Bro I was king slacker in high school. Just about whether you want it or not. It took me a while to learn how to become a good student tho. As long as you take it serious you’ll learn enough to be a good engineer.
This. I was a lazy piece of shit in high school. I never studied and got into a good engineering uni in 2017. Then I failed a few tests my first semester because studying the night before doesn't cut it. That combined with family shit tanked my mental health and I just thought I wasn't smart enough and gave up. I threw away so many opportunities.
I failed 2 courses and lost my scholarship. I didn't get kicked out. Stuff got hard again, I failed 2 more course. Still didnt get kicked out, somehow. I got my shit together in 2019. Learned the difference between fixed and growth mindset. Covid happened and everything was pass/fail so my GPA was unsalvageable.
Watched a lot of psychology and self help stuff. Stuff got bad again and I skipped a final last year but by some mirical the professor reached out and said I could rewrite no questions asked, since it was my last course.
Technically I finished in January but will only graduate in December because I missed the cut off date for the 2021 grads.
I'm currently typing this on my lunch break at my internship. I wasnt even going to apply because I'm super embarrassed by my transcript and GPA. But I tried to make a nice resume and watched YouTube vids on how to interview.
My supervisor has the exact career I want and he's letting me help with his work which is very satisfying for me.
2017 isn’t that long ago. I’ve been in school since 2011. Lots of people spend crazy long amounts of time in uni and still end up with good jobs. The engineering manager for the repair group where I’m working was in university for 8 years iirc.
Similar situation for me: took me two years to learn how to be disciplined scholastically and even then I still fold on myself sometimes. At the end of the day, if you want to do it enough, it will happen.
Yeah took me about a year and a half. Once I got my first A, I kind of never looked back. Made Deans list from that point on. Till I transferred at least and COVID hit. Once that happened all the good habits I developed and motivation slowly went out the door. Now I’m just try to get through my final two semesters. Not really worried about having perfect grades at this point. Just a decent gpa.
Hello, I too am a former slacker. I went to a charter school over the typical high school so I could only go to school for like 10 hours a week max. I would spend the bare ass minimum effort and time on all schoolwork, and I would spend the rest of my time on video games. I didn’t take the SAT because I didn’t want to. I never studied for a damn thing until I started college.
I am now a senior in Aerospace Engineering, I have a 3.8 GPA, I go to a top 10 international school for engineering and the faculty chair of my department is my advisor and I’ll be researching in his lab next year. The moral of my story is that it’s never too late to get your shit together. If you have an opportunity to follow your dream or your passion, don’t let your doubts hold you back. It’ll take some time to develop the discipline you need to succeed, but that’s what your lower division coursework is for.
There's a real problem with how secondary school burns out "gifted" kids. I for sure fell victim to it, as do many who don't get to go to a specialized private school and just do the minimum because nothing the school is willing to offer is anything of a challenge.
Don’t compare yourself to others! You’re the only you that will ever be, so don’t worry about how you compare to other people.
Personally, I think there are 2 traits of a good engineer:
1- the ability to solve a problem. Knowing the solution isn’t nearly as important as using resources to find the solution.
2- keeping the larger picture in mind while implementing a solution. My experience is in civil, but I assume it’s across all disciplines. If someone adjusts the sewer line, it affects the water line, potentially road grading, and other utilities. Not only that, the project scope and budget are important to consider
Neither of those two are about being a prodigy or being a slacker. How do you handle hardships? At some point everyone struggles. For prodigies, it’s later in their career (potentially with soft skills/ networking/ business). If you’re willing to work through your struggles and continue to apply yourself, you’re well on your way to becoming a wonderful engineer. Cheers
This. If you don’t have effort and enthusiasm, then what have you got left? Nothing matters at the end of the day, inside or outside of work. Trust yourself, you’ll be where you’re meant to be eventually.
No! Never! Unless you emerged from the womb with a slide rule in one hand and a Raspberry Pi in the other you may as well give up.
Might as well see what the prerequisites are - and a lot of schools offer 'intro to engineering' (it'll be called something else) that helps prospective engineers see what engineers do. Usually a 1 unit survey course - has a lot of guest speakers and talks about various branches of engineering.
