Hello, first post here.
Before I start, I’m not looking for anything but advice.
I’m a good student. I have a 3.9 after 50 credits, have gotten A’s in chemistry 1 and 2, cal 1, will most likely get an A in cal 2, and a high B in calculus based physics 1. I’m a good student, but I have issues. I have a horrendous case of bipolar (ultra rapid cycling) and it still affects everyday life even with medication. If you know anything about mental illness, stress makes everything much worse.
I want to be an engineer. I know I could do it if I truly want it, but my psychologist and I were talking and he begged the question if I should put myself through three years of hell and a stressful career after that. I had to to take off three semesters for hospital visits already.
I’m struggling as to what to do. I know engineering is stressful for anyone and I know it’ll be three more hard years. I don’t know if it’s worth it… I also don’t know if I should. Both because of time, money, and more importantly my sanity.
Is engineering really as stressful as people make it out to be? The job and of course the major?
If anyone has any advice, I’d be more than happy to hear it. No one in my immediate family is in engineering and I don’t really know who to ask, which is why I’m here…
Mental illness is a curious cat. You’ll never know how much stress it will induce if you DON’T do engineering. Stress is an internal condition and we never know what will flick its switch.
On an interesting side note, I just read a great quote. “Anxiety is when everything is serious. Depression is when everything is black and white.” As you well know, it’s common to have both.
Good luck. If you do as @boneh3ad suggested and get organized and purposeful and focused in your studies, you’ll do fine.
You might overestimate the difficulty of engineering if all you read is cautionary posts from this and similar boards. In truth it is a pretty tough major, but nothing impossible, and nothing that cannot be accomplished by an at least moderately strong student with a good work ethic and a reasonable aptitude for the physical sciences.
On of my kids left engineering, partly due to fears that it would be stressful. But it turns out that the alternate path is stressful too… just not as obviously so til “real world” job.
All jobs have the potential to be stressful in the office. And the jobs that might be less stressful in office are often more stressful on your finances.
It is not that stressful if you are fine with being a B/C student, but it is extremely stressful if you want to be an A student. To make things worse, if you are the kind of person who thinks it is really important for you to be an A student, making your life stressful doesn’t even help you get the grades you want.
There is a certain amount of work you have to put into engineering (and it’s not a small amount), but sometimes there are also factors beyond your control. Aptitude is one reason, chance is another (sometimes the difference between an A and a B is the whim of the professor), and mental state is a third one. In a way, you have to put in a reasonable but not excessive effort into your work, do the best you can, and have the mentality to be able to accept the result of how things turned out independent of what you think would be fair. It’s a lot easier said than done.
Thanks for all of your help guys! You guys had some great advice. And I think you all are right. @boneh3ad That’s a good point. Do you have any advice for time management skills? @eyemgh That’s a great quote. Thanks for the advice @umcoe16 But don’t you have to have a 3.0 to get any jobs? It seems like you’d have to get more A’s than B’s and C’s. @xraymancs That’s totally true and a very good point. @colorado_mom Thanks for the advice. If I may ask, what did your child major in?
I won’t claim to be the greatest time manager in the world, but I did alright. You really have to kind of feel that out for yourself, as everyone’s distractions are different. Some people get distracted by partying, some by video games, some by extracurricular activities of various sorts. At the end of the day, though, it mostly boils down to will power and knowing when to say no to a night out (or whatever else) when you have a lot of work to do.
Some people go as far as making fairly rigid schedules for themselves to plan out their days. I never had to resort to that, personally, but it works for some. For me it was mostly about starting an assignment soon after it was assigned so that I could more accurately gauge how long it would take. You can usually tell if you are going to struggle through an assignment rather quickly, so starting early meant I could ask questions if need be and that I could plan accordingly with my social life.
OP - DH and I are both Mech Eng, and both our kids started in engineerig/undecided. The one that switched out picked Economics instead. That was good because it was analytical yet had some coursework flexibility. However, the jobs have been in business / office environment, often with fast-paced deadlines.
I guess I will also point out that I was an A/B student as an undergraduate and I still didn’t typically find it to be overly stressful (contrary to one of the previous posters). At times it got a little hectic but I still managed to attend all but two home basketball and two home football games during my 4 years and had ample time to go out most of the time. It just got a little crazy around midterms and finals.
As always, posters here are spot on, but I’d like to reemphasize what @NeoDymium said. From my undergraduate and professional degree experience, and now watching my son’s efforts, there is sometimes a randomness in grading with a few professors you’ll run into. The sweet spot isn’t A at all costs because that can be out of your control. It’s as @boneh3ad always advises, command of the subject. USUALLY, a good grade follows, but not always. You should strive to find the efficiency point where you can do well, but still enjoy many of the other things college offers. As @xraymancs said and as I previously alluded to, you don’t know that something else might not cause stress or that skipping what you’re really interested in might cause it’s own stress. Be efficient, have fun, and enjoy your time. Good luck!
@WhatToDo1500 yes, most employers do want to see at least a 3.0 GPA. A 3.0 is basically straight solid B’s on average. In my experience, if you put in the effort expected of you by the professor, you will rarely fail to get at least a grade of B. However, getting an A often requires exponentially more effort on your effort. As much as you will hate it, in many STEM classes, your grade may not be reflective of how much time and effort you put into the class. Sometimes you can put in so much effort and still not get an A grade.
Most engineering students usually take at least one non-STEM course to balance things out or give them a break from engineering. Those courses may be used as GPA boosters, since they don’t tend to be as harsh on achieving a certain grade distribution. I personally don’t remember the last time I took a non-STEM course.
I don’t agree with this. True, you will sometimes work your tail off and still get a B, but there is nothing about the A grade that somehow requires substantially more work. In fact, for someone who studies effectively and actually understands the material, they will likely require less work to get their A than someone who struggles to grasp the material requires to get their B.
Also, “exponentially” describes a manner of growth, not one value compared to another. Sorry, pet peeve.