Quote:
Originally posted by Ken Patton
I totally agree with Ken W.'s comments about what goes on in your first couple years of engineering school. You are learning the foundation, the theories behind the applications. Those concepts are very important because there will be many times in an engineering career where you go back to those fundamentals.
It is difficult, and competitive. But why would you expect anything less? Hopefully FIRST is giving the students an idea of what things are possible AFTER you get your engineering degree (not so much WHILE you are getting it).
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This is so true. I almost dropped out of Engineering school myself after my second year. What kept me in was having been a summer intern between my first and second years. I knew I could handle and liked the work, it was school I wasn't sure about. But once we got past theory and into applications I enjoyed it more and started doing better in my classes.
However maybe we could, as a program, do a better job of helping students see this difference ahead of time. In any endeavor, (work, FIRST, marriage, school, long outdoor trips) it helps to know that while there will be difficult times, they are temporary. It helps to know that what you really need to do is hang on and gut it out in the short term, and the result will be a long term gain. Forewarned is Forearmed
Aarron, what you are going through is perfectly normal. Your advantage is that you have had a taste of what life can be like after you make it through the tough part. The real question is do you want what you have tasted bad enough to struggle through and get there? If yes, then press on If not, then think very carefully about what you DO want and pursue that.
Finally, if you get too bogged down with something you don't understand in your classwork, then post a question here and we will try and explain it. I remember I was having trouble with some things in Physics, I wasn't understanding how some problems were solved. I explained my frustration to a fellow student who was a year or so ahead of me. It turned out the Physics class was using mathematical techniques we hadn't been taught yet. In fifteen minutes another this resolved a problem I had been struggling with a whole quarter. We can do that here too.
There is nothing in FIRST that says mentoring has to stop when you graduate...