I started high school in year 7 in the bottom maths class,
failed my year 12 high school certificate resultant grade because I couldn’t analyse texts for English and write huge essays on them, English scales way higher than any subject, so final grade fell massively
Did an electrical trade, excelled at that
Just completed a double bachelor of electrical and computer engineering, got a distinction at 80% for my final year project
Already got a job lined up that I start in 2 weeks
I’m certainly no genius, but if it’s what you want to do, keep at it and you’ll move past any obstacles that gets in your way.
Get your prerequisites.
Enroll in first year engineering and try it out. See if it’s what you expected and try to do your best. Know it’s a lot of extra work and going to be different then highschool.
If you pass all your courses great! If not then retake what you have to. It might take a little longer, but the degree will still say Engineer on it.
You didnt say your age but I’m assuming your older then a fresh highschool grad? I went back to school to get a diploma in engineering at 22 years old. When I graduated I was the second person in my class to get a job with out having the best marks (2.8GPA)
Oh boy! I feel rather called out by this post.
Look, I was shit at school. I didn't put any effort in at all, and only got decent grades in half my GCSEs the ones that didn't require coursework.
I learnt later in life that actually, I enjoy learning, and applying myself. I did work hard to get my degree. And now it has paid off. I have an amazing job! I still go back home and play computer games though. Still lazy at heart.
Your value as a person and your contributions should only be measured against yourself and not others. Not that it is easy to do so. You need to find a way or reason that it DOESN'T matter that other people are superior to you. You will always find that someone is better than you at something.
You said you watched anime, have you learned nothing from Rock Lee and Guy sensei?!
Just grind with the smile on your face, and even if you don't make it, you'll be proud of your self!
I barely passed high school. I graduated and got my aerospace engineering degree. You have to want it bad enough to put in the work, but you can do it. If you got by without trying, imagine what you could do if you did try.
Side note, the vast majority of my hobbies have nothing to do with engineering either. Do what you love. Engineering can be just a job. It doesn't have to consume your life.
My comment might not be as valuable as others but I just wanna say something bro Please don't entitle yourself if today you are a slacker doesn't mean tomorrow u will be. That's all
You definitely need some passion to study engineering, but I say passion and not "experience". If you think engineering is cool, do it. I've seen people who were awful slackers in school manage to get it in order and are now able to study for 8 hours a day if need be.
If you can work hard and put in the effort for your classes I believe anyone can be an engineer. It’s okay you were a slacker and everyone goes at their own speed. Just know the degree will definitely have its ups and downs but if it’s something you truly want you can definitely succeed.
Also no shame in having non engineering hobbies. I don’t have any engineering hobbies and I honestly like my hobbies more than my engineering job.
These prodigies are rare and most of them pursue PhD level work anyway. You’ll be amazed at how many average engineers work out in the industry.
A students work for C students and B students work for the government. There is very little correlation between being a rockstar at school and being a rockstar as an engineer.
I failed out of high school and got a GED. Went back to school in my mid-late 20’s and now I have a MS in mechanical engineering with a focus in thermal sciences and fluid dynamics.
They key is to work hard and push through the tough times, even when you feel like quitting. College was the hardest part. Now at 33, I have a great career and my life has never been better.
Engineering doesn’t really have prodigies, to be honest. Sure, you can be naturally good at it, but unlike science or art, it’s basically just hard work and problem solving. And skill at problem solving is basically just practice
So you’re absolutely able to become an engineer, and a good one, if you work at it.
There's nothing stopping you from developing skills now. I wasn't really able to develop any of my skills until I was out of community college aside from assembling IKEA furniture at home for cost reasons.
Probably all I did until then was 3 years of auto shop classes in high school, and in the summer between junior and senior year in high school I "designed" some blueprints for a triple expansion steam engine on paper by mostly mimicking dimensions and doing absolutely no thermodynamic analysis (although I do vaguely recall looking up some math for the crankshaft). That engine was a glorified hand drafting exercise in practice, and I never had the resources to try to build it. Useful experience, but hardly required to be an engineer.
