<p>Wow. I somehow managed to screw up every single final during my first semester of real engineering. Even though I'm switching out of chemE to EE next semester, I'm going to be getting these grades at worst:</p>
<p>Energy/Material Balances - F
Organic Chemistry 1 - F
Organic Chemistry Lab - F
Vector Calculus - F - or C if everything went right
Microeconomics - F - or C if everything went right
Electricity & Magnetism - W</p>
<p>What would be the consequences of this? Just realize that only economics & math would count towards my EE major GPA.. the other courses are irrelevant. </p>
<p>I was just wondering, if I worked hard enough for my remaining time at college and maintained above 3.5 each semester, with atleast 1 internship, would I still be alright for a job?</p>
<p>How are your grades “F - or C if everything went right”? Does your school not give out Ds?</p>
<p>You can end up on academic probation for a term and still get a good job. One fluke semester this early in your college career is unlikely to permanently screw you. And plenty of places will never ask about your GPA.</p>
<p>It might, however, hurt you for internships, especially for next summer since you won’t have had a chance to recover. In my experience, internships were much more likely to care about grades than full-time jobs.</p>
<p>But if you struggled this much in this semester, do you think you will be able to maintain a 3.5 in future semesters? Do you have the understanding of the foundational material (like calculus) that you will need to succeed in upper-level classes?</p>
<p>The guy went to your school, failed while in ChemE just like you did, switched to EE, worked his ass off and ended up with a stellar average afterwards. We could all sit around and say this and that is possible, but this guy actually did the whole thing. Maybe you should shoot him a PM and see how he managed it.</p>
<p>What happened in microeconomics? That shouldn’t be a very difficult class. There is no way you put a good effort forth and still are on the verge of failing that class.</p>
<p>You have to be realistic. If you’re getting several F’s in one semester, then getting a 3.5 each semester is unrealistic. For me, it’s hard to imagine how you can fail a class. You couldn’t manage a D in those courses? At least you would have some GPA points. Are you not putting enough time in your courses? That is the only explanation to fail a semester, unless something personal happened to you or your study habits are just ineffective. </p>
<p>It’s going to take A LOT of good grades to raise your gpa, so I recommend you reduce your courseload to 3 or 4 courses. Who cares if you don’t graduate on time, your current load is too much to handle. I would take it slow so that you have a better shot at raising your gpa.</p>
<p>Every school has different probation issues, you need to sit down with a adviser and discuss your options. You really got to work next semester if you want to stay in engineering, I think at most schools, it’s a one semester chance. Perhaps you might be better off exploring another major if you realize next semester that EE isn’t for you either (don’t take that as an insult, just have an open mind. College isn’t going to be fun if you’re stuck in a major you don’t like and are not doing well in).</p>
<p>Honestly I became VERY lazy this semester. I noticed a friend of mine was taking a semester off next year because he wanted to travel; I think I should’ve taken this semester off because I had other things on my mind.. </p>
<p>I honestly can’t remember the last time I studied for more than an hour. </p>
<p>I’m very sure that if I had put forth the effort I could’ve atleast pulled a 3.0.
The main reason why I’m thinking I failed is because I don’t like chemical engineering at all. On top of that, organic chemistry is so boring that I just quit studying it. </p>
<p>I’m more of a physics/programming type person, because I love working with computers and software.. at the same time I thought I’d be alright with math/chemistry in chemE, but I’m just getting sick of it.</p>
<p>If you’re really sure that you’re a physics/programming type of person, then you should really think about majors that pertain to your interests. If you like computers and software, I would suggest majoring in computer engineering or computer science; CompE would probably be the best. EE or ME would be good too, but you might really find your niche in CompE, especially if that’s something that matches your interests.</p>
<p>Don’t stress too much from blowing over one entire quarter - you just go on academic probation and you’re set back some time. You’re still a freshman getting used to the college pace (and learning how much every point on a midterm REALLY means to your grade.) Really, take as long as you need to graduate and go at your own pace if the “set standard” is too fast for you.</p>
<p>Also, yes, do study something that you’re interested in. It doesn’t matter if the crap that you took for ONE quarter won’t apply to what you’ll be studying for the next years of your life. If you want to change, better change now.</p>
