College Major: Continue with EE or change? (bachelors, PhD, doctor)

[Student David]

I am currently a community college student in my sophomore year pursuing a degree in Electrical Engineering. I have completed basically all of my general requirements, such as all of my social sciences, humanities, math courses, and electives. This semester is the last semester before I finish Engineering Physics 3 in which that will complete all the physics courses I will need for this major. At that point I will transfer to a 4 year college, but before I do that I need to know that obtaining an Electrical Engineering degree is truly worth it to me.

I have been in community college for a good while not really knowing what I wanted to do. I have taken well over the necessary credits for an Associate’s Degree. The only issue is I have an Associate’s Degree in Liberal Arts, nothing regarding Engineering. I have gotten all As in many courses that deal with Language arts, History, Psychology, Chemistry, Biology, etc. I used to want to become a Doctor until I realized how much schooling was involved and how much time would be involved once the job was obtained. I do not want my life to be about my career, I rather my career follow my life and give me the means I need to do so. I have always been very good at studying, focusing, and generally just reading until I understand a subject. I have been able to do this and have genuinely enjoyed many if not all of my courses of study. You can say I love to learn.

However, when it comes to math, I have never been really good at anything besides for algebra. I feel as though my high school education has really contributed to the fact that I am poor at math and physics. In High School I only took up to Algebra 2 and I have never taken a physics course before college. It has been very difficult, but I have managed to work my way through math and have become quite good at it, although I can’t really say that I did well enough to say I really understand it. I can solve problems by using mathematical processes (using rules and laws), but cannot solve word problems and do not really understand much of the concepts. I have managed to earn As and Bs in linear algebra, calc 2, calc 3, and differential equations. Anything regarding math always takes me an intensely long duration just to solve a few problems, which doesn’t seem practical to me If I am going to take many math courses at the same time in my future.

When it comes to physics, I have never done well. I took general physics and had to drop it my first time. In fact, it was the only course I was studying for and it caused me to receive a C during Calc 1, which is also a contribution to why I don’t understand math that well because my foundation Calc 1 course was not learnt to the fullest. Since then I have manage to take Engineering Physics 1 and passed that with a B+. However, the professor, who I still go to for help, is a really good Professor (A PhD genius that literally knows everything about everything) and knows how to explain the material well enough to even relate it. However, I took Engineering Physics 2 with a professor who only explains the concepts with math and I find it very hard to visualize anything that she said. Going to her lectures were absolutely pointless for me and there was so much work due in such a short time, I was forced to study by using the solutions manual and figuring out concepts based on how the questions were phrased and looking at the process. I would also review the sections of the book for terms I was unfamiliar with, look into the derivations of equations that appeared to have come from nowhere, and go to my Engineering Physics 1 professor for explanations. I still only passed her course with a C and I would spend countless hours ONLY doing problems. It seems as though it takes me about 30 minutes to an hour to understand only 1 problem. The difference with this and math is with math I am at least able to look online on every single step as to how they solved a problem and make sense out of the process in my head.

Now I am in Engineering Physics 3 with the same professor as my Engineering Physics 2 professor and it feels like I am doing the same thing as last semester to get through this. Many of the concepts are very difficult to understand and get down. I feel like I end up relying more on memorization, which I am really poor at doing, just to get through most of the problems. It seems like I understand things on a general level, but when the questions become really specific, it is difficult for me to figure out how to solve things. The worst part is, if you ask me what a particular subject, theory or even a question I did from last semester was, I couldn’t even tell you. I feel like I have retained and learned nothing.

I am also taking Circuits this semester, which is basically my first real EE course. I felt like I was learning in the beginning and I was understanding some of the concepts. However, that quickly changed as the course progressed. The concepts got harder, the circuits became more advanced and there is more homework than ever, but not enough time to do it all. I use the solutions manual to help me if I cannot solve a problem on my own, but I question the process of the solution’s manual due to not understanding where some of the math equations came from. I end up spending hours on 1 or 2 problems. I feel like I know the theories, but not well enough to show the professor on any of the quizzes or exams. He doesn’t grade any of the work, only the correct answers to the questions he breaks into parts.

The worst part is, I feel like everyone in my physics courses are actually getting it and understanding it on a theoretical level the way you are supposed to. I see this through people getting better grades than I do on the quizzes and in lab my partners know exactly what to do while I am forced to ask my lab members questions as they do it, since I do not know enough to contribute even though I definitely try.
And in my Circuits class, it seems as though I always get 0s on the quizzes that a lot of my classmates seem to understand and actually get right.

I feel as though I work most of my day, every day, which is taking up the majority of my life, just to barely pass these subjects, while everyone else doesn’t even study or goes out and parties and still obtains higher grades than mine.

So, my question is should I continue this major and see if things will get better? Perhaps it was just a bad teacher and the other courses in EE will be more enjoyable and easier to understand for me with a better professor? What if the professors are just as bad as this teacher now? Maybe my understanding in a more specific part of physics that doesn’t vary, rather than learning about a myriad of different topics thrown at you at once, will be easier to grasp and understand?