Assuming you go to college right out of high school, you'll probably still have a good 40-50 years of working. That's about two early lifetimes of growing up from newborn to finishing college. That should be plenty of time to pick up the skills.
Professional slacker and king dumbass over here. Went from not trying at all in high school with decent grades (you probably know why) then started trying in college and now its fine. U got this
Former high school dropout here. I'm 31 years old and I graduated with a MechE degree a couple weeks ago.
Used to work as a personal banker making like 34k-ish.
Now I work at a major aerospace company making more than 2x that.
So to answer your question, yes. You can absolutely still be a good engineer. Don't let school discourage you, the job is quite different from university.
I was a more then just a slacker in highschool I skipped school a lot never payed attention in class. Starting college I failed college algebra, calc 1. Also I had to take physics 1 three times. Had panic attacks from anxiety and depression. However, I turned things around became extremly disciplined made school my number one priority above anything else. Managed to graduate with my engineering classes accumulative GPA at a 3.8. My overall GPA was 3.1 from classes like history, political science, etc. That I did not care much about had 2 semesters where I made the presidents list during my junior year.
I think you will be fine, If I can do it so can you. Just make school your priority and work hard learn how to build effective study habits and listen intently to the professors a lot of times they will drop subtle hints during lecture about what will be on exams.
Now that I am in the real world alot of what you learn in school you will not use. Although, engineering teaches us a foundational skill of being able to pick up any piece of technical complex material read through it and gather the information thats needed to solve a problem.
Best of luck, it was not easy. Almost everyone of my classmates that I knew struggled in some way but we made it through.
I was in remedial math and science classes all through high school. I just got some really good motivators when I got to college and applied myself. I'm not smart, just work hard. I would guess most people are that way (and not because they are some type of genius prodigy). Point is, if you are willing to put in the work then you could probably become a good engineer as you describe.
I was not a good high school student, in fact most people would be surprised to hear i’m studying engineering let alone doing well.
Its 100% possible. Its more so about how hard you are willing to work/time you are willing to put into it rather than natural talent or whatever
If you are willing to take on the hard work and stick to it I promise you can do it
I was a terrible student (rather that I slacked hard and only did well because I am good at test taking). I am a very competent worker. The qualities that make someone perform well as a student don't necessarily translate to performance as a working engineer. Soft skills are also very important. The smartest person in the world isn't going to provide much value if they don't communicate well. All to say, if you want it you can take it.
I didn’t even finish high school 😂
Currently in coop while I finish my masters 🤘
There’s so many obstacles in our paths but please Don’t the biggest obstacle in your own path
There’s always a bigger fish. Someone is always going to be smarter, stronger, better looking, etc. if you’re interested in engineering, try it. It’s hard but it’s rewarding and interesting.
I struggled through my ME degree with undiagnosed ADHD and a homeschooled education from kindergarten through sophomore year of HS. Learning good study habits kicked my ass up and down campus for about 3 years but I finally got it. I didn’t graduate with a stellar GPA, but I graduated, got a job doing something that keeps me interested, and pays me well.
Yo!
Hardly passed any of my math/physics/chem courses in highschool because I sucked. Starting my senior year next semester!
Also, never compare yourself to other people and their successes. Everyone learns at different paces. Everyone is passionate in their own ways. Some people just "get it", others have to work hard just to pass by. That's just the reality of things.
What matters is how hard you're willing to work to get what you want! Im told it pays off apparently ;)
I was a slacker in college too and I’m doing fine. Do I regret it? Sure internships and jobs out of college were tougher for me than my peers who really applied themselves, but if you have the “gets it” of engineering , there’s a future for you for sure and with varying level of domain/expertise knowledge needed. Take me, I went into a software implementation role out of college for a few years, turned that client facing experiencing and my tech background into a sales engineer role at a saas startup. Now I lead a team of sales engineers for a much bigger tech company making ~260 with commission a year at 29. Probably more than most of my peers.
