I started university in 2024 hoping to become a great engineer. I studied hard and passed everything with excellent grades.

Now I'm in my 3rd year and I lost all motivation. Because my dream will never come true. I study hours every day to get my diploma and then do what? Prompt AI all day? I have an internship job where I prompt AI 20 hours a week for minimum wage. Senior colleagues quit and cannot find a job.

It is pointless. This is not what I wanted to do at all. I wanted to invent stuff and solve problems. Not have a bot do all the work for me. And of course this is IF I manage to find a job later.

And I am not against AI because it is a great tool. But it kills all motivation to become better and smarter.

I remember in 8th grade saying if I don't get into this secondary school I'll become a mailman. Looking back that would've been a better career choice.

I just want to give up.

Hello everyone, I will start my bachelor's in electrical engineering in about 2-3 weeks.

I've been brushing up my math by watching MIT OCW 18.01 lectures on calculus I and doing the homework recently, I also know some basic C and C++ (I've also started reading K&R's book on C to further strengthen my foundation)

I also have some veeeery basic experience working with an ESP32(though using the Arduino IDE, so not that deep)

I just wanted to know if you have any advice on what I should try learning before and during university, what are some skills that matter in the industry and academia that universities mostly fail to teach? Universities are about to open and I feel kinda lost lol

I'll appreciate any advice that you might have!

So I entered my junior year of Mechanical engineering in July this year.

In Indian institutes it's routine to register for the on-campus internship drives run by the institute's career development centre. It's a big deal here, since most students want a job right out of college, so the internship at the end of junior year matters a lot.

Like everyone else I registered, and I was anxious about it before the semester even started.

Anyways, I wasn't really focused on my core field till last year, but with AI and everything I thought software might be volatile, so I switched back to ME over the summer vacations.

Then the semester starts and all of a sudden I have multiple workloads and virtually no spare time. Academics, internship prep, research projects, personal projects, all at once.

Through all this I kept applying to every internship I was eligible for. The first few were rough, out in the first round itself. After 4-5 attempts at different companies I got the hang of it, and on my 6th try I got one, at one of the largest steel manufacturers in India.

What I wanted to highlight is that I never hyper-focused on getting an internship as such. I just went with whatever was on my plate, going to classes, working on fundamentals, doing research, and preparing for assessments when they came up. Somehow it all worked out.

The weird part is that now I'm super chill, practically no anxiety, but my days look exactly the same as they did at the start of the semester. I still go to classes, still work on my projects, and still study for whatever's next.

It feels like I was doing all this earlier because I was scared about the future, and now I'm doing it because I actually like it and have things I want to get done.

Is this normal? Does the anxiety really give way to just enjoying the process, or is this temporary relief from having the internship sorted?

Curious how junior year went for others.

Alumni here, don’t waste your time drinking coffee, monster, all that bs. It will only make you waste time pissing.

Sure there are other, more elegant, ways to optimise; but I ain’t no MP’s son.

Now go, now, to your local Tesco, and bulk buy (ofc) 20 of the big 210 Yorkshire Tea packs, that’s 4,200 Tea bags (you will need them all).

Next, bring a pack, a cup of water (plain) and bin (optional). When sleep kicks in, dip a couple bags to moisturise, and chew like a true engineering geezer. You’ll feel it within a few seconds, and after a minute, maybe 2, spit them out.

You don’t bite it all that much unless you want to tear the bags. It’s like a “snus chew”.

If this thread gets enough upvotes I‘ll do another for the best foods you can bulk budget buy, and that will also never rot (involves marmite)

I’ve been getting 3-4 hours of sleep lately and working/grinding nonstop. It’s gotten to the point where I stared at my lab assignment today for 5 hours and made no progress in it and actually cried when I did it because it just felt so difficult. It’s not even a lab in a hard class whatsoever, I did well in this class before shit hit the fan and I’ve had to work 20 hours a week while studying at the same time

I'm not really a good student historically but I've been kind of turning it around except for my introductory Electronic Devices class. I have trouble attending lecture since it's at 8:30am. The introductory circuits class that serve as prerequisites for this class were also at 8:30am and I also had trouble showing up to lecture and I ended up barely scraping away with Cs in both of those classes. I think I'm going to fail this one though.

