Our D is a Junior at UCD, and until recently was an Engineering major. She’s become very disillusioned with her choice in majors and now feels it was really the wrong direction for her. Currently she’s in the process of trying to figure out more about herself, her true strengths and interests, and the options that are available. Soon she will have to decide which classes to take in the fall, and is under some pressure to declare a new major. Other than referring her to school counselors, where can we get some help in giving her guidance? Can anyone recommend a good video or reading material we can send her, or maybe a professional guidance counselor in the Davis area? Thank you!
Does her school have a career center? She may be able to get a virtual appointment. They may also have resources on line to help her align her interests and strengths with a major.
I have heard good things about Strengthsfinder (books, web site quiz, etc).
UCD’s career center link: https://icc.ucdavis.edu/
Out of the classes she has taken so far, what were her favorite subjects?
Yes, @TS0104 my son was given the Strengthsfinder book and online code and it was very helpful as he was deciding his major.
But I strongly suggest that she talk to her advisor first.
She should ask herself:
What does she like to spend hours doing? What does she dislike? And why does she think engineering wasn’t for her?
Thank you all for your suggestions. We’re continuing to probe her likes/dislikes, passions, etc. and are checking into the StrengthFinders self-assessment as one possible aid. Our D was working with a guidance counselor she really liked, but that counselor has recently left her position and moved on. We’re going to try and set her up with someone else she can trust and work with.
While I can’t give guidance, my daughter went through something similar. Her grades were great but she lost interest in engineering. She switched to environmental studies then went back to engineering. She hated the concrete classes. She focused more on environmental engineering and is now finishing her master’s in waste water management.
She will be a senior in the fall? And has been successful in engineering so far? She is chem eng? What is her GPA? And she is on track with her eng classes to graduate after 1 more year?
She’s been studying chemical engineering. In high school she took an advanced chemistry class and had an excellent teacher who really inspired her, but so far her college career (which of course has included a lot of theoretical math and physics, in addition to chemistry) has not been what she expected, and anything BUT inspiring. She’s much more of a practical, “hands-on” person and hates getting bogged down in theory. We’ve had long discussions about this; explaining that you often have to “jump through the hoops” of taking some classes that can be sheer drudgery, but she’s quite adamant that she feels she’s headed in the wrong direction.
I suppose it’s better to face that now, rather than many people who, after 20 or 30 years into a career, realize that they hate what they’re doing and have been living lives of “quiet desperation”. It’s really tough being a 20 year old and having to make such an important decision without knowing yourself very well.
She’s so close to the finish line! Would she consider finishing out her chem e undergraduate degree and then pivoting for grad school?
We’re in the process of discussing that too. That would be MY preference but I want the final decision to be hers.
If she graduates with a good chem eng degree, she can do anything that relies on a rigorous background really. She can worry about WHAT later, school is not like life. I would really push her to finish. I bet most engineers will tell her real life work is nothing like her degree. Basically soon enough the engineers become managers LOL. She can write her own path after graduation. She can be part of the group that literally saves the world. Most kids of her standing will feel the same, that this is a paper exercise merely to be tolerated. That college kind of sucks and we parents oversold it LOL.
Based on the sample schedule at https://che.engineering.ucdavis.edu/undergraduate/degree-requirements , it looks like the curriculum is fairly traditionally organized, starting with mostly natural sciences and math, followed by engineering sciences, and then getting to engineering design at the end (using the prerequisite knowledge from the natural sciences, math, and engineering sciences). In other words, the “good stuff” (the engineering design courses) is mainly in senior year. If she switches out of the major now, she will miss the “good stuff” (the “hands-on” design aspect of engineering).
(Note that this type of traditional engineering curriculum organization may be “efficient” in handling prerequisites, but it may cause students to lose interest because they are in engineering to do engineering design. So some engineering programs throw in some design course work earlier to keep students interested, even though the scope of such earlier design courses is more limited.)
Specifically, the four year course plan lists design courses in senior year (among other courses):
Fall: ECH 158A
Winter: ECH 158B, ECH 155
Spring: ECH 158C
https://che.engineering.ucdavis.edu/undergraduate/expanded-course-descriptions has more detailed descriptions of the courses.
As a practical matter, if she is completing junior year, changing to a different major is likely to delay graduation. Also, while 180 units are needed to graduate, if a new major would require going past 225 units and 12 quarters, that may not be allowed.
Did her grades fall to the point that she was kicked out of the major? I’m having a hard time understanding why she would drop the engineering major one year from the finish line, or would she not have been able to graduate on time at the end of next year? I feel like there is a lot more going on here.
A practical person would not drop the major this close to the ‘hands on’ part of graduating. You can be many things with an engineering degree, and as stated above, the final year is usually the most enjoyable part of the coursework. Do you think she is having a crisis of looming adulthood, and just wants to put it off? Has she done any internships or work in the former real world?