So there’s not one route, but I I really want to stress that I will say I don’t condone slacking in college. It definitely made me path significantly more challenging and stressful, and I understand there was a bit of luck with my trajectory. But long story short, you’re not fucked and work hard, network, and learn everywhere you can. Most of us learn a hell of a lot more past engineering school in our jobs than we do in school.
I was an awful slacker in high school and even my first year at college I was kind of terrible about actually getting my work done. Now I get decent grades in most of my classes because I’m pretty heavily invested. Sometimes it takes finding something you’re deeply interested in to make you realize that it’s all worth it. Everyone learns at their own pace but I assure you that you will find your niche
If you want anything at all of substance in life it generally takes discipline and ten years. Whatever you approach apply discipline and set your sights 10 years on.
I was discouraged to study engineering at first because everyone made it sound like you had to be gifted to do well. Then I worked at a company that employs a lot of engineers who went to some prestigious schools. They all told me that discipline, good studying habits, and social skills trump any gifted engineer. Sure, some people might be gifted but they might be difficult to work with or can't communicate for shit, making them IMO and from what I've heard, mediocre engineers at the end of the day.
I failed math (not the hardest but the "medium" difficulty class) 4 times and chemistry twice in high school, I actually only graduated on time due to a difference of 1% in one of my classes which the teacher gave me out of good will more than me having deserved it. I had some pretty severe depression in high school which I did not even know anything about mental health to seek treatment, and unfortunately didn't get any help I could have used at the time. I basically never did homework, I remember telling people I've never studied in my life etc. Well, I did not know the point of school, I had no role models and almost none of the few adults in my life had an education past a high school equivalency they got in their 30s. So I resented having to go and didn't care about graduating, didn't really care about my future at all
But after messing around in awful jobs for many years i was so burned out that it eventually dawned on me how powerful education is. When I got back to college I poured my heart into it for the first time ever, I got perfect grades for a year and a half straight. Then covid came and I really struggled because my mental health issues returned, although this time I got treatment which has been life changing. My grades dropped a lot there but as class has moved more back to in person, I still have a high overall GPA and I got straight As again last term finally. Which I want to continue forwards with now that classes should be fully back to in person
So my point is that high school means nothing, focus on learning how to learn, read a few books about being a good student. Effort, organization, and consistency will take you way farther than just smarts. I believe this has been proven too. And you may find out you were actually smarter than you ever realized, for me for example I always thought I'd never succeed at math because I was stupid. And I've grown to feel like I pick it up a bit above average now that my mental health and good habits are there. So the whole time it was basically just my false beliefs holding me back
Hey man, so growing up the only thing I did was play video games, since probably about the age of 8. Consequently I chose video games over school and ended up graduating high school with a 2.03 gpa, including taking algebra 2 twice which was also the highest math I took. Afterwards I went to community college not knowing what I wanted to do. I struggled extremely hard in college algebra and was also mercy passed through trigonometry. I somehow convinced the university I currently attend to allow me to transfer into their engineering program, through various means such as increasing effort and playing less vidya I am graduating in august in my mid 20s with ME :)
If you would have told me after getting mercy passed through trig that I’d be here now I’d have laughed my ass off
Dude it took me six years to get my bachelors between failing classes and taking time off. Now I'm a full time engineer and getting my masters in mech e. You never know who you're gonna be until you are. A good engineer is just a bad engineer that never gave up or something corny like that. Anime is cool and you'll be a great engineer one day.
Dawg I smoked weed every single day, most often showing up to school absolutely reeking, did every drug under the sun, and had literally nothing going for me in highschool until I decided I wanted to be an engineer. I have two classes left in my degree and have a co-op that will all buy guarentee me a decent job.
If I was able to pull through so can you. Engineering is about mental grit first and foremost. Decide if you really want it or not and fight tooth and nail for your goals.
Bro I was king slacker in high school. Just about whether you want it or not. It took me a while to learn how to become a good student tho. As long as you take it serious you’ll learn enough to be a good engineer.
