<p>I think it's about time I gave up anything related to math, science, or computer science.</p>
<p>I'm not smart enough or interested in proofy math
I failed out of statistics</p>
<p>And after finally giving computer science a try again, mid-quarter, I realize that I'm just not able to keep up with the projects and course load, both time wise and mentally.</p>
<p>I'm sure a lot of you have experienced this with your peers, when did they start moving on to subjects they could actually handle, and what were they?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>i noticed people started getting weeded out either between 1/4 to 1/2 the semester elapsed. this was especially true for electromagnetics physics, calc 4, and intro C++. most of the serious engineers took the class over again. i took E-M physics and calc 4 & Chem I one semester; this isnt recommended, but it was the best thing ive ever done in my college career (E-M physics helped with Chem I, calc 4 helped me in E-M Phys)</p>
<p>Wow this is sad.
I hope I don’t get weeded out.
I will give it my all!</p>
<p>
Well, the point is really to weed out those who can’t or won’t learn the stuff.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I don’t think that’s any school’s point. I think the material itself weeds people out.</p>
<p>Or the peoples priorities weed themselves out. The majority of people who are let into an engineering program have the tools to succeed. But there are outliers.</p>
<p>I didn’t notice. They warned us it would happen. Some stayed and switched to easier or “easier for them” classes. If somebody switched from EE to ME or ME to EE because it was a better fit for them personally I never would have noticed. Back in the day lots switched from Eng to Comp Sci and passed. Something tells me Comp Sci has gotten harder since then. Business seems to be popular now. If you are decent but not fabulous at math and science I would look into areas that require better than average without the steller skills. The chances that you are the next great poet or novelist are probably slim. So don’t throw the math and science out completely. Business, Accounting, Economics, Actuarial Science. Do you have the personality to teach middle and high school?</p>
<p>My freshman class at RPI had about 1100 students. I graduated with about 1000 students, but only about 5-600 made it through in 4 years. The rest were transfers or took extra time. Getting through the program takes money, stamina, intellectual horsepower and a ton of internal motivation. We lost people all 4 years for all 4 reasons, although the unmotivated students rarely made it past sophomore year. Dropouts and transfers happened at kind of a level rate, about 10% per year, based on my running class rank on each report card.</p>
<p>The good news is that the actual job within engineering has only a passing resemblance to the efforts of the engineering education. Some of the best engineers were only mediocre students. A friend of mine failed out of RPI twice (mostly money, he had 2 jobs, working about 60 hours/wk and full time classes), but graduated #1 from a state engineering school and is doing quite well.</p>
<p>It seems engineering depts try to weed students out during the first couple semesters. Otherwise, there will be students who coast through the first two years and suddenly start failing upper-level courses when things become hard with no way around it. Now they’ve wasted a couple years of their life and tuition. Engineering departments try to avoid this.</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone gets “weeded out”, if engineering isn’t for you, you will figure it out. People just started getting frustrated in my classes and decided that they didn’t want to pursue that as a college degree.</p>
<p>I don’t think colleges try to weed you out. Engineering is tough and if you can’t handle the workload or don’t have a genuine interest in it, you will weed yourself out.</p>
<p>If you are at a top school, I would recommend looking into a less competitive place where you CAN succeed if you work hard. That is what a relative did and he is a happily employed engineer today. If he had let those early struggles influence him to quit he would not be where he is now. Good luck! Btw he said the easier school was 90% as hard as the competitive place, with a more practical emphasis. That just fit him better ( and got him hired by an employer looking for a more applied engineer).</p>
<p>I know when I was an undergraduate, many of the engineering students had it in their minds that it would take 4.5 to 5 years to graduate. On top of that, the rules were that a student can get admitted to the engineering school AFTER completing Calculus 3, Physics 2 and Computer Science 1 (of course CS majors needed more CS courses).</p>
<p>Many students who got admitted to the engineering school took 12 credits a semester. It also meant some students had leeway to actually repeat a Calculus course and had 3 semesters to complete 2 Physics courses. Sure they had only 48 credits after 2 years (instead of 60) but THEY GOT IN because they had the higher GPA than the student who tried 15 credits/semester with a lower GPA.</p>
<p>“If you are at a top school, I would recommend looking into a less competitive place where you CAN succeed if you work hard. That is what a relative did and he is a happily employed engineer today. If he had let those early struggles influence him to quit he would not be where he is now. Good luck! Btw he said the easier school was 90% as hard as the competitive place, with a more practical emphasis. That just fit him better ( and got him hired by an employer looking for a more applied engineer).”</p>
<p>In actuality, there isn’t much difference between a top school and a “lesser” school in terms of rigor. Rigor at top schools is often exaggerated as a means to promote their own brand and for those who attended top schools to justify their status. If you look at the curriculum for MIT vs Arizona State for any engineering program, they are 99% identical, and the depth of each course in the program about the same. Both programs are ABET accredited. Sure, there MAY, in some cases, be some additional curving at ASU, but statistically there is always someone in the class who is going to score high.</p>
<p>The thread starter needs to find some way to become motivated about engineering, or else, I agree with others that changing majors might be a good idea.</p>
<p>IMO…</p>
<p>If you got into the school of engineering at a particular school, chances are you got ‘weeded out’ because you were drinking too much beer and smoking too much pot.</p>
<p>I mean … I just finished with Statics, and the TA would hand all the tests back in a big pile and kids were getting 15 and 25 on the test (out of 100). Passing that course is not a challenge.</p>
<p>If you got into the school, it is highly likely you are intelligent enough to pass the courses. Whether or not you are willing to put in the time is another story.</p>
<p>My younger son is a freshman Physics major at Sacramento State University and is just finishing a semester of Classical Mechanics, the first in a three semester sequence of Calculus based Physics for Physical Science and Engineering majors. The vast majority of the students who take the class are Engineering majors. He just told me that with a week to go before final exams this class which started out full with 80 students is now down to 26 students still enrolled in the course. I imagine failing to finish even the first semester of Calculus based Physics essentially weeds these students out of Engineering.</p>
<p>This may not be so but my sense is that if you think in HS you want to go into engineering, go through the top physics and calculus classes your school has to offer before going to college. If you find they are too challenging in HS, then they can only be harder in college. If you enjoyed them in HS, you can choose to repeat them in college even if you passed the AP tests with over a 4 if you want to get a stronger base before going on to even harder classes.</p>
<p>OP, it may be you would be better at something like accounting which has more predictable math but still requires the processing part to put things together.</p>