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The subtle disadvantages of being a FIRST Alumni
Let me start off by stating that my life will be forever better after doing (4 years) of FRC. I made life long friends (looking at you, yash), and it exposed me to things I may have never known existed.
But there is a somewhat darker side to it. It makes students too hard ahead. We have all seen it. The brightest kid in middle school wash out and become a c average student in high school. The statistics on my team don't lie. Yeah, nearly every senior goes off to an engineering school, which is great, don't get me wrong, but how many finish it out? There are a surprising number of our alumni who had to hit the restart button on life after high school. I'm sure this isn't the case everywhere, and it probably has never been discussed. Allow me to introduce myself, I am a freshman at MST, it is THE engineering school in Missouri. I learned how to program my sophomore year under a boeing engineer, for whom I am forever grateful for, and I didn't stop learning there. I published two papers in the field of computer vision and placed third at the international science fair. Where am I now? Bored out of my mind academically at a supposedly amazing school. I am too far ahead of my peers. I am working in a graduate level lab doing computer vision and I am seeing what the grad students are doing wrong. What I'm trying to get at is sometimes what seems like an advantage can be a (minor) disadvantage. Keep that in mind. |
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This doesn't sound like a disadvantage to me. It sounds like an opportunity that you are letting slip away.
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Have you approached any faculty about research they're doing? Maybe you could get involved there. Heck, get a group of friends together and prep for next year's Sparkfun AVC. If you're bored in college it's your own $@#$@#$@#$@# fault. It's not a disadvantage of being an alumni, it's just a reality of not having every minute of your life scheduled and having to be responsible for your own life. Sounds like your team/school is doing a pretty mediocre job of preparing folks for this reality. |
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Try taking some non engineering classes in an area you know nothing about. I actually look forward to those the most.
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If you are incapable of finding activities to be involved in, and other ways to continue your own education on your own (separate from class) you simply will never be successful.
Companies don't want engineers that are unable to be self starters. If you don't want to work for a company, your personal business won't be successful for the same reasons. |
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If you are "too far ahead of your peers" then it is time to find different peers (at least academically). There is ALWAYS someone out there who knows something you don't in your area of expertise.
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You could always take your spare time and create a project which becomes a startup.
Oh to have had this problem ... |
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There are 24 hours in a day. Sleep for at least 6 of them, and find something worth doing for the other 18. What the heck is free time? What's up with being bored? There are over 7 billion people on this rock and I guarantee you that there's someone out there who has achieved more than you and is continuing to achieve more than you.
That's not an insult. That's a fact. You have so much time out of class? Get a job scrubbing floors! Go to the gym! Get an unpaid internship! Volunteer your skills and time to something! Teach yourself something! Use more exclamation points!!!!! Growing up is about finding a life where you can actively and successfully engage yourself in the world around you with other people in greater experiences than ones you could have alone or at a younger age. Go out there and do it. |
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I think you are missing a step in my guide to success as an FRC Alum:
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Be really careful about feeling that you are bored out of your mind in your freshman year in college. Be mindful that the university needs to teach to a common denominator, and you are currently ahead of it. That won't always be the case.