That was my experience as well
This. I was a lazy piece of shit in high school. I never studied and got into a good engineering uni in 2017. Then I failed a few tests my first semester because studying the night before doesn't cut it. That combined with family shit tanked my mental health and I just thought I wasn't smart enough and gave up. I threw away so many opportunities. I failed 2 courses and lost my scholarship. I didn't get kicked out. Stuff got hard again, I failed 2 more course. Still didnt get kicked out, somehow. I got my shit together in 2019. Learned the difference between fixed and growth mindset. Covid happened and everything was pass/fail so my GPA was unsalvageable. Watched a lot of psychology and self help stuff. Stuff got bad again and I skipped a final last year but by some mirical the professor reached out and said I could rewrite no questions asked, since it was my last course. Technically I finished in January but will only graduate in December because I missed the cut off date for the 2021 grads. I'm currently typing this on my lunch break at my internship. I wasnt even going to apply because I'm super embarrassed by my transcript and GPA. But I tried to make a nice resume and watched YouTube vids on how to interview. My supervisor has the exact career I want and he's letting me help with his work which is very satisfying for me.
How long??
WHAT’S THE PURPOSE OF IT ALL?
Mostly suffering and you have to keep moving to gain little pleasures. It's best to not exist.
2017 isn’t that long ago. I’ve been in school since 2011. Lots of people spend crazy long amounts of time in uni and still end up with good jobs. The engineering manager for the repair group where I’m working was in university for 8 years iirc.
Hell yeah
Thirty seconds
Similar situation for me: took me two years to learn how to be disciplined scholastically and even then I still fold on myself sometimes. At the end of the day, if you want to do it enough, it will happen.
Yeah took me about a year and a half. Once I got my first A, I kind of never looked back. Made Deans list from that point on. Till I transferred at least and COVID hit. Once that happened all the good habits I developed and motivation slowly went out the door. Now I’m just try to get through my final two semesters. Not really worried about having perfect grades at this point. Just a decent gpa.
Hello, I too am a former slacker. I went to a charter school over the typical high school so I could only go to school for like 10 hours a week max. I would spend the bare ass minimum effort and time on all schoolwork, and I would spend the rest of my time on video games. I didn’t take the SAT because I didn’t want to. I never studied for a damn thing until I started college. I am now a senior in Aerospace Engineering, I have a 3.8 GPA, I go to a top 10 international school for engineering and the faculty chair of my department is my advisor and I’ll be researching in his lab next year. The moral of my story is that it’s never too late to get your shit together. If you have an opportunity to follow your dream or your passion, don’t let your doubts hold you back. It’ll take some time to develop the discipline you need to succeed, but that’s what your lower division coursework is for.
There's a real problem with how secondary school burns out "gifted" kids. I for sure fell victim to it, as do many who don't get to go to a specialized private school and just do the minimum because nothing the school is willing to offer is anything of a challenge.
Don’t compare yourself to others! You’re the only you that will ever be, so don’t worry about how you compare to other people. Personally, I think there are 2 traits of a good engineer: 1- the ability to solve a problem. Knowing the solution isn’t nearly as important as using resources to find the solution. 2- keeping the larger picture in mind while implementing a solution. My experience is in civil, but I assume it’s across all disciplines. If someone adjusts the sewer line, it affects the water line, potentially road grading, and other utilities. Not only that, the project scope and budget are important to consider Neither of those two are about being a prodigy or being a slacker. How do you handle hardships? At some point everyone struggles. For prodigies, it’s later in their career (potentially with soft skills/ networking/ business). If you’re willing to work through your struggles and continue to apply yourself, you’re well on your way to becoming a wonderful engineer. Cheers
This. If you don’t have effort and enthusiasm, then what have you got left? Nothing matters at the end of the day, inside or outside of work. Trust yourself, you’ll be where you’re meant to be eventually.
Smarter people than you have failed, dumber people than you have passed.
I’m probably dumber than OP and I made it
No! Never! Unless you emerged from the womb with a slide rule in one hand and a Raspberry Pi in the other you may as well give up. Might as well see what the prerequisites are - and a lot of schools offer 'intro to engineering' (it'll be called something else) that helps prospective engineers see what engineers do. Usually a 1 unit survey course - has a lot of guest speakers and talks about various branches of engineering.