I am just nervous I will obtain a degree for classes I was barely able to survive in at the lowest of my classes and when I go for a job interview, I will literally not know how to do any of it. I do not want to be incompetent of doing what I set myself out to learn all these years. I don’t want to further waste my time.

I have applied to many internships, but it seems to be very tough to get an internship without more classes or a better resume under my belt. I really have no experience in Electrical Engineering and would really like some insight as if this is even worth the struggle or effort I put in if I am risking finishing my degree without gaining any real concrete knowledge in my field. Especially since engineering is a competitive market at this time, I am wondering if I can still obtain a position even though I am at the bottom of my classes.

Please suggest to me as to what I should do.

[Mr.Professional]

You seem very burn out
When you said I do not want my life to be about my career

Then that basically answers your question
Ill be honest I wanted to be an engineer one time and looking at the rigorous classes Theres no way I would be able to fulfill those requirements with a lot of computer programming, physics, and math especially because I HATE THESE subjects E.E is a major thats actually known to be the most hardest major every in college and with that comes really hard classes and they are hard cuz in the job if you don't know ur stuff what if you mess up a big project and then can get fired easily for it in E.E you have to know advance math formulas theroies learn about improving something and learning science and like doing them if you dont ur gunna screw up your career

You need to ask yourself first if you like the Field of E.E? Are you passionate about it? Are you just in it for the money? Do you like heavy math because anything Engineering related requires Math for life. Do you have patients and have a knack and passionate for heavy problem solving? If you do then stick with it.
Remember E.E is a good field with plenty of jobs and good money and mostly should be a career and not just a job and no matter what field you choose, find ding the first job is always the hardest.

You said you are passing your classes expect this one maybe you need to work with the professor somehow if you are not learning the information because these kinds of classes are VERY INTENSE and in the BA program its going to be much more worse and intense.

There are always other good majors in demand and its not always math intensive.

However if you want your college years to be more laid back and life more relaxed don't pick a heavy math or heavy science major cuz they will demand a lot of your time in order to understand complex formulas that you are probably not familiar with meaning you can't afford to party or be laid back that much otherwise change majors to somethin less demanding.

Don't be one of those students that picks a major for the wrong reason.

I give you props for being an E.E major thou that career is very tough to learn in college. No way I would major in that.

[tnff]

Partial Diff Eq. Complex Variables. Real and Imaginary Numbers. Laplace. Fourier. I'm going to be straight up honest, based on what you said. If you aren't and cannot be intimately familiar with everything I just mentioned, do not go into EE. You might do fine in some other branch of engineering -- ME, ChemE, CE, but avoid EE. EE's live for obscure mathematical functions. Quantum Mechanics is easier to understand than EE.

[BigCityDreamer]

I have a bachelors degree in EE. Yup, it is hard. It's not just your imagination. One of those majors that separate the men from the mice.

'nough said. ;-)

[Mandalorian]

EE is basically Math-lite. It's like 75% math major.

If you don't want to do all that, check out ChemE or something like that.

[Student David]

One of the reasons I am attracted to the major is because of the math. I like the thought of being able to build computers from scratch, which is the main reason why I chose this major. However, I definitely would love to pursue a math minor after all I have been through. I finally feel a deeper understanding with math even though I may not be the greatest and it may not come as easy to me as other subjects. It was like a struggle I have always endured and have finally accumulated enough sense in the subject to learn what it means to do some of the processes. I would like to continue that regardless of what major I should choose.

To tnff:

Partial Differential Equations, Imaginary numbers, Laplace Transforms (My favorite section of Differential Equations), and Fourier Series are all topics I am familiar with and capable of doing. It may take me more time than others to fully get processes down, but I have gotten an A in my Differential Equations class and have done fairly well. Regardless, the math is not really what I am worried about in this field. It is the theoretical thinking that comes with the physics. Computing the problems isn't the hard part, it is forming the equations to compute that makes the process difficult for me. In the advanced physics courses the questions are very detailed and even changing a few words can change the whole process of solving a problem. If this were a general physics course I believe I can say I know enough theory to be able to do well, but with these more detailed problems it demands a more detailed understanding. I am afraid that all of EE will be like this and that the jobs presented to me in the future will ask for a regurgitation of this knowledge.

I am uncertain about what majors interest me enough to find an alternative to EE, but I know if I stop pursuing EE I rather not choose Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering or Civil Engineering as an alternative.

Thank you for all the comments thus far in helping with this issue and I hope they keep coming.

[troymclure]

I find it interesting that by your sophomore year, you have already had courses covering PDE's and Fourier series.

It's tough to give advice, since you haven't given any specific examples of problems that you are struggling with. Being this is a first circuits course, is it covering things like RLC circuits, Thevenin and Norton theorems, etc?

Everyone is different, but I don't think you can get a real feel for the material by looking at the solution to a problem, and understanding how they did it. I think you have to grind through problem after problem until you can get the answers.

And if setting up the math for EE problems is tough now, I wouldn't consider ME.

[Weichert]

Why don't you look at Industrial Engineering? It is less theoretical than the other branches of engineering and might suit your background and aptitude better.

[Yuptag]

Stick with EE.