<p>Maybe its because I'm taking way too many classes this summer, or because I have a Thermo exam tomorrow and I dont feel like I know that much but its open book/notes so it shouldnt be too bad, or maybe something else, but I've been feeling a burned out as of late. Most people who know me on here know that I've had alot of things working against me since I've started college from plagiarism issues (which I wont go into) to roommate issues to friend issues to financial and social issues and other academic issues. I've been getting help from a counselor at least.</p>
<p>But on to the real question. I'm a rising Senior(by enrollment) Macromolecular Science/Engineering major but havent gotten into my major yet due to most of the reasons mentioned above. I've basically been taking pre req's/core classes for 3 years and planning on amalgamating the sophomore/junior years of my major into one (since its just basically taking 2 major classes and an easy tech elective) since I wont have anymore core's to deal with. But right now I'm just feel like "what's the point?" I take these stupid pre reqs/cores (like Thermo) and I feel like I'm getting nothing out of them. I've felt this way since freshman year. I dont have the best gpa (2.9) but I dont have the worst either for an engineering major.</p>
<p>So my question is how do/did you guys deal with it? Did it get better for you?</p>
<p>I find that there are 3 facets in life; social, career (education), and monetary (security). Of these three, at any given time, 1 always seems to be getting sacrificed for the other 2. I may be fine on the money and career side, but my social life is a mess. Or, my career and social life are fine but I’m not really advancing at a pace I wish. This isn’t always true, sometimes 2 or all 3 are a mess. I figure as long as only 1 is in shambles than I’m doing alright and that if I focused on that 1 I could fix it, but it would be at a cost of one of the other two… I’m not a juggling clown, just a fool.</p>
<p>You may not be getting anything out of your career as a student right now, but take this as an opportunity to get your social life together, or to get that financial aide straightened out and a plan down moving forward.</p>
<p>The core engineering classes you’re taking now are going to be foundational courses for what you’re going to learn later. I know I wasn’t crazy about thermo, diffusion, perfect crystals, and those sorts of classes when I was taking them, but I was really happy I had when I started taking senior/grad classes since without them there would be no material that actually could have been taught.</p>
<p>@RacinReaver
I’m sure of that. its just right now its a bit discouraging since it doesnt seem relevant but actually is. What field are you in?</p>
<p>@Japhers
Trying to. its rather difficult to have a social life (during summer when all of my friends want to hang out) and juggle 4 classes. The only solace I have is that I’m meeting new people in all my classes and I’m actually the one to break the ice for everyone.</p>
<p>I’m in materials science & engineering. For me, freshman year was two Intro to Engineering courses (I took MSE and MechE), sophomore year had thermo, perfect crystals, defects in crystals, transport in materials, and thermo 2/phase diagrams. I didn’t always enjoy all of the classes, but I did my best to find little topics in each that I found interesting and tried to keep my motivation up by thinking about them.</p>
<p>I also found it helpful at times when I was discouraged to try and figure out why anyone cared about this stuff in the first place. What problem were they solving at the time, and why does it matter enough that every engineer in my field needs to learn it today. Sometimes you can find out some pretty interesting stuff that way.</p>
<p>Magneto - a good chunk of this is inevitable and does get better. In your case (as in mine, once) it is worse because you started off by digging yourself into a hole, and now you have to climb out of it. When you finally get into your final classes things will get a lot better.</p>
<p>@RacinReaver
Materials? I almost went into that but didnt since I hated my “Chem of Materials” class (though I’m going into Macro, which is a bit odd). I’ve actually been trying see why exactly certain classes are needed and what not having them would do. Though I still hate the mechanism/reactions part of O Chem as I find it a complete waste of time, IMO.</p>
<p>@cosmicfish
Thats the hope I’m trying to maintain. Its just right now O Chem isnt going so well and its a bit discouraging. Right now I just tell myself that I just need to get through no matter what since I’ve already put 3 years in. no use in switching since i dont particularly want to major in anything else. plus i’d rather go through hell now and have plenty of opportunity when i get out of college with an engineering degree</p>
<p>If you’re doing stuff with molecules and polymer science and whatnot I’m pretty sure a solid understanding of organic chem will be necessary.</p>
<p>(Incidentally, I was deciding between minoring in chem or physics to go along with my MSE degree and wound up going with physics since quantum had much better ratings than orgo.)</p>
<p>I know it is. its just right now the class is giving me a wee bit of trouble due to the fact that we have basically 1 week to learn 3 weeks worth of material and graded as if we had 3 weeks. Top that with the fact that the class is everyday and lab is 4 hours everyday after class.</p>
<p>but I’m not here to complain about o chem right. I actually thought about a physics minor too until i found out that I dont like physics all that much at my school, due to having so many other classes to take.</p>