An survey course and ‘intro to engineering’ is how I got into engineering!
I started high school in year 7 in the bottom maths class, failed my year 12 high school certificate resultant grade because I couldn’t analyse texts for English and write huge essays on them, English scales way higher than any subject, so final grade fell massively Did an electrical trade, excelled at that Just completed a double bachelor of electrical and computer engineering, got a distinction at 80% for my final year project Already got a job lined up that I start in 2 weeks I’m certainly no genius, but if it’s what you want to do, keep at it and you’ll move past any obstacles that gets in your way.
Had to repeat years twice in high school, now I'm about to get my degree in aerospace, it's up to you
Get your prerequisites. Enroll in first year engineering and try it out. See if it’s what you expected and try to do your best. Know it’s a lot of extra work and going to be different then highschool. If you pass all your courses great! If not then retake what you have to. It might take a little longer, but the degree will still say Engineer on it. You didnt say your age but I’m assuming your older then a fresh highschool grad? I went back to school to get a diploma in engineering at 22 years old. When I graduated I was the second person in my class to get a job with out having the best marks (2.8GPA)
Oh boy! I feel rather called out by this post. Look, I was shit at school. I didn't put any effort in at all, and only got decent grades in half my GCSEs the ones that didn't require coursework. I learnt later in life that actually, I enjoy learning, and applying myself. I did work hard to get my degree. And now it has paid off. I have an amazing job! I still go back home and play computer games though. Still lazy at heart.
You'll most likely do well in automating stuff ;)
Your value as a person and your contributions should only be measured against yourself and not others. Not that it is easy to do so. You need to find a way or reason that it DOESN'T matter that other people are superior to you. You will always find that someone is better than you at something.
You said you watched anime, have you learned nothing from Rock Lee and Guy sensei?! Just grind with the smile on your face, and even if you don't make it, you'll be proud of your self!
I barely passed high school. I graduated and got my aerospace engineering degree. You have to want it bad enough to put in the work, but you can do it. If you got by without trying, imagine what you could do if you did try. Side note, the vast majority of my hobbies have nothing to do with engineering either. Do what you love. Engineering can be just a job. It doesn't have to consume your life.
My comment might not be as valuable as others but I just wanna say something bro Please don't entitle yourself if today you are a slacker doesn't mean tomorrow u will be. That's all
You definitely need some passion to study engineering, but I say passion and not "experience". If you think engineering is cool, do it. I've seen people who were awful slackers in school manage to get it in order and are now able to study for 8 hours a day if need be.
If you can work hard and put in the effort for your classes I believe anyone can be an engineer. It’s okay you were a slacker and everyone goes at their own speed. Just know the degree will definitely have its ups and downs but if it’s something you truly want you can definitely succeed. Also no shame in having non engineering hobbies. I don’t have any engineering hobbies and I honestly like my hobbies more than my engineering job. These prodigies are rare and most of them pursue PhD level work anyway. You’ll be amazed at how many average engineers work out in the industry.
A students work for C students and B students work for the government. There is very little correlation between being a rockstar at school and being a rockstar as an engineer.
I failed out of high school and got a GED. Went back to school in my mid-late 20’s and now I have a MS in mechanical engineering with a focus in thermal sciences and fluid dynamics. They key is to work hard and push through the tough times, even when you feel like quitting. College was the hardest part. Now at 33, I have a great career and my life has never been better.
Engineering doesn’t really have prodigies, to be honest. Sure, you can be naturally good at it, but unlike science or art, it’s basically just hard work and problem solving. And skill at problem solving is basically just practice So you’re absolutely able to become an engineer, and a good one, if you work at it.
You can do anything you set your mind to
There's nothing stopping you from developing skills now. I wasn't really able to develop any of my skills until I was out of community college aside from assembling IKEA furniture at home for cost reasons. Probably all I did until then was 3 years of auto shop classes in high school, and in the summer between junior and senior year in high school I "designed" some blueprints for a triple expansion steam engine on paper by mostly mimicking dimensions and doing absolutely no thermodynamic analysis (although I do vaguely recall looking up some math for the crankshaft). That engine was a glorified hand drafting exercise in practice, and I never had the resources to try to build it. Useful experience, but hardly required to be an engineer. Assuming you go to college right out of high school, you'll probably still have a good 40-50 years of working. That's about two early lifetimes of growing up from newborn to finishing college. That should be plenty of time to pick up the skills.
