[AcesJames]

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.