a result of the fast pace of the courses. I never had enough time to master one topic before moving onto another and I eventually got backlogged and lost forever. </p>
<p>My advice for elite engineering programs: Learn QUICK and learn deep enough to be able to do well on exams. Get help as soon as you start struggling. The teaching in my lectures was worthless and I needed to go to tutors in order to learn problem-solving skills.</p>
<p>Do teachers really matter? My chem teacher REALLY sucked, and my physics teacher REALLY sucks, but some students still learned. They learn from the book and basically aced their tests. </p>
<p>Justinmeche - I read some of your threads from the Cornell forum, and they scare me. I'm still in love with the school but despite desperately wanting to get in, I'm also afraid of getting in. Cornell is among the top 10 schools for engineering, and chances are that Cornellians are even smarter than geniuses at my h.s. I don't know. </p>
<p>It's late for me to just change my mind about my future, but I don't want to fail later on in life.</p>
<p>The first thing that came up was: Industrial Engineer. The next ones were pipfitter, steamfitter, and ironworker. lol. MechE and AeroE are #19 and 21, respectively.</p>
<p>I think some problems in the matchmaker lies with my knowledge of which qualities would best fit an engineer... and my subsequent choosing of those qualities. I don't know what I want anymore. Oh boy, confusion sucks.</p>
<p>I go to an elite engineering college and what i'm going through is very similar to what justin went through. The tests are simply on another level in many classes but it's doable here (i.e. i can survive for now).</p>
<p>I believe top engineering colleges strongly emphasize independent learning. It's true that a lot of lectures are a waste of time. It is expected that the students here teach themselves large quantities of material.</p>
<p>But don't be too scared. I think a major disadvantage for me was my poor high school education. I was never challenged and the curriculum was weak in science courses. Also, I never liked school either and going to a university like Cornell and majoring in engineering isn't a good mix. I struggled with the Cornell courses from the very beginning. I was good at doing problem sets for some courses, but the tests were too hard. Computer Science was simply the wrong major for me...I'm not wired for that stuff. During my last semester I took a statics course so I could switch to MechE and I couldn't understand anything...not even how to make a simple free body diagram. The lectures were too cryptic and the textbook was terrible....it barely showed any pictures. After I transferred I used a different textbook and from that point on, my understanding of mechanics greatly improved. My intuition about how forces affected objects was completed wrong.</p>
<p>Anyway...if you are a bright student and have done well in a rigorous high school, Cornell may work for you. If you came from a high school like mine, you will struggle. But not everyone in my position did poorly. It depends on the person. If I could go back and do it over again, I probably would have left Cornell much earlier than two years. The entire environment was counter to what I wanted out of an academic environment. I wanted to learn without having the pressure of too much busy work and exceptionally hard exams. And being an okay student at Cornell doesn't cut it. I know someone who had a low B average in engineering and they didn't get selected for any of the on-campus interviews because his classmates all had high GPA's and research experience. Go to a school where you can get a high GPA and stand out among your peers. It worked out for me. Some people may say going to an easy school and getting a high GPA isn't fair, but if the world works the way it should, a 3.0 at Cornell will be rewarded more than a 3.0 at a lower ranked school.</p>
<p>Try to do the test again, and be honest instead of just trying to get the right career. When I did the test for the first time, I had no idea what kinds of career they have, so I just answered honestly.</p>
<p>And since I received quite a few PMs regarding careercruising.com, here's the username and password.</p>
<p>Username: herndon
password: hornets</p>
<p>This is sort of public info, since I found this over google anyways, but each school had to register individually.</p>
<p>Hey SchoolDuh, you sound like me in high school. I had my worst grades or Bs in the following subjects: chem, calc. Those were my only Bs in high school. I am now doing chemical engineering. Weird? No, my high school teachers sucked so I never got it. My chem teacher taught us some stuff but nothing past stoich until I took orgo & biochem (they didn't have AP so I didn't learn anything I needed for gen chem like equilibrium). Wait a second? I took orgo and biochem after my only Bs came from Honors Chemistry? Yep b/c I was interested in it and liked it. I thought it was cool even if I didn't get it in time for tests (prolly b/c I never read the book) but I memorized poly atomic ions with ease and not only memorized them for the test but they STAYED WITH ME. Weird I'm not the one to go memorizing useless information. Got to orgo and biochem and loved them!!</p>
<p>So what I'm saying is that I hated physics in high school and I hated math the most (worst score on my ACT and SAT, English was by far my best, I got a 36 on that portion). You may end up liking it once you understand it. I never took algebra and hated it. THen I took matrix theory (linear algebra in college) and UNDERSTOOD IT. Everything fit together and made sense.</p>
<p>So ask yourself: What do I like about the career? Dislike? If the pros outweigh the cons, go for it. If you want to talk to me about it just pm me or feel free to IM me even. This very much reminds me of my situation in high school.</p>
<p>I don't know how to change my answers for the careercruising thing because I've kind of grown up in this mindset. I honestly didn't like the other option they offered. In my world, there are doctors, engineers, and lawyers. I have no idea what the other careers entail although I'm open to advice. Through CC, I found out about iBanking, that that sounds way too stressful. lol. </p>
<p>Yay IlliniJBravoEcho, you give me hope! Hahah. I like math well enough. Err... I'm neutral about math. It's not one of the classes I dread. I don't know if it's the people in my phys/math classes (our class of 2006 is broken into sections based on academic performance/interest for phys/calc), but I just feel utterly stupid when I'm in those classes. Hahah. Feeling like an idiot in a particular subject tends to dampen one's pasison for that subject.</p>
<p>Is there anything I can do to improve both academically and interest-wise? Feynman? Book of numbers? I'm planning on taking the AP tests in all the subjects I'm having trouble in just so I'll be forced to study and really learn the stuff... Is there anything else I should be doing?</p>
<p>You can't change your interests. Your interests are just like that: what you're interested in. I know I'm begging the question, but there's really no real way to explain it. </p>
<p>Perhaps one day, you'll learn about some really cool thing about engineering.</p>
<p>I always thought I was really good in math just the teachers thought others were better. I was never picked for math team (okay I was but I got nervous and made a big mistake and was never invited back [it wasn't like my school was competitive either so that's ridiculous]) and was never thought to be one of the top math students. You might be more of a visuals person and you don't know how to visualize math. That was the number one thing I learned how to do in college was visualize math. I could see the areas and sums. It makes it easier if you're that kind of learner that most can't cater to. It took me a full semester to catch on too. And I used to dread math (not because it was hard but I didn't like going up to the board b/c I always made dumb mistakes and one of my teachers was really cruel in pre-calc and ridiculed me all the time and then swore at my dad [yeah I've never been crazy about math]) but now I like it. Just look for the visuals. If you're that kind of learner that is.</p>
<p>Now remember this a lot of kids think they love matha nd science and all that and get in college and realize they can't do the math anymore, or the physics and end up dropping out because of one of those other subects. Not ever the major!</p>
<p>Also just start searching online on college sites like priniceton review. They aren't perfect but can give you a good idea of what careers use what majors. (They have an interelated career & major section where you can pick one and read all the details about the other). Find sites like that. Find one that suits your personality somewhat. That's one of the cons for engineering for me. I'm not an engineer personality-wise at ALL! I'm more of a business major type. Or education like teaching. But I picked what I liked not what suited me and found out that good portions of the major that I picked suited me as well and I found more I got into it the more I liked about it. Unlike all of my other friends. eessh, that's another thing that sucks. All my friends are disappearing.</p>