Your situation sounds a lot like mine 14 or so years ago. I was on a FRC team, learned a lot of cool stuff. I was in the top 10 of my high school class at a blue ribbon school in New Jersey. All through high school I really wanted to go to Duke. I even took a summer session there. But, alas, Duke didn't accept me for college. I ended up "settling" for the University of Virginia. That's right, I felt I "settled" for the then #1 and current #2 public university in the country. So, when I got to Charlottesville, I was a really cocky and arrogant son of a you know what. Practically slept through my first semester, when my schedule was basically a re-take of a bunch of stuff I took in high school. I left for Christmas with a 3.6 GPA. College was going to be easy. But then I got kicked in the shins. I didn't take my introductory circuits course seriously. I mean, given enough effort, I can do circuit analysis. Who cares about this Node-Voltage and Mesh-Current stuff anyway? All I ever needed to know about circuits I learned in High School. Right? Well, I thought so then. At the same time, I didn't take multivariate calculus seriously, because I'll never have to worry about things more complicated than a circuit. Next thing I know, I'm simultaneously failing three courses in my second year: E&M Physics, Electronics I (transistors), and DiffEq. Why? Because I didn't know how to do a two dimensional closed surface integral over an inverse square force field in spherical space. And, I didn't know how to do N-V and M-C for small signal transistor models. Oh, and dear God I didn't know how to find a determinant so now I can't solve differential equations using Cramer's Rule. Yes, I can understand the boredom. I was there. But, a question to ask yourself: Can you explain how the fact that the divergence of a 4 dimensional anti-symmetric rank 2 tensor equals zero means that there is light? Can you explain why a square pulse in the time domain equals something like sin(w)/w in the frequency domain? Can you explain why a single pendulum is well governed by algebra, but a double pendulum is chaotic? Can you explain why a curve ball curves, in a mathematical sense? There's a lot to be learned. If you want to be an engineer, then find some healthy distractions until you hit the challenging stuff. I wish I had taken up billiards my first year in college, that would have probably helped. Instead, I found myself teaching myself vector calculus, field calculus, and differential equations during Christmas break 2001. I'm really glad I did, that re-commitment to myself meant I graduated. That meant that I went to on grad school and earned a Ph.D., and that in turn gives me the career I have today. So, stick with it, and use this opportunity to find those good rounding passions that make us human. |
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As a freshman myself at Notre Dame, I'm jealous, I wish I was ahead of the class all the time. But more importantly, you should branch out and do something new! I'm in the Notre Dame Marching Band. We have more engineers than any other major (>30%) and we do zero engineering at band, we just play music, have a good time, and do something that a lot of people enjoy.
Obviously band isn't for everyone, but try something completely out of your comfort zone or out of your usual skillset. I'm glad I did, it's a fantastic break from what is usually a day full of quite difficult classes and it's the single coolest thing I've been a part of in my life. All I'm saying is, there is always an opportunity to fall in love with something new, you just have to go for it. (And by it, I mean something not directly related to robotics or at the very least you're particular strongsuit in robotics) |
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Also, I'll go out on a limb and suggest NOT doing robotics in college. Branch out and find something new for a while like Formula SAE (if your school has it), Ribe Goldberg, or even non-STEM organizations. College is a time where you can really grow as a person. You finally have an opportunity to be out on your own without supervision. Looking back after being out of college for a few years now, I really wish I made better use of my time in college...as in making more friends, getting into a bit more trouble (but not too much of course), etc. You will likely never be surrounded with such a variety of types of people again, so take advantage of it. I currently work in an office full of introverted engineers. I sure miss the variety of people.
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Look through the 3k or so posts I've got on here, there's only a handful of times that appears. Go on, I'll be here when you get done checking. Back? Ok, EVERY time it's to emphasize a point. So, yes, not only did I view it as a CONSTRUCTIVE way of putting it, I viewed it as a point in need of emphasis in that manner. |
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A couple of thoughts from someone ten years removed from his freshman year:
1) Beware boredom early on, since it's possible you'll get a rude awakening. Diversify, but keep it where you can ditch the extra stuff if you have to. 2) You are the composite average of the five people you spend the most time with. If they're motivated and excited, you will be. If they're broke lazy bums, you will be. 3) I'd definitely advise you to go beyond your major. I have a marketing degree, but I took the CAD course out of USC's MechE department anyway and minored in media arts. So ignoring the fact that I'm horribly rusty in both fields, I could CAD the robot and shoot and edit the reveal video. Odd tools like that make you a better prospect down the road. 4) Hang on to the oddball stuff you grab out of boredom. In the summer of 2007, I had a long layover in Washington, DC at Union Station. That day, Chevrolet just happened to have the Volt concept on display there. This was pre-iPhone (for me anyway), pre-free-WiFi-everywhere, and I didn't really have time to go enjoy the city proper...so bored me pulled out my point-and-shoot and gave the car as much of a photo shoot as one can when one's not allowed to touch. Ten months later, as fate would have it, I applied for a job at a GM dealer--and those photos went in the portfolio. Sure enough, got the job. |
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Also, if you're bored, go to the gym and lift.
