<p>Well, the situation that you told me about with the math course sounds pretty similar to what I did, but maybe you did a little less than I did. I’ve talked to other people who have also failed that course at my university, but retook it to find out they can make an A in it… My father thinks I’m not cut out to be an engineer now because I failed that one course… He thinks I should just take any course and run with it, but… whatever I go with, I could very possibly be doing a job with it for the rest of my life, so I want something that at least fits my skill set. Neither of my parents have gone to college, so I don’t know if they understand how stressful this is for me at the moment… I did reach a point where I honestly just felt hopeless about the whole thing… </p>
<p>Is taking more and more loans out to get a degree the best option if I wanted to retake a course, or are they so bad that I shouldn’t even mess with them?</p>
<p>Also, could you give me a sense of how hard it would be to raise my GPA? </p>
Okay, I can certainly relate to that, and you can bounce back for that… but bear in mind that it is harder to break out of that cycle than you might think, and not many people in that position will bounce back. Work hard at it.</p>
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Well, to the best of my knowledge, a 2.65 GPA is below average even for freshman, and that is a bad place to be starting academically if your goal is engineering.</p>
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Can’t answer that - it depends a lot on how well you can focus, and on how well you work when you ARE focused. It won’t be easy, that is for sure!</p>
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Stafford loans are not too bad and probably are your best option, private loans get risky fast. Remember that it is always dependent on your situation - $40k in loans that net you a $10k annual increase in salary are certainly worthwhile, but the same amount in loans leading to a “You want fries with that” salary level are a terrible idea.</p>
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Basically, you need to make school your #1 focus and go after it hard. You need to go to every class, take good notes, engage with your professors and TA’s, study hard, start homework when it is assigned, finish everything ahead of time and not stop until it is done. You need to aim for perfection because even though you won’t hit it, it is important to not let your foot off the throttle.</p>
<p>What do you know about the job placement prospects for Technology Management majors from your University? Would you be interested in doing the type of job that the Technology Management grads tend to get? Do you feel that it matches your skill set?</p>
<p>I don’t think you should look at a Technology Management major as a pathways to becoming a computer engineering major. None of your classes for your next semester would apply to computer engineering requirements, expect perhaps the philosophy class would fulfill a distribution requirement. So, you need to consider whether you want to stay in the Technology Management major for its own sake. </p>
<p>Are there advisors at your University who you can talk to?</p>
<p>Well, this major seems very flexible because of the fact that it deals with technical skills, management, and business, so I really wouldn’t mind staying in it. The career usually involves IT work, if I’m not mistaken, which I don’t think is a bad career. Do you think IT work would be a bad pathway to go?</p>
<p>I want to ask about what someone said earlier, on how people wouldn’t want to hire someone who is majoring in Technology Management, but don’t have a degree or anything in a technical field like computer engineering/science. Does that mean I shouldn’t even be taking this major unless I have some kind of degree in the engineering school first?</p>
<p>Yes, there are advisers at my University that I can talk to, but they are in the school of education. I have had several talks with them about this. They did give me the email to someone who had apparently worked jobs related to my field of study before they decided to come here and officially get a degree for it. I emailed them a week or two ago about my concerns with this major. They wanted the adviser to give their email out to anyone who wanted to know the potential of the major, so I’m looking forward to getting to meet him when I move back on campus real soon. The thing about adviser are, aren’t they usually more worried about you staying their field of study (for more money), than what career opportunities you are getting yourself into in you major?</p>
IT can be a tough field, because it is largely recognized for its failures more than its accomplishments. Still, it is stable work.</p>
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Sort of. The problem is the word “management”. People tend to associate “management” degrees with positions of authority over subordinates, and indeed this association is used by universities to draw students into those programs. Likewise, a lot of companies have “management” job titles even though they lack subordinates, managing only some set of customers or company resources. So what you need to do is make sure that you know where this degree actually leads and that you are okay with that type of work. And if someone tells you that you will be managing people right out of college with just this degree, then realize that the people you will be managing will not be college graduates, and you will not be seeing “management” money.</p>
