Is engineering too stressful?

College Majors Engineering Majors
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You could consider a less stressful school and maybe live at home and not take 18 credits … might take you 5 years, but you may do better and be able to control stress and any mental issues. You can also take some classes in the summer to keep from having 3 or 4 hard classes at the same time. Any prep you do in high school, AP classes in calc, physics, etc will help, even if you don’t get credit, since you have seen the material before and won’t get to week 8 and realize you can’t keep up. Working hard in high school, improving study habits, all will help.

If you love engineering and are good at math / physics / abstract thinking and those kind of classes, you may not be nearly as stressed as some people. If you just go into engineering for say high starting salary … you may have a harder tine.

Engineering jobs aren’t all stressful, many have long term deadlines and as long as you make 8 hours of progress every day , you can meet the deliverables. Many engineers are nice reasonable people. the pressure to conform may be lower than some fields, engineers are pretty diverse people and we tolerate a bit of quirkiness.

Making a good salary can cut down on stress and let you hire help, join a gym, live in a decent home … pay your bills which can reduce stress …

Previous posters have suggested that you have a very good support network in place at college, including doctors and councillors that will help you keep your bipolar in check and keep you on meds … etc.

Some colleges also have lenient drop policies for freshman so you can lower your workload if you get overwhelmed.

Community college, living at home … you can start checking off Calcs, Physics, Chem … etc and then transfer.

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One thing that I didn’t see mentioned is exploring the disabilities office on campus. This may not be in detail beyond anonymously asking if there is one and how they can help prior to admission. After admission you can be more specific, for example asking for priority registration to have the best shot at setting up a lower stress schedule. They can also let you know about support on campus. Try and figure out what sort of accommodations would support your success and they may be able to help you with that. (Hint, years ago when my son was applying to college I started a thread asking about accommodations for my son’s particular disability on the parents forum and got some really helpful feedback that helped prepare him for meeting with his disabilities counselor and requesting accommodations to support his success)As others have mentioned, at least in the beginning be cautious about not over packing your schedule. Sometimes less is more if it keeps you from being ill. While engineering is intense, if STEM classes are more your thing than other subjects you may be better suited to engineering than other presumably easier majors. Good luck!