<p>You really do need to step it up now. If you can’t manage anything in freshman level math and GEs, you will have a hard time later on in engineering. Not to say that things right now are easy (they’re not), but build up good grades and study habits now to do better in the long run.</p>
<p>I reduced my courseload from 4 courses to 3 major courses per quarter and I barely have enough time to study/cook/sleep with just that. (I’m a junior in Computer Engineering, btw.) I plan to finish in 4 years + 1 quarter with 6 GEs done in the summer, and am thinking about putting those extra quarters in a co-op. Basically, do what you want.. Take your time.. seriously.</p>
<p>If you don’t like it, and like programming.. computer science IS programming. Computer engineering is just EE+CS. and EE is just.. mostly/all hardware.. look at the curriculum/flowchart for each one to graduate and see what you like the most. Those will describe it far better than I could.</p>
<p>Depending on how much you “like” programming, I could recommend going into EE/Comp E/CS. Assuming you really don’t like what you’re doing now.. yeah.</p>
<p>I am a sophomore. I can’t take as long as I want to graduate because my college is so expensive (33k/year). I promised my dad I’d graduate by 2010 regardless of switching engineering disciplines. Last year I had 2.6 & 2.8, which isn’t bad at all considering I did alright in the math/physics/chem. The geneds brought me down.</p>
<p>After withdrawing, you could work for a semester… make some money, and clear your head out.</p>
<p>You are a sophomore (19 yrs-20 yrs)… you’ll hopefully live another 60-80 years.</p>
<p>Surviving college with mediocre grades and dedication won’t really help you for the next 60-80 years. I think you should slow things down. Wow… all F’s…</p>
<p>For UG, you can go to a reputable state school and still get the same job an MIT student would make, perhaps make a little bit less. Why spend $33k? I pay approx. $3k/semester, so per year - $6k. Over my four years, it’ll have been a total of $24k</p>
<p>I know many companies recruiting here… both engineering and i-banks. But I’m also 3-4 hours from NYC, so that’s why i-banks recruit here too. I’m an engineering student, and we have companies like Microsoft, IBM, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, General Electric (GE), etc.. For the business student: Morgan Stanley, PwC, E&Y, Goldman Sachs, etc. Not much else for other majors though.</p>
<p>Guys.. please don’t get the image that I tried really hard and got all these F’s.. I realized halfway through the semester that chemical engineering wasn’t what I wanted to do. </p>
<p>It’s like hell studying something so difficult which you hate so much.. it’s not a question of ability or dedication, it’s a question of how this will affect my admissions to graduate school, or even getting a job.</p>
<p>I’m honestly not too concerned because the only class this semester which would really hurt me if I failed it is math.. material balances, organic chemistry, microeconomics have nothing to do with EE, and for that reason I don’t see why I should bother with those courses.. when I could be focusing on math or physics.</p>
<p>I’m not worried because when my major GPA is calculated (the GPA I will list on my resumes), the F’s from organic chem, econ, and material balances won’t count.</p>
<p>That material balances class doesn’t happen to be a materials science class is it? I was hoping it would generally be easier than chemistry or ChemE courses</p>
<p>No, it’s the fundamental chemical engineering course. It deals with mass balances around reactors, energy balances, material balances, etc etc. Many upperclassmen said that was the hardest course they took.. so I don’t feel too bad for failing it since I hated the course.</p>
<p>Whew, that sounds like it delves in pretty complex terms. I mean it doesn’t sound difficult, but I bet it’s scientifically deep. Sounds like it touches up on what materials science engineers have to learn though. So, you switching to EE cause it’s easier eh? I heard signals, communications, control systems, etc were some tough courses. Although I don’t know why it sounds like it, maybe it’s the math concepts in them, but it sounds like some stuff you learn in networking. But what do I know.</p>
<p>Indian: Just because you fail in one course and everyone else thought it was hard as well doesn’t elude from the fact that you still failed! Employers will still see the F and your overall GPA will be lower. They don’t even need to see that you failed that course, if your GPA is low (generally speaking), you won’t be contacted for an interview. Not the right mindset.</p>
<p>Billy Lee: If you’re doing a networking certification, it is nothing like what you think in it. I can’t say much for Control Systems or Communications (I haven’t taken them yet - I take them this next semester), but I can speak for Signals & Systems. </p>
<p>Signals is a class where you need to devote most of your time to… it’s not necessarily “hard”, but it’s not easy. Your success is dependent on how much effort you put into the course. This is probably the first course in the EE program of most schools where you actually learn to apply concepts learned in Calculus I/II and DiffEq. </p>
<p>Gotta go, I actually have my signals final in like 4 hours :o</p>
away than to have that 33k a negative effect on you…</p>