Hello. I’m currently an undergrad sophomore (I think). I will give some background to explain my case. I recently came back from a medical leave. I entered my school as a physics major.
At the time I entered my freshman year of college a tragedy befell my family at the hands of people I once loved, and my parents and I were homeless. While they sacrificed the last of what they had to send me to school. Plagued with financial problems and not having a steady home I became increasingly worried about majoring in something I could get a job with quickly out of school and start supporting myself and my parents. In a list that really has no bearing on this, I switched my major a few times to things I didn’t really want to do in a desperate attempt to find salvation in something I felt secure in. I really can’t explain my psychological state at that point. Anyway, the start of my second semester the weight of everything I had been through caught up with me after losing my first love it was the final straw. I became severely depressed and couldn’t get out of bed to go to class. My roommate finally had an intervention with me and encouraged me to get help, I’ve always been a prideful person and I thank her for saving my life because without her I don’t know if I would have ever gotten help and probably waste the wonderful opportunity I have at this school. In conclusion, I was extremely suicidal when I left about a year ago, I had to leave school for a year, stayed with relatives for a bit until we had a home again. I feel obligated to say my life has done a complete turnaround, a home again and recovered all of our belongings taken away from us. I even have a very loving, supportive boyfriend for a bit over a half of a year now, who has helped me through a lot of mental scars.
Sorry for boring you with these details, but they are very important to me for telling my story and would be greatly appreciative if anyone reading this could respect that.
Anyway, I returned this semester with the plan to transfer into the college of engineering here. This is what my parents really want, they don’t think it’s completely unrealistic considering my desire to study physics. I felt really confident about it and studying electrical engineering until recently. I’m scared of making the wrong choice as I feel like my heart is more in physics even if it’s less conventional though still marketable. I know engineering is more applied physics. I’m asking as someone who fell in love with physics for the conceptual and theoretical topics, what is engineering like versus studying physics? I’m not against going to grad school and becoming a physicist, I have loved the subject for years. I’ve done research and I still can’t completely rule out the possibility I would enjoy engineering. I’m soon setting up a meeting with my new advisor to discuss this but I wanted opinions from other people too. I can’t lie, I do feel behind my peers and kind of like a failure. And I don’t feel like I have the room to keep making mistakes deciding what I want to do. Based on what I am saying, what do people of either discipline have to say? Thank you in advance for reading all of this!