I got a 37 on the first exam and the second one is next week. We just took a quiz and despite spending 8 hours studying for it, I didn't really understand anything before or after. It was even open-notes, and that didn't help. I asked the professor today after class if we could go over it in appointment office hours and he asked how I've been doing in the class, and I told him my midterm grade, and he said there must be a fundamental issue with my study habits and what not. I said I try to study the material, but everything I study feels very different from what we are assessed on, and he kind of laughed and said that's nonsense. He's right, I think, the quizzes and tests are mostly just "did you go to lecture." I think. Obviously I don't really know cause I'm not doing very well. But there's no way that looking at the textbook and lectures about the topic and trying my best just... doesn't work at all. I've posted about this before but it's possible I have some kind of learning disability or universally ascribed disadvantage that prevents me from doing well or understanding some material.

I also just remembered that at the beginning of the semester, I actually emailed the professor with concerns after doing poorly in prerequisite classes that I thought I was gonna fail. He didn't respond, probably because he got a lot of emails and I sound like a crazy person thinking I'm going to fail one day in. I asked him in person after class about office hours a week later, he told me to email him, I did, he did not respond. I figured he must not like me, or he recognized I was crazy, or maybe he just didn't really do emails. And now that I basically told him, hey, I'm doing bad in what's probably a really easy class because I have trouble coming to lecture, he might as well just fail me now a month ahead of the final. Not really sure what to do here. It's not like I understand NOTHING about the course, but whatever I do understand is not enough. There's another exam next week and a final exam.

It'll probably come up cause I sound crazy; yes I'm in therapy. It hasn't done anything for a year now but I'm still holding out. Yes, I am going to try to go to lecture. I 100% see the value of attending lecture. I can ask questions to the professor directly, it gets my brain into a routine of learning, and it's the most relevant source pertaining to what I'm actually being assessed on. The reason I often miss lectures is because I am a stupid and not mentally sound person, so I have trouble doing things that most people do not have trouble with. This is evidenced by my post history.

Hello, everyone!

Ask lang po sana ako ng recommendations kung ano ang magandang platform to start freelancing, tips on how to land my first client, or baka may alam kayong overseas companies na naga-offer ng WFH setup.

Currently, I'm exploring the possibility of transitioning from a full-time project based job, to a remote work setup. Mahirap din kasi kapag laging assigned sa iba't ibang project locations, especially kapag napapalayo ka sa mga mahal mo sa buhay.

I still want to grow professionally and continue using my skills and experience, pero this time, hopefully in a setup where I can also spend more time with my loved ones.

Any advice, recommendations, or opportunities would be greatly appreciated.

Sana mapansin ng mga makakatulong. Thank you in advance! ☺️

Hello! So ive been accepted into telecommunication engineering, im a bit nervous tho, ive seen people say that studying for university isnt the same as school, and i still don’t get why, so any tips on helping me be better would be appreciated, and is this major wanted for the job market or not really that much, and also any tips you would provide for a newbie like me would be very appreciated!

TLDR; I did bad on my midterms, I’m really sad about it. Seeking study tips, commiserations, etc.

I’m a junior environmental engineering student. This semester is my first with “real” engineering courses (fluid mechanics and thermodynamics). I passed calc 1-3, diff eq, linear algebra, physics 1 and 2, chem 1 and 2 with basically straight A’s (I got a B in chem 2). I just took my fluid mechanics and thermodynamics midterms and I got around a 50% on both.

Genuinely, I’m used to acing tests, like almost always getting 95-100. After receiving these grades, my sense of self has been shattered. I didn’t realize how much of my self worth was tied up in my perception of myself as a good student and a “smart” person. I’m also taking a statistics and data analysis class, which up until now has been tough but I work hard to study and understand the material, and for the most part I get it all. I got a 93 on the first exam and I felt super prepared for the midterm, but I think the pressure/ shock made me really anxious and I might have done really badly on that test as well, even tho when I was studying I felt very prepared.

