Engineering has a reputation as a "hard" major. When you tell people you are studying to be an engineer, you will often be met with an "oh wow, you must be really smart." This can feel intimidating and when you find yourself struggling, it can make you question whether you are "smart enough."
Please know that there will be moments where you struggle because learning new things is challenging. Ask your professors and they will tell you all the ways they also struggled. Learning math and science requires you to think, learn, and study in ways you are not used to yet. It can also require more time to learn these subjects as you will need more practice in order to help learn the materials. Often, an engineering degree requires more credit hours than other bachelor’s degrees which can also add to your semester workload.
If you want to become an engineer, please do not let these reasons stop you from pursuing your goal. If you are struggling in your courses, make sure you reach out to your professors, TAs, tutor centers, etc. This is not a sign that you are not able to learn something or that it’s too hard for you to learn, but just that you need extra guidance, time, additional background knowledge, or a new way to see the material. Sometimes, you may even need help with time management or other academic skills that can help with the workload.
I would like to warn you that with struggle sometimes comes failure. Failing is part of learning and part of engineering. In engineering, failure tells us that we need a new iteration of the design to improve what did not work. We actually gain information from failure and use it to improve our next design. In learning, failure tells us out current method of studying is not working, so it is time to reach out to our resources and try a new method.
Engineering should not be a solo activity. We do not work alone in silos, so don’t do so as a student either. Work on problems with your classmates, go to office hours, seek out tutoring centers. All of these will be a huge help in you learning the material and also end up saving you time.
A lot of the problems that students have with engineering come from the way society prepares us. Let’s consider another story to illustrate what I mean by this.
Pretend you are going to a concert to see Yo Yo Ma play Bach’s Cello Suite No. 5 in C Minor. Go ahead and do yourself a favor, take a few minutes out of your day, close your eyes, and imagine being lucky enough to hear him play this for you live. Seriously, it is only a few minutes long and it is strikingly beautiful. Hit the play button, and close your eyes…
Woah. He is good, right? Did you listen to the whole thing? I think it is difficult to listen to that piece and not have some kind of emotion come flooding into your head. That is how good Yo Yo Ma is.
Now comes the million-dollar question. Could you ever be that good? This is the question that society has prepared us to answer incorrectly. Society tells us no. Society tells us that Yo Yo Ma is super talented and that you could never do that because you aren’t as talented as he is. It is easy to think that, well, Yo Yo Ma is super talented and I am not so I guess I can never play cello as well as he can so I won’t start.
This is a fixed mindset response where one gives up in the face of challenges because they think if you were going to be good at something then you shouldn’t have to try hard. However, it is important as a student and as an engineer to have a growth mindset where you can face challenges and overcome setbacks because you see the value in practice and hard work.
I am trying to tell you that you can be that good, you just need more practice. You don’t have to be a natural, all you have to do is try, try, try. You are going to have to get to working hard and failing! What you don’t see when you see someone do something amazing on YouTube is the countless hours of them failing, getting up, and trying it again. You don’t see YouTube videos of Yo Yo Ma practicing the piece for hundreds, maybe thousands of hours before he is able to play it that well. It doesn’t matter what amazing thing you are seeing, the story is the same. It is extremely rare for someone to just stumble upon wealth and success.
Do not delude yourself into thinking that you aren’t smart enough to be an engineer, you are! It is often easier to see the strength in practice from an extracurricular like music or sports, but this is still the case fr the things you learn in engineering. It can take time and practice, but you can learn. The point is that engineering is hard but you can do it.
"I really want everyone to know, especially young people, that the hundreds or thousands of dumb ideas that I have had are what led me to my good ideas. You have to give yourself permission to fail." Taylor Alison Swift
Checkpoint2.4.2.What steps do you take and what resources do you use to approach a new and unfamiliar challenge? Describe a time where you overcame a challenge..
Name a time outside of school where you wanted to learn a new skill or improve on an existing one. Were you successful? Why or why not? What was something you learned to help you next time you want to master something?
If nothing from the past comes to mind, think of something you are trying to master now and create a plan on how to accomplish your goal. List some possible struggles you anticipate along the way.
I think it is also important to note that if you are putting in the effort and still not seeing results, this does not mean that you should just work harder and make it happen. Practice is an important aspect to learning, but you must first have the right technique and the necessary background knowledge in order to gain new knowledge. So if you find yourself struggling, please reach out for help. Someone may be able to help you find that piece of information you are missing. Anytime you are not seeing the result you want, do not just keep doing the same thing, but make changes and often those changes comes with talking to a resource on campus.
