The Insecurity of Studying Engineering
Engineering is the monster that scares away many potential students. Many of us have been in a calculus or algebra class in high school; we felt that we were stupid because other students understood everything easily. This feeling is nothing compared to the stress and insecurity caused by being an engineering student.
Usually, after you finish your secondary education and move on to choosing which major you want to study at university, it comes down to three questions: “What am I good at?”, “What am I interested in?”, and “Can I get a good job with this degree?”. Many students believe they are good at math in high school. Then, they start their engineering degree and realize they never were.
So, you did well in math and physics in high school. You like tinkering and designing things. You applied to the engineering program that seems interesting to you and got accepted. You are excited and believe that you will slide through all your classes by barely studying just like you did in high school. Little did you know…
The first semester starts. Calculus, Mechanics, Electric circuits, Coding, and CAD. The material isn’t as simple as you thought it would be. You’re going in and out of class with barely understanding the main concepts and you have so much homework and so many assignments that you barely have time to socialize. Other students are asking complicated questions in class, while you can barely even write down the notes in time.
You start asking yourself: “Is engineering really for me?”, “Am I smart enough to be here?”. Exams come along and you struggle to get a good grade, but you pass. Passing? Your goal was always to ace your exams back in high school. Now, you’re happy with just passing?
This is the big shock many engineering students face when they start their degrees. However, this doesn’t mean that they were not smart to begin with. Think of it this way. Let us say you were in the top 1% of your high school class. Now, let’s compare you to the other students who were in the top 1% of their high school. Of course, not all of you are going to be on the same level; however, you are among the best of the best. This is a huge change for any person. If you take a person who knows how to write and read and put him in a group of illiterate people, he would believe that he’s a genius; but, if you put him into a group of Professors, he will feel like he knows nothing.
This is what many engineering students face. Some of them cannot handle the mental burden of their self-image of being the best being torn apart and end up dropping out and transferring to a less challenging degree where they are considered the smartest. However, others who persevere and finish their degree even if by only barely passing each exam have already achieved something significant.
In short, the message that I want to share is that feeling insecure and incompetent is quite common among engineering students, but don’t let that discourage you. You are still among the overall best. It’s okay to be in the top 1% and not in the top 0.1%. We need to be less harsh on ourselves and form our self-image based on things we can control rather than things we cannot. Otherwise, disappointment is all that will be waiting for us in the long run.