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Speaking from experience I feel for you. I actually got into my first choice of University, and chose to go to the local community turned state college to save money. I was BORED more BORED then I ever have been in my entire life. I was like some people on here and my arrogance and intelligence coming out of FIRST allowed me to cost through my AA degree. I also got a rude awakening upon transferring into an accelerated Master's Degree program (which I am still in), let me be the one to tell you, use these moments of being bored to read up on the classes you plan on heading into if you don't want to/can't do extracurriculars. This will help you in the long run.
I also feel your statement several alumni and friends have started pursuing engineering degrees and switched, but as you said statistics don't lie(which if you take a stats class you would know how wrong that statement is) the number of major switches in comparison to the population as a whole is shockingly less. On another note: Quote:
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I actually had the complete opposite experience. I spent 9 years as a student hearing how far ahead FIRST was putting me, and I started to believe it. Once I got to college I realized I wasn't ahead at all.
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Do I see a first semester freshman complaining about how engineering school isn't challenging? That's precious!
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A big fish stops growing unless he finds a bigger pond.
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Come back once you've:
Built a college radio station from the ground up Saved a robotics team from collapsing Mentored a robotics team that became world champs DJed multiple semiformals, campus events, and robotics competitions Established a FRC Kickoff at your college Built a FRC field for Kickoff, paving the way for them to build a community Robotics Center Served on an offseason competition planning committee Done 4 years of co-op including a thesis Joined Greek Life I was once a cocky freshman too, and it took the whole 4 years and then some to realize my limitations. If college isn't challenging enough for you, you're doing it wrong. You want a real challenge - do a suicide double-major, like Mechanical / Electric. Or just coast & see how little the "real" world is impressed by your coasting through college. |
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It sounds like you had a fantastic mentor on your FIRST team. In addition to the great suggestions already given for ways to challenge yourself, I would suggest finding a mentor at your university. I would suggest a grad student or post doc as they're usually not as busy as professors, but seek out professors if you can't find a grad student that you respect.
It's great to get advice from online forums, but developing a longterm relationship with a mentor will give you someone who knows your position and progress and can give more specific suggestions what to pursue next. They'll also be a excellent letter of recommendation when you apply for grad school or a job. |
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The only excuse for being bored is incompetence or laziness. Smart, motivated people find things to do and problems to solve. It's a contradiction for both these statements to be true:
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Keep that in mind. :-P |
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What a weird disadvantage. You've taken advantage of a great opportunity and you've worked hard, and as a result, you currently know more than people who've never studied engineering.
I honestly struggle to see how this is a disadvantage. If the courses are really too easy, ask somebody if you can take harder classes. Could you sit down and take the final for the class you're in right now, and get an A? If so, ask to take another class. |
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Sooner or later, you WILL get a wakeup. There's a reason I took 5 years to graduate college, and that reason wasn't my first year. It was my second year.