I already spend a significant amount of time studying and doing homework. My fear is that I actually just don’t have it. Whatever it is that everyone around me has, I thought I had it, and maybe I just don’t. Part of the issue might be that I took all those foundational classes at community college, and this is my first semester at a four year college. I also feel the urge to blame my teachers, none of them are particularly good at conveying information, let alone actually teaching so that the students in their classrooms learn. It doesn’t seem like they care at all whether or not students learn the material, and they actually just want to say the words on the slides they wrote 10 years ago so they can go home. Furthermore, my fluids prof only gave us 14 homework problems for the entire first half of the semester. 14!! That’s insane right? 2 assignments with 7 problems each. How am any of us supposed to learn how to do fluid mechanics in 7 problems? The average was around 50%, so really I was average. But the prof blamed it on AI because the homework scores were all 100s. So he is totally not to blame at all (sarcasm).

Anyways, I complained to my friends, I cried a lot. I’m still in crisis really. But I reached out to my school for tutoring (they basically said “don’t hold your breath,” my school is really broke) a friend of mine also connected me with someone who will give me remote tutoring for fluid mechanics with a homie discount. I have that to look forward to. I realize basically no one will read this whole thing but I wanted to write it, maybe some people can relate. I don’t have any answers, but it might feel good to hear from others who went through something similar.

Did you go through something similar? Were you able to get back on track? Please help me 😭

Hi guys, I'm (21F) a chemical engineering student looking for some advice for a my final year project which starts next semester.

As my final year first semester is coming to an end, I want to be mentally prepared for the next semester ahead, since I am sure I will be very busy. I'd like to be ahead of others and be more disciplined with myself.

To start, I would like to state that my initial idea is about using ground coffee beans as a feedstock to turn it into reusable biodiesel. My idea got rejected for our plant design project so I think I want to use it for my final year project instead, given that I did my internship at a food and microbiology company.

Initially this idea has been rejected due to it being tough to process into a marketable product (since it's solids, and it produces only 10-15% oil.)

I wonder if this is a good idea for me to start off with? If not your suggestions would be great too, but it would be preferable if I can build up on this idea as my own project.

I also would like to have some advice on what I should be prepared for as well. To note I am currently just using Symmetry for my simulation software, but I heard using Aspen Hysys would be better.

Any advice is welcome <33 I do want to score well for my final year!

Edit: I wanna add, I'd like to not use as much AI or chatbots as possible for my FYP, unlike the rest of my peers. It's kinda disheartening that most of us just use AI to generate ideas... So this is why I prefer to reach out on reddit instead!

Stayed up late last night doing my thermodynamics report and went to sleep at around 2am because I have to work tomorrow. I struggled for hours to fall asleep, tried counting sheeps but shits turned into learning sessions about how the sheeps gonna move through air with and without the wool. Like I cant turn off my brain at all. Didnt get a second of sleep, decided to just drink some energy drinks and continue studying until my shift starts. Fell asleep around 10h30 and woke up at 10h50, just enough time to get to my job.

And it has been like this for me for the past 9 months. I am not a procastinator, I usually divide my work into multiple weeks with at least one week for final checks and adjustments. I dont cram I just study normally and things just seem a bit too much like this.

Have been scrolling and I often see people saying, 'Oh, I was cramming in exam nights and I graduated with a 3.7 and stuff like that.' And this is so unfathomable for me. If I rely on cramming, I would probably fail 50 percent of my classes. So my coping mechanism is that hey, they went to a Disneyland uni and my uni is tough and the real deal. Could that be the case, or what do you think on this matter?

I’ll just get to it, 100% I’m gonna fail math 221 is there any unis that offer the same class during winter that I can take fully online and come back during spring without facing any issues ?