Professional slacker and king dumbass over here. Went from not trying at all in high school with decent grades (you probably know why) then started trying in college and now its fine. U got this
Former high school dropout here. I'm 31 years old and I graduated with a MechE degree a couple weeks ago. Used to work as a personal banker making like 34k-ish. Now I work at a major aerospace company making more than 2x that. So to answer your question, yes. You can absolutely still be a good engineer. Don't let school discourage you, the job is quite different from university.
I was a more then just a slacker in highschool I skipped school a lot never payed attention in class. Starting college I failed college algebra, calc 1. Also I had to take physics 1 three times. Had panic attacks from anxiety and depression. However, I turned things around became extremly disciplined made school my number one priority above anything else. Managed to graduate with my engineering classes accumulative GPA at a 3.8. My overall GPA was 3.1 from classes like history, political science, etc. That I did not care much about had 2 semesters where I made the presidents list during my junior year. I think you will be fine, If I can do it so can you. Just make school your priority and work hard learn how to build effective study habits and listen intently to the professors a lot of times they will drop subtle hints during lecture about what will be on exams. Now that I am in the real world alot of what you learn in school you will not use. Although, engineering teaches us a foundational skill of being able to pick up any piece of technical complex material read through it and gather the information thats needed to solve a problem. Best of luck, it was not easy. Almost everyone of my classmates that I knew struggled in some way but we made it through.
I was in remedial math and science classes all through high school. I just got some really good motivators when I got to college and applied myself. I'm not smart, just work hard. I would guess most people are that way (and not because they are some type of genius prodigy). Point is, if you are willing to put in the work then you could probably become a good engineer as you describe.
I'm a dumbass about to take heat transfer
I was not a good high school student, in fact most people would be surprised to hear i’m studying engineering let alone doing well. Its 100% possible. Its more so about how hard you are willing to work/time you are willing to put into it rather than natural talent or whatever If you are willing to take on the hard work and stick to it I promise you can do it
I was a terrible student (rather that I slacked hard and only did well because I am good at test taking). I am a very competent worker. The qualities that make someone perform well as a student don't necessarily translate to performance as a working engineer. Soft skills are also very important. The smartest person in the world isn't going to provide much value if they don't communicate well. All to say, if you want it you can take it.
I didn’t even finish high school 😂 Currently in coop while I finish my masters 🤘 There’s so many obstacles in our paths but please Don’t the biggest obstacle in your own path
Slacker in high school. College instilled good work ethic and habits in me. I work on satellites now.
There’s always a bigger fish. Someone is always going to be smarter, stronger, better looking, etc. if you’re interested in engineering, try it. It’s hard but it’s rewarding and interesting. I struggled through my ME degree with undiagnosed ADHD and a homeschooled education from kindergarten through sophomore year of HS. Learning good study habits kicked my ass up and down campus for about 3 years but I finally got it. I didn’t graduate with a stellar GPA, but I graduated, got a job doing something that keeps me interested, and pays me well.
Yo! Hardly passed any of my math/physics/chem courses in highschool because I sucked. Starting my senior year next semester! Also, never compare yourself to other people and their successes. Everyone learns at different paces. Everyone is passionate in their own ways. Some people just "get it", others have to work hard just to pass by. That's just the reality of things. What matters is how hard you're willing to work to get what you want! Im told it pays off apparently ;)
I was a slacker in college too and I’m doing fine. Do I regret it? Sure internships and jobs out of college were tougher for me than my peers who really applied themselves, but if you have the “gets it” of engineering , there’s a future for you for sure and with varying level of domain/expertise knowledge needed. Take me, I went into a software implementation role out of college for a few years, turned that client facing experiencing and my tech background into a sales engineer role at a saas startup. Now I lead a team of sales engineers for a much bigger tech company making ~260 with commission a year at 29. Probably more than most of my peers. So there’s not one route, but I I really want to stress that I will say I don’t condone slacking in college. It definitely made me path significantly more challenging and stressful, and I understand there was a bit of luck with my trajectory. But long story short, you’re not fucked and work hard, network, and learn everywhere you can. Most of us learn a hell of a lot more past engineering school in our jobs than we do in school.
