<p>I am a junior Mechanical Engineering Major at Syracuse University. Initially I decided that I would choose engineering as my major because I liked drawing and designing things when I was younger and had an interest in machines. I never excelled at mathematics in high school and struggled through Calculus courses during my first two years in college. This semester I have taken four engineering classes and will probably end up failing two and getting a low grade in the others. My GPA will be horrible after this semester. I know it is very late, but I am thinking I shouldn't have become an engineering major in the first place. I can't see myself working as an engineer when I struggle in fundamental engineering courses. I am thinking about switching my major to recover my GPA and hopefully apply to grad school in a non-engineering field. Should I switch or just stick it out even though my GPA will be low?</p>
<p>If you can’t see yourself being an engineer, then you really need to change majors. Go talk to other departments at your school to see what your options might be.</p>
<p>Before you quickly change majors, try to assess why you’re not doing well. If the problem is study skills, you’ll have problems in any major you switch to. Many students have problems getting good grades in engineering.
But if the problem is math, as it may be for you, then reconsider why you chose engineering, and think of a field that would appeal to your interest in design. Make sure you genuinely like the new field, and it’s not simply a “non-engineering field”, or else you may regret the switch!</p>
<p>You should definitely switch. There are much easier majors that you can be happy in.</p>
<p>^ agree that you should have figured this out earlier. However, you may not have because there is something about engineering that you liked and it is just your poor performance that is scaring you away (as it should I might add). Have you considered industrial engineering or manufacturing engineering. These branches are much less math intensive but still need the focus on design that drew you to engineering in the first place. </p>
<p>You do need to figure out something real soon. I wouldn’t be thinking about grad school until I figured out a good career path/field first and maybe even worked in it for a while.</p>
<p>The question is, what do you like well enough to major in? As a junior, it is already pretty late to choose a major, so you need to consider a major for which you have already taken a lot of the prerequisites for, or one with very few prerequisites and not that many degree requirements.</p>
<p>In the former category would be subjects like math, statistics, physics, and other engineering majors, but that does not sound likely from your description. The only other possible subjects would be if your humanities and social studies breadth courses fulfilled the prerequisites of such a major that you are interested in.</p>
<p>In the latter category, you’ll have to go through your school’s catalog to figure out what majors can be completed in your remaining three semesters (or five quarters) without having taken many (or any) prerequisites. Probably they include mostly humanities and social studies majors (but probably not business, art practice, or music performance). Of course, if you have not taken any courses in the subject, you may not know if you like it.</p>
<p>It’s never valuable to ask why someone waited this long to figure out that he didn’t want to be an engineer. It’s not constructive.</p>
<p>I think in your case, I’d consider taking Spring semester off and trying to transfer to public college while you do some personal soul searching to figure out what you’d like to study. Then when you transfer, you’re basically going to be repeating Junior year and can major in whatever you want. The public school will be valuable because it’s likely that you won’t graduate on time. At a public school, there will be less pressure to finish on time for monetary reasons. This way, you can take your time and get it right.</p>
<p>Evaluate what you really like your true passion. The world may lose a lousy engineer and gain a great lawyer, a chemist, or a doctor…Or even a fantastic locksmith. Only you would know.</p>
<p>Yes, it’s a good idea. Majority of employers list 3.0 GPA as a requirement for hiring. If you don’t have that, you likely won’t succeed in engineering.</p>
<p>I’d suggest choosing another major that you would enjoy and can do well in.</p>
<p>This is sort of a lateral suggestion if you like Engineering but find the math/physics just to much then you can check out at RIT’s engineering technology majors. You may find you have a lot of credits already done. This way you do come out with a degree in the field of engineering but one that is less demanding and at RIT you have to do Coop so you get experience in the field before graduating. </p>
<p>[RIT</a> Undergraduate Admissions - Engineering and Engineering Technology](<a href=“http://www.rit.edu/emcs/admissions/engineering]RIT”>http://www.rit.edu/emcs/admissions/engineering)</p>
<p>Graduating with a degree in engineering technology will not let you “come out with a degree in the field of engineering”. You will graduate with a degree in engineering technology and be a technologist, not an engineer.</p>
<p>But if you like engineering and find the math above you, what is wrong with a degree in Engineering technology? You can still go back and get a masters in business and you have a way to be employed and support yourself instead of coming out with a bachelors in a major that requires a masters to find a higher paying job. </p>
<p>For instance, a degree in biology if you don’t go on to do medical school or a masters program qualifies you for a bio tech job at $12-14 dollars an hour. How then would the OP be better off. Same with a psych degree. At least you finish school with a way to make a living.</p>
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<p>There’s nothing wrong with it. However, it’s a different degree with a different career path leading to different jobs with different responsibilities. The way you phrased it, the two degrees seemed equivalent, which is not true.</p>
<p>That is why I put the link. I actually know 2 people who are engineering technologists and they enjoy it. </p>
<p>Engineering technology is not a step towards being an engineer so no one should mistake that for an jr path. It is obviously a very applied major but for some that may be a better fit.</p>
<p>Sounds like you might enjoy some type of architecture or product design, where you would be on the “artistic” side of a product and would work closely with (read: constantly fight with) engineers.</p>
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<p>However, the public school (if it is a four year school and not a community college) may have institutional rules against taking too many semesters of school, in order to avoid any student taking more than his/her share of in-state tuition subsidy.</p>
<p>I believe you’ve got a week before exams. Stop reading cc. Instead, take a breath, let it out and hit the books. Consider your options once finals are over. Good luck!!! Anyone taking 4 engineering classes at once has my respect.</p>
<p>Agree with above. You should do your best during your exams first. Now for the engineering technologists idea, I think its not a bad idea at all. Technologists deal with more practical things. We engineers usually deals with designs and management and we often consult them for practical knowledge. I still suggest you to hold on to your degree though, I have friends that got 2.2 overall GPA and failed 5 courses with no internship still manage to get an engineering job after a year.</p>
<p>@BEngineer do you know how your friends explained their low GPAs to their employers?</p>
<p>How did finals go laststraw?</p>