I’m a 21 year old male. I went to community college for a year right after high school. I didn’t do well because I had a lot going on. I decided to take a year (ended up being 2 years) off and work. I also had to care for a sick family member. I had a plan. I wanted to be an engineer and design cars. To work for one of the big 3 American car companies. I also kind of want to be an emergency room physician or go into medical technology repair. I was going to get a master’s in mechanical engineering. I was going to do my 2 years at community college and hopefully transfer to UCLA or UCSB. Now that I’m back in community college, I’m struggling. I’m bored and miserable. I feel weird not having to be to work at 7:30 and I don’t like that feeling. There’s a balance that financial aid isn’t covering and loans aren’t covering. I have a car payment and insurance. I hate going to class. I often find myself uninterested and not understanding the material. My roommates are cool. I feel like nobody here is very social (not here to make friends anyway). If you send me to work, I’m there. Going above and beyond my required duties. I’m from and live in New York State. A friend of mine wants me to move out to LA and work in his line of work. I honestly can’t afford college. I’m struggling this semester and I know I’m not getting good grades. For example, I can detail cars with grade A+++ results but I struggle in the classroom. I have so many ideas and I know an engineering degree could help make those ideas come to life. I can get on my computer and research a car (almost any make/model) and within an hour, I’ll know every last bolt as well as the entire history of it. I can do the same with medical equipment.
Most products, but especially cars and medical devices, do not have a designer. They have teams of people who share in a particular part of a design according to their own specialty. You usually need a ton of training and education for those jobs, and it appears you know that and were lining up for one of those paths. But there are other roles that don’t require the entire set of skills to perform. You mentioned device repair, but sales or service may also be options and they would also require the aptitudes you describe.
It sounds like you want permission from someone to drop the whole 4 year thing and just get to work. I’m not sure who you have in mind that’ll disapprove if you make the jump (parents? buddies back home?) but if you’re miserable then you need to step back and think things over. You might be trading a short term improvement in employment for long-term earning potential. On the other hand those earnings are not guaranteed and are even less likely to materialize if you hate the training path.
If your skills and interests align on a path that doesn’t lead to school but they do point toward a career that you’d enjoy and that would provide a good living then go. Your concern should be that it’s a real job, that you wouldn’t be just as bored there in a year as you are here and now, that what you’re feeling is real and true. This is the thing you should be focusing on. If you think you could make a good living knowing everything about cars, working on them and staying abreast of the industry over time, then do that.
Here’s what my son did with his 3.0 GPA transcript from a good private high school: he went to a two year certificate program in the trades and is going to go to work in the spring when he finishes. He knows he may end up bored out of his mind when he’s 35, but he couldn’t face more school and he knows he can either go back to school later or open his own business down the road. He’s a super practical guy who has been running his own business for a few years, hiring friends and paying bills, so he knows what it’ll take when that day comes. But he was utterly comfortable being one of the only people in his graduating class not going to a four year college. His friends know it’s a good move for him, and several parents have told us they wished their kids had the sense to follow their interests rather than everyone else’s expectations.
You have to know yourself: who you are now and who you hope to be. You have to be honest about what you’ll do to get there, and if you have the wherewithal to make that journey. School is a means, not an end, so you only need to go if it’s part of the life you want. An honest self-appraisal will tell you if it’s necessary for you. Good Luck.