See, in the first year, most colleges like to get the general stuff out of the way. By the second year, you've still got some of the general stuff (but it'll be spread-able through your remaining time), but you'll start getting your major-specific courses. Or should I say, your major-specific "Weeder" courses--the type of courses that if you pass 'em, you should have a relatively simple time the rest of the way (and the concepts will stay with you), but if you don't pass 'em, you may want to think about your career path. (Don't forget to retake those courses!) In my case, I hit Dynamics, Intro to Solid Mechanics, and Diff. Eq., 'long about the second semester of my second year. The only course I passed that semester was Physics II (and its lab). Insert retakes, and another year in college. I did manage to make my escape eventually, just not in the 4 years I wanted to. So, just like everybody else: Go find something to do that ISN'T programming/robotics, and then go find something that challenges you in the programming realm. I hear some helicopters and quadcopters want to be programmed to find their way through mazes (don't remember the competition, though)--that oughta keep you busy for a couple years or so. |
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Former second: I haven't seen anything like that. I've seen bright kids get sidetracked by drugs and family issues, but never by robotics. I'm sure it happens occasionally but it's not common, and likely has deeper roots. |
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If you aren't being challenged, push yourself. If you're bored, find something new to do. If your classes aren't challenging enough, take more. Take them in subjects that you aren't an expert in (ie, not computer vision in your case). If your extracurriculars aren't interesting enough, find new ones. Push yourself to explore and discover. Find a problem-- any problem-- try to solve it. Create something. Design a robot in CAD. Push yourself to where you think your limit is, and then just a bit more. Jump into the deep end of the pool. Get in over your head on a subject you don't know much about.
When I was a freshman in high school, I was taking my calculus course at the University of Minnesota (where I am now studying), and one of my professors told all of us (a class of 7th, 8th, and 9th grade students) that no matter how smart we thought we were now, we would eventually hit a wall. Even if we could cruise through this program (which went from Calculus 1 through Multivariable, plus a potential for research/advanced classes by the end), if we were taking advantage of our talents to the fullest, we would eventually take a class, or work on a project, which would pose us a real challenge. The longer you spend cruising through life, the more difficult it is when you hit that challenge. That is when you learn to actually work. He also told us that working through that challenge, and the challenges that would come after it, were the meat of life. I didn't (and don't) totally agree with him on everything, but that, out of all the things I learned about in the program, was one of the biggest takeaways. Personally, it took me from being a bored straight-A student to an A- to B+ student who was much more interested in life and what I was learning. I could have pretty easily slunk through high school with a 4.0 and a pat on the back (and believe me, I was on that path), but instead I took advantage of what I could learn. Yes, I understand there's a difference in scale here, but I think the general principle of what my prof told us that day still holds true: find your walls and get through them. Break them or climb them or tunnel under them. Figure out exactly what you are made of and then try to make yourself something more. Boredom isn't a fate I would with on anyone, especially someone with the raw talent you appear to possess. “A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for.” ― William G.T. Shedd |
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To the OP, be careful how you phrase statements claiming to be far ahead of everyone else. This can come across as bragging, even if you don't intend it that way, and will annoy people (for good reasons). See some of the previous posts in this thread for examples of annoyed reactions. Don't dismiss these replies, though; I'm currently a first semester sophomore, and I can already tell that they're giving the kind of valuable advice that only comes from experience. They've been where you are now, and they're trying to prevent you from making their mistakes. The shear number of these replies shows how many people in FIRST are concerned for you and only want you to succeed.
I believe that in your case, your boredom might have less to do with being a FIRST alum and more to do with your professional and research experience. Not all FIRST alumni have this problem (myself included), and it sounds like you've had some fantastic experience already through not only FIRST, but also your Boeing mentor and undergrad research. Keep in mind that it's quite rare to have had this experience, especially as a freshman, and it's something most freshmen and sophomores would give almost anything to have had. This is a good problem to have, and many potential solutions have already been posted. I don't want to repeat all of the advice in this thread, so I'll just ask again that you consider following it. Everyone else, let's try to be no harsher than necessary. It's hard to know what you're taking for granted, and I think the OP is learning this. |
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There is a lot of valuable advice in this topic already.
