Switch My Major or Drop Out? What?

Parent Cafe
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<p>I am not sure where you are going to school, but for example at Case Western they have a pre-architecture second major that goes with the civil engineering.
<a href=“http://bulletin.case.edu/collegeofartsandsciences/prearchitecture/”>http://bulletin.case.edu/collegeofartsandsciences/prearchitecture/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Take a look…there are drawing and design courses, but also Theater Lighting which i wouldn’t have thought of. Maybe your university has similar classes that you could take as electives. Kind of a make your own major with civil eng.</p>

<p>And looking at classes and not be excited about them…I am not sure if everyone out there is OMG Statics! anyway.</p>

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<p>It might be fun to look at grad programs to give you ideas about directions BA and BS grads might go. Cal Arts or School of the Chicago Art Institute come to mind. Perhaps programs on digital art or design. Just to give you some ideas. I do wonder about toy design :slight_smile: (I read about a CS grad doing this actually)</p>

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<p>I kind of liked statics. :D</p>

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<p>Take a CADD class. Useful for engineers and also good background for work as a designer.</p>

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<p>There’s a field called wayfinding (signage, interior architecture, image, etc.). <a href=“https://www.segd.org/”>https://www.segd.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Also, film and theater Production Design. </p>

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<p>@Pennylane That’s so true. I do notice, however, that faculty are increasingly attempting to push creative projects and experiences down into the basic/foundational courses so that they don’t lose excellent degree candidates to early boredom. What generation is in college now? The Millennial? </p>

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<p>The engineers in this house liked statics AND Dynamics!</p>

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<p>I think my engineer’s liked thermo and fluids. That’s from memory.
Don’t drop out. why waste a good education? Both my s’s changed their majors (though both into engineering). You can do it.</p>

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<p>Thank you guys for the encouragement and tips. They really are helpful. :)</p>

<p>I have taken a CAD class and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It came easily to me, and I considered computer drafting for a short time. But that would require me to drop out, attend a two-year program, and get certification. It didn’t seem like a good choice. </p>

<p>

The Millennials are in college now. :slight_smile: I think it is a great idea for the faculty to push down creative projects. </p>

<p>Mini-Rant Disclaimer: I am a bit jaded from the snide comments made by professors about being a creative person in engineering classes. Time and time again in classes, like my Intro to Engineering course and Engineering Calculus, the professors might make a comment like “Don’t worry about this. We’re engineers. We care about things that actually matter.” or “Why mess with the frills? Practicality is where it’s at!”. It bothers me with all the practicality. </p>

<p>In one of my classes, I was doing a project where we needed to replicate a real world object. As I was showing my professor what I had so far and how I wanted to add more details, he told me, “I get it. Why go further?” I said, “Why not. I want it to look realistic.” It wasn’t going to take me long to put in details, but he scoffed and said, “This is engineering.” Things like this make me feel as if engineering isn’t creative. And you guys are showing me how it is and how much you can do with the foundations, but from the very people I’m learning from I feel like I’m being squished into a box. </p>

<p>I do understand why they say the things they say. It comes with the turf. You get kids who are mathematically inclined, who turn to math, and are fascinated by it; but at the same time, I wish they could find a way to relate to those kids without knocking those who don’t necessarily fit the mold. </p>

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<p>Niqui77, you’ll have all kinds of professors in college. Over four years, I had some who were good mentors and others who didn’t relate to students well at all. For some professors, research is their focus. Some might prefer teaching the upper division classes rather than the intro ones. I also had classes I enjoyed and classes that were worthwhile but so tedious, I just had to get through them.</p>

<p>While I would not suggest someone continue in a major that they were miserable in, or doing poorly in, I am concerned that freshman year isn’t a great basis to judge that major as classes at that level don’t even touch the surface of any topic. </p>

<p>Is it possible to find some kind of support system- a club, or mentor in your field? I also like the idea of going to the campus career center for ideas of creative careers and internships. </p>

<p>Dropping out brings all kids of problems. I’ve known kids who have done this, and they are left with really little- just their high school credentials- to improve their prospects in the job market, and they can have school loans on top of that. Those are a big financial burden that delay their continuing school until they pay them off. IMHO, it would be better to finish a major, even if you hated it, and have some job prospects than to drop out of college. If you want to switch, it would be much easier to take additional classes to train for a different field at that point - even if it meant staying an additional year in college because you changed majors in the later years or graduating and enrolling as a post degree student. </p>

<p>Some graduate programs aren’t major specific. They require a BA or BS, and some prerequisite classes- which one can go back and take after graduation. I’ve also known adults who get additional graduate training in midlife, and take on new careers. </p>

<p>I remember at your age being afraid that my major would lock me in, and how scary it felt to think I was deciding my whole life at age 19, but with a college degree there are many possibilities. From what I’ve seen, the kids that have dropped out have locked themselves in to something much harder to change than a major they aren’t happy with. So I encourage you to hang in there, feed your creative side by taking some fun electives when you can, or join an art club, and get that degree. </p>

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<p>My dad and his parents are all architects. He always did stress about how dependent this career is on the state of the economy, and discouraged me from it, but he did enjoy it. I know he took a lot of art and sculpture courses as well as engineering and math. (He went to a university with an architecture major.). Do you have an opportunity to take art classes?</p>

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<p>Niquii, your frustration at your first level engineering classes/profs and the questions you ask right now really are a wonderful indicator of your creative and analytical talents and your engineering thinking. Really, I would venture to say most engineers felt similarly confined by the early curriculum. They may not have expressed it as the need to be creative, but they asked questions, like, “When can we design sound systems?, or airplane foils?, or robotic prosthetics?, or electronic musical instruments?” or “When can we work on cool problems?”</p>

