When to throw in the towel for engineering? Deans list to scraping by...

College Majors Engineering Majors
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<p>I'm a sophmore commuter at a taking first year Aerospace engineering courses (I did so badly on the entrance math test that I had to spend a year catching up in math before starting on engineering). In that year I got a lot of my GE's out of the way. I also ended up making the dean's list for the entire first year!</p>

<p>I did not coast that year. My first semester was too easy so I took harder courses 2nd semester. I took a junior level history class, a junior level writing class (recommended students only), a sophomore level comparative studies, and a sophomore level geography class (all but geography 2nd semester). I took 3 intro classes (1 second semester, 2 first), and, of course, math (1 per semester). All counted towards AE but writing.</p>

<p>My lowest grade was a B- in the history class. However, that was to be expected when I was a freshman sitting next to juniors and graduating seniors working towards a history major. I was the only non-writing related major, as well as freshman, in the writing class and pulled off an A-. </p>

<p>Now I'm in engineering classes and am hardly making it. I'm studying harder and longer than I did for anything last year (at the expense of much-needed sleep), stopping by office hours and tutoring more than 3x per week, and am struggling to pull off C's. I'm even failing one coure that I need for AE. At this rate I don't see how I could make a 2.9 or higher in my major courses needed to get accepted to the grad program.</p>

<p>This semester will kill my GPA, but right now I plan to stick it out another semester or two before I decide to switch. I really do want to go into AE, but at this rate I may not make it. Does anyone have any advice?</p>

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<p>My first advice is to shelf the grad school idea for now. You are just starting out in your AE courses so there is no way for you to even know yet what you might want to study in grad school anyway. You can and should aim to keep that option open, but don’t worry too much about it now before you even know if it would benefit you.</p>

<p>Second, you need to identify where you are struggling. Are you doing alright on homework but not exams? The other way around? Neither? Do you have a study group and if so, do you contribute equally or do you just use them for answers?</p>

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<p>Forget your grad school, forget your GPA, forget it all. </p>

<p>Focus on the problem you actually have now: You are not doing well in your courses. Nothing else matters. </p>

<p>Why are you struggling? What are you not getting? What study habit needs to change? Are you struggling with abstraction?</p>

<p>One of my professors, Amar Bose (the speaker guy), said that engineering is breaking up problems into smaller and smaller problems that are really simple, solving the pieces, and then synthesizing the pieces back together. </p>

<p>Are you having trouble identifying the pieces to break up? are you having trouble solving the smaller pieces? are you having trouble resynthesizing the pieces?</p>

<p>Do you not even look at engineering courses from this point of view?</p>

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<p>Lots of engineering students graduate with GPAs below 3.0 and find jobs. It is easier if you can break the 3.0 barrier but that is not always possible. Engineering is hard and trying to do it all by yourself makes it even harder if you are struggling. Find yourself a good study group. It will help you do what @ClassicRockerDad suggests.</p>