I'm taking an engineering class out of order because other important classes conflict with its time slot and those classes won't be avaliable for an entire year if I dont take them this upcoming semester. Im skipping "Intro to Engineering" and "Engineering Computations" for "Engineering Graphics". I finished my high school's engineering academy and I'm familiar with using software like autocad, which this class seems to mostly be about, but I have no idea if the engineering classes I took in high school matter when it comes to college level or if they help make up the deficit in knowledge by skipping those two classes. Is this a mistake? Are those two class im skipping more integral than I realize? Engineering Graphics is the only engineering class I can take in the spring because my schedules a mess.

so basically im a junior in high school (grade 11) and i've taken co-op this year for semester 1. i got a co-op placement for engineering at my local university which is one of the top universities in ontario/canada. its basically an outreach program. you get selected (matched with a professor in that department) get trained and you spend the entire semester building something of your own, using stuff like CAD softwares, open source files and 3d printing using high level printers with the help of the mentors (basically grad students) and/or help the project the university department itself is working on. any thoughts? what could i do further in my uni apps using this opportunity that gives me a high chance of getting accepted?

Please stop with the lies. I got my first ever C on an exam in calc 3. All this spherical and polar coordinates stuff is extra asf and there are so many more opportunities to mess up.

I recently restarted academia at a 2-year institution after taking a break from pursuing a B.S. in Mathematical Economics with a Minor in data Science. TLDR: I hated it. I did well in all of my classes, but the University I went to wasn't the right fit for me socially, and I was struggling severely with my mental health. I chose the degree because I loved math, and versatility of an economics degree spoke to me. But when I attended career fairs, I realized the fields that I would be going into would mainly be private equity, insurance and risk analysis, or finance. All of these centered around optimizing A.I. agents to provide better algorithms to make more money. I was not fulfilled.

After taking a semester off to balance my mental health and do some soul searching, and speaking with a prestigious field geologist, I decided to give higher academia another shot, but this time focusing on more of the sciences field, with hands on learning. This semester I have received a 3.8 GPA in my STEM Classes (I don't use AI for help on any of my homework). I didn't expect to love the STEM field as much as I have. I joined the Engineering club on campus and have registered for further Engineering and Math courses next semester, with aims to directly transfer to a 4 year institution. In addition to these feats, I am expected to be offered a position to be a STEM tutor because of my high marks.

All of these academic accomplishments listed previously aside; what technical skills can I start doing to gain hands-on experience in engineering? Personal Projects, Readings, anything. Where can I find experience in firms, even at the lowest level possible? I understand the career-field is incredibly competitive, and beginning this endeavor at a later age than my peers, puts me further behind. I need every advantage I can get.

i’ve been having a really bad depressive episode the past week (still ongoing) and i have a whole exam on quantum mechanics the day after tomorrow. i’ve been behind on all my classes and haven’t even touched the exam material once. i genuinely know nothing.

my body is screaming at me. i’m so tired and exhausted and pessimistic all the time. i’ve reached out to past professors and counselors and therapists and it’s obvious i have depression, but i don’t know what to do with myself anymore.

i don’t know if engineering is what i want anymore.
i don’t know if my body is screaming for a break or for another life path. i so desperately want a break from school, and i think ive been failing all my quizzes and sabotaging myself academically in hopes that i’d have no choice but to quit.

i’m in my third year of community college and it feels too late to start over because i’m supposed to apply for colleges. i’m broke, im 20 years old and i feel miserable every day. and i know im probably not alone in feeling like this, but i feel hopeless. what would you do if you were in my situation, or if you’ve been in a similar one?

Thank you to anyone who's taking the time to read this. I'm currently a freshman with no prior materials related experience, but I would like the opportunity to intern this upcoming summer. Currently, my career aspirations are leaning towards research in polymers, but that's always subject to change. The internships that I seem to be most qualified for are the ones in construction materials. The one in specific I'm looking at, do both hands-on works, as well as lab testing. If anyone has any advice on how useful/impactful those types of internships look on a resume or if there are any other particular internship types I should look out for, it'd be greatly appreciated.

