I am wrapping my first semester as a undergraduate freshman. I’ve been placed in Letters & Sciences as I do not meet the requirements to declare my intended major, civil engineering. I’m getting pre reqs out of the way and I already can’t handle it. The stress from the two English classes I’m taking broke me after the first quarter, along with things at home.
Since the sixth grade, English has been my least favorite subject. I can form proper sentences and such as you can tell, but writing and researching topics of little interest to me angered me and I never did them. I failed English more than I passed it for six years because of this. I am paying the price as my habit for discarding work that I do not see productive towards my goals is proving difficult to reverse. The stress is creating depression and shutting me down… I’ve lost so much of the motivation I began with. I quit attending the writing & research class along with the English seminar, and just accepted that I will have to retake them if I want to continue. But I don’t think I can. I never took school seriously in all my life. It feels like this is the first time I ever have, and it’s the most intense. I believe my major coursework will be easier for me to tackle, but getting these pre requisites done is going to be extremely difficult for me. I feel like quitting entirely, but, minus the school part, this has been my dream pathway since I was a high school freshman, maybe even 8th grade.
I don’t know what to do if I can’t even handle the first semester
Keep your goal in front of you and seek help at the counseling center. If you stubbornly insist on continuing your past attitudes toward your English classes, you will not be able to proceed. Go to the advisors and see if there is an class option that is more pleasing to you. Either way, decide to do what is required, so that you can do what you want long term.
That, in summary, is what having an undergraduate degree reflects. That you have some wide knowledge and some discipline to complete difficult tasks.
See if your college will accept you taking your English classes over the summer at a community college. Take only 1 of these at a time. I’m hoping because these classes will be shorter in duration you can hold your nose and power through.
If you want to be an engineer, you have to pass the required English classes. Period, end of story. You’re sabotaging your goal if you continue on your current path.
With that said, you have some options. If you stay at your current school, and are required to take these two English classes, do not take them both in one term. When you do take them, get a tutor as of week one and set up appointments with that person weekly. This acts as an external motivator - you’re more likely to get at least some of the work done if you have to meet face to face with someone about it every week. This may help.
I might also suggest that you don’t retake these classes in the spring. Give yourself one term where you take nothing but math and science/tech classes, to remotivate yourself. Take English alone, in the summer, as the only class you take that term.
Another option is to transfer to a school which is all about engineering and tech - where even the English classes are likely to be more tech focused. An example is Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston. You do still have to take English at these schools, but it’s not quite as liberal arts oriented, which may help.
Still another option is to look into careers that give you what you like about engineering, without requiring any of the other stuff. So for example, you might look into becoming an electrician, plumber, HVAC, or something else that pays well, is in demand, and is all about the tech/practical side of things.
Finally, you might take some time off from school for now, and start working in a field related to what you like to do. For example, see if you can get into construction or into something tech related for the military or similar. Work for a while, and then return to school when, to be honest, you’re more mature and have more fire under your ****. Many of my adult students are like this - they left or even failed out of college, worked for several years, and then returned - and they are my best students, because they are serious about school and extremely motivated, to the point where they will push themselves through classes they hate, because they have their focus on that larger goal.
This. All ABET accredited engineering programs have an english requirement. Engineers need to be strong communicators and presenters. They also need to be able to write technical reports. Maybe start thinking about english courses as useful tools instead of hurdles you need to get out of the way.
Does your college have a writing center? If so, utilize it for as many writing assignments as you can.
Good skills in English are very important for an engineer. Reports have to be unambiguous and easy to understand. Miscommunication in an engineering environment can be very costly and time consuming.
You claim to be able to “form proper sentences” but yet several of your sentences in your post are run-on sentences. You could also be better at your paragraph structure. Each paragraph should be a single concept. Your second paragraph contains several concepts.
You also state that you don’t like to write and research topics. You will have to do such things in many engineering jobs. Are you sure you want to be an engineer?
Being able to succeed in life is understanding the “game”. If the game involves you getting good grades in English classes before they will let you into an engineering program, why fight it? You can tweak it and maybe modify it, but the basic requirement should not and will not be changed.
It seems to me that over the last several years, saying you “want to be an engineer” has become the “en vogue” thing to do. But it also seems to me that a large percentage of kids who say that don’t really understand what it means.
Engineering programs, of any type, are hard! The OP says they want to be a civil engineer. Civil engineers design, build, and supervise infrastructure projects. Things like roads, airports, bridges, and dams. Does this sound like a job for someone who “never took school seriously in all my life?”
The OP may very well have the ability to become a civil engineer, I’m not saying they don’t. But if they think that the pre-req courses are the hurdle then perhaps they are fooling themselves as to how advanced the actual engineering coursework will be.
Sorry for the dose of reality but it may be time to start exploring other options for major course of study.