Hmm no OP was assigned to this post so I’d have to agree.
Sorry
Lousy hampsters…
Anyways, to repeat my OP as best as possible, my life sucks for the following reasons:
A) My GF decided out of the blue that she needs some time to think. Needless to say, we are on a “break.” I was on a break before, I know how they turn out. So I can say with 80% certainty that in a week’s time (roughly) I officially will be single.
B) I am doing poorly in most of my classes. I study the material, go to class, I take notes…to no avail. I don’t understand a single concept in any of my three engineering classes this semester, amd I haven’t really understood much of the other stuff I have learned either.
C) I hate my classes. I hate all the ones I have now, all the ones I have had, and all the ones I will have. The only classes I have enjoyed during my college career are the random classes not associated at all with my major. I don’t want to be an engineer anymore.
D) As a continuation of C, I want to switch majors. But I am in my junior year, to switch now would be extremley frustrating. In addition, regardless of what I switched to (and I have no idea what that would be) I would have to stay at least another year to get a degree. I’m pretty sure my scholarship was good for four years only. I can’t afford any more that that.
So there you have it. I don’t know what to do, I hate my life right now, and generally can only think of one or two good things about it. I just needed someone to tell this too, I and I don’t truat ot tell anyone here at school. (Usually I would tell my GF, bur obviously I can’t do that any more, now can I?)
Some “duh” advice follows:
Re: switching majors, if you haven’t taken boatloads of electives yet, you can stuff all those major-intensive classes into gen reqs and such. That’s what I’m doing with the English classes I took thinking I’d actually finish with a BA in English. It’ll take me more than four years to graduate all told, but very little of that is due to me changing my major.
Beside which, if you keep on sucking at school you’ll possibly lose that scholarship, which would possibly put you on your ass with very few options. When all the choices suck, go with the one that swallows too;)
And find out the specs on that scholarship:)
[sub]Tolja it was duh advice[/sub]
I don’t think B and C are really problems, just difficult choices.
You have my sympathies on A though. I know how tough that can be.
If you knew what you wanted to do, I’d tell you to screw the money and switch majors: lots of people borrow the money for four years of school, borrowing the money for one, or for an extra semester, would not be something you would regret.
However, since this isn’t a matter of having a passion for something else, but rather of not having a passion for engineering, I’d suggest:
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Go talk to your profs NOW and do whatever it takes to get caught up–most professors love it when students come see them for help–it sucks to fail people, and most people willing to spend some time to avoid having to do so.
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That you look into co-oping next semester. I don’t know how it works at your school, but at mine you took a semester off classes and worked as an intern in your field. The co-op office made the placements. It’s a great way to 1) make money and 2) see if you like working as an engineer, even if you can’t stand studying to be one: if you discover that you love the work, that will help you slog through the studying. If you disove that you hate the work, that will tell you it is time to switch gears.
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Go talk to your advisor–explain what’s going on, and ask him/her to help you draw up exactly what classes you would have to take to switch major,and how long it would add to your stay. For example,I suspect that you could switch to a math major and only need perhaps another semester. There may be some sort of minor that your engineering courses could be coopted into. Your advisor wants you to graduate–retention numbers are a big deal for schools. Let him help you.
I’m sorry about the situation with the girlfriend: there isn’t any cure for that, really. The only thing I would suggest is hard physical labor–it helps with both the heartbrake and the academic burnout. Clean up your apartment, join an intermural basketball team, start taking dance classes, do something physical. It does help.
Yeah, what Manda JO said. Also, your school should have a counseling service. You might want to give them a try. They can provide, not only objective and compassionate advice, they can also help give you some educational direction. Good luck, dear.
A couple of things:
I’m already borrowing a lot of money, and my parents are still paying the huge difference that I still owe (something like $10,000 a year.) The joys of going to a top-level school. That is why I was considering switching schools. A couple other colleges i applied to gave me much better financial aid packages, and still might if I re-apply as a transfer.
Although I could go to my professors, I choose not to. I hate most of them. They cannot teach the material at all, if anything I’d go to the TA. The problem is that EVEYONE is going to the TA, and I could get maybe a half-hour of his/her time. This, of course, assumes I have time to go. I have class from 10 AM to 4 PM striaght almost everyday.
About the co-op, I have tried getting internships and co-ops over the summer and no one wanted to hire me. With a bad GPA and a resume that has nothing on it, it’s hard to ge a job. If I had the help of my career center, it might be possible to get a co-op, but I really don’t think I want to do that. I hear from my friends who have graduated what they’re doing, and it doesn’t sound too glamourous.
I could, as iampunha suggested “stuff all those major-intensive classes into gen reqs.” The problem is that the only thing they would count towards is science and free electives. So I would only have to take the lcasses for the actual major, but I could only take one or two of those a semester, since everything is a prerequisite for something else. And I will NOT switch to math, that’s the reason I hate engineering so much, that’s all it is.
I guess the biggest problem is that I don’t know what I want to do, which is why I am considering taking a semester off. Of ocurse, then I’d have to get a job, and I would probably hate that too, 
I realize I’m putting a really negative spin on eveything, but I’m a pessimist, that’s what I do.
My first roommate was one of a handful of computer engineers to graduate with her class. I was secretly jealous of her internship, which paid her $10 an hour to shoot the shit with other computer geeks and run simulations. She was doing really well, and when she graduated, she had multiple departments at IBM fighting over her. She chose the one she had been interning in, mostly because it was the design department, and therefore, the coolest.
I ran into her about four months after graduation, and we had lunch. She told me that she realised that she HATED her work, that it bored her to tears and that she didn’t know what she was going to do. I, on the other hand, was making minimum wage working at a radio station and hanging out with rock stars. I was happy. She was solvent.
You have a lot going on in your life right now, but take it from someone who is going to have to take out huge loans to finish school: it is not worth having a degree in a field you hate. What were the classes you enjoyed, and why did you enjoy them?
But let’s reiterate punha’s logical advise: if you’re gonna fail your classes, you’ll lose your scholarship, anyway. Given the choice between losing due to major switch or losing due to failure, I’d go with door number one, Monty.
Any idea what majors you want to switch to? Some majors coughcreative writingcough have surprisngly few classes that you need to take.
And depending on the classes you took for fun/general electives, you may not be as far away from a second/different major as you think.
Hey, I definately feel for you, and know that I sincerely hope that you work everything out. You mentioned that you have no one to talk to; if you ever need to talk to someone, feel free to email or im me (email and screen name in profile).
Well, a big problem is that I got to a technical school. Not only that, but any program aside from the sciences rely heaviuly on “special classes” for that major only. About now, the easiest non-engineering major to switch to would be either physics or computer science. Physics interests me, but then again it’s also a lot of math. I’ve considered computer science, but I have taken a couple com sci courses here and I don’t really like it all that much. Too tedious. I have enjoyed my general psyhcology class, and my psychology class I have now, Intro. to Cognition and Gaming. Logic would say swithc to a psych major. Maybe, we’ll see.