Hi, I am currently a stressed out High School student. I’m stressed because I have no idea if I can handle the rigors that college level engineering will bring. I hear horror stories about the stress, and drop out rates of the major. I don’t come from a strong academic background. I would say that I am slightly above average compared to my peers. If the smartest person out there is a 10, and dumbest is a 1, then I would say 7-8 range in terms of intelligence, but a 5 in problem solving. I am taking advanced Physics (not IB or AP), I have NO calculus experience, and I’m currently taking college level algebra and trigonometry. I don’t want to go into engineering if I’ll fail, and so I’m really trying to assess my personal situation. Can anyone help?
How are you doing in your math/science currently?
If you have a decent amount of intelligence, the biggest predictor of success becomes work ethic. Many of your peers will have taken calculus before, so you will have to work hard to ensure you don’t fall behind with the fast-paced, more advanced material.
My rules for myself are no procrastinating, no slacking, no taking days off when there’s stuff that needs to be done. I have extracurriculars that I enjoy, but when I really need the time to study or finish an assignment, sacrifices have to be made. This has worked well for me so far (senior in engineering).
First relax. You will figure this out.
I think that you should wait and see how it goes with physics, algebra and trig. You certainly can take calculus either in high school (possibly senior year) or in your first year of university and see how that goes also. If you do well in these courses through high school I would be inclined to also try a computer class at some point, and an introductory engineering class freshman year in university. This will allow you to get a chance to try out several somewhat related fields and give you a much better idea how things are going.
People vary enormously in terms of how well they take to mathematics and engineering. Some people who are pretty average in everything else do very well in Math and engineering courses (this was my personal experience). Others are the other way around. You just need to try a few things and see how it goes. You have lots of time to figure this out.
Also, you don’t need to go to the most stressful university in the world (I am personally thinking MIT or Caltech) to do well in engineering or math. Pick a school that is a good fit for you, not the “biggest name” that you could possibly get into. Personally if I was a bit nervous I might aim for a school where I would be in the top 1/2 of admitted students in terms of GPA and SAT scores. There are a lot of good schools to choose from.
Looking at reply #1 above (which is good advice), I might add: Try very hard to keep ahead in your classes. If you do your homework the day that it is assigned, then you will have picked up a little bit more, which will help you understand your next class in the same subject just a little bit better. Math and engineering are areas where what you will learn tomorrow is based a lot on what you learned today and last week, so keeping ahead can help a lot.
I don’t think that you need the same post in two threads. I replied to the other one.
Hi, I am currently a stressed out High School student. I’m stressed because I have no idea if I can handle the rigors that college level engineering will bring. I hear horror stories about the stress, and drop out rates of the major. I don’t come from a strong academic background. I would say that I am slightly above average compared to my peers. If the smartest person out there is a 10, and dumbest is a 1, then I would say 7-8 range in terms of intelligence, but a 5 in problem solving. I am very hands on, and I sometimes struggle with concepts that I can’t grasp or see in everyday life. I am taking advanced Physics (not IB or AP), I have NO calculus experience, and I’m currently taking college level algebra and trigonometry. I have a 4.18, but I have never really challenged myself in school, so my classes have been relatively easy. I don’t want to go into engineering if I’ll fail. I cant afford it, and I’d rather just skip college if that’s the case. I’m really trying to assess my personal situation. Can anyone help?
I don’t know if you can handle engineering. No one can really know that for sure. If you work hard and are reasonably intelligent, you’ll be fine.
That said, this quote really struck me. This is a pretty bad way to move through life. You won’t really get anywhere without taking some risk here and there. If you go through life afraid to fail all the time, you will never try anything new and never grow as a person.
Further, the future is not preordained. If you want to be an engineer, then study engineering. If you don’t want to fail, then work your tail off and make sure you don’t fail. No one fails just by fate. If you want to succeed badly enough, you’ll find a way. Take charge of your life and make it happen.
Most successful people, especially wildly successful, ultra rich, businessmen leave a wake of failure behind them.