Let me give you a different bit of advice that has served me well. The general vector of most of a large number of these posts is do more...do...do...do... The error underlying this situation is a misunderstanding of the value of your work and your labor. Mostly likely a vast misunderstanding of the value of sleep as well (trust me I've worked past the point of my own safety a few times sleep does matter and often when you least expect it). Ask yourself something: what were *you* getting out of FIRST that you are not getting out of college that made that hard work worth it? The value of education is not that number of classes the school could force you to take to justify their bottom line once you declare a major. As others have said - colleges will often go real easy on you the first year or so then drive you into the ground. This is not just about getting the easy stuff out of the way - it's a great business model to get you as financially invested as they can get you before they have to pay up on their end. Why do you think schools can't often agree on what is transferable between them? My advice to you is simply this. Use this time while the situation you are in has distracted it's insanity away from you to find out what the real value of your time is. Personally I have told my students this before. I may mentor you in CNC programming but why would I suggest this is the best use of your time when I make significantly more professionally and most often do not use CNC machines to do it? I mentor it because I hope it enables my students to learn, contribute and participate. It empowers them. I hope it opens their heads to new ideas and so when they find themselves in those dark moments when they feel lost maybe they have some ideas on how to fulfill themselves. I am a guy with an associate's degree from a community college. My Father was a guy with no college degree. Our collective work has built key parts of this World's infrastructure for more than 50 years and is undeniable. FIRST is an opportunity, college is an opportunity and even war sometimes is an opportunity. I hope you can understand the difference between going through the motions and doing something you really value even if the rest of the World will spend it's time telling you about your faults and limits and doing things that may not be in anyone's best interest. Engineering is not the only true path and trying to make one size fits all is bound to create negative consequences. The value of FIRST is that it encourages people to see what engineering can be to you before you get pulled back into a college system that makes the most money when you can not complete the programs but you convince yourself that you must have a degree. So you spend...spend...spend on student loans that might even survive you if you die young or in some tragic accident. Work smarter - not just hard. Cause slaves work plenty hard and they are still slaves. So much blood has been spilled so you can have this opportunity to fulfill yourself, use it wisely. "Then the joy of achievement when one can successfully take a few steps without falling. The appreciation of people around is a key component of achieving personal fulfilment. It is invariably followed by a sense of habituality (i.e. being able to perform any act e.g. walking, habitually). Then boredom. Followed by a yearning for the next horizon, whatever it may be for an individual." |
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I know how you feel sometimes. It's not a bad thing, but sometimes challenges are too easy. I joined the Formula SAE team, which is a lot like robotics in many ways, but different and more difficult in a good way. I am sure your school has one, I would check it out. And since I am on Formula SAE, I get to use the machine shop for 'Formula SAE things only' :rolleyes:
Anyways, story time. We had to create a Lego NXT robot in our engineering 100 class, and that was fun, but also wayy to easy. We had to make one that followed a line (line sensor and a variant of a P-loop), pick up a ball, and put in in a bucket. I ended up throwing away all the code, and used PID loops on both the drivetrain and the arm. I ended up doing all the work on the robot, but I didn't mind the least bit. And needless to say, our (my) robot was the best by far And you can tell the FIRST robotics kids from the other (as one of the programmers on my team says) plebs (plebeians). The FIRST kids excel at pretty much everything. :D |
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Seeing as we're going there... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG9tZ9O60dA
For reference, the rest of the competition was somewhat larger and took somewhat longer (the ones that didn't have to be picked up mid-run or nudged back on-course). I'm not aware of any other FIRSTers in the class, though. (The team I was on had one ME, one EE, and one computer engineer/computer scientist.) |
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I'm a freshman in college too, and I can see where you're coming from. After doing FIRST, I'm used to waking up at 7, doing 7 hours of classes, then 4 hours of FRC, then rushing through my homework in 2 hours to get in another 3 hours of CAD before bed. I became really ruthlessly efficient at getting stuff done whenever I had a free moment, and although I've become a bit more lazy since build season, my attitude is still definitely work first, fun second. I do my work efficiently and as soon as it comes out, and often find myself with a lot of extra time on my hands.
Even though I'm taking what a lot of people would consider really hard classes, my roommate and my friends sometimes jokingly ask me if I just never have homework. The reality is I already know a good fraction of the material, and know how to work efficiently. I am bored sometimes. I know where you're coming from. It sounds to me more like you're burnt out rather than just too advanced for your peers. Try to do stuff in your major that you find fun, side projects and the like. Remind yourself why computer science is fun and worth spending your life doing. Doing that will probably make the intro courses a lot easier to sit through. Even if you already know the material, you can still learn the best way to teach it to other students. If you really are just too too advanced, write a thesis and get a PhD. Then go out and get a professorship. |
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As a 2nd year college student and alumni (now part time mentor).......... you're doing it wrong.