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Yes. Their job is to help you complete the program, helping you find a job is the responsibility of someone else. Believe it or not, there are people at every university whose job it is to make sure that degrees are aligned with jobs and that graduates get hired… but they are lower on the totem pole than the people whose job it is to make sure that the university has lots of paying students.</p>
Basic algebra. Assuming you have the same credit load for 4 years and that you got a 2.65 GPA in your first year, getting a 3.5 cumulative GPA by graduation requires that you average X GPA each of your last three years, where (2.65 + 3<em>X) / 4 = 3.5. Solve that equation and you get X = 3.78. ulianjay rounded up. If your goal is just to get a 3.5 across your remaining semesters, that will be easier but will result in a final GPA of (2.65 + 3</em>3.5) = 3.29.</p>
<p>As was said in post #26, I think the key thing to consider is that you won’t be getting hired right out of undergrad to be a manager of engineers. But, there are other jobs which are possible for new technology management grads, which are more administrative in nature than purely technical. I’m not very familiar with what those job prospects are, since it isn’t my area, so I can’t provide more info. But you should be able to do some research to learn more, both at your University and online searches of other Universities that offer the same or similar degrees.</p>
I know it’s been a long time, but I have some more information about this major and have a much clearer understanding of it. It’s definitely more on the tech side of things as we’re learning about things such as database administration, linux, server, wires, all kind of technology that businesses utilizes in their infrastructure. I had thought a lot, and I mean A LOT, going through dips of depression quite often… At first, I wanted to leap into either CS or MIS, I even went and visited their advisers to talk to them not only about the current major I’m starting to feel “trapped in” but also my serious interests and aspirations. The only thing the CS adviser really pointed out what that it’s not too uncommon for students to mess up a lot on their first try of calculus and that if I switch, I’d have to stay another four years, as many of my credits don’t transfer over. I’m definitely still experiencing the stress and am really torn by this situation. If I switch into MIS, than I’d only have to stay for one extra semester because a lot of my credits will carry over.
I definitely did up my performance in my academics last semester, but this semester I’m doing a little poorer. This major has a business minor and accounting is kicking my butt.
Here’s my grades from Fall 2014 to update a bit along with my GPA:
Public Speaking: B 3 Credits
SPTP: Computer Hardware and End User Support: A 3 Credits
Design Process: A 3 Credits
Business Info System Concept: A 3 Credits
Philosophy: A 3 Credits
GPA: 3.105
Anymore advice, thoughts, idea, criticisms, or questions would be much appreciated. Please don’t hesitate. I’m willing to discuss anything concerning my issue.
I’m currently taking Database Administration, Accounting, Intro to Anthropology, Observational Astronomy, and Distance Networking.
Next semester, I’m taking Bowling, Technical Business Writing, Business, Government, and Society, Measurement and Evaluation in Human Resource/Tech Managment, and Instructions in Technology and Design.
Also, when I said I decided to take a leap into CS, I changed my mind near registration… I hesitated a lot to the though of registering for the basic knowledge courses of CS…
That is sounding more like an IT degree with an unusual name. If you want to work in IT, that would be a reasonable degree, if oddly-named.
I would be surprised if it would be 4 years for CS, at least some of the credits would transfer over even if it was at a completely different school. Probably. Regardless, at this point it does seem like you should either stick with your current major or go MIS. Which do you prefer? To be honest, both would be solid careers but either would take a long time to get to a $100k salary for most people.
Someone has messaged me in thinking the university I’m attending is crap and trying to just get money from its students. Texas A&M is a tier one school with a great reputation. I thought I’d include that bit of detail to give people a better idea of why I struggling to choose. A&M is a wonderful school for engineering majors. I feel like, if you can pull off an engineering degree from here, you’re more than set.
The message they sent me was a bit… Disturbing to read. Tbh
I think he is more referring to the fact that just posting “Texas A&M University” seemed to come out of the blue and not respond to anything in particular. That’s exactly how it looked.
Btw, how are you guys quoting on here? Are you just using quotes around what I said, like “Hi, I’m Zach”?</p>
Ugh, I feel so dumb for asking that question…</p>
Thanks.</p>