<p>@Pennylane2011 expressed it so very wisely a page back in referencing music, creative writing, and other studies needing a basic set of technical skills that are often tedious to acquire at first. The early classes in engr school - maybe even the first half or more of engineering college, is foundational. It is akin to learning phonics. Phonics was so boring and tedious, and it in no way gave any indication how amazing reading was and what wonderful worlds reading presented. But oh, to be able to read! One needed to hang in there, plow through the boring stuff to unlock reading and literature, both of which are nothing like phonics.</p>

<p>Several thoughts: Engineering schools teach one how to think, how to solve problems, how to create solutions that fit a whole spectrum of “needs” (engrs call them “requirements”) (think safety or size or durability, or in the case of the fish tank systems - structural integrity as well as the best environment for the sea life: light, oxygen, low noise, etc). </p>

<p>Our dean told us on the first day, and kept re-iterating throughout our 4 years: “We’re here to help you learn to how to think and how to solve problems. What applications you choose to work on are limitless!” An engineering education gives a person an amazing key to open any creative complex problem that one can imagine working on! It trains the mind to be analytical, how to approach a complex need, and design a very creative AND reliable solution!</p>

<p>Engineering schools give the foundation of the applications in the 3rd and 4th years, but really, it is the real world that presents so many of the cool applications. And these are changing every day with every new advance. I heartily recommend getting some summer internships to see how creative engineering can be. But remember, even in the early internships, when your skills are rudimentary, some of the intro work may not be the cool designing. Yet, you will be able to work with amazingly cool senior engineers, who really do creative work.</p>

<p>Your senior design team project will also be a place to shine creatively. See if there are any special clubs that work on designs (Civil engr specific: concrete canoe race, etc) or even some other design clubs that are interdisciplinary - (EE, ME, CE). Interdisciplinary teams really are the most fun, with lots of different kinds of creativity shown by team members.</p>

<p>ALL my family and friends who are engineers are the MOST creative people I know! Many of them, me included, had entertained thoughts of art school or some other art-based career. I think engineers are the most outside the box thinkers ever. You might not get that from the professors you have in the first 2 years of engr school. Those profs are the engineers who are passionate about their students having the most solid foundation possible, so that those future engineers don’t create/design/build junk. </p>

<p>Engr schools (when I say schools, I mean colleges and universities) need ALL kinds of engineering professors. The super creative, outside the box thinkers, probably won’t enjoy teaching Engr1 or Design1 every year, for years on end. While that professor in first year classes definitely has many, many important lessons to impart to students, they may not be the best example for what a future engineer would like to see themselves doing.</p>

<p>Similar to engr profs, engineering teams in a company need all kinds of engineering personalities - the creative ones, the super meticulous ones, the big picture ones, and the nitty-gritty details ones, etc. </p>

<p>Niquii, what I mean is, the fact that you are feeling restless at this point in the curriculum probably means you will make a GREAT engineer! Please, please don’t drop out! You are in the stage of the curriculum that is the “phonics” of engineering. Yes it is boring, as yet in the early stage, but you can persevere since you know you will need these skills to be a solid creator. Be aware, even in the first two or maybe even 3 years, an engineering student is still getting the “phonics,”(physics, math, design1, etc) moving up to the “sentences” of engineering (major-specific courses). But oh, once you have the foundation, your possibilities are limitless! Best wishes to you in all your studies and creative endeavors!</p>

<p>Maybe @ClassicRockerDad, @MaineLonghorn, @Vladenschlutte and other engineers can chime in here on this, too.</p>

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<p>As for the CAD/drafting school idea, if you go that route, you will be drawing other people’s designs, not your own. Wouldn’t recommend it at all.</p>

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<p>Busy person…that is an awesome, awesome post . It really rings true of the experiences of the engineers in my life</p>

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<p>Here’s a quick little waty to see if you think like an engineer : <a href=“http://www.tickld.com/x/next-time-someone-claims-to-be-an-engineer-give-them-this”>http://www.tickld.com/x/next-time-someone-claims-to-be-an-engineer-give-them-this&lt;/a&gt; </p>

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<p>Sax, you are always so very gracious and kind! Thank you!</p>

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<p>Thank you, thank you, guys for the encouraging words. I now better understand the need to pull myself through these classes and even embrace them because they are essential for my future. I will remember this, and even save them for those rough times. Really, thank you. </p>

<p>As far as a mentor, I don’t really have one. I do have an upperclassmen engineering student who helped me last year because we had classes together all year long. I also have a professor who I could perhaps turn to, but not for engineering. This professor really catered to the “arts side” and he’s seen some of my works through his classes. I think my advisor next year will be the closest I can get to specialized career advising and such. As for a support system, I do have a close group of friends who I am able to lean on. One of them is also in engineering, but we don’t have any classes together due to different interests and engineering disciplines. </p>

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Even if my work is rudimentary, I would still be excited to see the senior engineers’ work. To even be in the environment they work in, see some of the work they are presented with, and look at the end results would be completely awesome…even if I had no hand in it. :smiley: </p>

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<p>Can you participate on an uppercalssmen’s senior design project? My s did that and had other students help with his. It was fabulous AND they got to travel to Paris to work on an international team presentation thing. </p>

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<p>Hmmm, I’m unsure. I don’t really hear about the engineering seniors’ design projects…only those of the pre-meds. An opportunity like that sounds wonderful! I’m sure he more than enjoyed it! </p>

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<p>Agree, super post by busyperson.
Niquii, you may be a detail gal- that’s great, but in time, you’ll learn when it’s feasible to max out a project and when one has to move on through the whole. I think maybe the prof was saying: just do what we need here, this learning exercise, this one task, so we can move on. There are times in engineering when it’s important to understand the diff between perfect and functional, leaving time for other priority tasks.<br>
You can do it. </p>