Having a shelf full of projects, another shelf of half completed projects. Freelance work, startup work and a regular job plus all the usual school work I don't think I can say I've been bored in a long time... being "bored" any time in your life is really one's own fault (and hey sometimes being bored isn't a bad thing either). If your school is "easy" and you're acing your classes with minimal effort, take advantage of your free time do something else! If you are the smartest guy in the room you're in the wrong room. |
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To the OP -
I've had the pleasure of meeting a few people throughout college that seem to fit the same description you've fit to yourself through your post. I'll be completely honest, when I began my Freshman year at Clarkson in the Fall of 2012 as an AeroE I was discouraged by that type of student. I was unhappy studying engineering, struggling with calculus-based classes, and generally unbalanced, while some others around me seemed to be bored in lectures and still produced 4.0 GPAs without much effort. Many of the other posts in this thread have recommended you invest your extra time/effort into mentoring, engineering research/projects, or a second major, but from my experience what really makes these students feel challenged is stepping out of their comfort zone and exploring options that college life offers that are not already familiar to them. As a Freshman I made the choice to only mentor Clarkson's FRC Team, and it wasn't until an entire year later that I left my comfort zone and joined a fraternity (I also changed majors and added a minor). Colleges offer a long list of organizations that are only available to you at this time of your life, and you won't grow as a person if you don't take advantage of these opportunities. Since you've already had exposure to some of your Freshmen curriculum through FRC, challenge yourself to step away from STEM and find something you want to learn or a skill you want to improve. It takes humility to admit to yourself that although you can ace your engineering exams, you may not possess a certain skill that someone else has. Chances are someone else feels the same way about you in your academic successes; I know I felt that way at times when comparing myself to my peers. The bottom line is this; As you're beginning to realize, college isn't just a time to get your degree and start a career because I'll be completely honest, that IS the "boring" part of school. As others have mentioned, you're going to do a lot of "growing up" in the next few years, and this is your opportunity to learn a lot of important things that won't be taught in your classes. You already recognize that you're academically talented, so embrace that - Become a teacher's assistant for a class you've taken, become a tutor for your classmates, etc. The next step is recognizing what you aren't talented at, and after that is deciding what you're going to do about it. I would be willing to bet that you will make lasting friendships in college if you share your academic talents with students who are struggling in class, and they might teach you a thing or two in return. |
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If this is your biggest disadvantage in life consider yourself lucky. Yet there is still one line in this breaks it all for me. "I am working in a graduate level lab doing computer vision and I am seeing what the grad students are doing wrong." You can be the brightest lighthouse to ever have existed, but what use are you unless you guide others? |
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My high school calculus teacher had a phrase he like to use. It was, "You are too impressed with yourself".
It wasn't a compliment. |
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I'd like to thank all of you for giving me guidance. I needed it.