I think you are smart to find her a counselor. I would start to get tough. She should have pressure to pick a new major, and you should be applying it! What is her plan B? Does she have any understanding of what her alternative majors are given the classes she’s already taken? How much time and $ will that add to her schooling? If she hates most of them, I can’t imagine she is close to another degree in something that she would enjoy studying.
I’m using a lot of words to get to my main point. She might just need to pull up her big girl pants and get through the program, if that is still an option. Don’t want to be a chem e? Look for a consulting job, apply for general e jobs, get into a training program where they move you around so you see different areas and then pick the area you like the best. Find any job, get more of a clue and then go get a short masters degree, she may be adding that much schooling on right now just for undergrad.
No one wants their kids miserable in their careers. There are yucky parts of all jobs, she will have to learn how to navigate around them, whatever she ends up choosing. May as well start now.
Please come back and update us when she decides what to do. For some reason this situation has really struck me. You seem to be taking it much better than I would. Good luck!
Yes, please answer the GPA question and clarify if she is on track as per the graduation plan. Also has she done any internships? Way back, she was interested in grad school? Is this a thing still?
I appreciate all your interest and help, folks. Our D is about half way through an engineering major, so although she’d lose some credits if she changed majors now it wouldn’t be the end of the world. She hasn’t done any internships, but she does have a good part time job and is a very hard, responsible worker.
As someone who has had a technical background I know the value of an engineering degree and TBH I’d love to see her complete it. But she hasn’t been doing well in her math and physics classes; her GPA has dropped to about a 2.8. In winter quarter she was academic probation and decided to drop STEM classes and take some electives in order to get her quarterly GPA back up. Obviously, she’s been under a lot of stress which frequently reveals itself (i.e., crying) in our video chats. She’s had to get a lot of help from her fellow engineering students in order to get through some of her classes, and is feeling pretty crummy about herself because of it. With her being 400 miles away it’s tugging at our hearts; just being able to reach out and give her a good hug would be so nice for all three of us.
Regarding grad school, that’s not even being discussed right now. When she first started UCD one of her profs advised that a masters degree wasn’t necessary for a good job in engineering, but that if she was intent on getting one she should get an engineering job first, get some practical experience in the field, and then find a way for her employer to pay for the cost of grad school. Sounds like a good plan to me. I suppose grad school is still a possibility, but it would have to be in a field she’s really passionate about…at the moment, that doesn’t appear to be engineering.
Anyway, after some investigation we’ve discovered that she’s an ISFP (Meyers-Briggs personality type) which although is a natural problem-solver, generally doesn’t do well with abstract theory or corporate environments and actually leans more towards the creative arts and working independently. We’ve also discovered that the demands of an engineering career can be very stressful and draining to her personality type. At the same time there are quite a few career paths that, while they might not be as potentially lucrative as engineering, are a much better fit to an ISFP. Those are the ones we’re helping her to consider if she decides to switch.
She essentially has two years of engineering courses to complete, and that can be a long time - and a lot of stress - to a student who’s simply not a good match to that type of academic program. It can be damaging to the soul. We’re continuing to consider her options but we realize that time and the number of her remaining credits are very important. I’ll keep you updated as best I can. I just hope this all works out and that in 10 years we’ll all look back and know we did the right thing for her.
Thanks again.
Ok, this is relevant information that was not initially mentioned. Being on academic probation (GPA 1.500-1.999 for the quarter or GPA < 2.000 overall according to https://registrar.ucdavis.edu/records/transcripts/academic-standing ) due to low grades in courses for her major suggests that the major may not be the right one for her.
Can you clarify her class standing? You mentioned that she is a junior, but is “half way” through the major. How many quarters has she completed (including the current one), and how many credit units has she earned (including those she will earn in the current quarter)? At UCD, she needs to graduate within 225 units if she takes more than 12 total quarters.
Which courses has she done well in and liked?
Here is a list of majors at UCD: https://www.ucdavis.edu/majors/college/
So she is at the end of her third year but only halfway through her class reqs, so this cannot be the first time this has come up,? What happened back then? To be so far behind her track has she been retaking classes? Doing non major classes? Even with a 2.8 if she was on track, would be one thing,but 2.8 with retakes and less than her full load of eng classes, is much more painful. is the 2.8 her technical engineering GPA or the whole GPA? And you are happy to fund this beyond the point when the UCs pull their plug? Will they charge a higher rate post the max credits?
The 2.8 is her overall GPA. Yes, she’s had to re-take a couple of engineering-related classes. Also, as I mentioned she had to get help from friends in order to get through some of them. During the winter quarter she dropped her ChemE classes and has been taking non-major and elective classes for two quarters to explore other options. She originally planned to get back into the ChemE track in the fall quarter, but now she’s feeling it’s not right for her and “doesn’t know if she can do it”. She’s lost a lot of self-confidence; this whole thing is stressful for all of us.
I’ll have to check and see how many credits she currently has, and what the forecast would be for her graduating within the 225 limit. Admittedly, we haven’t been following that very closely. I need to talk to her again and get some answers to your other questions. Thanks again.