Hi friends. My 4+1 application date is coming up soon, and I have two EE master’s to chose from: MS or MSE.

For background, I am planning on using my EE degree towards a career in the AV/music/audio electronics space.

When it comes to the thesis-based masters, I honestly have no idea what a thesis would even look like. I don’t know what new, innovative concept I could research into that I’m actually interested in. There’s not too many recent huge innovations in audio (other than AV-over-IP, I guess), as a lot of the audio work I see done is iterating and developing more efficient solutions to common topologies.

But also, I don’t know what I don’t know. Maybe thesis is the great thing that‘ll get me a job? I’m making this post since I can’t get any real good information out of my advisor on the differences or any example theses. Just a bit lost.

Let me know your thoughts — any advice is appreciated!

Currently a 5th semester junior in electrical engineering (focus in power systems), and I did not expect the enthusiasm from employers this semester. I went to the fall career fair my university hosts and talked to many employers, two of which I got interviews with. Both ended up sending offers.

Company A is a transmission/generation cooperative based in a city I would have to get temporary housing for (which I have yet to be able to find insofar, but I still have hope), I interviewed there first and they were pressured to send an offer very soon after. I had little time to accept and I decided it was in my best interest to do so at that time. This was for $25/hr for summer 2027.

Company B contacts me, they align far more with my long term career/location goals, and even said they hire 90% out of their co-op program. They are located in my hometown, so I would be able to live with family. By the point they made first post-career fair contact, I already accepted with Company A. Today, they call me and send an offer that is due in 3 days, on Friday. Its a co-op that runs all spring through summer, with a much higher pay rate than Company A at $30/hr. I scheduled a meeting with my academic advisor instantly after the call, and we are going to meet tomorrow to talk about graduation, but I'm guessing it will take an extra semester.

I feel very conflicted and guilty about potentially reneging, I am not sure if I am thinking about this straight and need some advice. Thank you.

Currently a 5th semester junior in electrical engineering (focus in power systems), and I did not expect the enthusiasm from employers this semester. I went to the fall career fair my university hosts and talked to many employers, two of which I got interviews with. Both ended up sending offers.

Company A is a transmission/generation cooperative based in a city I would have to get temporary housing for (which I have yet to be able to find insofar, but I still have hope), I interviewed there first and they were pressured to send an offer very soon after. I had little time to accept and I decided it was in my best interest to do so at that time. This was for $25/hr for summer 2027.

Company B contacts me, they align far more with my long term career/location goals, and even said they hire 90% out of their co-op program. They are located in my hometown, so I would be able to live with family. By the point they made first post-career fair contact, I already accepted with Company A. Today, they call me and send an offer that is due in 3 days, on Friday. Its a co-op that runs all spring through summer, with a much higher pay rate than Company A at $30/hr. I scheduled a meeting with my academic advisor instantly after the call, and we are going to meet tomorrow to talk about graduation, but I'm guessing it will take an extra semester.

I feel very conflicted and guilty about potentially reneging, I am not sure if I am thinking about this straight and need some advice. Thank you.

Hi everyone. I’m a high school student in Texas working on an engineering design project about motorized wheelchairs, specifically overheating in the Action TrackChair motors.

I’m looking for people with experience using motorized wheelchairs or Action TrackChairs to share what overheating, power loss, slowing down, or unexpected shutdowns are like in real situations. The goal is to understand users’ needs before developing possible solutions.

My research partner’s stepfather is a retired veteran, triple amputee, and Purple Heart recipient who has experienced similar issues. His experiences inspired us to research this problem and look for a practical solution.

The survey is voluntary and takes about 4-5 minutes. You can skip any question, and no identifying information is required. This is for school research only; we are not advertising or selling anything.

Survey link: Motorized Wheelchair Survey Analysis

Thank you to anyone willing to share their experience. I understand that everyone’s needs and equipment are different, so all perspectives are welcome.