Here is where I'm at right now. My advisor told me to go for another major (along with comp sci and physics), something that I know nothing about (I'm thinking ee or comp e. I know the basics but that's it). Or to transfer to somewhere with a more intellectual environment. I'm rushing sigep. Taking some time out of the lab. I have an interview for an internship with union pacific tomorrow morning so there is that too. Quote:
I try to mentor other teams. Last year I helped a grand total of 14 teams with computer vision, and this year I plan to solve the vision challenge over winter break as a for fun thing, and have it tested and good to go for anyone who wants it. I might do it in multiple languages, but I'll probably stick to c++ and python. The kid I left in charge of vision for the team doesn't need my help. I taught him calc 1 during build season just because I knew he could handle it, he was a freshman at the time. As for student programs, I go to the buddhist temple just about every night. It helps me cope with having CF. We have a lot of student design teams, our school placed second in the mars rover challenge last year I believe. I have my own projects that I'm working on, but I'm running out of ideas fast. I write the same code in python, c++, and matlab and test to see which one is fastest just out of pure boredom. I run to fill my afternoons too. I would join the cross country team but cf just recently put me in the hospital for 2 weeks and that can happen at a moments notice, so sports are kind of out of the question. I do intramural soccer here, but it's not as competitive as I like it. I was captain of my soccer team in high school. Quote:
Some more background: (in relativity) the electromagnetic field is described by a 4D antisymmetric tensor. quoting my physics professor "An anti-symmetric tensor is a tensor in which exchanging two indices negates the tensor" By divergence (the antisymmetrized derivative) is zero in a vacuum, and obviously is not zero when there is charge or a current. I do not conceptually understand why it produces a photon, but it does. I haven't thought about it that much. But I'm only in the first physics class. Speaking about physics, it irritates me that the Nobel prize was given to something so simple. Maybe I just don't appreciate it. As for the second question, that is a simple Fourier transformation. Ah, the classic double pendulum question. It is a system of chaos, to give the cop out answer, as you have stated. The system is governed by a system of diff eq. The vision program I wrote my sophomore year of high school solved a system of partial diff eq (camera pose estimation). If you're really interested, i presented this at ISWEEEP, the international science fair: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5wbgtie9vc...ation.ppt?dl=0 Of course my boeing mentor helped me with the math, it was about half and half. Neither of us could have done it without the other. I have spent a lot of time on the hospital bed due to having cf. I finished the vision program my sophomore year in the hospital at 2am a week before competition. My junior year I missed 2 months of school due to being sick. Senior year was about a month. It has allowed me to develop academically. Having cf greatly reduces the amount of time I have here, and I want to actually "contribute a verse" and I feel like I'm wasting my time right now. Edit* forgot about the last question: if I remember right, I believe it is called the magnus effect. It's very similar to that of an air foil, I believe. I do not believe anyone actually has mathematically explained it, I'd be more than happy to see one if one exists though. |
Re: The subtle disadvantages of being a FIRST Alumni
I would have to agree with Damprobot that you may be experiencing burnout so I would advise you not to work on your current personal projects since they seem to be in the areas that you may be burnt out in. Since it is difficult to really "do nothing", and if you are really ahead of your peers, you may want to consider offering to tutor some your peers. I had one schoolmate who was in the Engineering Physics program (the hardest classes from EE and ME), took graduate level courses and got over 95% in all his courses in all his 4 years. He was also incredibly humble, approachable and more generous with his time helping those of us who struggled than most of the other top students.
If you have a student loan (and even if you don't), you might consider getting a job. It will give you some cash and some real world experience working for and with other people. That would be as valuable as your FIRST experience when you are looking for employment after you graduate. As techhelpbb suggested, figure out what gives you fulfillment. If you are doing something you find fulfilling, you can do it with passion. People who work with passion are much more likely to do better work, do something great and go further in life than those who just plod along. |
Re: The subtle disadvantages of being a FIRST Alumni
kylewalrus has a reputation beyond repute less than 14 minutes after his first post on CD.
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Re: The subtle disadvantages of being a FIRST Alumni
This thread is hilarious
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Enlighten me Faust... Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street? Anyway cynical side being put out there it sounds like you have been active at taking steps to not just uh state your situation but to change it. Good on ya! |
Re: The subtle disadvantages of being a FIRST Alumni
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Re: The subtle disadvantages of being a FIRST Alumni
Mods, I think this thread has served its purpose.
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Re: The subtle disadvantages of being a FIRST Alumni
Welcome to Chief Delphi Reddit.
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Re: The subtle disadvantages of being a FIRST Alumni
This isn't a throwaway account. I've been lurking for the past 4 years and just finally made an account.
Anyway, what did I miss? Edit: 2987 rep? lol |
Re: The subtle disadvantages of being a FIRST Alumni
[You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to kylewalrus again.]
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