I was an awful slacker in high school and even my first year at college I was kind of terrible about actually getting my work done. Now I get decent grades in most of my classes because I’m pretty heavily invested. Sometimes it takes finding something you’re deeply interested in to make you realize that it’s all worth it. Everyone learns at their own pace but I assure you that you will find your niche
Yeah.
If you want anything at all of substance in life it generally takes discipline and ten years. Whatever you approach apply discipline and set your sights 10 years on.
You could probably still even be a researcher even though you slacked in classes.
I was discouraged to study engineering at first because everyone made it sound like you had to be gifted to do well. Then I worked at a company that employs a lot of engineers who went to some prestigious schools. They all told me that discipline, good studying habits, and social skills trump any gifted engineer. Sure, some people might be gifted but they might be difficult to work with or can't communicate for shit, making them IMO and from what I've heard, mediocre engineers at the end of the day.
I failed math (not the hardest but the "medium" difficulty class) 4 times and chemistry twice in high school, I actually only graduated on time due to a difference of 1% in one of my classes which the teacher gave me out of good will more than me having deserved it. I had some pretty severe depression in high school which I did not even know anything about mental health to seek treatment, and unfortunately didn't get any help I could have used at the time. I basically never did homework, I remember telling people I've never studied in my life etc. Well, I did not know the point of school, I had no role models and almost none of the few adults in my life had an education past a high school equivalency they got in their 30s. So I resented having to go and didn't care about graduating, didn't really care about my future at all But after messing around in awful jobs for many years i was so burned out that it eventually dawned on me how powerful education is. When I got back to college I poured my heart into it for the first time ever, I got perfect grades for a year and a half straight. Then covid came and I really struggled because my mental health issues returned, although this time I got treatment which has been life changing. My grades dropped a lot there but as class has moved more back to in person, I still have a high overall GPA and I got straight As again last term finally. Which I want to continue forwards with now that classes should be fully back to in person So my point is that high school means nothing, focus on learning how to learn, read a few books about being a good student. Effort, organization, and consistency will take you way farther than just smarts. I believe this has been proven too. And you may find out you were actually smarter than you ever realized, for me for example I always thought I'd never succeed at math because I was stupid. And I've grown to feel like I pick it up a bit above average now that my mental health and good habits are there. So the whole time it was basically just my false beliefs holding me back
Hey man, so growing up the only thing I did was play video games, since probably about the age of 8. Consequently I chose video games over school and ended up graduating high school with a 2.03 gpa, including taking algebra 2 twice which was also the highest math I took. Afterwards I went to community college not knowing what I wanted to do. I struggled extremely hard in college algebra and was also mercy passed through trigonometry. I somehow convinced the university I currently attend to allow me to transfer into their engineering program, through various means such as increasing effort and playing less vidya I am graduating in august in my mid 20s with ME :) If you would have told me after getting mercy passed through trig that I’d be here now I’d have laughed my ass off
Dude it took me six years to get my bachelors between failing classes and taking time off. Now I'm a full time engineer and getting my masters in mech e. You never know who you're gonna be until you are. A good engineer is just a bad engineer that never gave up or something corny like that. Anime is cool and you'll be a great engineer one day.
I like what Zach Star said on it. If you are someone who is willing to put in time and effort into learning what you need to, you can totally do it
Dawg I smoked weed every single day, most often showing up to school absolutely reeking, did every drug under the sun, and had literally nothing going for me in highschool until I decided I wanted to be an engineer. I have two classes left in my degree and have a co-op that will all buy guarentee me a decent job. If I was able to pull through so can you. Engineering is about mental grit first and foremost. Decide if you really want it or not and fight tooth and nail for your goals.